Rudy Gobert snubbed; won't be headed to All-Star Game

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SALT LAKE CITY — Rudy Gobert was snubbed.

At least that’s what his coaches, his teammates and every Jazz fan will say. And they aren’t necessarily wrong.

Despite anchoring the league’s best defense (if you take out garbage time) and being among the best in the league in most advanced stats — 8th in NBA.com’s Player Impact Estimate, 9th in ESPN’s Real-Plus Minus, etc. — Gobert won’t be going to the 2019 NBA All-Star Game.

The Jazz center was not named among the All-Star Reserves when the full teams were announced on Thursday. The league coaches vote on the reserves with Western Confernece coaches voting for the West reserves and Eastern Conference coaches voting for the East.

Gober is averaging career-highs in points (15.0), rebounds (12.8) and assists (2.2). And he's leading the league in shooting by hitting 65.0 percent of his shots.

The Western Conference big man reserves included Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Tows, San Antonio's LaMarcus Aldridge and New Orleans' Anthony Davis.

Donovan Mitchell, who made a late push for inclusion with a dynamic January where he averaged 27.7 points, was also not selected.

Jazz coach Quin Snyder understands the depth of the West, but, last week, he made some strong statements in support of Gobert making the team.

"He's not going have a line like some of the other guys that make the All-Star Game,” Snyder said. “I would argue what he’s doing is even more unique and more valuable because he doesn't necessarily get that validation, but he is still able to do it. It's not only as impactful, it's more impactful. If you want to see what's impactful for our team, just dig into it for 30 seconds and look at all the things that guy does — it's phenomenal."

The other league coaches might not have dug in enough — which might help explain why Gobert can be so dominant against their teams.

"So much of what Rudy does, I won't say is thankless, but you have to look for it,” Snyder said last week. “You realize, 'You know what, I have to thank him again.' He's giving himself to the team. His screen assists, his rolls, his defense, his defense on the perimeter, his rim protection. There are so many things he does.”

One of the reasons why the snub feels so surprising is the way that other coaches from Denver's Mike Malone to Portland's Terry Stotts to the Clippers Doc Rivers have been so complimentary of Gobert.

"No one’s going to give the guy enough credit anyway,” Rivers said before Jazz’s win over LA in mid-January. “If you gave him a point for every time he had a defensive stop, he would average 40 a night, and to me, no one does that. So you don’t get credit. Rudy could have a game of 5 points and 15 rebounds and people would say, 'well, what did he do?' He really created 40 points by getting stops and they’re going the other way.”

And while Snyder believes Gobert belongs on the team, it also doesn’t change the way he thinks of his star center. And that’s as a surefire All-Star.

“I feel like they are deserving,” Snyder said of both Gobert and Mitchell. “At the same time for me, they are. It’s hard for a player to internalize that. You want that external validation. It’s a complicated process. There are a lot of deserving players.”

As for Gobert, it’s just another instance in a history of being overlooked. He’s used to it.

“It’s frustrating for the guys who do all the dirty work,” Gobert said in early January. “But at the end of the day, those guys get rewarded by winning and helping the team. I’m happy with what I do. It doesn’t change my motivation.”