Apr 10, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol (33) shoots the ball against Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (27) during the second half at EnergySolutions Arena. Memphis won 89-88. Mandatory Credit: Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports
Rudy Gobert, a young and promising center for the Utah Jazz, had a message of high praise regarding the Memphis Grizzlies during Saturday’s victory in M-Town over the Warriors.
The Utah Jazz are a very young team that should soon be on the rise through the Western Conference’s season standings over the course of the next few years. They have a raw talent–a 2013 first round Draft selection–in the form of a 7’1″ center.
His name? Rudy Gobert.
Although Gobert is very young at just 22 years of age, he came on strong in his second season in the NBA. He nearly averaged a double-double as an NBA sophomore with 8.4 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. He even averaged greater than two blocks per game to go with a Player Efficiency Rating of 21.60. Those numbers are astounding!
Mar 3, 2015; Memphis, TN, USA; Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol (33) drives against Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (27) during the first quarter at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports
The Utah Jazz had four meetings in the 2014-15 regular season with the Memphis Grizzlies. Despite achieving a dismal 38-44 record, Utah won two of those four matchups with the Grizz. This is especially impressive given that Memphis has such an experienced, hardnosed squad and the Jazz are a learning, youthful club.
Gobert upped his stats when playing against the Memphis Grizzlies–even more impressive. His production blossomed to 9.8 points, a massive 15.0 rebounds, and two steals per game on 50% shooting from the field in the four meetings versus M-Town.
Being as Rudy Gobert looks to be an excellent defensive player in the league, it is to be assumed that he would admire the Memphis Grizzlies’ frontcourt stoppers in Marc Gasol and Kosta Koufos. Utah’s young stud went to Twitter to show his appreciation of Big Spain in addition to the Grizzlies during Saturday’s Game 3 between the Grizz and the Golden State Warriors.
His tweets read:
It is nice to see opponents of the Grizzlies speak publicly on the underrated and underappreciated Grizz–especially in high regard. Over the next several seasons from now, the Jazz versus Grizzlies matchups should be very entertaining to say the least, assuming Marc Gasol remains in Memphis beyond the current season. The Gobert-Gasol battle could potentially be extremely intriguing to all NBA fans.
Hopefully the next time the Jazz and Grizz meet again, Memphis will own the title of “NBA World Champion” that will prelude the contest.
Go Grizz!
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