The reason was absolutely nobody was playing defense beside Rudy. We all know he will play drop, so others only needed to try to go over screens and rotate on the weak side. They didnt. But the personnel wasnt there too. Mittchell, Clarkson, Bogdanovic, Ingles. None of these guys are running on defense.

Are we deadass rn? No Mitchell was not main reason. As important Rudy was to the defense, Mitchell was that to the offense. Their third best player was Royce o Neal. It definitely was more of a roster construction, and in the series where they lost to the clippers was because both Rudy and Mitchell were always in foul trouble.

Good grief, I swear this sub is getting dumber and dumber.

Anthony Edwards is better than Donovan Mitchell, and the rest of the Timberwolves roster is WAY better than what Utah had behind Gobert and Mitchell. 

(Jaden McDaniels is, in his own way, nearly as elite of a defender as Gobert himself. And then you’ve got KAT/Randle, Naz Reid, etc. )

It’s really a shame that these days, you always have to put someone down in order to compliment someone else. These two are really great players, it just didn’t work because of reasons that people have been talking about in this thread.

Their roster construction was very flawed. Gobert is their entire defense, pretty much everyone else is a liability. Their coach kinda sucks at making adjustments, and the locker room vibes aren’t great

How many have the Jazz won post Mitchell and Gobert?

One guy has to bear 0 offensive load and went to team with Ant/KAT and now Randle/Jaden/Naz and the other had to bear complete offensive responsibility (last playoffs dropped up of 32ppg) with Garland as his number 2 and we supposed to take this bum posts seriously??

What a stupid posts, Mitchell has dealt with crippled team mates every season while being the teams best player. Rudy is not even the wolves best player during all these playoff runs what a stupid comparison

Mitchell is the guy of his teams, idk if these are fair comparisons

ANT in that span is averaging 27/7/6 in the playoffs

Joe Ingles is Paul George father

How does this post even get upvotes

I feel like both the Timberwolves and Cavs got better with their haul from Utah. Gobert and Mitchell are excellent players who can be winners on the right team, but are not enough on their own. I don’t see the need to criticize either of them.

I think it’s funny that such a shallow correlation has, as of right now, net 93 upvotes. People read that OP and were like, “This is good stuff! Wow!”

Are we not allowed to just appreciate both players?

All respect to Gobert, he’s underappreciated, but Donovan Mitchell is a fantastic player. They just operate on completely different sides of the ball.

Gobert left to play with a real franchise player in Minny. Mitchell is masquerading as a franchise player in cleveland.

The way to beat the jazz at that time was to go small. This allowed Rudy’s best attribute of guarding the paint become useless because he would have to step out and guard the three, Rudy was so good at paint protection that his opponents had to adapt to him. And the reason why the opponents like the clippers and mavs could go small is because Rudy is and was awful at offense. Couldn’t post up, couldn’t catch and definitely wasn’t able to take advantage of the mismatch. I think partly the jazz players and coach lack of trust and lack of trying to feed him consistent looks just to push the opponent’s defense is also to a fault but you could see them groan everytime the ball flew between Rudy’s hands. Having Rudy in the paint and then having a bunch of switchable perimeter defenders to drive against, made Donavan Mitchell’s offensive game not as effective, so it was like a compounding disadvantage. Don’t let one series make you look at the previous playoff resumes differently. Rudy gobert is a terrific defender but an extremely flawed basketball player.

jesus fucking christ, people on this sub will upvote the stupidest thing ever written if you just throw some stats in it here and there.

Cavs have the same problem those jazz did, we NEVER invest in wings. Also, we have a backup big that can shoot and refuse to play him so IDK

Untimely injuries or meeting the team that would be the ECF champion didn’t help Cleveland at all. Yes some of the problems are internal, but injuries and facing great teams led to SOME of the difference in playoff series wins.

It might have to do with the fact that Donovan Mitchell has had to have been the best player on his team and Rudy Gobert has been the second or even third. Could be wrong though.

He won? Rudy Gobert? Gtfoh

Guess how many Giannis has won in that time frame? Completely unrelated but crazy none the less

Remember when Rudy used to get cooked in the parameter and everyone said he cant defend playoff ball?

It’s cause Mitchell doesn’t really bring anything distinguishable to the table.

Well yea Gobert is like the 4th or 5th option and Mitchell is the number 1 option. All gobert needs to do is play defense. Oh and Gobert plays with Ant Man and Julis Randle…

Don Mitchell has always been a fraud

the next team who maxes him will be in a world of shit