clyde21 wrote:BelgradeNugget wrote:clyde21 wrote:i like Gordon, just don't really see what his role his next to Jokic/MPJ if he's not gonna be the glue guy/defensive guy, there is pretty 0 rim protection right now between the 3 of them, so not sure what the plan is here.
This is the plan
?s=20OrlMagic05 wrote:
what's the rating in the POs? because I don't see that front court scaling at all, one of the worst defensive front courts in the NBA, and i don't think Jokic being such a freak will make up for it when push comes to shove in the POs.
where is the rim protection gonna come from?
Well they didn't have Murray, Barton and PJ Dozier in the POs, and MPJ tweaked his back in 2nd round so you can't make a good conclusion of they defensive ability in POs. And these stats are also from small sample size in RS. The thing is they looked really good against good teams in RS with that lineup.
About rim protection
"According to Cleaning the Glass, opposing teams shot just under a third (31.0 percent) of their field goals within four feet of the rim when Jokic was on the floor, ranking him in the 80th percentile for his position. For comparison, Myles Turner, who led the league in blocks this season, saw opponents take 37.1 percent of their field goal attempts within four feet of the rim while he was on the floor, ranking him in the 11th percentile.
It's impressive for a player like Jokic, who constantly gets knocked for not being a great rim protector, to seemingly deter teams from even thinking about shooting inside when he's on the floor.
The Nuggets as a team gave up the sixth-least amount of paint points per game at 45.2 and saw just 28.2 field goal attempts per game inside of six feet, good for ninth in the league. For a team that lacked rim protection, that's pretty good."
https://ca.nba.com/news/nikola-jokic-denver-nuggets-superstars-defensive-improvement-contributed-to-his-mvp-level-season/e4o1x1iytkr61rgnyyaaxz8j5
Nuggets protect the rim by not allowing teams to take shots at the rim but by forcing them to take tougher midrange shots.
One more thing that makes AG valuable for the Nuggs is the fact that with him MPJ can play PF defensively and he is the best shot blocker in Nuggets frontcuort.