Is Nikola Jokic’s defense a limiting factor in the playoffs? In this enhanced segment from the Thinking Basketball podcast, Cody and Ben break down the Nuggets defense around Jokic this year — how they protect his weaknesses and play to his strengths — and whether Denver can slow down opponents enough to win in the playoffs.
Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKmt_Q6R9fI
Full episode on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7ax8ZN4RL7r0GCsaqAm0nw
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/165-jokic-is-the-offensive-goat-vs-jokics-defensive-problem/id1428290303?i=1000591786808
Support at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Basketball-Ben-Taylor/dp/1532968175
Podcast: https://player.fm/series/thinking-basketball or at https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ben-taylor/thinking-basketball-podcast
Website: https://www.backpicks.com
Twitter: @elgee35
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:
http://www.pbpstats.com @bballport
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.
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26 Comments
I feel like if you put a prime Duncan on a team with subpar defenders on the perimeter in this era, even he would have no answer for the postseason (and regular season) switch-hunting we see now.
Jure Holiday if came to Denver, that would be the best…
Jokic terrible Defense is why I can’t take the Nuggets seriously. Teams gonna feast in da paint. Also MPJ and Murray are average at best defenders
Jokic is not a physically good defender, he's not athletic, but he's very smart. He knows which plays to contest and which one will put him in foul trouble. Where he should never ever be because they need him so much. He's also a very good team defender. You can see him directing his defense at all time, pointing shouting the rotations around. And more than that, the team itself is starting to have some cohesion on defense. Many nights in a row, they've held teams under their ppg averages because they have a clear system of who's helping the helper and who's helping the helper of the helper. Some rotations function very well together: kcp-Jok-Gordon–Murray-Brown is a very good one. I think they're net +16 in more than 200min, and that's mostly cause of their defense.
Mpj for Isaac, fultz and a pick
An MVP You have to hide on defence
Jokic can’t afford to foul out. He plays defense just fine and the teams defensive rating is better with him on the floor than not
Great video and supports the idea of playing high caliber playoff defense to consistently defend the screen is dependent on the pieces around you. Especially if you have a historic big whose a beyond positive on offense but has clear warts that can be covered on defense. Thing is you can't begin to cover those warts if those pieces around him are not up to task. Murray is passable as a perimeter defender due his size alone to be the 'smallest' guy on the team. MPJ is def a weak link when at some point teams will hunt him in mismatches to ultimately hunt for Jokic. And he's not as huge of a positive on offense to be a part of the closing five. If Jokic and the Nuggets want to push for the chip, they gotta get a gang of versatile wings.
It’s funny seeing the Jokic d riders making excuses for his defense
you can hide one guy in defence like Nowitzky. But rest of the team need to be fine at defence and understand defence schemes. In todays Nuggest we don't have it – Nuggets are screwed without a chance.
what people may not realize is that jokic LEADS the league in defensive box plus/minus this season and has the same defensive rating as joel embiid. Put some reespect on this man, he is already a top 10 center all time, 2 mvps and likely a championship on the way.
I was thinking about how well this Defense could hold up against teams like the mavs and Celtics during post the season.
Porter is so overrated. He needs to work much harder on his defense.
Cody is correct here. As soon as the opposition involves MPJ and Jokic in pick n roll it's game over for the nuggets. You can spam that and what are they gonna do about it?
Jokic is 7th in the league in deflections, not just among centers. 1st among centers in steals.
KCP is pretty close to Lonzo Ball as far as a perimeter defender. No way are they leagues apart.
If you go to fivethirtyeight he's statistically the top defender in the league. His defense has gotten much better, he's actually allowing less points & rebounds to opposing centers than Gobert or Evan Mobley
Nuggets defense is gonna surprise people in the playoffs, when the bench rotation is cut way down and the bench minutes are cut way down.
3 videos recommended from this channel, all on the same player
Crazy how the bulls dropped from everyones favorite team to watch to the most unbearable team to watch in just one season
If only aaron gordon was an above average defender
i recently figured out that, going back 30+ years, every single championship team has had at least one DPOY-level talent playing significant minutes for them (the only one that's a bit iffy is 2006 heat, as they had 37 yr old gary payton and not quite prime d-wade). you can go down the line and there is always one significant piece of the team that is game-changing on the defensive end. i don't believe the nuggets have that player right now, and i don't think they will be able to win a chip until they get that player.
Nuggets should go get Bol Bol for rim protection…
Yeah Jokic in the future will need a shot blocking floor stretcher next to him. Someone like Evan Mobley
I actually just watched the video for the list of tall players on the Nuggets roster that are taller than average humans. The west better watch out !
Nuggets bigger issue is DeAndre Jordan being their only real backup big. He's absolutely murdering the Nuggets in his minutes and even 8min a game in the postseason could be enough to swing a series against another good team