Rudy Gobert matchup data is always a little harder to interpret than it is for perimeter defenders because centers rarely “guard” players in the traditional sense for an entire possession. A lot of their value comes from what happens around the action rather than directly inside it. Rotations, deterrence, tagging rollers, helping at the rim, recovering back into drop coverage, shutting down driving lanes before the shot even happens. That’s part of why Gobert conversations end up so polarized. People look at a handful of possessions where he gets pulled away from the paint and treat it as the full picture, while ignoring the amount of possessions where offenses avoid certain shots entirely because he’s there. This post looks at the players Gobert has actually spent the most time defending this season, along with a couple playoff matchups that have already become important in Minnesota’s defensive structure. Most of the names are interior bigs, screeners, rollers and paint-focused play...