KAT has been doing good work on Jokic when he can stay out of foul trouble. The fact they need him to be the primary defender because your 4x DPOY is getting stuffed into lockers, and he’s done it about as well as could be expected, is huge.
I think he’s getting a pass because he’s been doing the things the team needs so far, as opposed to just putting up empty buckets. When they needed him to score in round one, he stepped up. Now he’s contributing defensively.
KAT has already been the man and it didn’t work. You can’t ask players to buy in to lesser roles, it works, then ask ‘well where the numbers at’
Also this Minny team is strikingly similar to Kobe’s lakers. Ant = Kobe. Rudy/KAT/Naz = Pao/Bynum/Lamar. It’s a fantastic trio and they need to ride that out regardless if they fall short this year
Without looking I’m pretty sure Pao averaged about 18 and 9 as well.
Kat definitely played great defense on Jokic last night. When I was going back and forth to the game Kat was not getting manhandled like I saw others doing and Kat was getting stops
Lol if Minny wins chip—-and you could argue they are 1 game away bc I think they beat all other remaining teams—-we’re closer to calling KAT a hall of famer than a bum.
He’d essentially have Kevin loves resumes after 2016. The only reason Love didn’t ascend to HOF status is Bron left and love chose the money.
With KAT, Ant is TWENTY TWO So witj him plus that trio of bigs, at a minimum they’re gonna be a juggernaut regular season team for the next 3-4 years and so that means all star nods.
So KAT could finish as like a 6 time all star, NBA champ, ‘Ant’s sidekick’ (that’s a good thing), and legacy as best shooting big ever and yes better then dirk numbers don’t lie.
He hasn't gotten killed because he's been more good than bad, but they have criticized him a little in losses...
Gobert is getting crushed because of the notoriety if 4x DPOY brings him. Nobody believes he's the best defensive player of his era, even though 4x DPOY awards would suggest that he is, right? And he does seem to get taken to the shed every time there's a big game vs a dominant match up with him. The Wolves also played their best game (G2) in the game he didn't play. That G2 is one of the best single-game defensive performances in a long, long time----->and the 4x DPOY didn't even play in it...
That said, Gobert hasn't been all bad in this series. But he's going to take more heat, it is what it is...
What even is this thread? Where the fukk is your basketball IQ if you would even make this thread after last nights game? He made perfect reads passing out of the double teams last night every time. He finished with only 3 fouls. He held Jokic to a reasonable shooting percentage as he’s done all series as primary defender. He’s doing his job better than anyone honestly expected coming into this postseason because he’s been nothing but garbage in the playoffs before this year.
You must have a personal vendetta against this dude you don’t even know or you just don’t know ball. KAT has been fine.
It's because it's mainly Rudy catching the hate and honestly the Rudy stuff is a bit overblown to me. It feels like people just don't want to recognize Jokic's greatness so they have to go overboard with it. If you watched that game Jokic was just hitting ridiculous shots, wasn't like dude is a turnstile on defense. He should be catching more heat for being an offensive liability though.
Yup. Tbh, the Gobert thing is like if 4x DPotY Ben Wallace had to guard Shaq on an island without a Rasheed Wallace.
Here were Shaq's totals in their matchups during Ben's 1st back-to-back DPotY seasons, 2002 & 2003 (4 games):
28 & 10 (64% fg)
28 & 7 (61% fg),
35 & 14 (58% fg)
24 & 13 (55% fg)
With Rasheed, here were Shaq's numbers in the '04 Finals:
34 & 11 (83% fg)
29 & 7 (50%)
14 & 8 (50%)
36 & 20 (76%)
20 & 8 (54%)
And note, as good as Detroit's defense was... that was a crippled Lakers team with suboptimal floor spacing. They literally shot 24% from 3 that series.
Point is, someone like Ben ain't doing nothin vs Jokic, and neither is Mutombo (also 4x DPotY) who was getting packed up by peak Hakeem in the mid-90s. Both would also be liabilities on offense. 12 years of DPotYs right there.
Yup. Tbh, the Gobert thing is like if 4x DPotY Ben Wallace had to guard Shaq on an island without a Rasheed Wallace.
Here were Shaq's totals in their matchups during Ben's 1st back-to-back DPotY seasons, 2002 & 2003 (4 games):
28 & 10 (64% fg)
28 & 7 (61% fg),
35 & 14 (58% fg)
24 & 13 (55% fg)
With Rasheed, here were Shaq's numbers in the '04 Finals:
34 & 11 (83% fg)
29 & 7 (50%)
14 & 8 (50%)
36 & 20 (76%)
20 & 8 (54%)
And note, as good as Detroit's defense was... that was a crippled Lakers team with suboptimal floor spacing. They literally shot 24% from 3 that series.
Point is, someone like Ben ain't doing nothin vs Jokic, and neither is Mutombo (also 4x DPotY) who was getting packed up by peak Hakeem in the mid-90s. Both would also be liabilities on offense. 12 years of DPotYs right there.
Yep, we’ve seen this sort of thing happen multiple times in NBA history. Which is why it’s odd to me that people going so hard at bashing Rudy. Hakeem cooked D Rob back in the day too. I feel it’s more on not wanting to give Jokic credit tbh.
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So witj him plus that trio of bigs, at a minimum they’re gonna be a juggernaut regular season team for the next 3-4 years and so that means all star nods.
