Nikola Jokic is a warrior. Every night, he gives his best effort, no matter how tired he may be from all of the Nuggets' travel this season. But even the biggest of warriors sometimes fall prey to a new plan of attack. And even though Jokic's still putting up triple-doubles on a near-nightly basis, this new, physical strategy that opposing teams have begun to deploy against the Joker is a cause for concern.
It's a hot topic of debate at the moment. Jokic has been getting pushed, clawed, hip-checked, and anything else you might call physical play used against him. He even has some battle scars on his right shoulder from the physical contact he's recently faced.
And physical contact against Jokic in a season that he already had a knee injury bad enough to require a 16-game absence isn't exactly a strategy you want to see deployed against the face of your franchise and the world's best basketball player.
The Nuggets need to adjust the offense
It's been brought up now by both Bill Simmons and Denver local radio that the offense is predictable. Bring the ball down the court and pass it to Jokic, and let him figure out what to do.
Well, now the defense is sending small guards out to front Joker, guarding him away from the hoop, and the contact isn't being called, either.
As they suggested on local radio, perhaps try something different? Get the Joker into the paint instead of at the top of the key and see if anything changes on the physicality front. Plus, you can't be so predictable if you're going to win a championship.
Jokic has still been putting up fantastic numbers
Despite the physical play he's been facing, Jokic has still been putting up fantastic numbers. Over his last 15 games, he's still the leader in rebounding at 13.3 per game, and assists at 10.8, and he's added 26.3 points, so nothing has changed there. He's still a walking triple-double machine.
However, Jokic is shooting a lower percentage over those 15 games, 54% from the floor and 31% from three, than he was prior to the All-Star break. Which could be attributed to the wrist on his shooting hand that's been bothering him, or perhaps these pesky guards that are getting under his skin.
Jokic has been clearly frustrated at times. He's had moments where, instead of yelling at the refs after he was just mobbed, he instead just stared them down.
And if you saw how Jokic stared at Lou Dort after the dirty hip check against the Thunder, then you haven't seen how scary of a look he can have when he wants. But only to the ones that have done him wrong, of course.