AROUND the NBA:

[KillerLeft]

Don't think so. Against more perimeter orientated teams with multiple ballhandlers and good spacing he turns into a defensive liablity. Just need to look at recent Mavs history. In the Luka era Mavs faced him twice in the playoffs and both times he looked really bad. Outplayed by Kleber and Powell. Same story against OKC last year.

Yes, this. 

I understand that we're all susceptible to become prisoners of the moment - to accept trends as the "only" way things can work. I also understand that size has been, is and always will be a major factor at the highest level of this, particular sport. I think there was a time when Gobert was a game-changing presence on the court and would've fit for almost any team. 

However, current trend, passing fad...whatever you want to call it...I really don't think the sport is ever going to return to a style wherein you can have a single player on the court who can't hold up, defensively, on the perimeter, at least to an acceptable extent. Guys like Gobert (who in his prime was magnitudes past guys like Gafford in that regard) kind of force you to design defenses that allow for them to be left in the paint, only that thinking inevitably leaves something open. In Kidd's defenses, they tend to concede corner 3's, which is the single most desirable shot in all of basketball, I think. In the finals against BOS, one team's entire goal was to prevent corner 3's and the other team conceded them. It was not a particularly close series, as we all remember. 

I think guys like Gobert will always have a place in the NBA, but not at high salaries. They need to be cheaper, to the point where it's not headline, click-bait news when they don't start or even play in every game. That's how I see it, anyway. And, if you do pay a big like that, you'd better hope you're out from under the weight of the contract before he starts to slow down, imho. 

Give me a guy with less than ideal size but who can move his feet over a big statue any day of the week, personally.