How did Denver build a championship defense to pair with Nikola Jokic’s historically great offense? This detailed film room study examines how the Nuggets season long defensive principles of shrinking the floor, overloading sides and recovering horizontally with speed and communication locked down the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals and helped them win their first NBA championship.
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Ben Taylor is the author of Thinking Basketball, a Nylon Calculus contributor, creator of the Backpicks Top 40 series & host of the Thinking Basketball podcast.
Stats courtesy:
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https://www.basketball-reference.com
https://stats.nba.com
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Footage in this video is owned by the NBA and its partners. It is intended for critique and education.
Music by csus (instrumental)
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45 Comments
Thanks for all the support this year! We finally have apparel: https://shop.thinkingbasketball.net
Jokic the best Taco Bell commercial of all time
The fact Taco Bell hasnt signed Jokic to an endorsement deal is insane lol.
How do you think their defense would have fared against an elite pnr offense like Prime Harden, Luka or Steph? While they are a worthy champion, neither the Heat, Lakers, Suns or Wolves played a heavy pnr offense with an elite creator and at least 3 quality shooters at all times. I always thought this kind of offense would be Jokic's/Denver's cryptonite.
Thanks for everything as always much love from Germany šÆā¤ļøš©šŖ
Christian Braun is one to watch for the future. Imagine, in your rookie season winning a championship. It's not that he did everything himself or is an amazing player. He's really solid and he helped the team a lot no doubt. But what will really help him in the future is the fact that in his rookie season he was exposed to the culture of a winning team on the practice court, the weight room, the locker room etc. He's had exposure to Michael Malone as a Coach and has not only had a chance to watch, listen to and converse with stars like Murray and Jokic, but also veterans like Ish Smith, Deandre Jordan, Jeff Green and KCP.
He's seen behind the scenes of what it takes to win a championship at every stage of the year through to the point where they are crowned champions. That's at least as valuable as all the playing time that he had throughout the year.
Other players that made it to the finals in their rookie seasons were people like Kawhi Leonard and Tim Duncan. I'm not suggesting Braun will end up being as good as them, but all the knowledge that he will absorbed will definitely help him. It's more playoff experience than any other rookie got this year.
Great video. Congrats to the Nuggets. Maybe the Heat were a bit limited offensively? I would love to see a series of Joker and Co vs a healthy Giannis and Bucks team.
The last possession where Butler tried to initiate contact was so funny to me. When I saw that, I was saying repeatedly to my workmates, "He dodge Butler". lol
I hate it when Butler does that and get free throws.
Ball don't lie friends. Remember that the next time u playing pick-up and u bail urself out with a dumb call. That foul was bogus and it was called so Jimmy could win.
In the end, same same Jimmy is the one who turned the ball over to LOSE the game.
Wait for the next season to see how Jokic and Denver beat play in teams. Not real teams (whatever that means). He played every possible superstar and center that was "going" to stop him. What a run from Denver. They mastered the game. I hope they stay in the same team rotation, cause this team is unstoppable.
I think in game 4(?) At 1 moment where Murray raise his hands up like saying he made mistake on that defensive possession… from that 1 moment you can figure out that they're considering defense is important
This is a dynasty team. Only thing that can beat them is injuries
Amazing content this year. Thanks so much for all your efforts Ben!
Denver currently have the perfect team in nba.Heats didn't play bad it's just nuggets are too good.
I've really enjoyed the playoffs this year, but thanks so much for all the thoughtful commentary which has enhanced that enjoyment for me and so many viewers! Thinking Basketball for regular season and finals MVP!!š
Iām noticing because of the overloading on the strong side you usually have one player down low in paint one on the right/left side of paint depending on which side is loading and near the foul line. Other two are guarding perimeter right. The one down low in the paint whether it be Jamal, or green or Gordon kinda seems like they were close to three seconds in the paint. If Jimmy/strus/ or whoever was being guarded by the low paint overloaded side guyāif the heat player just stayed on perimeter the low paint guy would be called. Itās like the nuggets were getting to 2/3 seconds for the call and the heat player would bail them out by stepping into the paint RESETING that 3 second call instead of staying on the perimeter which would force them to step out opening things up a bit. This is all because the heat couldnāt shoot this series so they had to step in and nuggets knew that.
"Fouled".
How dare you attack my foot with your nuts!
They should play a Taco Bell commercial during JokiÄ's Hall of Fame speech. Keep the tradition going.
Finally some merch!
Anyone else see Jokic absolutely hammered at the parade today. Also riding around in a SWAT Truck. Bro deserves it
Aaron Gordon for dpoy 2024. Let's do this
Ben do you think that you can discover an objective algorithm that predicts what player has a bigger impact against others? I personally believe that, the best player is the one who can adapt the best. Is there a way to create a stat for this? Lol
Finally, a team I rooted for won the championship. I was a doomer for a while until Games 2,3 and 4 against the Phoenix Sun if the Nuggets managed to make it close by not playing great as a unit then when they do play well nobody could stop them and turns out I was right.
I giggled when Jokic's brothers were lifting Michael Malone up in the air lol
Thanks
Even with the refs help, heats arenāt able to beat the nuggets.š
The defensive effort was clearly there, but you could also clearly see in many of these clips that the Heat ran out of gas.
They did not build two player based game, they build a whole team playing the amazing basketball never seen before in the NBA
Outstanding analysis
Are you gonna make a top 10 players of 2023 video. And what about the for 2022? Those were some of my favorite videos from you
I was really impressed by the Nuggets defense, particularly from Jamal and Jokic. AG and KCP are the backbone of the defense (and Bruce) but Mal and Jok have improved soooo much over the years. Jamal has always had the size to be a solid player on D, but his instincts weren't always the greatest. Jok figured out how to use his insane touch to become a great ball swiper/deflector, and has also figured out the positioning side of things. I'm not sure they can ever be an elite D, and still think smaller quick guards like Steph can burn them. But they faced very different teams throughout these playoffs and held their own against each
5/24 3pts that's almost goat lvl shooting that's mjesque
Remember when people said Nikola Jokic was terrible at defense? Lool.
It is really nice to see this Denver team playing. And, let's be honest, since the bubble Jokic has been evolving a lot, but he needed Jamal in order to be a true contender. It paid off waiting for Jamal's recovery. And the GM not only had this patience, but they also surrounded these two with pretty good role players. Jokic will be a generational talent and will be an all-time great, Murray has all-star talent and can become an HoF certainly. I would like to see these two getting more two rings in the next 4 years…
Taco Bell is insane if it doesn't make Nikola JokiÄ its spokesman
These videos are so good. They make me a better basketball fan.
Cheers for the champions, Nuggets!
Butler taking his own poison
aaron gordon was so fun to watch
Amazing, amazing breakdown once again. That Jamal Murray callback was superb. Excited for more of your content!
Now please do your top 10 NBA players in 2022-2023 season
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braun: "the fifth player in NBA history to win a NCAA and NBA championship in back-to-back seasons, alongside Bill Russell, Henry Bibby, Magic Johnson, and Billy Thompson."
0:25 šššššš that was a GREAT one
This is why AG better ZL. lol