[Highlight] Jokic plays his best defense of the night in a loss to the Ant-less Wolves
At a point in this series the T-Wolves asked the question, “Hey, what’ll happen if we just attack the rim EVERY time Jokic is on the floor?”
And it just worked, over and over and over.
Yeah Jokic without Gordon is BBQ for any team with decent rim pressure or pull up shooting
It’s partially why I’m surprised so many teams/scouts now a days chase Jokic archetype in the draft. If you are a bad rim protector as a center, you need to be incredible on offense to justify the cost.
Jokic is also a generational shot maker, he makes a lot of shots defenses will just tip their caps in and live with.
I’d imagine it’s because the AG archetype is also heavily coveted and the pairing of the two has proven to be a wildly successful formula when healthy so one would presume the plan is to get both of them
Granted…that formula probably would have worked better if you didn’t trade away Donovan Mitchell on draft night but then again, neither Jamal nor Donovan are known for being lock down defenders so that backcourt pairing may have been suspect from the get-go
Vikings then should have not traded away Lamar Jackson. And Bills should have not traded away Mahomes. NFL update their picks during the draft, NBA does not - it does not mean player were drafted by the original team. 28th pick was traded twice during the draft night of 2020 and ended up in Minnesota when 17th was on the clock, for some reason I keep hearing ‘Lakers traded away McDaniels without even giving him a chance!’. No they did not.
Jazz traded up from 24th pick to 13th pick giving up Lyles. And later selected Mitchell. Denver did not ‘trade away Donovan Mitchell on the draft night’. I hope NBA changes its BS drafting rules that force ~30% of the players every year walk to the stage with a wrong cap and give interviews how they are going to fit on a team they will never get to play for.
It’s only successful if you literally have the best version of the archetype in Jokic. Sabonis isn’t leading you to playoff success, and that’s an all star version of the archetype.
imagine if they didnt trade away Gobert to the Jazz hahah
Gobert in 13, Jokic in 14, Murray and Mitchell later tho they probably dont get a high enough draft pick for Spida with Gobert on the team
Nah, it’s not something Gordon would have fixed. Unironically, the problem here isn’t Jokic, it’s the guards and perimeter unit as a whole.
Yes, Jokic is not a good rim protector, but that’s long been understood as a limitation of his game. He’s never going to suddenly be good at it, so the team needs to work around it. When they do that, he provides enough value with his rebounding and strong positioning that he is not some kind of crippling negative. The Nuggets had a top 10 defense in the season after our chip, it’s something that has proven to work.
The issue is, we have a fucking awful perimeter unit. Murray is one of the worst defensive guards in the game, Braun is generally overrated and closer to neutral than he is a positive on that end, Cam is a slight negative, and AG is either injured or just not enough to cover everything. The only competent defender off of our bench has been Spencer Jones (legitimately decent), with Watson showing flashes but still clearly not having the BBIQ to actually leverage his physical gifts.
If a player is able to be attacked on defense this often, then it is a systemic team issue, not a player issue. The Nuggets should have addressed this last year, but they didn’t, and look what happened.
Jokic’s complete lack of rim protection is the main reason Denver lost that series. Rim protection that bad from a Center can’t be worked around unless you have an elite defender at PF. It would be one thing if it was Edwards and co. but instead it was players you’ll never hear from again finishing at will in the paint.
Again, you guys keep talking about Aaron Gordon like he’s some kind of elite rim protector. It’s never been a strength of his, he’s only 6’8” and doesn’t have a crazy wingspan or elite instincts. Unironically, MPJ was better in that aspect and he was barely relevant there.
Also, why are we throwing all the blame for defending a bunch of guards and wings onto Jokic? Sure, he’s not a good rim protector, but so are plenty of bigs in the league and you sure don’t see Ayo Dosunmu putting up 37 on them. There is a much more impactful element that you are happily ignoring.
Just watch the series vs Utah in the bubble. You’ll see the downhill rhapsody and then you won’t anymore.
Only reason was Gary Harris returning from injury that solidified perimeter defense, that prevented guards having a ramp up to rim.
Nuggets issue was always guards POA defense rather than rim defense.
Do you think Jokic would thrive with a more capable rim protecting and switchable big like Bam Adebayo or Chet Holmgren?
