They apparently don't know ball: NBA peers vote Rudy Gobert most overrated player

The Athletic surveyed 142 NBA players, asking them a variety of questions.

Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert (27) dunks on the Washington Wizards in the third quarter at Target Center in Minneapolis on April 9, 2024. / Matt Blewett / USA TODAY Sports

Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert is the runaway favorite to win his fourth Defensive Player of the Year Award, which would put him in pretty elite company with Hall of Famers Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace as the only four-time winners of the award. 

But many of Gobert’s NBA peers don’t seem to think he’s all too deserving of that honor. Or, to put it more bluntly, perhaps you could just say they don’t know ball. The Athletic surveyed 142 NBA players asking them several different questions, including who’s the most overrated player in the league. Of the 81 players that answered, the majority voted for Gobert. 

Gobert was also all the way down to fifth in the voting for who’s the best defender. Of the 132 votes cast for that question, Gobert only received 6%, which was behind Timberwolves teammate Jaden McDaniels, who received 8.3% of the vote. 

Why Gobert is disrespected by his NBA peers is a little puzzling. Gobert has been the Wolves’ most consistent player. Timberwolves coach Chris Finch calls Gobert the reason the team doesn’t lose. Gobert is averaging 14.0 points, 12.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game this season and is the anchor of a Wolves defense that is far and away atop the league. 

That oddity aside, there were a few other notable Timberwolves mentions in the polls. Anthony Edwards received a vote as MVP this season and he was the third-most voted for player for the question: “You’re building a roster from scratch: Who are you going to sign first?” Edwards was behind only first-place vote-getter Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who was also the favorite for MVP with 41.8% of the vote. 

Both Naz Reid and Mike Conley received votes for most underrated player in the league. Celtics guard Derrick White and Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams were the top vote-getters in that category, receiving 10.3% of the total each. 

Target Center didn’t get much love for favorite arena to play in, getting just 0.3% of the vote, but it certainly wasn’t the least favorite place to play, either. That distinction was left for Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena, which one player said has “no fans, no atmosphere at the moment.”

Most players picked the Nuggets to repeat as champs this season (they couldn’t vote for their own team). The Wolves got 1.6% of the 127 votes in that category. They’re just 15 wins away.