Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert doesn’t get enough hits

The Utah Jazz would benefit from a bump on Rudy Gobert’s shot attempts.

Utah Jazz Center Rudy Gobert shot a combined 13-for-15 from the field between the last two outings after being out five games. In other words, lately almost everything the three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year touches on offense somehow turns into points.

And Gobert is now shooting a career-high 71.3% from the field this season. Not to mention the 29-year-old Charity Strip’s suddenly respectable 68.0 percent with a career-high 6.7 foul shots per game in his ninth year in the NBA.

So it should seem illogical that the Jazz (29-15) would accept such a high level of efficiency from their reasonably powerful big man without trying to set him up for many more scoring attempts. Indeed, more Gobert touches should be their goal, at least until his shooting percentage drops below around 70.

Utah Jazz Weapon Upgrades Remain Underrated

While Rudy Gobert’s offensive moves often seem jerky and aren’t as advanced as some of the league’s other top big men, there’s no denying recent significant progress in his development at this end of the field.

Consider that part of the reason for France’s silver medal success at last summer’s Olympics was their creativity in finding opportunities for Gobert to thrive as a bucket-getter.

Now the 7-foot-1 “Gobzilla” has the tools to do more damage offensively but just doesn’t get enough touches to dominate at times. While “dominating” might be too ambitious, it probably wouldn’t hurt for the Jazz to mix things up a bit by feeding Gobert with a little more regularity, even if only to become less predictable and less reliant on hot shooting nights beyond the arc. .

After all, Utah’s overreliance on its 3-point arsenal was on full display in its 101-95 road loss to the Los Angeles Lakers (22-22) on Monday evening.

Yes, Donovan Mitchell, Bojan Bogdanovic, Jordan Clarkson and Rudy Gay went a combined 1 for 26 from downtown in the game, which equates to a 3.8 shooting percentage. No, that won’t work.

Meanwhile, particularly during the fourth quarter — in which the Utah Jazz had just 12 points in the final 30 seconds — Rudy Gobert frequently had about a six-inch advantage over his defender. Nevertheless, all he could do was watch his teammates lift one brick after another.

Stay tuned The J-Notes for more on Rudy Gobert’s offensive progression as well as other Utah Jazz news and views.