Getty Image
Despite his multiple Defensive Player of the Year awards, those in the NBA believe that Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert is the most overrated player in the league.
According to an anonymous poll run by The Athletic, today’s NBA players believe that Gobert is the most overrated (13.6% of the vote), followed by Jordan Poole (8.6%) and Trae Young (7.4%), who round out the top three.
The 25-year-old Young being so high on the list is certainly surprising considering that he’s been an All-Star in three of his six NBA seasons and has been averaging at least 25 points per game in every season since 2019.
Elsewhere on the list, in this order (from most overrated to least), is Dillon Brooks, James Harden, Bradley Bear, John Collins, Tyrese Haliburton, Julius Randle, Karl-Anthony Towns, Patrick Beverley, Anthony Davis, Domantas Sabonis, and Jayson Tatum.
The Athletic also noted that other players to receive votes (1.2% each) were Bam Adebayo, Mikal Bridges, Jaylen Brown, Jimmy Butler, Alex Caruso, DeMar DeRozan, Luka Doncic, Joel Embiid, Evan Fournier, Draymond Green, Tyler Herro, Jaren Jackson Jr., Keldon Johnson, Jaden McDaniels, Donovan Mitchell, Chris Paul, Ben Simmons, Devin Vassell, and Grant Williams.
There’s no denying that personal biases are likely factoring into these votes, as Gobert is also famously disliked across the league, with The Washington Post publishing a piece a year ago titled “The Timberwolves plain don’t like Rudy Gobert”.
“For the Timberwolves, the associate least likely to win Employee of the Month would be 7-foot-1 center Rudy Gobert. They seem to hate him. Teammates treat Gobert like the guy who takes that third slice of pepperoni whenever the boss treats the staff to pizza, leaving only the despised veggie for the rest of us.”
Regardless of whether or not he’s overrated, Gobert has been a key member of a Minnesota Timberwolves squad that finished the 2023-24 season as the #1 seed in the Western Conference.