Rudy Gobert won Defensive Player of the Year in 2024 and Kendrick Perkins was one of the individuals who voted for him to win the award. It is a decision that Perkins greatly regrets now after watching Gobert against the Dallas Mavericks and he claims he is retiring from voting for awards because of it.
“Molly (Qerim) I’m retiring, (Udonis Haslem), Shannon (Sharpe) from voting for individual awards, regular season awards because I have done a disservice in using my voting rights,” Perkins said on First Take. “Me voting this season for Rudy Gobert is an embarrassment for me for Defensive Player of the Year.
“He’s the first player that we see every single time in the postseason that becomes a defensive liability,” Perkins continued. “Don’t come giving me these analytics, don’t come giving me these plus-minus stats because that’s the most overrated stat in the NBA.
“When I look at Rudy, when I look at Rudy, he has tarnished the Defensive Player of the Year award,” Perkins stated. “He has. He’s not respected by his peers, we saw what happened to him in the Denver series, he couldn’t even guard the person at his position. Karl-Anthony Towns did a better job at that.
“What is he doing right now? When you look at this series right now, do you understand, do we realize that Rudy has three blocks in three games? He’s averaging one block per game at 7’3.” Unacceptable to say he’s a four-time Defensive Player of the Year,” Perkins concluded.
(starts at 0:36 mark):
.@KendrickPerkins goes OFF on Rudy Gobert 👀
"He's the first player that we see every single time in the postseason that becomes a defensive liability. … He has tarnished the Defensive Player of the Year award." pic.twitter.com/XqOLCtPIqB
— First Take (@FirstTake) May 28, 2024
I have my doubts about whether Perkins actually plans to retire from voting for these awards. It isn’t a privilege that people give up that easily.
As for Gobert, he won his fourth DPOY award by a landslide this year with 72 out of the 99 first-place votes. Do these playoffs show that the voters got it wrong? Not really. It is a regular season award at the end of the day and the Timberwolves had the best defensive rating in the NBA at 108.4.
Would some not vote for Gobert next season based on this series against the Mavericks? Maybe. I know Perkins certainly won’t if he does indeed decide against retiring.
Gilbert Arenas Says Rudy Gobert Should Return His DPOY Trophies
Perkins stated that Gobert has tarnished the DPOY award and another former NBA player thinks the Frenchman needs to return the four that he has won. Gilbert Arenas went off on Gobert and stated if he gets taken out of this series, then he doesn’t deserve those awards.
“I don’t need you to be a great help-side defender, that trophy says Defensive Player of the Year. Not help-side defender. That means all-inclusive b*tch… If they take you out of the game, dog, you should give your trophies back.”
Gilbert Arenas says Rudy Gobert should give his DPOY trophies back:
“I don’t need you to be a great help side defender, that trophy says Defensive Player of the Year. Not help side defender. That means all inclusive b*tch… If they take you out of the game dog, you should give… pic.twitter.com/biHtztHNNf
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) May 28, 2024
That was a bit too extreme from Arenas but wasn’t all that surprising. He has never been the biggest Gobert fan in the world and that seems to be the case for a lot of former and current players. I think it does cloud their judgment when it comes to the three-time All-Star.
If and when the Timberwolves lose this series, Gobert is certainly going to be the one who gets most of the blame. I don’t think that would be all that fair, considering Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns haven’t been consistently excellent either.
Rudy Gobert’s Defensive Impact In The Timberwolves-Mavericks Series
While Perkins and Arenas have not been impressed by Gobert’s defense in this series, to say the least, the numbers indicate he has been a lot better than they think.
“The Wolves are allowing Dallas to score 110.6 points per 100 possessions with Gobert in and 135.1 per 100 with Gobert out. 110.6 is what Boston allowed this regular season, 2nd best in the league. 135 is off charts horrible.”
1) it's a regular season award
2) the Wolves are allowing Dallas to score 110.6 points per 100 possessions with Gobert in and 135.1 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) per 100 with Gobert out.
110.6 is what Boston allowed this regular season, 2nd best in the league. 135 is off charts horrible. https://t.co/AHahrqmQyu
— Ti Windisch (@TiWindisch) May 28, 2024
Perkins did state that he doesn’t care what the analytics say and whatnot, but the numbers don’t lie here. Just because Luka Doncic hit a game-winner over Gobert doesn’t mean the Timberwolves have been suffering whenever he has been on the court.
I don’t think Gobert, who is averaging 12.5 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.8 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game, has had a great series, but at the same time, he hasn’t been all that bad either. He is by no means the reason the Timberwolves are down 3-1. If Edwards and Towns had played better in at least one of the first two games, we might have had a tied series on our hands.
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