Rudy Gobert Rips NBA Teams Tanking, Praises Jazz's Front Office

The Utah Jazz could have decided to go the rebuilding route after Gordon Hayward signed with the Boston Celtics last summer. But as center Rudy Gobert told Sam Amick of USA Today, he's pleased general manager Dennis Lindsey abstained and praised head coach Quin Snyder’s system:

"Just try to teach players how to make winning plays, not only good basketball plays but winning plays. Teach every single one to help the team win games. A lot of teams are very good doing skill work, strength work. But if you want to win, you have to teach a player how to win. That's why I don't believe in tanking, all that stuff. I believe you learn how to win by winning. You don't learn how to win by losing on purpose to get a 19-year-old who you've never seen."

Tanking remains a divisive conversation around the NBA. On one hand, there are the folks who agree with Gobert and cite a number of organizations who have rebuilt or retooled without bottoming out and chasing lottery prospects at the draft. 

On the other hand, more than a few folks felt that Gobert's argument failed to account for a few key details: 

And Matt Moore of the Action Network argued that tanking and building a winning culture aren't mutually exclusive concepts:

In recent years, the Philadelphia 76ers and former general manager Sam Hinkie served as the poster child for blatant, unapologetic tanking, and between 2013 and 2017, the team went 75-253. But the team's bottoming out and acquisition of assets and cap space ultimately resulted in a young core of Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Dario Saric and Markelle Fultz, all added through the draft.

Players like Robert Covington and T.J. McConnell, meanwhile, were given more playing time than they might have gotten elsewhere, and each developed into solid role players. And the 38-30 Sixers, bound for the playoffs, will also have enough cap space this summer to potentially attract an elite free agent, since they largely avoided paying expensive, long-term salaries in free agency to veterans during their rebuild.

If there's an argument for tanking as a rebuilding strategy, the still-controversial Process Sixers represent a strong case.

On the other hand is a team like the Phoenix Suns, who added an exciting star in Devin Booker and a solid role player in T.J. Warren through the draft but have had a mixed bag in the recent years beyond that. Alex Len is a backup center at best. Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss have largely struggled and don't appear headed for stardom. Josh Jackson has shown upside but has had a spotty rookie season.

The Suns are a reminder that rebuilding through the draft is an inexact science. 

Regardless, the 40-30 Jazz managed to avoid bottoming out and are currently the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference playoff picture, in large part because they had a defensive superstar in Gobert and because they drafted Donovan Mitchell, who is a contender for Rookie of the Year this season.

Gobert remains a proponent of how the Jazz went about recovering from the loss of Hayward. There's an argument to be made it doesn't represent the only way to build a contending team or winning culture, however.