Nikola Jokic is giving up 69.5 FG% at the rim so far this season. This is the 2nd worst % in the league (#1 is KAT)

[1993Playoffs]

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact?CF=DEF_RIM_FGAGE5&dir=D&sort=DEF_RIM_FG_PCT


Great offensive talent but this matters too

Other bigs for comparison comparison,
Giannis is at 60%, AD is at 59.2%, Sabonis is at 67.8%, Kat is at 70.3

Chet is at 42.9, Wemby at 45.4, J Allen at 54.1, JJJ at 52.9


Hartenstein at 51.6.

[dhsilv2]

Vucevic is at 70.1%, not sure why you left him out?

His own teammate Porter is giving up 69.2% and keep in mind Porter is defending 4.3 attempts a game.

That said the other important aspect is that Jokic is once again near the top in the number of shots at the rim he is defending. Now there are a few ways to look at that stat. First of all, if you just get blown by or are out of position, you don't get dinged at all here. Now if you're exceptional defensively, you'd think maybe teams would just avoid attempting against you in the first place. So with Jokic it's a bit of both. Great defensive effort to consistently be able to stay in the plays, but also nobody is stopping from attempting a shot because he's there.

So while giving up a high percentage at the rim isn't great. It's important to note a shot at the rim is near 100% when not defended and Jokic is seemingly every year in the top 10 in the number of attempts he is challenging.

[LeBronSpaghetti]

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact?CF=DEF_RIM_FGAGE5&dir=D&sort=DEF_RIM_FG_PCT


Great offensive talent but this matters too

Other bigs for comparison comparison,
Giannis is at 60%, AD is at 59.2%, Sabonis is at 67.8%, Kat is at 70.3

Chet is at 42.9, Wemby at 45.4, J Allen at 54.1, JJJ at 52.9


Hartenstein at 51.6.

What is that link showing me?

[1993Playoffs]

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact?CF=DEF_RIM_FGAGE5&dir=D&sort=DEF_RIM_FG_PCT


Great offensive talent but this matters too

Other bigs for comparison comparison,
Giannis is at 60%, AD is at 59.2%, Sabonis is at 67.8%, Kat is at 70.3

Chet is at 42.9, Wemby at 45.4, J Allen at 54.1, JJJ at 52.9


Hartenstein at 51.6.

What is that link showing me?

Vucevic is at 70.1%, not sure why you left him out?

His own teammate Porter is giving up 69.2% and keep in mind Porter is defending 4.3 attempts a game.

That said the other important aspect is that Jokic is once again near the top in the number of shots at the rim he is defending. Now there are a few ways to look at that stat. First of all, if you just get blown by or are out of position, you don't get dinged at all here. Now if you're exceptional defensively, you'd think maybe teams would just avoid attempting against you in the first place. So with Jokic it's a bit of both. Great defensive effort to consistently be able to stay in the plays, but also nobody is stopping from attempting a shot because he's there.

So while giving up a high percentage at the rim isn't great. It's important to note a shot at the rim is near 100% when not defended and Jokic is seemingly every year in the top 10 in the number of attempts he is challenging.

I saw it on Reddit but I don’t know how to filter the results. The minimum is at least 5 rim attempts per game.

[bkkrh]

Well either it was just updated , but he is at 68.5 and I see tons of players with a higher average, or almost similar numbers. Including Bam, Vuc, Towns, Sabonis, Al Horford, Yabusele, Trey Murphy III, Siakam, Valanciunas, John Collins, Jalen Smith, Randle and a lot of other big men, some of them being considered good defenders.

Or maybe let's put it like that. Sorting per average, Joker is on page 5 of 11 of all NBA players. Guess you somehow overlooked about 200 other NBA players.

[bkkrh]

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact?CF=DEF_RIM_FGAGE5&dir=D&sort=DEF_RIM_FG_PCT


Great offensive talent but this matters too

Other bigs for comparison comparison,
Giannis is at 60%, AD is at 59.2%, Sabonis is at 67.8%, Kat is at 70.3

Chet is at 42.9, Wemby at 45.4, J Allen at 54.1, JJJ at 52.9


Hartenstein at 51.6.

