When it comes to centers, it seems like the Utah Jazz have a type: non-shooting, non-switching, stationary bigs who protect the rim as well (or better) than any player in the NBA. For all the limitations of such players, they do offer a tried-and-tested service that head coaches can build elite NBA defenses around.
Utah Jazz fans are not known to lament Gobert’s lack of ability in either area, and for good reason. The Stifle Tower is a 3x Defensive Player of the Year, and he deservingly so. Rim protection is still an essential quality for an NBA team to possess, and nobody in the league at this moment protects the rim like Rudy Gobert.
Gobert’s status among the current crop of NBA centers is well-established, but where does he rank among big men in Utah Jazz lore? Let’s take a look at the 5 greatest centers in Jazz history to see where Gobert places among the competition.
Rudy Gobert</a> fits the description to a tee. Unlike the other bigs we’ll list in this article, Gobert plays in an NBA that is rapidly moving away from players of his archetype. Spacing and switchability have emerged as some of the most desirable qualities for big men in today’s NBA, and Gobert offers neither.</p>
<p>Utah Jazz fans are not known to lament Gobert’s lack of ability in either area, and for good reason. The Stifle Tower is a 3x Defensive Player of the Year, and he deservingly so. Rim protection is still an essential quality for an NBA team to possess, and nobody in the league at this moment protects the rim like Rudy Gobert.</p>
<p>Gobert’s status among the current crop of NBA centers is well-established, but where does he rank among big men in Utah Jazz lore? Let’s take a look at the 5 greatest centers in Jazz history to see where Gobert places among the competition.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #00265D" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/08/utah-jazz-rudy-gobert-best-center/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> 5. Greg Ostertag </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-86033" src=https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/08/utah-jazz-rudy-gobert-best-center/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_1392,w_1600/https%3A%2F%2Fthejnotes.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2017%2F07%2F1155554385.jpeg" alt="Utah Jazz " width="1600" height="1392" srcset="https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/1155554385.jpeg 1600w, https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/1155554385-768x668.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px"><div class="fs-center-img">
<p class="wp-caption-text" style="width:1600px;">Greg Ostertag of the Utah Jazz (GEORGE FREY/AFP via Getty Images)</p>
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<p>Did someone call for a non-shooting, non-switching, rim-protecting stationary big? Greg Ostertag would like a word with them.</p>
<p>The rough-and-tumble Kansas product spent almost his entire career with the Utah Jazz, save for a brief foray to Sacramento in the 2004-05 season. He was also a member of the most successful teams in Jazz history, manning the middle alongside the famed duo of Karl Malone and John Stockton through much of the 90s, including back-to-back Finals appearances in 1996-97 and 1997-98.</p>
<p>Greg Ostertag didn’t offer much on offense. His most impressive individual season in terms of basic counting stats came in 1996-97, his sophomore year. Even then, he probably didn’t garner a lot of All-Star interest with averages of 7.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocks a contest.</p>
<p>His lack of offensive ability simply didn’t matter for an attack that was built around Stockton and Malone’s historic pick-and-roll chemistry. Ostertag’s role was to bully opposing players, and protect the rim, and he did each exceedingly well.</p>
<p>In fact, the man known as (the other) Big O posted a sub-100 Defensive Rating for three consecutive seasons between 1998-99 and 2000-01. A 7’2, 280-pound monster of a human being, Ostertag may have been relatively immobile, but once he had position in the middle, he was also unmovable.</p>
<p>Ostertag certainly existed in a different era of NBA basketball. Some of his contemporaries as NBA centers include Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson and Patrick Ewing. It wasn’t Ostertag’s role to carry the Utah Jazz: it was his role to make sure those players felt him as they attempted to carry <em>their</em> teams.</p>
<p>Neither Stockton or Malone couldn’t have asked for a better man for that particular job.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #00265D" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/08/utah-jazz-rudy-gobert-best-center/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> 4. Al Jefferson </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-86034" src=https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/08/utah-jazz-rudy-gobert-best-center/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2070,w_3200/https%3A%2F%2Fthejnotes.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2017%2F07%2F159362487.jpeg" alt="Utah Jazz" width="3200" height="2070" srcset="https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/159362487.jpeg 3200w, https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/159362487-768x497.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"><div class="fs-center-img">
