Is this the way to stop Nikola Jokic?

Ben Taylor I don’t know if you know Darryl Morey. But if you meet Darryl Morey, tell Morey to either release Montrezz Harrell or trade Montrezz for draft picks to leave cap space to sign Lamarcus Aldridge.
I am a 76ers fan and I feel all the 76ers needs is a backup C. Aldridge is the perfect fit that they need. Do everything in your power to let Darryl Morey know to sign Lamarcus Aldridge

@D H He had a numb hand at the moment. Can't feel - so it's understandable he's not shooting like he used to. Hopefully will get back to normal

@Nick Z no where not those are south jersey sixer fans not Philadelphia fans mainly I’m from the city I’m at the games it’s not the city fans we know what he’s here for and he’s doing what he’s supposed

Hell of a role player. I was sad bucks let him go

Only a good coach can utilize him well

@Khash Money 3pt,4rb in 27 mins a game isn't evened out by his intangibles. He's been disappointing as fuck

@Beede Bawng Jokic shot all around Howard. Howard had no hope.

@Terronn Smalls -- First, I am going to assume you know a little about basketball. Tucker became the primary defender and Embiid could play the role of a help defender if the primary defender got beat.
It isn't a double team. A double team means the help defender actively left a designated area to specifically trap the man with the ball.
Even if Jokic required a double team, there would be nothing wrong with that. Jokic is the two-time defending MVP. Why wouldn't he require a double team occasionally?
That is just respect for his talent. BTW, Embiid has experienced the most double teams.
They are both very good players. They have finished #1 and #2 in MVP in the last 2 years.
Why are you trying to force me to speak negatively about one of them?

@Semi so your basically double teaming him lol

@Just Me embiid can't stop jokic

@Beede Bawng Dwight did nothing but hack him all game so does draymond

@Georgios Yiannakou embiid gonna get injured again come playoff time. He had an injury every postseason except 2020. Last year he had something with his finger and of course that unnecessary broken orbital when he still played in garbage time against Toronto.

Wouldn't be surprised if an assistant coach told him to do this

@TJ he was still recovering from his hamstring

Doc is a regular season coach. All the tricks will be concentrated on by the opposition.

@Jonathan Gill 😂😂😂😂 my bad lmfao

@Ansh Kaushik You missed the joke. Harden's stealth move from the bench in the 2-2 zone is why the other guy is saying "hey he's actually good on defense"

​@T that is doc rivers full name

🤣🤣🤣

Except against the Magic

A broken clock is right twice a day

@Domingo W. bc he has the highest IQ in the league. you come to him with pressure, hes gonna know where to go with the ball. PJ Tucker fouled Jokic all game. Embiid didnt even guard him.

jokic will never get calls bc of his size. this is a league wide issue. PJ tucker fouled Jokic all game.

@Tell Steve Harvey I dont want her What happens when defenses are allowed to get physical. NBA should encourage it more often.

@Atmospheric Atmosphere ain’t that big of a deal bro. No need for excuses, no one cares 👍🏾

It is just one game...on the road...came after 5 strait triple doubles...so you think you are onto something?

@Steve Babiak lol, which coach is gonna take embiid James harden kawai Leonard or Paul George out of the game in the last 5 minutes?? Whichever coach does that we'd be even more critical of. Ur best players are gonna be there at the end and they're the ones that are going to decide how it goes. You can draw up the most beautiful play, if ur star player decides to ignore out and go iso or fumbles the ball away before u can run it, it doesn't matter. Then everyone says, "what dumb play by the coach" as if that's what he called during the time out

@Alt Delete - who decides which combo of players are on the floor together? That’s on the coach if he puts the wrong set of players out, or has them in the wrong D, or isn’t running plays that work.
And the thing is, the talent can be good enough to build that huge lead, so they only have to play decently when up by a lot to get the W. But there are those games where that huge early lead transitions into a huge deficit at game end.

@Steve Babiak which is why I don't believe it was a Brett Brown problem. It's a roster problem. The players including in bead have problems finishing out games. If it was a coach issue it would have changed with a new coach. Everyone blamed doc for running too much iso with kawai and pg. If you watched last night's clippers game, they're still paying the exact same way when push cones to shove and it looks just as terrible. Players decide how is gonna be at the end of the day and some don't accept coaching. Others do but struggle to apply it. Sometimes you can apply coaching for 9/10 of the game, but in the last 5 minutes instincts takeover and the same bad habits players have rear their heads

@Alt Delete - regarding Brett Brown. He did a good job improving the players he was given when he had those weak rosters. And because he had weak rosters the in game expectations were low. But once he had a decent team, his in game management was exposed. On so many occasions his teams would get a huge lead (15 to 20 points) early in a game and then lose by a huge margin; losing a huge lead is a sign of poor in game management. And Glenn Rivers has a few losses like that too - including one last week to the Magic.

