Exp0sed wrote:Statlanta wrote:They are a no defense team and it starts with their C. All the defensive criticisms levied on Jokic should apply twofold to Sabonis. He would be a PF in any other era.
Jokic is the Center and the defensive anchor, if he were so bad, how come his teams are always well above average?
this season they are 10th defensively, with a lineup that consists of two very good defenders in KCP and AG, an average defender in Murray and a below avg MPJ
Jokic has by far the best DRTG out of all the Nuggets players, year after year. also, their defense craters when he sits on the bench, in huge sample sizes over multiple consecutive seasons. he also consistenly scores highly in most of the advanced defensive metrics
the wildest thing this year has been his pnr defence, he's in the top in the league in defending PNR's when he's defending the screener
Jokic is much better than Sabonis defensively, he's not the best defender obviously, and not even close but he's a well-above average defender all in all and he can turn it up, as we can see by the Nuggets consistent 4th quarter and clutch defense for the past two seasons plus ofc - that championship run
he's a poor rim protector but he's also great in some other defensive skills and aspects
Sabonis simply isn't, he needs his Brooke Lopez or his Myles Turner..
What supports the argument that Sabonis is a bad defender? The advanced stats have him at about average. I don’t see this huge gap defensively between Jokic and Sabonis. The Kings are 15th, and if they had 2 defenders the level of AG and KCP they could potentially be top 10.