Gordon gives them a decent defense, but it costs to have a decent defense and not a top 10 defense in the playoffs. They have to rely on insanely tough shot making in that case to make a deep postseason run. Also what Gordon gives on offense can be replicated to some extent. Cutting, shooting, vertical lob threat.
Who are you referring to when you say scouts are looking to get “Jokic type” players? I can’t think of too many players drafted recently with a “Jokic style” game/build, so just curious who you think teams have been reaching for?
Yang Hansen and Aday Mara come to mind. Both extremely raw but their playmaking potential as bigs are their main selling point.
It’s partially why I’m surprised so many teams/scouts now a days chase Jokic archetype
Me thinks something about the best player in the world is an alluring prospect
Jokic is not a great defender, but without Gordon he’s also the best defender on the Nuggets, even Rudy wouldn’t be able to salvage this roster
They cracked the code, for a decade nobody elsre had that genius idea lmaoo
Stop reminding me dawg watching this series live was punishment enough
From my vantage point it was 🧑🍳 😘
Unspoken rule is such bullshit man, have never understood it
It wasn’t even the Wolves’ fault, Murray picked up a random 3 instead of dribbling the clock out with no one guarding him and like 16 seconds left. Jokic should’ve did that to his teammate.
Na. This was more about making nuggets go all the way to inbound again.
Weak shit from Jokic
This is a rivalry man. Y’all want the most boring version of the NBA, I swear.
Weak shit from Jokic I meant
Point still stands. It’s more fun if Jokic gets mad and McDaniels is being an asshole.
they can take the 5 second violation if that’s really so much effort
Games go for 48 minutes
Bro weak shit from Jokic.
fair fair it wasn’t clear haha
Then they shouldve defended him. And im not just talking about this play
Weak shit by Jaden McDaniels or Jokic or both?
Jokic.
Jaden is a champ
I love the Bomani Jones thought on this: [“The game is over, and yeah you could have/should have fought harder during the contest, but where does the disrespect end? You get to stamp the flag on our field? Ok. Do you get to holler at my girlfriend too?”]
I’m paraphrasing
The disrespect of… playing the game within the bounds of the rules?
I think its fine from Daniels
Despite how bad his defense was the main reason they lost this series is because their offense sucked. Offense has been their issue in their last 3 playoff exits tbh.
Yeah it’s a combo of Murray struggles with physical athletic playoff defenses + Nuggets role players brick from 3 + Jokic isn’t up to his standards on offense(his 3 can break in playoffs notably)
Not just his 3
Didn’t he average 25/13/9 still? lmao give credit to Rudy he played him well and made it extremely hard for him
To offset the cone-like nature of his defensive play, he has to be at his 30 point triple double standard to even be worth playing mathematically in my biased opinion. The trade off for such prodigious offensive skill with Jokic is your center being nearly as bad as my 5’8 ass on defense, a downside you can afford if he is literally averaging 30/10/10 at the bare minimum. Any drop from this production quickly leads to him being mathematically unsustainable while on the court.
Again, biased, but I also don’t think I’m wrong lol
Your crazy Nuggets had some of the worse perimeter defense that series but everything falls under the rim protector lmao that’s the team main facilitator scorer christ lmao.
His complete inability to play competent interior defense makes his POA and perimeter defenders jobs much harder. Yeah, he is the main facilitator/scorer. When that player is your center your team construction and margin for error offensively is much harder/much shorter
What are you even talking about bro Murray let Ayo drive past him at will that series Braun was on a hurt ankle and his defense dropped significantly. Peyton Watson the best 1on1 defender on the perimeter didn’t play. If I let my player with the ball dribble past me at will I have failed my job as a perimeter defender.
Hahahahaha ya dude Jokic isn’t worth playing, for sure, for sure
That is without a doubt the most ridiculously reductive way you could have interpreted why I typed. Awesome job!
To offset the cone-like nature of his defensive play, he has to be at his 30 point triple double standard to even be worth playing in my biased opinion.
