World Cup Breakout Proves Rudy Gobert's Ready for the Big Stage

Alarm sirens are blaring, sending dribble-penetrators on a frantic search for floaters and general managers scurrying for scorers who don't need to frequent the interior.

The NBA's next rim protector has arrived, complete with a drool-worthy set of physical tools, a disarming French accent and a nickname that already ranks among the classics.

The Stifle Tower, or Rudy Gobert if formalities are more your thing, dabbled in NBA waters last season, suiting up 45 times for a total of 434 minutes with the Utah Jazz. With the franchise desperately needing to set proper basements and ceilings for Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter, there was only so much playing time available to a sushi-bar-raw rookie.

With a light schedule and the talent pool considerably thinned, NBA exams are nearly impossible to take—let alone pass—during the summer. Since Gobert never received a real test last season, though, he had the rare opportunity to do just that.

Consider it done.

His scintillating summer run ended on a somber note with France's 90-85 semifinal loss to Serbia on Friday. He tallied a quiet-but-effective five rebounds, four points, two blocks and a steal in the contest.

While the ending isn't the one he would have liked, the process primed him for a breakout effort in 2014-15.

Of course, his passing offseason grade carried the usual sample-size asterisk along with it.

But it brought along a warning, too. Between his four-game dunkfest at the Las Vegas Summer League and subsequent sprint through the international stage, the message was equal parts simple and terrifying—Rudy Gobert looks ready:

Buzz has followed him since he came stateside last summer.

The 27th pick made NBA.com's Fran Blinebury's six-man list of 2013-14 Rookie of the Year candidates list, though the scribe did warn that Gobert was "a longer shot than a mule winning the Kentucky Derby."

Gobert's award campaign never got off the ground, and the 25-win Jazz never made it out of the Western Conference cellar. Despite his staggering natural gifts (more on those later), he faded further off the basketball radar. Part-time players on bad teams have a hard time swiping the spotlight, the occasional Jimmer-Mania notwithstanding.

Garrett Ellwood/Getty Images

Again, it's tough to excite the hoops world over the offseason with anything that goes on inside the lines, but Gobert has managed to pull it off.

His offensive range is essentially tied to his reach, so his Sin City stat sheet lacked a wow factor in the scoring column: 11.8 points per game. Still, his numbers beamed outside of that category, highlighted by 9.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in only 23.8 minutes per game and a searing 73.1 field-goal percentage.

The total package was good enough to net him All-NBA Summer League Second-Team honors. It also gave him a platform to tell the world he was growing in all facets.

"All around, I feel better defensively, because I feel stronger offensively," reports Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. "I feel just more confident."

That confidence has become more apparent as the offseason has progressed.

The start of his World Cup run was reminiscent of his rookie year. He played a support role for France, logging 14.3 minutes a night over his first six games. He didn't score much (4.0 per game), made the most of the few shots he attempted (66.7 percent) and chipped in where he could on the glass (3.8 rebounds).

Then came France's biggest test of the tournament, a quarterfinals matchup with Spain, the host nation everyone expected was on a championship collision course with Team USA. With that challenge came Gobert's long overdue opportunity to shine.

And did he ever seize that moment. There are best-case scenarios, there are unbelievable dreams and then there is an unpolished Gobert challenging a savvy, seasoned Spanish squad—and winning, as depicted by his stats, per NBA.com's John Schuhmann:

Gobert's stat line showed only the 13 boards, five points, a block and a steal, but his impact on the game's bottom line was exponentially greater than that.

"The 22-year-old 7-footer from Saint-Quentin shut down a team, deemed the only credible challenger to Team USA with hustle and ample heart, towering in the middle and serving as a totem for a victory that few saw coming," wrote Mark Woods for ESPN.com.

Gobert was everywhere defensively, especially down the stretch. Despite being weathered by foul trouble, he remained an active, intimidating presence near the basket.

Hoop heads needed a double take just to figure out what they were witnessing. Rob Mahoney of SI.com provided his take of the situation:

The usual concerns apply regarding putting too much stock in a single performance, but this was different.

For one, this wasn't the typical offseason competition. Spain was seen as a juggernaut in this field for a number of reasons, not the least of which was its talented, decorated frontcourt trio of Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka.

It's one thing to scoff at Anthony Randolph, Marcus Banks or Von Wafer dropping 42 points on the junior-varsity competition at summer league. It's quite another to dismiss a lightly used rookie holding his own (and then some) against top-tier NBA talent.

"This wasn’t DeMarcus Cousins swallowing up rebounds against Ukranian bigs similar in stature to American high school players," wrote Salt City Hoops' Ben Dowsett. "It was a 22-year-old going against the world’s best international frontcourt in a vital elimination game between two teams that hate each other and more than holding his own."

This also wasn't some abnormal performance that Gobert is incapable of reproducing. It was a blueprint for how he can impact an NBA game right now and, in some ways, a basement for the player he can become.

Now, about those physical tools.

Gobert stands 7'2" in shoes and has a 7'8.5" wingspan, which is tied for the fourth-largest in DraftExpress' database. His 9'7" standing reach is tied for the third-highest on that list. Add a 29" vertical to the equation and he has the same max vertical reach as Los Angeles Clippers' high-flier DeAndre Jordan (12'0").

Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images

Gobert's offensive array couldn't be lighter. He made 36 shots last season, 33 of which were dunks, layups or tip-ins. Only two of those makes came more than three feet from the basket.

It's hard to rule out the possibility of him diversifying his skill set at that side, but he doesn't need to in order to be effective. Long, active centers who live above the rim do just fine in this league, if they can bring enough to the rest of the table.

His numbers say he can.

He had a 7.4 block percentage in 2013-14, which would have easily led the league had he qualified (Anthony Davis and Ibaka held the top spot at 6.7). Gobert's 20.6 total rebounding percentage would have trailed only Andre Drummond (22.3), Jordan (21.6) and Andrew Bogut.

Gobert also graded out as a full-fledged rim protector, not a specialist shot-blocker. Opponents shot just 41.2 percent against him at the rim, via SportVU player tracking data provided to NBA.com, putting him on a nearly identical level as two-time All-Star Roy Hibbert (41.1).

Gobert has size, length and agility. That's a package the NBA can work with.

"Gobert is a giant with some mobility," wrote Grantland's Zach Lowe. "He is not a stiff. He can go from standstill to full speed pretty quickly for a guy his size, and Gobert’s top gear is faster than that of most behemoths."

The big man is giving the Jazz something to think about. While he is still developing, he's also the same age as Kanter (22) and only a year younger than Favors (23). That might be too much size to build with, especially if Kanter is the only one capable of scoring away from the basket.

Utah needs to find out about the newest piece of its frontcourt puzzle.

Gobert has proven he's ready for his moment on the big stage. Whether the Jazz are ready for him could be a different story.

It's a question that needs to be answered sooner rather than later. While it's too early to say he has an All-Star future, it's clear he deserves an NBA present with a much greater role than the one he filled last season.

Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.

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