Actually Embiid said that scheme was his idea

@Thinking Basketball 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

I kept cracking up trying to record the voice over.

The coach his reaction is also hilarious.
*"4 players?.. wait a minute".. Looks at bench: "James, get your ass on the floor!!"*

Thybulle was supposed to check in but for some reason was just waiting at the scorers table

@Harry Garris we were talking about how Gordon could be considered the nuggets "weakest shooter" not anything else lmao. I was just telling the original commenter that although his percentages look good its on a low amount of 3s taken. which isnt that impressive.

@Jacob Bell Uh, he was a liability in this game.

@Nick Z It's impressive because his role isn't to spot up for 3s. His main thing is cutting to the rim, getting offensive rebounds, catching lobs, and playing awesome defense. On top of all that other great stuff on the rare occasion when he does spot up he makes his 3s as well.

@1mgreat1mgood 1. He is a neutral defender. 2. What does his defense has to do with him by numbers being the greatest offensive player in the history of the NBA

@1mgreat1mgood he's not a liability on defense, he's at least a neutral defender if not slightly positive. he's not the bad defender that he used to be

@Tre1000 What a smaller physical player does against all big men who want to dribble is take away their first step. Big guys dribble well against other big men. They don't dribble so well against someone who can steal the ball and beat them too the spot.

Jokic has to shoot on pj. I kno u not supposed to shoot over smaller players but pj too strong and quick hands on perimeter. Jokic would tear him up in the paint but embiid as a help defender prevents that. Gotta shoot

He can't really do what he normally does because pj is still strong but pretty nimble too would steal the ball if jokic tried his usual moves

Very good point. He should have attacked and gone to the stripe for some FTs.

Your guaranteed to get out rebounded with PJ out there

Iguodala is similar -- warriors got to the finals w him, then he went to the Heat and brought them to the finals, back to the warriors and another finals

I'd put Jae Crowder there along with PJ imo and I gotta believe Suns are asking for a stupid amount for a team to have not grabbed him already smh

@Gg No Re lol. Those cheese steaks really make money for short bus manufacturers.

@Gg No Re He wasnt 3/11 stop the cap. Also, he had 30 11 4 vs the magic, that's not a bad game at all. You act like jokic wins every game lmao

@Yrn Quin 3/11 in the first half guarded by jokic. Embiid just had "one of those games" look how he did against the magic. Philly brain at it again.

@IndianaSmallmouth Rofl below by such a nonsignificant margin its embarrassing you mentioned it. Turnovers were an issue but not because of Embiid but Joel had a big game no doubt. They shot lights out from 3, their best player had a career game, they were at home and won by 7. Calling that cooked is just ridiculous to me.

The reason it works is bc small players are allowed to foul bigs with no penalty.

@Peter Y Yea also last year in the playoffs the warriors did well having Draymond guard him.

Yes, I think a lot of teams have been picking up on this recently. MIN beat DEN and held Jokic in check earlier this season with Slo Mo as the primary defender and Gobert as the roamer. And Utah started guarding KAT the same way few years ago with Bogdanovic after KAT lit up Rudy for 7 threes.

Is*

hidden in plain sight

​@KurtKobane That's a good point, McDaniels is one of the best rim-protecting wings in the league so I went with him but you're right that he probably doesnt have the bulk and strength to keep Jokic out of his spots for that rim protection to matter anyway

@KurtKobane is there a reason why you're cringe and hate lebron?

@Ryan ya that way Lebron can continue his normal role on defense by defending the guy that's sits in the corner 3 lmfao 🤣

@ZA ya agree with all that except where you believe McDaniels could hold up with Jokic but not Mikal Bridges lol McDaniels while might be a couple inches taller at 6'9" the Bridges at 6'6", McDaniels is over 20 lbs lighter then what Bridges weighs at 210 lbs and McDaniels is rail thin weighing 185 pounds lol Bridges also has a massive 7'2" wingspan atleast for his 6'6" height!

​@KurtKobane I think the Bucks can do it too, Giannis currently plays as a roaming rim protector around Brook Lopez's paint protection and strength, having Giannis on Jokic might cancel out his effect as a roaming rim protector but he's strong and mobile enough to bother Jokic (with the height and length to not get shot over on top) while Brook's presence still protects the rim against Jokic finding easy passes to open cutters. Heat is a great call, Jimmy has the strength and Bam has the rim protection. Celtics too
I dont think Wood/Powell has the rim protection or Mikal has the strength for it to work but I do think the Clippers can with Morris or Batum like you said or even with Kawhi in a pinch (which he did for the Raps in 2019, he is really strong and hard to move), Pels can with Herb or even Zion in a pinch if they need to and JV clogging the paint, Lakers can actually do it really well even with LeBron and AD playing those roles. Maybe Dillon Brooks and JJJ. The Warriors can manage with Draymond playing both roles because their guards can torch Jokic in space so much it wont even matter. Wolves could in theory with McDaniels and Gobert but I think it'd be cancelled out by KAT's man being able to blow by him on the perimeter too easily

Embiid did amazing , tucker did pretty good. But the adjustment is what won them the game.