<p class="wp-caption-text" style="width:3200px;">Al Jefferson of the Utah Jazz (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)</p>
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<p>Big Al Jefferson could have had an opportunity to rank higher on this list, if he hadn’t spent a mere three seasons as a member of the Utah Jazz. He may, in fact, be the best offensive center in Utah Jazz history.</p>
<p>His best season in Salt Lake City came in 2011-12, when he posted averages of 19.2 points, 9.6 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game. Jefferson would be a fish entirely out water in the modern NBA, because he was widely regarded as a throwback even in the (relatively recent) era he played in.</p>
<p>Realistically, only one player in Utah Jazz history can claim a wider array of moves on the low block, and he’s <a href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/08/utah-jazz-rudy-gobert-best-center/"http://www.espn.com/nba/history/leaders" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the second leading scorer in NBA history</a>. Jefferson destroyed defenders with a range of crafty head fakes, pump fakes and spin moves before finishing with one of the league’s softest touches around the basket.</p>
<p>Indeed, he offered a nightly masterclass on how the game used to be played, and it worked. So, why isn’t he ranked higher on this list?</p>
<p>Well, besides the brief duration of his stay in Salt Lake City, Jefferson was not nearly the defender that most of the players on this list were (or are). Think of him as the inverse of Greg Ostertag. The 108 Defensive Rating he posted in his first season as a member of the Utah Jazz in 2010-11 is quite poor. The 103 and 104 marks he posted over the next two seasons signified improvement, but neither is a particularly inspiring figure, either.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the Jazz were not a very competitive club over the course of Jefferson’s stay. In his debut season, they went 36-30 in a lockout-shortened 2010-11, squeaking into the playoffs only to suffer a first round elimination. They would miss the playoffs in each of his next two seasons. Surely, Jefferson’s shaky rim protection didn’t do the team any favors.</p>
<p>Jefferson narrowly gets the nod over Ostertag because ultimately, offense is more important than defense. It’s simply difficult to say that Greg Ostertag was a better basketball player than Al Jefferson with a straight face.</p>
<p>Having said that, it’s equally difficult to give Jefferson a better ranking than this one in a list of the greatest centers in Utah Jazz history.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #00265D" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/08/utah-jazz-rudy-gobert-best-center/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> 3. Mehmet Okur </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-86035" src=https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/08/utah-jazz-rudy-gobert-best-center/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_1151,w_1600/https%3A%2F%2Fthejnotes.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2017%2F07%2F86302547.jpeg" alt="Utah Jazz" width="1600" height="1151" srcset="https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/86302547.jpeg 1600w, https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/86302547-768x552.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px"><div class="fs-center-img">
<p class="wp-caption-text" style="width:1600px;">Mehmet Okur of the Utah Jazz (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)</p>
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<p>The margin between Okur and Jefferson is admittedly narrow. Okur’s best season with the Utah Jazz according to pure counting stats is actually slightly less impressive than Jefferson’s best, as the Turkish big man averaged 18.0 points and 9.1 rebounds for the Jazzmen in 2005-06.</p>
<p>Okur gets the nod over Big Al Jefferson due to the <em>way</em> he achieved those stats. If Jefferson was a throwback, Okur was a visionary.</p>
<p>He shot 37.5% from three-point range over the course of his NBA career, on 2.5 attempts per game. His best three-point shooting season came in 2008-09, when he shot a blistering 44.6% on 2.8 attempts per contest. Without question, any modern NBA coach would have doubled, if not tripled, his volume.</p>
<p>Defensively, Okur was fairly comparable to Jefferson, posting Defensive Ratings that ranged between 104 and 108 for the duration of his prime with the Utah Jazz. Unlike Jefferson, however, Okur seemed to enjoy playing in Salt Lake City, which earns him some subjective points in these rankings. After all, he spent 7 of his 10 NBA seasons there.</p>
