Gobert’s Improved Passing Out of the Short Roll Gives Jazz New A Dimension

Gobert dominated in Game 3, and his improved passing is a big key for Utah’s offense going forward. (Mike Ehrmann via espn.com)

The Jazz took a 2-1 lead in their playoff series against the Denver Nuggets on Friday, with a 124-87 win fueled by a dominant game from Rudy Gobert. The All-NBA center scored 24 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in the blowout win. As the series marches on, it’s clear that Gobert’s growth as a short roll passer is going to be a key for Utah to frustrate opposing defenses and give Utah good looks.

In overtime of the series opener, Utah’s only loss of the series, Gobert made a costly bad pass that was picked off by Jerami Grant.

Whether it was due to poor spacing or poor decision making, Gobert’s overtime turnover came at a bad time. He could have either gone strong to the rim or passed to a wide open Donovan Mitchell up top. It’s difficult to blame Gobert for not making the difficult pass to a teammate directly behind him, but Grant read the pass perfectly.

This exact type of situation is what the Jazz have to iron out to get to the next level as a basketball team. Gobert does not have great touch in terms of a floater or hook shot, his lanky stature makes it difficult for him to be a good ball handler, and his center of gravity does not lend to him backing down opponents in the post. Because of these factors, teams are willing to rotate a smaller defender onto him without fear of being punished at the rim. However, rotating these defenders onto Gobert means that their man is open, and it leads to scramble situations that a good passing team like the Jazz can take advantage of.

So what exactly is the short roll?

We’re all familiar with the term pick-and-roll, which obviously includes a screener rolling to the basket for a potential dunk or layup. There are different ways to defend the pick-and-roll, and Denver in particular handles this by having their bigs play up on the ball handler rather than protecting the rolling action.

But you can’t just have a guy like Gobert rolling free to the basket, or else he would get dunks all day, so Denver (and many other teams) makes up for this by bringing in a defender from the weak side to stop him from getting to the rim.

Once that defender is in front of Gobert, his roll is shorter than all the way to the basket, which is why we call it the short roll.

Why does this matter for the Jazz?

Big men can deal with this situation in a variety of ways, but given that Gobert is not comfortable backing his man down or shooting hook shots, there is a strong need for Gobert to be able to make the correct read and make a fast pass to the open man.

Making passes like this is easier said than done. The defense knows there’s a man open, and they’re trying to get into the best position to rotate quickly to shooters, so this is something that Gobert has had to learn to do at a higher level over the years.

If Gobert can take these situations and pass to an open shooter at the right time, the Jazz will endlessly be able to turn on Quin Snyder’s “blender” offense until the defense gives them a new look.

Monday’s overtime mishap aside, Gobert has improved as a short roll passer, and his growth there is helping Utah pick apart the Nuggets. Here are some examples from Games 2 and 3.

Game 2: Gobert whips it to the corner

This is my personal favorite play from Game 2. The Jazz run pick-and-roll with Ingles and Gobert, which is something they have run extremely often throughout the series. Millsap is ready to rotate from the corner to Gobert on his roll before the action even happens.

Once Gobert gets the pass from Ingles, he wraps a pass around Millsap’s body to an open Juwan Morgan in the corner. Since these teams are both so familiar with this rotation, Jamal Murray is already rotating to the corner, but Morgan makes a perfect pass to an open Royce O’Neale on the wing.

Nikola Jokic rotates to O’Neale who fakes the shot, but my favorite part about this is he spikes the ball on the floor to get it back in his hands more quickly to pass to the wide open Joe Ingles for a three. This shot was all generated from Millsap rotating to stop Gobert.

Game 2: Gobert’s lefty pass sends Denver into a scramble

Unfortunately on the following example the Jazz do not score, but the point of showing the clip is that Gobert makes an incredible pass that gets the defense into scramble-mode.

It starts with a play that the Jazz repeatedly ran in Game 2. First, the Jazz have someone other than Gobert screen for Mitchell to initiate a switch, then immediately flow into a Mitchell-Gobert pick-and-roll.

Once again Jokic is playing up on the action to try to contain Mitchell, which leaves Gobert rolling to the basket and forcing the weak side player Jerami Grant to protect the rim. At one point there are two defenders all over Gobert, but somehow he makes a left-handed pass to an open Jordan Clarkson. The key here is the velocity and accuracy in which Gobert passes the ball.

Give Denver credit on this play, they rotate quickly and correctly to get the stop. You can criticize various decisions by the Jazz wing players here — like O’Neale not shooting that three — but the Jazz want to play this type of game.

Game 3: Defense collapses around Gobert on a switch

In Game 3, we see a similar situation but with different spacing, so that the weak side defender has to come out even more.

With Ingles handling the ball, the Jazz run a pindown for Jordan Clarkson, and the Nuggets once again have Jokic up high on the action. When Gobert rolls, Monte Morris has to help from the corner, and they fight for the ball.

Gobert gets position, and fires a bullet pass to the corner for a wide open three for O’Neale. The shot doesn’t go in, but it’s another example of a great pass from Gobert in an area of the game he has improved immensely.

Conclusion

If Utah’s scoring guards are going to get this much attention from Denver’s bigs, Gobert needs to roll hard to the rim to counter the pressure. He needs to be prepared to catch the ball and make the correct decision, whether that is going to the rack or hitting his perimeter teammates for a 3-pointer or to get the defense rotating.

Seeing these types of passes from Gobert should be one of the most encouraging recent developments for Jazz fans.

And who knows, maybe someday Gobert will develop a nice touch for a push shot or floater. Until then, he can just get his own rebound and follow it up with a running hook.