What is that link showing me?

Vucevic is at 70.1%, not sure why you left him out?

His own teammate Porter is giving up 69.2% and keep in mind Porter is defending 4.3 attempts a game.

That said the other important aspect is that Jokic is once again near the top in the number of shots at the rim he is defending. Now there are a few ways to look at that stat. First of all, if you just get blown by or are out of position, you don't get dinged at all here. Now if you're exceptional defensively, you'd think maybe teams would just avoid attempting against you in the first place. So with Jokic it's a bit of both. Great defensive effort to consistently be able to stay in the plays, but also nobody is stopping from attempting a shot because he's there.

So while giving up a high percentage at the rim isn't great. It's important to note a shot at the rim is near 100% when not defended and Jokic is seemingly every year in the top 10 in the number of attempts he is challenging.

I saw it on Reddit but I don’t know how to filter the results. The minimum is at least 5 rim attempts per game.

That makes it even funnier. Only 30 players in total have that average and 6 of them have played less than 12 games. Even then that post makes no sense, since you mentioned Giannis and JJJ and neither of them are at 5.0.

So that is similar to me saying LeBron has the worst field goal average in the league, without mentioning that I only count players that turn 40 this season and still bringing up Daniel Gafford and Jarrett Allen as examples of players with a better FGA^^.

[Special_Puppy]

Well either it was just updated , but he is at 68.5 and I see tons of players with a higher average, or almost similar numbers. Including Bam, Vuc, Towns, Sabonis, Al Horford, Yabusele, Trey Murphy III, Siakam, Valanciunas, John Collins, Jalen Smith, Randle and a lot of other big men, some of them being considered good defenders.

Or maybe let's put it like that. Sorting per average, Joker is on page 5 of 11 of all NBA players. Guess you somehow overlooked about 200 other NBA players.

OP was filtering to only look at players with 5+ DFGAs per game. I do think its 100% fair criticism of him although its mitigated somewhat by Jokic avoiding fouls

[NoDopeOnSundays]

You're a little late, KATs number is coming down, he's at 61.5% over his last 15 games. His rim protection was awful at the start of the season as he adjusted to playing the 5 again.


If he's in the same company as Jokic I'll take it, our offense is our defense

[taikibansei]

Jokic provides most of the scoring (31 ppg), rebounding (13 rpg) and play-making (9.8 apg) for that Denver team. Now you want him to be the defensive stopper as well? Is it too much to ask another Nugget to step up and provide defense?

[flranger]

Jokic also leads the league with a 99.2% chance of his team losing if he fouls out

[Special_Puppy]

Jokic provides most of the scoring (31 ppg), rebounding (13 rpg) and play-making (9.8 apg) for that Denver team. Now you want him to be the defensive stopper as well? Is it too much to ask another Nugget to step up and provide defense?

Its reasonable to ask a 3x MVP to do better than this. That being said, I do find the value Jokic provides on defense impressive given his offensive responsibilities

[taikibansei]

Jokic provides most of the scoring (31 ppg), rebounding (13 rpg) and play-making (9.8 apg) for that Denver team. Now you want him to be the defensive stopper as well? Is it too much to ask another Nugget to step up and provide defense?

Its reasonable to ask a 3x MVP to do better than this. That being said, I do find the value Jokic provides on defense impressive given his offensive responsibilities

Jokic needs "to do better than" lead his team in points, rebounds and assists--oh, and while we're at it, he's 3rd in the NBA in points per game, 2nd in assists and 3rd in rebounding (as well as leading the NBA in Box Plus/Minus and PER). Yeah, okay!

Note that, if he were to start contesting more at the rim, Jokic would necessarily get into more foul trouble. Have you seen the Nuggets when Jokic isn't on the court? They're a G League squad maybe.

