It always seems like Rudy Gobert is being dragged through the mud, and given that he's still playing at such a high level at 33, the disrespect is baffling.
Recently, The Athletic conducted its annual player poll, asking 161 players five anonymous questions about their peers. One of the most popular questions from this survey has always been "the most overrated player." This year, Gobert tied with Trae Young as the league's second most overrated player, receiving 8.6 percent of the votes, with Alperen Sengun (12.6 percent of the votes) taking the crown.
Gobert being labeled as "overrated" doesn't add up -- if anything, I'd argue that he's slightly underrated.
Gobert being considered overrated is laughable
Despite being one of the league's three most dominant defenders and an essential part of his team's defense, Gobert somehow wasn't a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year.
And before the playoffs, whenever Gobert was brought up in the mainstream media, he was typically criticized rather than praised.
Heading into the season, ESPN ranked Gobert as the league's 49th-best player, and more recently, The Ringer ranked him as the league's 44th-best player. Even if you put a lot of weight into Gobert being limited offensively, the rankings are far from egregious.
While this poll was conducted before the playoffs, it's worth wondering whether players would have reconsidered after Gobert shut down Nikola Jokic in the first-round. Gobert held Jokic to 42.1 shooting percent as the primary defender and was central to the Timberwolves pulling off a first-round upset.
After this dominant series, Gobert was widely praised even by his detractors. This also showed once and for all that Gobert isn't just an elite rim protector, but he's an elite one-on-one defender as well. Likewise, this series disproved the myth that Gobert's game doesn't translate to the playoffs.
Other than Victor Wembanyama, Gobert is the league's best individual defender, and I'm not sure if that's debatable at this point. That alone makes him a top-50 level player and truly closer to 40.
It's worth noting that Gobert received just 2 percent of the votes as the league's best defender. Wemby understandably dominated with 41.1 percent of the votes. Still, 10 players other than Wemby received more votes than Gobert -- that's questionable at best.
In the end, this poll shouldn't really matter a ton. Last year, we saw Tyrese Haliburton be voted as the league's most overrated player. It's safe to say that this take ended up aging like milk after he nearly led the Pacers to an NBA championship. Furthermore, only 81 players voted on this overrated question, meaning only seven players voted Gobert as the most overrated player.
Nevertheless, Gobert could certainly use this slight as extra motivation to continue his stellar playoff run.
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