The Heat Have No Answer for the Aaron Gordon Problem The Nuggets Proved Their Championship Mettle With Their MVP Off the Floor But if you really know what you’re looking at, which a lot of people don’t, you take a real sense of, ‘OK, this guy is a good defensive player, and he is doing it with an IQ and an awareness that a lot of people just don’t have.’” “Is he going to go above the rim and block a shot or pin something to the backboard? He is not going to do that, and stop expecting him to do that. Nikola does it differently,” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone says. “I think you have to get past the eye test with Nikola. For a variety of reasons, including effort, execution, size, and intelligence, Jokic’s overall contributions on that end-as someone whose team has been better on defense when he’s on the court in every year of his career except one-are more positive than not. Sound positioning, preemptive reads, and constant communication from the back line are harder to track than direct confrontations at the rim, but they’re just as, if not more, important. It’s found in the fact that- just like his singular offensive production-so little about Jokic’s defensive approach is archetypal. His faults are transparent.īut there’s more charm than people realize, too. And countless Nuggets possessions this season have ended with Jokic making business decisions at the basket. Denver regularly tweaks its defensive coverages (more on that later), but it isn’t the most adaptable group we’ve ever seen. There aren’t any breathtaking sequences out on an island in which he shuts down someone a foot smaller than he is. or single-handedly bury sets in a tomb like Draymond Green. He doesn’t swat shots into the fourth row like Jaren Jackson Jr. Will Portland finally give in and trade Dame Lillard? We’re keeping a close watch on all of the biggest free agents, trade targets, retirement bluffers, and more in our new offseason tracker.
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