Following the departure of All-Star forward Gordon Hayward in free agency to the Boston Celtics, the Utah Jazz are looking to take a new direction with the franchise.
According to Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune, Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey stated that the front office will now build the team around rising star big man Rudy Gobert.
“We feel like we can build defensively around Rudy Gobert,” Lindsey told The Tribune. “We look at him, and he's a top-10 player and unique defender. So we [want] to build a team around his talents.”
The former 2013 first round pick has developed into one of the premier defensive big men in the league while coming off of a breakout year that earned him an All-NBA Second Team nod as well as an NBA All-Defensive First Team selection.
The 25-year-old averaged a double-double with 14.0 points and 12.8 rebounds on 66.1 percent shooting from the field and a league-leading 2.6 blocks per game. He was also fourth in rebounding, second in field goal percentage, and tied for fourth with 58 double-doubles.
Although Gobert's offense is still a work in progress, he has become a defensive juggernaut that can alter the entire game plan for an opposing team. The Jazz may have lost their face of the franchise, but they still possess one of the best big men in the league who set to enter the prime of his career.
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