It’s not that I don’t think he’s worth playing period, it’s that I think if he is going to provide 24 points scored by him and 9 assists, compared to giving up over 20 drives at least, he is at a net negative/nearly at net negative. Not to mention the 4 TOs
restricted area Paint unrestricted area
Jokic objectively holds players to average shooting in the paint, it was the number of attempts that killed the nuggets, and that’s on the piss poor POA defense
For sure yeah, for sure net negative. 3x MVP for sure a net negative out there, you’re right!
You quite literally wrote if he isn’t averaging a 30pt triple double he isn’t worth playing. Please explain where I misinterpreted that direct quote, mighty basketball genius
If your star offensive player who is effective with the basketball in his hands and only with ball is hands, while being a negative on defense, is not providing enough offense to offset the fact that he is charmin soft on defense, he isn’t mathematically worth playing. I’m also not saying that he is complelty unplayable in reality-the entire team is built around him, it’s impossible to have him sit, obviously, but mathematically it isn’t sustainable at times
I don’t even know where to begin with this lmao. If you think he’s only valuable with the ball in his hands, you just clearly don’t know what you’re talking about so what’s the point even haha
You typed it up, he didn’t even twist your words. Absolutely wild to say jokic isn’t worth playing in any circumstance.
Mathematically unstustainable doesn’t mean not worth playing. I didn’t mean it makes him not worth playing. Hes obviously worth playing. He was still worth playing on the hyper extended knee earlier in the reg season. I saying MATHEMATICALLY he becomes unsustainable at some level.
He is worth playing as long as he doesn’t turn into fucking dr house mid game and then even then I like him over Valuncunias(? Spelling is hard)
Doesnt matter whether you determine he’s unplayable mathematically or off eye test or just vibes, you were still saying he’s unplayable. I understand what your trying to say now, buts it’s just weird that your claiming not to have said what you said.
But also, I see no math to determine he’s unplayable or unsustainable or unattainable or whatever word you want to change it to this time. Your just saying the math says he’s no good but your posting vibe stats like he needs to avg some random number to be a net positive. They have stats for this stuff, you don’t have to just make shit up to fit your narrative.
Jokic is aweful on defense and there are ways to exploit him, but at no point are the nuggets ever better off playing without jokic than with him, mathematically or otherwise
his 3 ball in general is inconsistent
It’s just injuries. We weren’t healthy all season and we weren’t healthy the year before.
You guys lost to the hospital wolves
Yeah, they overcame their injuries better than we did.
Their injuries were also significantly worse
100% defense became the focus for obvious reasons but they really lost because they shot horribly They shot under 50% in every game except their game 5 win and shot well under 40% twice
They shot horribly in large part because Jokic wasn’t getting them advantages he usually does. The Wolves playing him straight up with Gobert and not getting killed broke their whole scheme. The rest of their roster is full of paper tigers.
Idk man have you seen Christian Braun smirk and clap after a transition bucket? Dude plays with ENERGY 😤 Strawther gonna develop and Spencer Jones is a sneaky goated 3 and D.
Jokic and Jamal were making every contested shot in 2023 playoff run, and decided to lay bricks from open 3s vs the Wolves. Jokic shot better % on 3s with heavy contest by AD in 2023 than wide open 3s vs Minnesota in 2026.
Agreed but it’s also all kind of connected. It’s a lot harder to score when you can get stops and are consistently attacking a set defense as opposed to being able to get easy transition points and spark momentum
Jokic/Murray 2 man game annihilated by Gobert/McDaniels 2 man game.
Jaden had Murray in a 4⁄17 straitjacket while dropping 32⁄10 after gambling all his aura in that locker room interview.
Joker put up 26ppg on 45% from the field and 19%!!! from deep, after leading the best offense in the regular season.
This wasn’t bad offense. This was league leading offense led by the previously inevitable Joker who got completely stifled by Rudy and Jaden.
To be fair, Murray had been dealing with a lingering knee issue all season and it showed in a gruelling series. Oh wait, that was the excuse when Murray was clamped by Jaden/NAW/Ant three years ago.
2025 had more to do with depth in my opinion
They also lost because they were playing the Timberwolves.
People don’t understand how cooked the Nuggets are. They’re really gonna wasted the rest of Jokic’s prime.
They’ve been contending ever since 2020. Hard to stay contenders for a long time in the nba unless you really hit on your rookies. Also Nuggets have had cursed injury luck for the most part
People forget how good MPJ and Jamal were pre injuries
MPJ had the most efficient 19PPG season since WILT CHAMBERLAIN
Jamal bubble obvious.
