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By Adam McGee
Rudy Gobert
You don’t get nicknames like The French Rejection or The Stifle Tower for nothing. Therefore, Rudy Gobert is perhaps the most celebrated and decorated of the league’s current crop of standout shot blockers.
Gobert is the NBA’s two-time reigning Defensive Player of the Year at present, and as a top tier defender whose approach on that end is very much built around traditional rim protection, he’s one of the first names that come to mind in these kind of conversations.
Gobert led the league in blocks per game with 2.6 back in 2016-17, and has averaged a minimum of two rejections per contest since he stepped up into a starter’s workload in his second season as a professional.
Gobert’s defensive impact is certainly more directly tied to his shot blocking than may be the case for more versatile defenders such as Davis or Turner, but to date that hasn’t been a problem for the formidable Frenchman.