Joe Ingles Thinks Rudy Gobert Should Win Defensive Player Of The Year Award

ORLANDO, Fla. – Utah Jazz forward Joe Ingles thinks that center Rudy Gobert has done enough to win his third straight Defensive Player of the Year award.

A report from Shams Charania indicated that the NBA regular season awards will be based off of the play during the regular season through March before the league shut down due to coronavirus concerns. They will not be based on how players perform during the “seeding games” in Orlando when the league restarts their season on July 30.

Ingles told the media on Sunday that he thinks Gobert is the best defender in the NBA and should win the award again.

“I think for the last few years he’s obviously been in that top echelon for a while now so I think everyone in the league and our team and our organization know how important he is for our team defensively, and what he does,” Ingles said. “Do I think he’s the best defender in league? Absolutely. How I think he protects the rim, he obviously plays well in pick-and-roll on defense. I don’t know what the numbers say but in my mind he’s one of the best rim protectors too. I would hope that he’s gonna win it. I’m sure for himself he wants to win it for that recognition but regardless if he doesn’t we know what we think of him and how much he means to our team.”

Gobert has won the Defensive Player of the Year the last two seasons. Before the NBA halted play in March, the big man posted 15.1 points, 13.7 rebounds and 2 blocks per game.

The reigning DPOY winner is currently fourth in the NBA in rebounds per game average and sixth in blocks per contest.

Shortened Scrimmages

The first of the three exhibition games will be shorter and will be 10-minute quarters. The league decided to do this because they are not wanting to overly tax players’ bodies after they went more than four months without games, and because some teams do not have their full rosters at Walt Disney World yet because of coronavirus and other issues.

Ingles thinks it won’t be a big deal because he played 10-minute quarters when he was playing in Australia.

“It doesn’t bother me obviously whether it’s 10, 12, 20, whatever we’re doing. Obviously we’ve got a style we want to play,” Ingles stated. “We’ve been playing all kinds of different minutes and times and all that. Whatever they want to do. Played 10 minute quarters a lot of my life so for me it won’t be too different. Our setup is like a big kind of international tournament staying with the same teams and doing all that. I don’t mind what the decision is on that.”

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What Ingles Wants Utah To Accomplish In Scrimmages

The Jazz will face the Phoenix Suns in their first scrimmage in Orlando on Thursday, July 23 at 6 p.m. MT. Then they will face the Miami Heat on Saturday, July 25. The game will air on AT&T SportsNet at 7 p.m. MT but will be on a tape delay due to previously scheduled programming. Utah will wrap up their scrimmages against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday, July 27 at 3:30 p.m. MT.

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Ingles discussed what he wants to the team to accomplish in their three exhibition games.

“The most obvious one is just getting out there and playing,” Ingles mentioned. “Getting game time, getting through our stuff, that new stuff we put in, getting on the same page with with the old stuff and how we were already playing. Obviously we’ve played a bit, played a lot here within the practices but it’s always different when you’re playing against your own team, against guys you play with every day. It will be nice to play someone different. I think we play Phoenix first so it will be nice to get out there against a different group of guys and get through some stuff. Obviously you find out what’s working, what’s not. It’s been talked about Bojan being out so we are figuring out different ways we can play without him.”

The Jazz will open up the NBA restart in Orlando when they face the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday, July 30 at 4:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on TNT and AT&T SportsNet.