If they stay slightly healthier, Nuggets very likely get another one in 21, 22, or 24
Something I’ve never noticed before, if you keep your attention on the backcourt Randle and Ayo react pretty quickly, followed by Slo Mo. Mike Conley does not react in any way haha
Gotta keep that tech record squeaky clean
I think he said he was thinking about how he shouldn’t have tossed the ball up to Jaden. So maybe he was being contemplative of how this all stemmed from his action. Or maybe he’s just too old for this ship.
That was the best part about this whole thing too lmao good ol Mike owning up to it by saying it’s cause he is the one who gave Jaden the ball in the first place
Mike also passed it to Jaden, who he know would troll them.
Yeah MC later said he just threw it up court and once he realized it was Jaden he knew what was coming and felt bad lol, you can visibly see him hang his head after the pass/right after Jaden’s dunk
Always hilarious how sensitive players get if a dude scores as time winding down for the winning side
because it’s perceived as disrespectful, when you’ve already won with a huge point differential and you decide to dunk on your opponent’s face with ten seconds left on the clock you’re just looking down on your opponent, what’s so hard to get here?
Who cares? These are grown men getting paid millions to play a sport. Maybe they shouldn’t get into a huge point differential if they don’t want to be “disrespected” as you put it. If jokic maybe showed the same energy during the game he showed running after the guy who shot they would’ve been in contention.
if jokic showed the same energy during the game he wouldn’t be jokic, he’d be mj, jokic has been fucking dogshit when it matters the last 2 years, but to your point, maybe they should not be making flashy dunks because it’s not professional, maybe they shouldn’t be celebrating when they make a buzzer beater, they are grown men getting paid millions to play a sport, what is this nonsense about showing emotion when overjoyed or slighted?
This is such a spineless redditors comment. Normal people are going to care when someone goes out of their way disrespect them
Spineless…
Like this?
https://youtu.be/Yy8T53X_fx0?is=3-nfX6W2Mh9hCCJC
I’d say he showed spine there? Retaliated to a dude trying to take his knee out lmao
When you play in mid December in Utah and win by 40, you don’t have to score, I agree. When you play at home vs your biggest rival in a playoff game, you want to demoralize them even more. Wolves took Nuggets out of their comfort zone by not letting the best offense score 100 points, and beating them without the starting backcourt and the best player. Why not take a shot to get them even more frustrated?
THIS…
Username checks out
stfu cunt at least everyone else is saying valid stuff, ledoohickey dumb cunt
It’s the fucking playoffs dude. This mentality is soft as shit.
They’re all bad defenders
Absolutely pathetic by Jokic.
ya should’ve knocked his teeth out, trash wolves players can’t do shit unless it’s against a bottom of the barrel generational dogshit defensive team like nuggets, jaden trashdaniels
Let me guess, antman sent your team packing. In the playoffs lol?
someone’s still butthurt 🤭
Jokic PR need to be studied, he had objectively the worst playoffs of the Jokic-Wemby-Shai group (not just because he lost in the first round, his actual performance in terms of advanced stats or box stats) yet his pr came out the best from it. Somehow the playoffs are actually used to bolster his argument as the BITW (which he does have a very legitimate case for) because “Wemby chocked in the finals, Shai choked in the Western conference finals” despite the fact that Jokic chocked the first round!
And I like Jokic! But man for someone so often considered BITW does he not get held to BITW standards.
He literally has only gotten hate from non-Nuggets fans for this series, and most of us recognize it was the worst series of his prime as well. What are you talking about?
Luka was the one that somehow got the best PR from the playoffs, without playing a single game and his team winning a series without him.
because the last healthy luka series was his finals run, can’t be slandered without new material
?? He lost to the wolves last year in the first round
what media have you been consuming bro, jokic has been dogshit this post season and everyone agrees who tf is saying he’s bitw right now, just making shit up schizo mofo
Lmao what are you talking about, you’re literally commenting on an anti-jokic post…?
