Utah Jazz give Rudy Gobert astronomical $205 million contract

Rudy Gobert is staying with the Utah Jazz for the next five seasons.

The Utah Jazz have been among the busiest teams in the league this offseason, signing Jordan Clarkson to a four-year deal after locking up star shooting guard Donovan Mitchell for the last five years. After some long negotiation, the Rudy Gobert domino has finally fallen, but his new contract is simply eye-watering given how proxy it is.

ESPN’s Tim MacMahon is reporting that the Jazz and Gobert agreed on a five-year, $205 million contract. The contract, which exceeds that given to Mitchell in terms of raw dollars, is the largest deal ever given to a center in NBA history, and makes Gobert a higher-paid player than Anthony Davis. This deal is the third-most-expensive in the NBA, surpassed only by Giannis Antteokounmpo and Russell Westbrook.

Despite the price tag, Rudy Gobert is one of the game’s best centers

While Gobert only made his first All-Star team last season, he has made All-NBA three times and the All-Defensive team four times while taking home two Defensive Player of the Year awards. In his last five seasons as a starter, Gobert has averaged 13.7 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game.

This contract will surely divide opinion, even among Jazz fans. While Utah is a defense-first team that needs an elite shot-blocker in the paint to anchor everything in Gobert, paying a guy who isn’t a scoring threat and is almost incapable of creating his own shot $41 million per season might not seem like the wisest investment to some.

While some will justifiably be stunned at the price tag, Gobert is one of the best defensive players at any position in the game and a dominant center at times. With Utah not a marquee destination for top free agents, they likely had to overpay to keep their homegrown star. However, with Utah’s core locked up long-term, Gobert needs to make the Jazz into title contenders, or this deal could become an albatross in short order.