The Utah Jazz have been building a potential juggernaut for a couple of years now. They’ve shown this potential in smaller doses — be it the final two months of the 2014-15 season when they played historically good defense, trudging through injury after injury in 2015-16 to nearly snag the No. 8 seed, or being one of the five most dominant teams in the NBA over the last five weeks.

While the Jazz struggled a year ago because of the injuries and let a playoff berth slip through their grasp, they’ve found ways to persevere through the inconsistency of bodies in the rotation this time around. The Jazz sit 20-13 as the calendar year turns the corner, despite their intended starting lineup having only played two games and 22 minutes together overall. The biggest reason for their success and perseverance so far also happens to be the biggest player on this deep and diverse roster of pseudo and non-stars. Rudy Gobert and his limitless bandwidth of wingspan have anchored the Jazz this season on both ends of the floor, thanks to his own acceptance of the request from coaches to make sacrifices on both ends for the greater good of the team.

The Jazz’s starting lineup quintet alone has missed a combined 48 games already this season. Here’s a rundown of the missed games just from the starting lineup so far:

Gordon Hayward — 7 games, finger

Derrick Favors — 15 games, left knee

George Hill — 21 games, sprained toe and sprained thumb

Rodney Hood — 5 games, hamstring and flu

However, Gobert has been there for all 33 games thus far. Despite all of the team’s missed games due to injury, the Jazz still rank fourth in the NBA in defensive rating and ninth on offense.

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Their defensive system is simple. Gobert protects the paint with various acts of help positioning and expert show-and-recover on pick-and-roll plays that make him look like a creature Godzilla may have to extradite from a city. That allows the rest of the defenders to get after their assignment aggressively to keep Jazz opponents off the 3-point line and dare them to attack the paint where Gobert lurks.

The results speak glowingly about the defensive process of Snyder’s group. Utah may allow the ninth highest 3-point percentage in the NBA (36.0 percent) but they also allow just the second-lowest percentage of 3-point attempts (27.1 percent). Research has shown that the second number is much more indicative of quality defensive execution. The Jazz also don’t force a lot of turnovers (11.3 percent, second lowest turnover rate in the NBA for opponents) because their version of forcing mistakes is making you shoot over the skyscraper reach of Gobert.

Utah funnels the ball handler into the paint, where the Jazz allow the fifth highest percentage of attempts (30.9 percent) within three feet of the rim. They also allow the third lowest success rate (57.4 percent) inside of three feet. And even then, a lot of that damage happens when Gobert is on the bench.

Gobert’s spot in the system can leave him hanging out to dry during mistakes and breakdowns by teammates, but that’s the sacrifice he’s asked to make. Defend everything. Protect everybody. Sure, you’ll get dunked on spectacularly at times (see: DeRozan, DeMar and Wiggins, Andrew) but for every wrong side of a Vine Gobert ends up on, there are a few dozen highlights of his own turning shots away or forcing big misses.

The Jazz trust Gobert to make what’s supposed to be the most efficient spot on the floor become a wasteland for conversion. Nobody defends more shots at the rim per game (11.4) than Gobert; only Kristaps Porzingis is defending the rim as well as Gobert for percentage allowed (42.1 percent for both players), according to NBA.com/stats.

Utah, by design, dares referees to call defensive three seconds against their big men. It may happen a couple times in a week, which far outweighs the times Gobert is camped in or near the lane ready to turn away a hopeful attempt by an opponent. And because he’s become such a savvy mover in help defense, it doesn’t take much for him to get within reach of a defender to negate calling three seconds against him.

“When they acquired Hill, my immediate thought was, ‘How is anybody going to score on this team?’” a Western Conference scout joked. “It’s hard enough with Gobert out there and he’s gotten better at all the little, veteran positioning stuff. Think of how good [that defense is] without Hill or their regular lineup. Now give them a couple of months to gel leading up to the playoffs. Who wants to play them in the first round?”

With Gobert on the floor, the Jazz allow 99.0 points per 100 possessions. That’s 7.1 points per 100 possessions fewer than when he’s on the bench. It’s easy to laud Gobert for his defensive prowess. He’s a lock to garner at least a couple of Defensive Player of the Year awards by the time his career is done. Even in an era with Kawhi Leonard and Draymond Green showing you the value of switchy defenders, Gobert’s presence inside can’t be ignored. As we get into the season of recognizing potential All-Stars in both conferences, it’s the value that Gobert now adds on the offensive end of the floor that nearly matches his defensive impact.