Reddit - Dive into anything
www.reddit.com

Which player is actually ‘best’ at guarding Nikola Jokic

For whatever reason before the WCF in 2023, there was a conception that Anthony Davis does very well against Nikola Jokic however that narrative has completely flipped.

I’ve seen Nurkic, Ayton, Draymond and Gobert mentioned before but the facts (stats) seem untrue.

While there might not be a Jokic stopper, is there an actual player that defends Jokic well to the point of keeping him to or below his averages?

  • neutronicus@fediverser.communick.devBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    As to u/NBAPerspective using the Davis example, he actually was a great defender against Joker… 3+ years ago when Joker would show up to preseason overweight and unprepared. Joker got better. Much better. Won 2x MVPs and a title since then.

    In Nuggets fan lore, Jokic finally got serious about his body after getting his butt whipped by AD in this game in 2019. '19-'20 was definitely the season for which he showed up fattest, and after that game our beat guys reported that he had started lifting weights after the game.

    Armchair psychoanalyzing, but I think for the past couple years AD has been kind of a “measuring stick” for him.