Ever since Tim Connelly left Denver and started running the Timberwolves, that organization has done everything in its power to build a team to take down the Nuggets. They did just that in the 2024 playoffs, largely thanks to jumbo lineups featuring some combination of Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Naz Reid.
But as time goes by, and as great a defender as Gobert is, it has become abundantly clear that Jokic takes their matchup personally and goes out of his way to dominate Rudy. Last season, he dropped a 60-point triple-double against the Wolves, and on Christmas Day, he unleashed a 56-16-16 triple-double on Rudy and the Wolves.
Jokic constantly rises to the occasion, dating back to when Gobert was in Utah, and he always shows up to lay the smack down against the four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year. The 2024 playoff series masked it temporarily, but in retrospect, it was the ability of KAT to battle with Joker while Gobert roamed free.
When Gobert tries to defend Jokic one-on-one, things don’t end well. This time around, we saw the Wolves attempt to have Julius Randle on Nikola, and eventually settled on Jaden McDaniels, an elite defender in his own right. But they don’t have someone with the size, strength, and athleticism of KAT to truly give Jokic trouble and allow Gobert to patrol the paint freely.
Teams will attack Gobert relentlessly in playoffs
We’ve seen time and again, as good as Rudy is during the regular season, once the playoffs begin and teams start gameplanning for every single possession, things don’t go as well. Teams have played him off the floor by attacking him in pick-and-roll, and the Nuggets have offered a blueprint for directly attacking Gobert.
The thing is, Gobert is still an exceptional defensive player, and things get even worse when he’s not on the floor. As effective as Denver was going at him, when they move him off the center and put him in his natural role, almost playing goalie, it’s a very impactful approach.
The problem is that they don’t have the luxury to do it regularly enough without the complementary defenders surrounding him. Even in the loss and with Jokic going crazy, the Wolves were +18 with Gobert on the floor, which means they got pummeled by a point a minute during the 22 minutes Rudy was on the bench.
Part of that was because Gobert fouled out after just 33 minutes, another issue that will pop up the more he’s forced to guard Jokic. Realistically, it’s a bit “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”. There’s no good way to tackle the Jokic matchup, but for whatever reason, when the Joker sees Gobert on him, he sees red and somehow takes his game to an even higher level.