Nikola Jokic is going to have a busy offseason. It's just been announced by a Serbian site, "Mozzart Sport," that he is going to play for the Serbian national team this summer, in July and August, and it'll offer a preview for the Denver Nuggets and Nuggets fans alike of a question we all have after the playoff series with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Has Joker's wrist gotten better?
Jokic will play for Serbia, according to the team's coach, Dusan Alimpijevic. It'll offer an early-season preview for all of us to see how his right wrist is feeling and whether he can improve on the poor three-point shooting that plagued him for much of the second half of the season. It was especially noticeable in the first round defeat to the Timberwolves.
At times this season, Jokic was seen with an ice pack on his wrist while resting on the sidelines, and it's likely a contributing factor to his exorbitant number of turnovers in some games, too. Jokic had multiple games of nine turnovers this year, and one game of 10.
Jokic was uncharacteristically bad against Minnesota
There must have been something wrong with the wrist against the Timberwolves. Joker couldn't hit a wide-open three, which allowed the Timberwolves to adjust their defensive game plan and neutralize the Nuggets' offense. Jokic was just 7-36 from deep, for a putrid 19.4%.
It effectively took away a lot of passing lanes as well, since the Wolves' defense was able to play man and get a body part in the way. The Nuggets were stifled, and the league's top offense failed to reach 100 points in three of the six games.
Jokic still finished the series with a 9.5 assist per game number, but the lack of the three-point shot stood out like a sore thumb.
Jokic will have a head start on figuring out his wrist
What if this problem with his wrist is going to be with him in the long term? Well, this is Jokic we're talking about, the smartest basketball player in the NBA. He's going to figure out how to get past this next season. At least, we hope he does.
Perhaps he makes a small alteration to his release, or something in his shooting form that allows for greater comfort, or whatever he needs, to improve his three-point shot. Prior to the All-Star break, before this popped up, he was shooting 42.0%, and he shot 41.7% last year. Post-All-Star break, it dropped to 31.6%, then plummeted in the playoffs.
We'll definitely have a good sample size to look at this summer to gauge whether Joker's wrist looks better or not heading into the new season.
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