The Utah Jazz made a bevy of moves this offseason, including trading for stellar point guard Mike Conley in order to shore up the rotation for a possible Finals run. The team also added notable wing scorer/creator Bojan Bogdanovic and veteran Jeff Green. In a recent interview, all three players stated that the best thing about playing for the Jazz is that they don’t have to worry about being defended by Rudy Gobert.

https://twitter.com/GoatWorldSport1/status/1192636288928641024

The Stifle Tower is consistently one of the best defenders in the NBA, and, so far in the 2019-20 season, the 27-year-old is the frontrunner for his third straight Defensive Player of the Year award. While award voters might get fatigue for the Frenchman, he has still looked superb on that end to start the season.

While his raw blocks numbers might be down (only averaging 1.1 blocks per game), his steals are up (1.7 per game) and his blocks might be down because teams are finally figuring out that even attempting a shot anywhere near the 7’1” Gobert is sure to be a huge mistake.

Gobert has made the All-Defensive First Team for three consecutive seasons, and he has surely victimized all three of his new teammates at various points throughout their careers. Conley, in particular, must be excited about not seeing Gobert on the opposing team, considering the two had likely matched up many times before when Conley was a member of the Memphis Grizzlies.

While Conley hasn’t played well to start the season, the Jazz are 5-3 mostly on the back of a stifling defense, which is tied for tops in the league per Cleaning the Glass.