The minute he goes to the block you double team him. Jokic is an okay post player but not an outstanding one. He plays like a PG so defensively you want to take away his first step which is what the sixers did.

he dropped 29 8 7. is that really "stopping" him?

@Tom Sugars come on dude they didn't stop jokic they did good job buy jokic just didn't shot and he only missed 4 shots when he did

everyone is going to try this now guy knows he is in for a hard time

@Michael Fong That's what I said, somehow you're now also completely ignoring the point I made about him shooting mid range shots over dudes as tall as him

@Sturm He was passive because of the defensive scheme.

@Michael Fong Already explained it in my first comment, him being passive and not being a score-first mentality AND Tucker + Embiid patrolling the rim genuinely bothered him. When guys receive a pass from Jokic and have to meet Embiid at the rim, their offense is gonna sputter
Jokic has a highlight reel of him shooting mid ranges over centers, not difficult to find. His past 2 mvp seasons should have plenty of that

@Sturm why did he have such an ineffective half if he could shoot over PJ?

@Michael Fong He dont need to elevate much, he’s 7 foot and shoots over guys closer to him in height than PJ Tucker all the time. Also he’s got the sombor shuffle that gives him space if he ever needs it

@Antonio-974 Lebron isnt guarding Jokic dude. Lebron hasnt played defense in like 5 years

@Antonio-974 The thinking is to take away Jokic's first step. I have thought that this is the strategy against all big men who want to be guards. They dribble well against another big guy but they don't dribble so well against a strong smaller guy who can steal their dribble and beat the to the spot. With Giannis you should pick him up full court. Jokic only has an average post game and a double team will make his life difficult down low.

If you look, pj was letting jokic move him on several plays. As long as u got a giant in embiid waiting in the paint you don't really need mr olympia to guard jokic. The real issue is not everyone has had a giant in the paint. In fact most don't

Lakers, LeBron or even Rui can guard Jokic and AD can roam in the paint, Bucks also with Giannis and Lopez (But Giannis isn’t as strong he has a high center of gravity and Jokic bullied him many times in the post so idont know), Celtics with Grant Williams and Robert Williams, Memphis with JJJ, Dillion Brooks and Adams, Nets with Ben Simmons and Claxton or the Wolves with KAT and Gobert.
Basically any team with 1 strong wing or big and a great rim protector, even Zion and Valanciunas or Mobley and Allen could do it.

no worries, we know they in a lab working on adjustments

Malone lost that game, he should do the same, put Gordon on Embid and let Jokic rest on def, like Embid did. This way Jokic had to play every posesion on attack and def and Embid could focus mostly on attack.

@Chriscus exactly

As a Sixers fan that was his biggest problem yesterday , there was multiple times that game he chose to dish it out when he really should’ve took it to the basket. He’s gotta be more aggressive, I’m not complaining but if you’re a Nuggets fan 1 made FG in the 4th quarter is unacceptable.

Unfortunately Jokic and Malone lost us that game, but we just have to get into a good rhythm and I have faith for the rest of the season and beyond

@walrus bruh at this stage the fact he did anyway I'd a big win.. They gambled and it paid off

@Blox’s 73 points at half. Embiid with 2 early fouls too, which made the problem worse. Why wait until half to go to this look?
Also - Harrell might be the worst defender in the league. Gotta give those minutes to Paul Reed.

@walrus how you going discredit Doc

Right. Doc should not get credit for this adjustment cause he waited forever to do it.

yeah i hope its just a bad game, cause they were better in the first half

@This is howe So are the Sixers. LOL. What you don't have are people that can take a man off the dribble. The best player you have that has great ball handling and get his own shot off the dribble is Bones Hyland...from off the bench. Other than that, You have to take higher percentage shots. Who is your ISO player if you need to go to that set? Denver relies on great schemes, plays and precision passing not high flying dunks and slashes to the rim. You watch the Nuggets. Stop acting like they are an athletic team. They are not. No one on that team is jumping over anyone. They are great shooters that have a really good offensive scheme. No one says you can't win that way but don't be delusional like you have THOSE type of player. Simply put, you have one All Star on your team and he might be your least athletic player.

@Nikola Krstić Other teams don't have Joel Embiid. It's like the idiots who keep hiring Peyton Manning's or Tom Brady's offensive coordinator. Unless you have Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, it's not going to be successful. Plus, There is no center that makes Jokic work like Embiid.

