{"id":768044,"date":"2022-12-09T13:41:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T18:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=768044"},"modified":"2022-12-09T17:11:07","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T22:11:07","slug":"rudy-gobert-says-hes-very-happy-for-utahs-early-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/news\/nba\/rudy-gobert-says-hes-very-happy-for-utahs-early-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Rudy Gobert Says He&#8217;s &#8216;Very Happy&#8217; for Utah&#8217;s Early Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/rudy-gobert-believes-victor-wembanyama-will-be-something-unique\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"761955\" target=\"_blank\">Rudy Gobert<\/a> makes his return to Vivint Arena on Friday night when the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/minnesota-timberwolves-sign-greg-monroe-for-remainder-of-season\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"742986\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> look to defeat the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/as-they-rebuild-the-utah-jazz-are-now-8-3-and-a-lot-of-fun-to-watch\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"765133\" target=\"_blank\">Jazz<\/a> on their home court. Gobert spent nine seasons with the Jazz before the franchise decided it was time to <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/jazz-ceo-danny-ainge-on-offseason-moves-we-needed-to-transition-our-roster\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"758857\" target=\"_blank\">transition their roster<\/a> and <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/report-rudy-gobert-headed-to-minnesota-via-trade-from-utah\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"751503\" target=\"_blank\">traded Gobert to the T-wolves<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Rudy&#39;s Return.<br><br>Wolves at Jazz<br>8pm CT, Vivint Arena<br>\ud83d\udcfa \u00bb <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BallySportsNOR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BallySportsNOR<\/a><br>\ud83d\udcfb \u00bb <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wccoradio?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@wccoradio<\/a><br>\ud83d\udcf1 \u00bb <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gPhx0nfm0i\">https:\/\/t.co\/gPhx0nfm0i<\/a><br><br>Preview \u00bb <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Sm2ODWsdNi\">https:\/\/t.co\/Sm2ODWsdNi<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MeLos5rpus\">pic.twitter.com\/MeLos5rpus<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Timberwolves\/status\/1601248807856979968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 9, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For over half of his 9-year tenure in Utah, Gobert played alongside Cavs\u2019 <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/donovan-mitchell-sends-message-lakers-nba\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"767721\" target=\"_blank\">Donovan Mitchell<\/a>. Led by Mitchell\u2019s explosive offense and Gobert\u2019s dominant defensive presence, the Jazz advanced to the postseason for five straight seasons, had the best record in the League in the 2020-21 season, and&nbsp;went 243-147.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the <em>Spida x Stifle Tower<\/em> era officially ended in Utah, both parties s be content with their split and happy with their new aspirations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The former Defensive Player of the Year has continued his dominance in the paint, averaging a double-double with 13.3 points, 11.9 rebounds (third in the League), and 1.3 blocks. On Thursday, Gobert\u2019s post presence was felt in full force as he scored 16 points, ripped down 21 rebounds, and recorded two blocks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">two words: RUDY. GOBERT.<br><br>Rudy &#8211; 16 PTS \/ 21 REB \/ 1 AST \/ 2 BLK \/ 3 STL <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/i6jzOMLwos\">pic.twitter.com\/i6jzOMLwos<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Timberwolves\/status\/1600922930380263425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 8, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, the Jazz jumped off to a hot start and now sit at 6th in the Western Conference with a 15-12 record. For an expected rebuild season, the Jazz surprised many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been very happy to see them having success,\u201d Gobert said per <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/tv\/news\/rudy-gobert-very-happy-for-jazzs-early-success\/ar-AA1563Gw\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/tv\/news\/rudy-gobert-very-happy-for-jazzs-early-success\/ar-AA1563Gw\" target=\"_blank\">MSN<\/a>. \u201cMost people kind of counted them out after trading me and Donovan, and Bojan, too, but there\u2019s still a lot of talent on this team. You can tell that they\u2019re having a lot of fun, and, also, when you don\u2019t have a lot of expectations, you kind of play free. I think that\u2019s what\u2019s been happening for them. They play together; they play free, they play really hard. When you play that way with the level of talent they have, good things happen\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">2 DUNKS IN 20 SECONDS. \ud83d\ude27 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UUvdkRf76u\">pic.twitter.com\/UUvdkRf76u<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Timberwolves\/status\/1600660405084336128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 8, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The center is excited to see his former team winning, and he\u2019s looking forward to stepping into Vivint Arena once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI spent nine years of my life there and created a lot of memories, have a lot of very powerful relationships with people that I love and gave me a lot of love over the years,\u201d Gobert told MacMahon. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be weird to walk into the arena and go to the visitor\u2019s locker room, but it\u2019s going to be probably a lot of love and a lot of joy to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rudy Gobert makes his return to Vivint Arena on Friday night when the Minnesota Timberwolves look to defeat the Jazz on their home court. Gobert spent nine seasons with the Jazz before the franchise decided it was time to transition their roster and traded Gobert to the T-wolves. For over half of his 9-year tenure [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":492,"featured_media":768055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62710,18,62721],"tags":[9617,112,10043,13008],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-768044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-minnesota-timberwolves","category-nba","category-utah-jazz","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-rudy-gobert","tag-utah-jazz"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/492"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768044"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":768121,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768044\/revisions\/768121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768044"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=768044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}