Unlike most big men in NBA history who scored out of the post, Jokic, like Dirk, can initiate offense from the free throw line and the 3-point line, two areas where it’s harder to send help. Hearing Malone preach the importance of defense in training camp gave me flashbacks to Nelson talking about defense after Mavs teams built around Dirk and Nash had gotten run out of the playoffs the year before.

At 6-foot-9 and 215 pounds, he’s a freakish athlete with the tools to guard players at all five positions. Jokic is the key. His scoring ability puts pressure on the defense. They had the no. Jokic doesn’t have any real historical precedents. The 123 from Jokic to Murray are fourth-most from one player to a single teammate and the 107 from Murray to Jokic are ninth-most.

There’s nothing anyone can do about a 7-footer who can make shots like this: Jokic can dribble to a spot, use his size to create separation, and shoot over the top of any defender. Everything changed the following night against Cleveland. It’s not just about his scoring. But Nikola Jokic is a unique driver of a top-10 offense. He has some athleticism to him.

The Nuggets want Jokic to be more sound positionally. The challenges of building around an unconventional center like him have been well documented, but the career of a similar European anomaly could offer clues. “It’s not like that.

Can you name the other? He would say, ‘I don’t think I’m as good as this guy or that guy,’ and I’d look at him like, ‘Are you crazy?’”, Jokic doesn’t carry himself like an elite player. Jokic's 53.4% ranks first. Maybe his being a little lighter will make his footwork even tougher to keep up with on defense. The Mavs went from being a perennial also-ran to making the 2006 Finals. We are going to play through him. Play 1. It’s a work in progress.”. It’s everything. He can average a triple-double, easily, if he wanted to. Go out there and do what you do,” said Millsap. https://t.co/UakPqViTHf. Jokic’s career could go in so many different directions. That's the second-lowest on-court pace mark (higher than that of only Rozier) among 226 players who have averaged at least 20 minutes in 25 games or more.

The Nuggets could also have taken Zhaire Smith at no. But they have a high ceiling, and they have a matchup advantage at the center position.

Jokic didn’t do much to celebrate his newfound wealth. The other seven? “He can jump. An imaginative coach could build an offense that takes the game in new directions. When asked about LeBron James signing with the Lakers, he expressed amazement that one player could single-handedly change a franchise. (This play sometimes works for a lob.) Sometimes, it looks clunky. The Nuggets are seemingly on a level below that of the Lakers and Clippers in the Western Conference. Number to know: Denver has scored 12.3% of its points as second-chance points, which is the league's third-highest rate. He averaged 12.6 field goal attempts over the first 72 games and 19.2 per game over the final 10, and he tied a career high (25) in the finale against the Wolves. Jokic had a near triple-double (36 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists), and never looked back. Harris comes out of the left corner to take the hand-off from Jokic, with the other three Nuggets on the weak side. Number to know: Jokic's free throw rate of 27.7 attempts per 100 shots from the field is down from 30 over the previous two seasons and ranks 77th among 229 players with at least 300 field goal attempts. Two possessions later, Murray calls for Harris to slide up to the wing so they can run the same action. Building around Jokic is a fascinating experiment in basketball theory. The result is a very Jokic-y shot over Dragan Bender.

His 18-game hot streak at the end of last season may not be an aberration. Jokic will also have to be more assertive off the court. The pace of change in the NBA has picked up over the past few years, and there’s no way to know where it will go from here. Note: The Knicks are the only other team that ranks in the top 10 in ball movement (10th) and in the bottom 10 in player movement (21st). A lot of those elbow touches turn into hand-offs for the Nuggets' guards and wings toward the middle of the floor. Subscribe to Stathead, the set of tools used by the pros, to unearth this and other interesting factoids. “He has to be the first one in the drills. The Spurs' guard is able to stay attached to Murray on the cut and there doesn't seem to be an angle for Jokic's pass, so he just creates one on the other side of his own defender.

Become a Stathead. If he forces the opposition to send hard doubles, he won’t need to make as many jaw-dropping passes. They pass a lot, but don't move that much, relative to the rest of the league.

The Nuggets dumped many of their veterans (Wilson Chandler, Kenneth Faried, Darrell Arthur, and Richard Jefferson) in the offseason to clear out space under the luxury tax to re-sign Jokic and Barton. Number to know: Jokic's 31.4% from 3-point range ranks 124th among 135 players with at least 200 3-point attempts. Dallas was at its best with a simple division of labor. Murray gets Gilgeous-Alexander on his hip and then drains his go-to: a right-shoulder turnaround jumper. Number to know: 93% of the Nuggets' 3-point attempts, the league's second-highest rate, have been open or wide-open, according to Second Spectrum tracking. Privacy Policy | Accessibility and Closed Caption | Terms of Use | Do Not Sell My Personal Information. He can defend.

Number to know: Though Jokic ranks eighth in total assists (446), he's tied for 30th in assists on 3-pointers (127) . With Millsap, Gary Harris, Jamal Murray, and Will Barton also initiating the offense, Jokic had a smaller role than most other top scorers around the league. He was tied for no. Embrace it.’”. He can move his feet. Millsap can do it all on defense: switch screens, fight bigger players in the post, protect the rim, and quarterback the defense.

Jokic takes Noel into the paint, scores and draws a foul, barely leaving the floor. That half-court offense runs through the 7-footer who leads the league in overall touches (97.6), frontcourt touches (57.8), and passes (75.3) per game. One year later, he’s a true believer. The Nuggets, of course, have a counter. Denver got three identical 3s -- one, two and three -- taking advantage of that weak-side pinch in the first seven minutes of their Feb. 10 win over the Spurs. Copyright © 2020 NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Jokic can bring the ball up the floor himself and initiate the offense, and he can dribble into jumpers anywhere on the court. Jokic played his worst basketball of the season when Millsap rejoined the starting lineup March 2. Is it Nikola’s team?

Number to know: The Nuggets have scored 1.17 points per possession against zone defenses, according to Synergy play-type tracking. Jokic was in the 45th percentile of players leaguewide when defending the roll man, and the 50th percentile of players when defending the ball handler. What the two have in common is the ability to be a one-man offense. Number to know: For the second straight season, Jokic and Murray are the only pair of teammates with at least 100 assists to each other. Jokic was first among equals in Denver. We worked on his body, trying to tighten his body up, worked on his footwork so that he can move a little better.”. Dirk was drafted in 1998 and is still playing in 2018; Jokic could conceivably play at a high level in the 2030s. Jokic has accounted for 38% of his team's assists while on the floor, easily the highest rate among 58 centers who have played at least 750 minutes.

Jokic should be a cornerstone in Denver for the next decade, if not longer. And he will get there when he starts learning placement, where he needs to be on the defensive end.

Among the 67 players who have attempted at least 100 shots in the last six seconds, only Bradley Beal (48.5%) has a higher field goal percentage on those shots than Jokic (48.4%). Jokic is already one of the best centers in the league, but people in Denver don’t think he’s anywhere close to his ceiling.

Jokic doesn’t check any of the boxes for an elite defensive 5: He can’t stay in front of faster players, rotate quickly enough to cut off penetration, or challenge players above the rim. A team with a scorer as gifted as Dirk didn’t have to play beautiful basketball. “I tried to bring [Millsap] back [after his return]. Jokic ranks second in the league with 8.2 elbow touches per game, according to Second Spectrum. A prime Jokic could be something we have never seen before: a volume-3-point-shooting point center.

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