@Derek Sessions lol what they are the best shooting team in the league lmao? And you are nuts if you think Murray and Gordon aren’t athletic like wtf are you watching

@This is howe It's not about Jokic picking apart a scheme...it's about your shooter having to make shots because you don't elite ball handling, speed or athleticism on the team. Debate that!!! Jokic, AG, MPJ, JM to name a few are really good players but no one...I MEAN NO ONE thinks they are athletic.

@Jamal Walker sure Horford is old for Jokic but guards Giannis the best in the league probably lmao
Can you refresh my memory when did the suns do this and it worked? What are you even talking about

@Cory Willis This is true.

@Trill Bill I don't think that's how the majority of games go. I agree that they can become hyper dependent of Ja's excellence in the clutch and that could easily bite them in the playoffs, but I believe their priorities are right in giving the ball to the best player on the floor most nights and letting him create shots for himself and others. I think that's a safe bet when you have arguably the quickest guy in the NBA who is as dynamic of a playmaker as he is.

@Cory Willis Well, regarding the half court offense. Outside of the 3-point slump, they all seem to ball watch Ja whenever he drives to the hoop. They can't keep relying on his layups and Bane's 3 point shots. The team needs more on and off the ball movements. Their current sets are too predictable and unstable.

@Trill Bill His rotations have been inconsistent because the team has been riddled with injuries throughout the year. I think he has been great this year with what he has had to work with but the halfcourt offense is more of a lack of shooting than bad offensive sets.

@Meek Mill I never called him a "fraud". I said he's been looking like one as of late. His rotations been questionable and his half court offense schemes are mundane. Yes or no?

Exactly you have to constantly attack a guy like Jokic a lot of Den games I watch I’m actually surprised by how little teams seem to attack him.

What you really want to do is stop his penetration. and you do that by putting a strong quick guy on him at the perimeter. The defender can steal Jokic's dribble and beat him to the spot. Jokic doesn't have enough ups to do a pull up jumper on a player like PJ.

@Risotto Nero NBA made JOKIC played against BUCKS and SIXER twice in the same season back to back games.

DENVER will play BUCKS and SIXERS back to back..NBA makes this on purpose...

@R DI think they lose to a healthy clippers and whoever comes out the east. But they are definitely in the mix.

@D H EMBIID is the one who admits he played to win the scoring tittle..🤣🤣

@D H THE OVERRATED player is going to be player of the month with 25 PPG / 11 REB / 11 ASS...shooting over 60%FG...

@Blox’s I didn’t have any excuses at all

@Akil Jean-Pierre too many excuses

@1mgreat1mgood in the first half not really they showed on espn Embiid was 3-11 when guarded by Jokic but the second half he for sure caught fire on him but a lot of that was aided in Embiid not having to guard Jokic. Sixers were home too had like 4 days rest from their last home game against the Nets on a streak feeling good so I wasn’t too surprised we’ll see if Embiid plays in Denver I guarantee you Embiid won’t be able to hide next time

@Akil Jean-Pierre what??? Embid cooked him the entire game lol

@Akil Jean-Pierre he doesn't have to pass, he just needs to make the offense work. looks like you don't get it

I would like to point out that all the people you mention are big men. What a smaller player does is take away Jokic's first step. Big men can dribble against other big men but they can't dribble against smaller men. Smaller men crowd the big men and can steal the ball and also beat them to the spot. Jokic has no ups so he can't do a pull up jumper. I have been saying this for a long time . Big men really can't dribble all that well.

@Sam Seidman Ben clogging the paints? Stop

@The Truth wow 😯 he better than all 3

@devonte figures How in hells name was the Hawks series his fault? He's got Ben clogging the paint for the third straight year and Glenn Rivers who's made even Kawhi a choke artist as well as every other player he's ever coached, meanwhile Embiid is still dropping his 30 a game with 11 boards and elite rim protection and you're gonna tell me the Hawks series was his fault? And that he blamed Simmons? Simmons is a con man. He's not deserving of any slack from teammates with the crap he pulls. Tell me you didn't watch that series without telling me you didn't watch it.

@Sway Yvens embid chokes in the playoffs tho the hawks series is his fault and he blamed Simmons and the raptors series was his fault he got in Simmons way and didn’t jump on the shot

@Sway Yvens I love embid I think he better than Jokic but we not doing embid over KD at all

@Darren Gordon-Hill I'm so fed up with those cheap responses under the video with zero knowledge of the subject or effort, just to fish for some likes.

And Jokic is so overrated

Only casuals don’t know about Tucker and his defense. He’s a big reason why the Rockets were able to go crazy with small-ball lineups

@Fate Riddle
"Rodman is underrated as a rebounder"
🤣

He's ONLY RATED as a defender