Hands off “Gobzilla”! After the mammoth match of our savior Rudy Gobert in the round of 16 against Turkey on Saturday, Timothée Luwawu-Cabarrot pulled out his claws to defend the pivot of the France team, whom he considered too criticized by the plebs since the start of the Euro. “There is a lot of pressure on him. Seeing him do a game like that makes us proud. Everyone talks, says shit, but he remembered that he was Rudy Gobert and why he is what he is, ”said the tricolor winger.
That day, in fact, the new giant of Wolves released a perf ‘deratizer. His best since wearing the blue jersey with 20 points, 17 rebounds (including seven offensive), two assists and seven faults caused. However, if criticisms there have been since the start of the competition – as during this missed post up on the German Schröder quite mocked on the rézosocio – the latest to date have come from the main interested party himself. “It may seem weird to you but I’m not really happy with my match, he debriefed hot on Saturday. I put twenty points but I could have put thirty and I missed too many throws (6 successful out of 11). I can do much better”.
“He is getting stronger from match to match”, applauds Vincent Collet
When these remarks are reported to him, George Eddy calms things down. who will be commenting on the quarter-final against Italy, Wednesday, on Canal + (5:15 p.m.). Without his tap at the last second of the match, there is no overtime, and without his dunks afterwards, there is no victory. “An opinion shared by Vincent Collet, who recalled that if his control tower “could miss easy things in attack”, it “is gaining momentum from match to match. »
This is the whole paradox when we analyze Rudy Gobert’s performances. We sometimes tend to forget the formidable player he is to focus on his faults (in attack, in the low post, on mid-range shots and the game with his back to the basket), and which still prevent him today. hui to be a complete player. Against Turkey, the former Utah man still had his hands slipping when receiving the last passes and finishing under the basket.
“He doesn’t have super good hands in attack, the ball escapes him too often,” concedes Mister George. It is also this reputation that has earned him bad snubbing in attack by his Jazz teammates in recent years, Donovan Mitchell in the lead, who will always prefer to tear up an action rather than find Rudy under the circle. Even if it means sometimes bordering on the ridiculous, like here, during a match against the Warrios.
Aware of his shortcomings, the native of Saint-Quentin joined the services of a neuro-training coach, full-time, to progress in these areas. Which is not to displease Collet, whose unacknowledged “fantasy”, according to former coach and Canal + consultant Christophe Denis, is “to have a Rudy Gobert who manages to do Durkic with Bosnia, it’s is to say a phenomenal guy in fixation point and in his ability to dominate the low post in attack”. A kind of French Joël Embiid in short, while waiting for the real one.
Gobert in search of lost confidence in Jazz
“It’s a different method but it’s interesting, and it obviously brought him things he didn’t have, as we saw during the Tokyo Olympics”, judged the coach in this respect at the start. of year in The Team, who was able to attend several sessions of his player with his personal coach. “We are getting closer to this new role, analyzes Christophe Denis. He has made tremendous progress in recent years in his ability to take a big low post position, receive the ball in the key and carry direct danger. Now, I think that we are not at the maximum of Rudy’s potential at this level”. A finding that validated the interested party when we met him at Bercy before the start of the Euro.
“I have been doing all the necessary work for years to develop myself from an offensive point of view and better master my subject. In the NBA I still shot at 16 points per game but it’s clear that compared to my potential and the work I provide, I feel that I can still increase in power. That’s what’s beautiful: I’m going to start my tenth NBA season and I think my best years are ahead of me. »
If these new friends from Minnesota agree to give him a little more confidence than among the Mormons, as is the case today in Blue, we risk not being disappointed. This was also one of Vincent Collet’s instructions before this Euro, as Guerschon Yabusele explained to us before flying to Germany: “Today it is one of our major pieces, not only on both defensively and offensively. That’s why we try to give him as much confidence as possible, we tell him to play, to free himself, to push in attack because we need him in these phases of the game.
Find the right balance to avoid waste
And it obviously pays off. “I feel more and more comfortable, I’m lucky to have a coaching staff who have confidence in me and who push me to be even more dominant in this aspect of the game, he confided to us. end of August. And it’s great for me to be able to make mistakes to improve and to feel that the team needs me to be really aggressive to win. “The whole thing is to find the right balance between risk taking and the moments when it is necessary to ensure the shot because, as shown by its statistical evolution in Blue in recent years, the “Gob” loses more and more balls per match .
Like the rest of the team, you will tell us. Against Turkey, the French crunched TWENTY-ONE balls which could have cost them qualification. And George Eddy to conclude: “Rudy sometimes wants to do more, to get out of his comfort zone, but that’s often where he starts to miss easy things and lose balls. It starts with a good intention, but when you are in important matches and each possession is worth gold, it is better to rest on your strengths. “And continue to slam the dunk as against the Turks in 8th.