Kendrick Perkins had a lot to say about Rudy Gobert in a recent interview with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson. Perk noted that as a standout defensive player, Gobert has to be held to a high standard. He claimed that Gobert has almost never been the deciding factor in a playoff win for any of his teams.
“Look, bro. You cannot be going back to France with four Defensive Player of the Year awards and not showing up in the postseason… You don’t need Rudy to be average, he’s not supposed to be good. Rudy has yet to have a game where we came out and were like ‘Rudy won them that game, he was everywhere’…”
Perkins then claimed that he had a better playoff career than Rudy Gobert, and doubled down by bringing up stats about games where they had 5 and 7 blocks each. While he did acknowledge that he was a role player, Perkins added that he stepped up in the big moments, unlike Gobert.
“People thought I was capping. I had a better postseason defensively than Rudy… I’m talking about career-wise… Three times he had 7 blocks or more? I had four times when I had 7 blocks. Even when you go to 5 blocks, he had 3, I had 3. At this point, what are we really talking about? If you go back and watch a film, I showed up in big moments. And I was a role player, I didn’t have a Defensive Player of the Year award. I showed up in big moments. He didn’t and it’s unacceptable.”
Kendrick Perkins then brought up the series against the Mavericks, pointing to the impact players like Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively made, and how Gobert could, and should have done more in the postseason.
“The reason that people are so hard on Rudy… When I’m watching this Dallas series, I’m watching Daniel Gafford block shots and Dereck Lively block shots, and the others are like ‘Oh sh*t’. They’re so impactful that they got you looking over your shoulder… You ain’t breaking up none of them lobs? You see the lob coming you can’t jump up high enough to say ‘oh nah’? Come on man. Stop me when I’m lying.”
Kendrick Perkins says he was a better defender and more impactful in the playoffs than Rudy Gobert
“If you go back and watch film, I showed up in big moments.”
(🎥 @ScoopB )
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) June 5, 2024
To suggest that Kendrick Perkins, a solid role player, was better than the man who has tied Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace for most Defensive Player of the Year awards in the playoffs is ludicrous. Firstly, Perkins and Gobert played with entirely different metrics and expectations placed on them, so making a direct comparison is not easy. But let’s take a look at Perkins’ claims seriously and see what happens
Kendrick Perkins Does Not Come Close To Rudy Gobert
Rudy Gobert is very much deserving of criticism right now. His poor performances in the playoffs, especially in the Western Conference Finals against the Mavericks, deserve to be criticized. But Perkins cannot revise history and try to claim he was a better playoff performer when that is not true at all.
A simple glance at their career playoff stats shows that Perkins is incorrect in his assessment. Kendrick Perkins averaged 5.9 rebounds, 1.1 blocks, and 0.3 steals with an average defensive rating of 104.2 in the playoffs. In his best playoff run (minimum 20 minutes played), he averaged 11.6 rebounds, 2.6 blocks, and 0.4 steals with a defensive rating of 102.4.
By comparison, Rudy Gobert has averaged 11.0 rebounds, 1.6 blocks, and 0.7 steals per game with an average defensive rating of 110.6 in the playoffs. While Gobert’s stats are better, his defensive rating is worse than Perkins’ career average. In fact, Gobert had only one season where his defensive rating was better than Perkins’ career average – the 2018 playoffs where he had a defensive rating of 103.6.
While Perkins’ defensive rating in the playoffs is better, it is important to look at the context of the two players. Gobert has been an All-Star caliber starter who plays big minutes, averaging 33.5 minutes in the playoffs.
Whereas Perkins was a perennial role player, who only averaged 23.6 minutes per game. In fact, Perkins only averaged over 30 minutes per game in the 2009 playoffs, where he averaged 33.6 minutes per game, due to Kevin Garnett being injured in the playoffs.
Speaking of Garnett, he is a big reason for Perkins’ defensive rating being lower than Gobert. Playing alongside a Defensive Player of the Year winner can help reduce your defensive burden significantly.
Additionally, Perkins played in the NBA when the pace of the game was much slower. With smaller players breaking into the NBA, the pace of the game increased greatly, and bigs were asked to switch on to smaller guards, thus making their defensive responsibility that much harder. So Gobert having a higher defensive rating makes more sense when that is considered.
On top of that, Kendrick Perkins claimed that he had more games with 7 or more blocks than Rudy Gobert, which is not true. Both Gobert and Perkins have just one game each with 7 blocks in the playoffs. Hilariously, Perk was incorrect when he said he had the same amount of games with 5 blocks as Gobert. Perkins actually has one more game with 5 blocks than Gobert.
The numbers make it clear that Gobert is far and away the better defender compared to Perkins. While Gobert definitely deserves criticism for his playoff performances this year, those criticisms should be fair and measured.
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