<p>Thought experiment: imagine each of the former Utah Jazz big men in the modern NBA. Jefferson, with his lack of offensive and defensive versatility, would likely be relegated to the bench and forced to play a similar role to fellow former Jazzman Enes Kanter. Like Jefferson before him, Kanter is a handful for any defender on the low block. However, his defensive deficiencies and lack of floor-spacing combined outweigh that benefit, as the game has moved away from low post scoring.</p>
<p>Throw Mehmet Okur into the modern NBA, and his floor-spacing could juice a quality NBA offense. Pair him with a defensive-minded power forward, and it’s not hard to imagine him earning starter minutes in 2021.</p>
<p>Without the benefit of time travel, we can only name Mehmet Okur the third best center in Utah Jazz history.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #00265D" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/08/utah-jazz-rudy-gobert-best-center/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> 2. Mark Eaton </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-74505" src=https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/08/utah-jazz-rudy-gobert-best-center/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2119,w_3200/https%3A%2F%2Fthejnotes.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2017%2F07%2F886607.jpeg" alt="Utah Jazz" width="3200" height="2119" srcset="https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/886607.jpeg 3200w, https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/886607-768x509.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"><div class="fs-center-img">
<p class="wp-caption-text" style="width:3200px;">Mark Eaton of the Utah Jazz (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)</p>
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<p>Here at the J-Notes, we’ve already <a href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/08/utah-jazz-rudy-gobert-best-center/"https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/02/utah-jazz-mark-eaton-awarded/">spilled considerable ink</a> in <a href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/08/utah-jazz-rudy-gobert-best-center/"https://thejnotes.com/2021/08/13/utah-jazz-time-teams/">the name of the late</a>, great <a href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/08/utah-jazz-rudy-gobert-best-center/"https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/10/utah-jazz-underrated-players-history/">Mark Eaton</a>. There are three reasons for that. The first is his recent, tragic passing. The second is that the NBA offseason is an ideal time for reflection on the franchise’s history, which Eaton was a very significant part of. The third, and most important reason, is that Mark Eaton was absolutely incredible.</p><div class="widget fs_ads"> <div class="fs_ad_widget-ad" style="margin:0 auto; width: 300px;"> <div class="fs-ll-ad" data-ad-type="minutemedia_slideshow_inline_300x250__desktop__tablet" data-vendor="minutemedia">
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<p>We’ll scream this from the rooftops until our lungs cease to function: Mark Eaton blocked 5.6 shots per game in 1984-85. There is simply no NBA 2k simulation wherein that feels realistic, yet, it happened in real life.</p>
<p>Eaton has a case as not only the best rim protector in Utah Jazz history, but in fact, NBA history. That season holds the record for most blocks-per-game in an NBA season by a comfortable margin. More astute readers may point out that blocks per game are not simply a proxy for measuring the NBA’s best rim protectors: sometimes, elite rim protectors deny themselves blocked shots for the sake of proper positioning.</p>
<p>Point taken, but Eaton was no stat-stuffer. His Defensive Rating of 96 over that same season proves as much, as do the other two sub-100 Defensive Ratings he posted over his 10-year career, spent entirely with the Utah Jazz.</p>
<p>Offensively, Eaton was about as limited as Greg Ostertag. In fact, the two are remarkably similar players, in keeping with a rich Utah Jazz tradition of lumbering, defensive minded bigs. Consider Eaton the luxury model.</p>
<p>News of Eaton’s untimely passing shocked the Utah community-at-large, and for good reason. He was an invaluable member of it, and not just as one of the best players in Utah Jazz history.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #00265D" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/08/utah-jazz-rudy-gobert-best-center/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> 1. Rudy Gobert </a>
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<span class="call_to_action">Next:</span> Major media outlet drastically underrates Mike Conley </a> </div>
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<p>The Utah Jazz will enter the 2021-22 season with fantasies of the Larry O’Brien trophy, and deservingly so. However, hopefully they can find some moments for somber appreciation of the fact that they’re watching the best center in the franchise’s history, as well.</p><!—pageview_candidate—>">