How to Slow Down Jokic
The Joker has been a menace!
Nikola Jokic - what can I say about him?
He has been on a terror as of late, recording triple-doubles like he’s collecting candy on Halloween night.
Between Jan. 10, 2025 to Jan. 21, 2025, in which he played 6 games, Jokic averaged 22.5 points on 64.9 percent shooting, 13.8 rebounds, 10.7 assists and 2.8 steals.
The Denver Nuggets also won all of those games.
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Now, back to the story…
In the first 37 games he suited up for this season, he’s averaging 30.1 points, 13.2 rebounds and 9.9 assists.
And to my surprise, he’s making more than 45 percent of the 3-pointers he takes (and he’s taking more than the previous seasons).
Basketball has been too easy for the Joker! He’s out there tossing passes like this for fun:
And he’s shenanigan-ing like this:
He’s a menace!
So, what can be done to stop the 3-time MVP?
Well, Dwight Howard might have a solution.
Unlike when he discussed how he would slow down Victor Wembanyama, the 3-time Defensive Player of the Year gave a serious answer for how he would defend Jokic.
He told Thanasis Antetokounmpo on the Thanalisys Show that he would make Jokic use up a lot of energy.
“With somebody like him, you gotta apply pressure the whole game. You gotta be up on him the whole game. And you gotta force him to take tough shots. He’s using his body, his weight to kinda be his leverage. So, with him, I feel you gotta outmatch his energy. If he’s playing against somebody that’s energetic on both ends of the floor, that’s going to go for the rebound every play, that he’s gotta box out -my thing is you gotta make him use energy in other areas of the game.”
Howard added that many times, Jokic doesn’t have to try as hard on the defensive end because the opposing centers aren’t scorers.
As a result, he’s able to conserve his energy for the offensive end. So to stop him, opponents have to attack him on both ends of the floor.
“To stop Jokic, I would pressure him. Just try to mentally get in his head. And on offense, I’m going right at him.”
This is a good strategy that has been successful.
During the 2024 Western Conference Semifinals, the Minnesota Timberwolves ran a line-up designed to tire out Jokic.
They had both Rudy Gobert (who was the DPOY in 2023-24) and Karl Anthony-Towns in the starting lineup, pressuring Jokic on both ends.
Gobert and KAT took turns guarding Jokic, while the T-Wolves made Jokic guard KAT on multiple occasions on the other end of the court.
Because of this, Jokic only made 51.7 percent of his shots.
This is by no means terrible. But compared to what he averaged in the regular season (58.3 percent) and the first round (59.1 percent), it’s pretty bad.
Additionally, despite averaging 29 points, 11.4 rebounds and 7.9 assists in this round, the Timberwolves were able to take down the defending champs in 7 games.
So, is this a winning tactic? Based on the results of this small sample size that most likely has a lot of other factors affecting it, probably.
But what are your thoughts on it?
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