{"id":70507,"date":"2024-03-25T13:45:03","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T17:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=70507"},"modified":"2026-03-10T22:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T02:29:08","slug":"nba-award-favorite-reaches-65-game-requirement-rudy-gobert-minnesota-timberwolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/25\/nba-award-favorite-reaches-65-game-requirement-rudy-gobert-minnesota-timberwolves\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Award-Favorite Reaches 65-Game Requirement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Minnesota Timberwolves center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/goberru01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-25_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rudy Gobert<\/a> officially hit the 65-game requirement for postseason awards. Currently, the 31-year-old is the betting favorite to take home this year&#8217;s NBA Defensive Player of the Year award. If this does happen, Gobert would become a four-time winner of the award, tying <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mutomdi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-25_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dikembe Mutombo<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wallabe01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-25_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ben Wallace<\/a> for the all-time record.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Rudy Gobert remains the favorite to win DPOY, per @BovadaOfficial<\/p>\n<p>Rudy Gobert: -700<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=,wembavi01&amp;search=Victor+Wembanyama&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-25_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Victor Wembanyama<\/a>: +500<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/allenja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-25_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jarrett Allen<\/a>: +8500<\/p>\n<p>(Via <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jKJ3d8xxYi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/jKJ3d8xxYi<\/a>) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yCWczpKTBl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/yCWczpKTBl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheDunkCentral\/status\/1772304409076154602?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 25, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>NBA Award-Favorite Reaches 65-Game Requirement<\/h2>\n<h3>The Impact of Rudy Gobert This Season<\/h3>\n<p>Gobert has been a crucial part of Minnesota&#8217;s success in his second season with the team. On the season, Gobert is averaging 13.6 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game. Additionally, the Timberwolves&#8217; 108.3 Defensive Rating is the league&#8217;s best this season. Next to stars <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/edwaran01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-25_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Edwards<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/townska01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-25_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>, Gobert is the perfect defensive anchor to lift this team into contender territory. Currently, the Minnesota Timberwolves have a 49-22 record and are one game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n<p>In January, Gobert talked about how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/qa-timberwolves-rudy-gobert\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">his defense has evolved<\/a> since joining the NBA in 2013:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When I got into the league, how many centers were shooting threes? There was Dirk [Nowitzki]. There was [Andrea] Bargnani. Who else?<\/p>\n<p>A lot of guys started shooting in the next few years. I remember [Nikola] Jokic started shooting threes, maybe my fifth year in the league. Then guys like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lopezbr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-25_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brook Lopez<\/a>, [Kristaps] Porzingis. But it was rare. Now, every other day I\u2019m guarding a guy who can shoot, a guy that\u2019s going to pop. I have teams going small, so I\u2019m going to have to guard more on the perimeter.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been fun for me to have to be uncomfortable. Now I\u2019m in a place where I\u2019m comfortable guarding any lineup. Even switching. There\u2019s a narrative out there I\u2019m not good guarding on the switch, but if you look at the numbers and the film, I was allowing the lowest points on switches a couple of years ago.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Gobert&#8217;s versatility on defense has been a major help to Minnesota&#8217;s success this season.<\/p>\n<h3>Rudy Gobert is Not the Only Candidate for the DPOY Award<\/h3>\n<p>With less than a month to go, it seems like Gobert will bring home the award once again. However, that&#8217;s not to say he doesn&#8217;t have competition. Right behind him in the betting odds is fellow French native and rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama. Although Gobert has a higher chance of winning the DPOY award this season, the San Antonio Spurs rookie is giving him a run for the award. Earlier this month, Wembanyama said Gobert deserves the award this year, but &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/15\/victor-wembanyama-makes-bold-claim-about-nba-dpoy-award-san-antonio-spurs-defensive-player-of-the-year\/\" target=\"_self\">after that, it&#8217;s no longer his turn.<\/a>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite his individual success, Wembanyama&#8217;s Spurs have the ninth-worst Defensive Rating in the league. This is noteworthy and will take away from his candidacy for the award. Even so, Wembanyama is as intriguing a prospect as the league has seen in a long time. It will be interesting to see how long he and Gobert will battle for the NBA&#8217;s defensive crown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert officially hit the 65-game requirement for postseason awards. Currently, the 31-year-old is the betting favorite to take home this year&#8217;s NBA Defensive Player of the Year award. If this does happen, Gobert would become a four-time winner of the award, tying Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace for the all-time record. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":70515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,21,62,3,34],"tags":[2109,2244,233,2140,213,394],"class_list":["post-70507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-timberwolves","category-nba","category-news","category-spurs","tag-anthony-edwards","tag-ben-wallace","tag-brook-lopez","tag-dikembe-mutombo","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-rudy-gobert"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180905,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70507\/revisions\/180905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}