I think he’s been decently criticized for this but it’ll be forgotten over time as I already see people using PRA as a way to ignore the flaws. Media projecting a Nuggets/Celtics finals is also funny in retrospect. More of a funny thing is that Adelman’s goofiness in interviews got covered up later by Atkinson’s analytically winning.
People like you lying out their fucking ass on reddit need to be studied. Dude has been nothing but slandered everywhere for his performance in this series.
Jokic’s white, classy and likes horses
Everyone focused on Jokic while I’m watching Jaden smile like a complete psycho lol
Mfs in this sub will tell you jokic doesn’t care about basketball lmao
“You hate to see it end this way”. NO WE DONT lol
He actually started running once it became our ball again
Nuggets cared more about the last 10 seconds than the entire game 🤦♂️, If they locked in they wouldn’t have been in this position
Mike Conley saying that he enabled the whole situation by passing it to McDaniels and he regretted it in the post game is hilarious
Season was a humiliation ritual for Jokic. Chain snatched by SGA in that March game and got dommed by the Ant-less Wolves.
Players like Tim Duncan, Kawhi, and Jokic are underrated and don’t always get the respect they deserve, but they also don’t get the same criticism when they fail. Any other superstar in this situation would’ve been crucified, and their entire legacy would’ve been called into question.
Jokic might be the most overrated player ever, always put in convos he doesn’t belong in while always dodging criticism
Can’t exactly be overrated with multiple MVP’s but yeah he’s not an all time great yet. Jokic’s PR and fans are insane though
Yeah the “humble” stars that reddit likes. Everyone just forgets about the Spurs losing to an 8th seed, Duncan shitting the bed in the Olympics, the Spurs losing 4 straight after winning the first 2 games against OKC
Kawhi was the first option on the 2020 Clippers, and he put up 14 points on 6⁄22 shooting in Game 7 and finished blowing a 3-1 lead. Yet the enduring legacy from that series was “Pandemic P”.
People also forget about the Spurs losing in six games to the 2016 Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals, despite going 67–15 in the regular season.
It must be because they’re classy and white
Oh wait
Huh? Jokic is literally sucked by media and here in reddit 24⁄7 because of his counting stats and triple doubles. How is he underrated when he’s constantly called the best offensive big man of all time?
I agree superstars sometimes aren’t criticized fairly (including Jokic) but stating one or a few plays should call their entire legacy into question is idiotic lmao especially when they spend 15+ years in the league. Theres also the opposite where players are criticized way too harshly because they’re a superstar, that’s just life
If you think a 3x (5x) MVP’s entire career legacy is in question over 1 non-consequential play… idk what to tell you lmao
The title is painfully accurate and honestly the perfect epitaph for this season’s cringe PR narrative.
Denver nuggets have been some cry babies since winning the chip. TWolves own that ass ever since.😅😅😅 Where are the Jokic brothers when this went down?
Defnsive rebounding is def useful, but whenever you set up only to get the defensive rebound, I imagine you will get a lot of them. Ending possessions is useful but whenever you are cherry picking for the rebound it becomes marginally less effective at actually ending the possession. Steals yes he is good at, and no where near good enough to make up for his charmin-soft defense of the paint. His awful paint defense also makes the job of the POA and perimeter defenders harder
This is just hilarious and ironic.
Gets angry for wasting time, breaking up fight ends up with more effort and time.
for someone that is known for being very nonchalant, i was disappointed in him for this
It’s pretty on brand for him. His skillset is incredible but he’s a serious bitch quite often. I’m sure it’s easy to love him as a Nuggets fan but as a rival team in the same division it’s inversely just as easy to be a hater of Doughboy’s antics.
He’s scary when he’s mad. Remember what he did to Morris?
yeah that was justified though
Jokic is washed. Stick a fork in him
“Now imagine he’s black”
Literally wouldn’t make a roster with hand checking. Dude would get stomped by KG or Hakeem. He was drafted wayyyyy too high
Jokic slander don’t get clicks your karma farming not gonna work
why does Jokic always go after POC?
Statistically probable
Such a reddit take to say Jokic was in the wrong here. Obviously none of these people have done anything remotely athletic and competitive in their entire lives.
My man Jokic in his entire nba career has never run that fast and it wasn’t even a close game for him to do it.
The only “Reddit take” here is the dude that thinks he’s the only person on Reddit to ever go outside.