Rudy Gobert is renowned around the NBA as one of the league's best screeners, and part of his acclimation to Minnesota was to learn the tendencies and preferences of his teammates when it came to screening for them.
Gobert, who missed his second consecutive game because of an ankle sprain Sunday, said recently that process has been going better in recent weeks, and said how he screens for his teammates is a combination of how they like him to screen for them and how the defense is playing.
"When guys are switching, I slip the screen more," Gobert said. "When they're blitzing, really aggressive on the ball, I'm going to open up, give an outlet, play in the half-court more. And if they are back, I'm going to hold more to give room to the guards to either shoot, or if they go over, just attack and it's a two-on-one."
Gobert is traditionally among the league leaders when it comes to a statistic known as a "screen assist," which is when a screen set by a player directly leads to a basket. He is third in the league at 5.3 per game, according to NBA.com.
There are certain subtle differences Gobert deploys when he's setting a screen for different players, like D'Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards, two of the teammates he screens for the most. With Russell, he knows the screen-and-roll action will be more methodical.
"D-Lo, I know once I give him an advantage, he's going to be able to navigate the screen and ready to make the defense pay," Gobert said. "Whether that is with his jumper, driving left and finding me with a pocket pass. With D-Lo, everything can go at a little slower pace."
That slower pace isn't always the way to go with the more explosive Edwards.
"I know you only need a small advantage and I get space for him," Gobert said. "Then you allow him to attack, and if they really have the big back, I'm going to hold the screens. Ant is a really good shooter, too. So, I know if they go under, he's going to have a wide open three behind the screen."
