Former Timberwolves player calls out Rudy Gobert's playoff performance

Perhaps the most decorated player on the Minnesota Timberwolves' roster is Rudy Gobert. Over the course of his 11-year career, he has amassed a huge trophy case and numerous accolades, including a record-tying four Defensive Player of the Year awards.

There are precious few true haters of Rudy left at this point, as he has left most of them with a significantly smaller number of talking points. However, one shortcoming that still leaves room for doubters to talk is his sometimes inconsistent output in the playoffs.

Gobert has shown us that he is absolutely worthy of all his regular season accolades, and no one really questions that anymore. But when Luka Doncic makes the game-winning three pointer over him in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, it is going to give outsiders plenty of talking points to question his capability in the postseason.

One perhaps unexpected former Timberwolves player recently spoke on Rudy and his playoff shortcomings: Chauncey Billups. The 2004 Finals MVP appeared on The Sheed and Tyler show, hosted by Rasheed Wallace, and talked about Minnesota's playoff exit.

Chauncey Billups spoke about Rudy Gobert on a podcast

Perhaps the most common view of Rudy Gobert these days (outside of Timberwolves fans) is that he is extremely effective in the regular season, but his performance fluctuates far too often in the playoffs. For those who are not high on Minnesota's big man, this leads them to question the legitimacy of his awards.

One of the podcast's co-hosts asked Billups how it is possible that Rudy could be a liability in some situations given his status as reigning Defensive Player of the Year. Billups' answer was thoughtful, but critical.

"I struggle with it too," he said. "My first year of coaching I was with the Clippers. We played Utah, [Gobert] was in Utah. And don't get me wrong, he's a great defender, but he's not as versatile as like, the Ben Wallace's. So he can played off the floor with some of this spacing, and shooting.

"We attacked him the whole series. And he's a great defensive player, don't get me wrong, but you don't just attack great defensive players. You don't even go after them, you're going away from them, get him out of the play. So that's the difference in today's game. Yeah, he's great at the rim, he plays hard, he can block shots and stuff, but in space there's trouble, and pick-and-rolls you can just go after him."

From a coaching standpoint, it would certainly make sense to play someone like Rudy in a way where you can draw him away from the basket. Gobert is far from a black hole defender on the perimeter, but it is not his natural comfort zone. In this way, Chauncey is probably correct in saying Rudy's lack of versatility makes him less effective in the playoffs. This is the next hurdle Gobert will have to cross to shorten his list of haters even more.