Rudy Gobert has been playing the best all-around basketball of his career the past month or so, averaging 16-13-3 on a ridiculous 81 percent shooting from the field in December.
He is currently also number three in the NBA in defensive plus/minus rating behind the Greek Freak and Draymond Green at +4.4.
His recent success and the success of his upstart Jazz, have Gobert feeling pretty good about himself, good enough to say he is the best center in the NBA today.
“To be honest, right now, I think it’s me,” Gobert told ESPN. “But it’s a long season. I just try to take every game as a challenge. The hardest thing is to do it [for] the full season.”
Gobert is without question the best defensive center and the most efficient offensive center at this time in the NBA, but when you really break it down and consider who the best center in the NBA is with the way the position has evolved and how many different players play the position at different times, it is hard to make that bold of an assertion at this point in his career.
Cousins puts up the best numbers, Hassan Whiteside is a better rebounder, DeAndre Jordan is a more proven version of Gobert, Marc Gasol can take over a game in more ways and is a savvy veteran and players like Anthony Davis and Draymond Green play the position in a way the league has never seen and operate at much higher levels than Gobert when they do.
Gobert may have the most potential as an elite rim protector and pick-and-roll finisher in the traditional mold of a center, but I would have to say the best center in the NBA today is Anthony Davis.
Either way the future is bright for Gobert and the fact that a statement like this even warrants a discussion involving him says a lot about how far he has come in the past few seasons.
