HotRocks34 wrote:"If only Jokic played defense."
Meanwhile:
Hassan Whiteside had a higher DBPM than Rudy Gobert in 15-16. Jokic had a higher DBPM than Wemby, Mobley, Green etc last year. Sabonis had a higher DPBM than Caruso, Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo & Gobert in 23-24. Pretty sure it's known that this one is flawed, and probably overrates defensive rebounding in particular and can't measure stuff like pick & roll coverage/switchability, shots deterred/presence, contest efficiency & closeouts ++.
Aaron Gordon is currently making people shoot 11 % worse than league average, good for a hyperelite 97th percentile in the league, while Jokic is now in the 17th percentile, still in the bottom.
Murray is whatever on defense.
Braun is making people shoot 1 % worse, good for top 72nd percentile for his position.
Cam Johnson is bad.
Peyton Watson is good, top 69th percentile.
So you have one elite defender in Gordon, and two good defenders in Braun & Watson.
How do we know it's Jokic that is always leading the charge?
I acknowledge Jokic is a smart player, with great hands and reads of the game.
However, it's pretty clear that Aaron Gordon is the best defender one on one, so I feel like it's disingenuous to him to say that Jokic is actually the defensive mastermind, while Gordon had a positive defensive on/off last season, while Jokic had a negative.
I will give Jokic credit for being a smart defensive player, but I am not going to say positive until we get a bigger sample size, you have played two good teams at near full strength in the Warriors in game 1, and the Blazers in game 5. Miami without Bam & Herro, Warriors without Curry & Wolves without Ant doesn't count, so the schedule has been favorable to the Nuggets so far.
And they have a pretty easy schedule going forward, Pacers, Kings, dead Clippers before meeting Minnesota with an Ant that should be near 100 % again. That & a Bulls game will give us an better indicator of how solid the defense is against better competition.