[maxpower8888]

Jokic is not a great shot blocker for his size, this isn't a secret. His strengths on defense are being able to read what the offense is doing and to react. He's a center who averages almost three times as many steals as blocks.

[Chokic]

This. Ppl think I'm trolling or hating when I say Embiid is better than Jokic. No I legitimately believe he's better than jokic when both are 100% healthy. The game of basketball is played on both ends of the court. Defense matters. As for the handle it's tongue in cheek get over it.

[cpower]

who cares? it does not impact his MVP chances

[bstein14]

If you look at all players in the league who have played at least 10 games this season (Chet has played exactly 10) and average at least 20 MPG this season here are the best rim protectors in the league.

1. Chet Holmgren (42.9% allowed at the rim)
2. Isaiah Stewart (43.6% allowed at the rim)
3. Victor Wembanyama (46.3% allowed at the rim)
4. PJ Washington (50.5% allowed at the rim)
5. Brook Lopez (51.0% allowed at the rim)
6. Amen Thompson (52.2% allowed at the rim)
7. Jarren Jackson Jr (52.5% allowed at the rim)
8. Jalen Williams (52.8% allowed at the rim)

[KGtabake]

This. Ppl think I'm trolling or hating when I say Embiid is better than Jokic. No I legitimately believe he's better than jokic when both are 100% healthy. The game of basketball is played on both ends of the court. Defense matters. As for the handle it's tongue in cheek get over it.

With this logic Gary Payton is higher all time and a better player than Magic Johnson and Steph Curry since he was a better defender.

On a second note, how many conference finals did Embiid reach when he was healthy? He was drafted in 2014.
That's 10 seasons.
The game of basketball is about mentality as well. Leadership. Accountability.
And like all things in life, even a game requires maturity.
*Chokic*....even a username requires maturity.

[Tottery]

Eh, I'm glad he's not a defensive monster on top of everything else he does. Game would be way boring.

[srhcan]

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact?CF=DEF_RIM_FGAGE5&dir=D&sort=DEF_RIM_FG_PCT


Great offensive talent but this matters too

Other bigs for comparison comparison,
Giannis is at 60%, AD is at 59.2%, Sabonis is at 67.8%, Kat is at 70.3

Chet is at 42.9, Wemby at 45.4, J Allen at 54.1, JJJ at 52.9


Hartenstein at 51.6.

Poetl is at 63.1

[Chokic]

This. Ppl think I'm trolling or hating when I say Embiid is better than Jokic. No I legitimately believe he's better than jokic when both are 100% healthy. The game of basketball is played on both ends of the court. Defense matters. As for the handle it's tongue in cheek get over it.

With this logic Gary Payton is higher all time and a better player than Magic Johnson and Steph Curry since he was a better defender.

On a second note, how many conference finals did Embiid reach when he was healthy? He was drafted in 2014.
That's 10 seasons.
The game of basketball is about mentality as well. Leadership. Accountability.
And like all things in life, even a game requires maturity.
*Chokic*....even a username requires maturity.

I personally don't rate magic as highly as others bc of his somewhat pedestrian scoring ability and good but not elite defense. Defense, however, isnt nearly as important or valuabe for point guards as they are for bigs/centers. Magic was a winner at the highest level so albeit his numbers don't jump out his impact is clearly shown thru his ability to lead his team to titles.

Curry is in a whole different stratosphere offensively compared to payton..so it's not a really good analogy.
Embiid and Jokic are comparable level offensive players. Embiids superior rim protection gives him the edge for me. If he had been able to sustain his health thru the playoffs i have no doubt sixers would hqve gotten to at tge very least the nba finals by now. He has had the better of jokic in head to head marchups on several occasions.

To be fair it's a moot point bc we can only go by the results that actually happened. Ppl here can swear that Bill Walton was or would have been a better player than say a Yao Ming or Dwight Howard but his career was derailed by injury but won't make that same argument for Embiid?