mademan wrote:Lockdown504090 wrote:ben10simmons wrote:You don't think Jokic is better than LeBron?
I’m honestly not sure. It’s not because of talent it’s just because he’s a big that doesn’t protect the rim at a high level. It’s so easy to exploit that. Jokic is so unique and good at the sport, that I’m really curious to see if this can be overcome with great teammates. If I have lebron, I can still have any big I want. With jokic, the options are very slim on the type of forwards he can play with
Why are you giving Embiid the nod tho? Jokic by all the numbers has been better than him both in the RS and playoffs. I can almost understand the respect given to KD/Lebron and the nod to Luka, but the Embiid mention makes zero sense. The guy hasnt passed the 2nd round in his career
im not an espn employee, I dont say things like " x player couldnt beat y team.... not good" nor am i doing things like saying "oh if you switched the players teams they would do x"
I have certain things that I find important based on what prior teams have done to win games. all you have to do against denver is run a primary action on one side of the floor that gets a paint touch, swing the ball a couple times and attack the rim against their base man defense. keep in mind, im not saying that jokic isnt a good defender, i am saying that his weaknesses there are very easy for teams with multple ballhandlers to exploit. joel's weakness in space against quick guards with a live dribble leads to shots with a lower ppp than the shots that occur from how you exploit jokic.
actions like these where he has to move from one part of the key to another to make space are a concern because he has no margin of error like a defender with more range does, and teams know that they can do this and make him the low man in help and get good shots because jokic is a superstar that cant come off the floor.
Ive seen embiids a few times throughout history the formula to build around him is obvious, ive never seen jokic, like steph. With steph, I always said " damn, hes really not that quick off the dribble, i bet guys could guard him in space if the refs called the game really tight" and I was correct, that has been and still is an issue for him. The warriors since 2014 though, have build a team full of high iq playmakers, and curry has become the best off ball guard ever to counter that.
jokic has become one of the best at high hedging and takes great angles in drop. It is now on the nuggets front office to help him by gettting creative. Curry without all these playmakers that can defend in unique ways isnt the top 15 player all time he has become. Draymond exists to compliment curry and it became a new style of player. I think they need a guy like jonathan issac or evan mobley who can be the low man on defense more often while still being a forward on offense.
my pipe dream jokic lineup would be
FVV
ant
anunoby
Issac
Jokic
playing a small pg is fine because we arent switching 1-5 pnrs anyway. 3-4 ball handlers
rugged defenders with strength and speed that fight over screens well.
a backside defender at the 4 who makes plays like this
