Nikola Jokic’s stats are constantly jaw-dopping on a nightly basis. He puts up ridiculous numbers across the board, rewriting history books, and vying for his fourth NBA MVP Award in five years.
You can look at his box score on any given night and you never know just what you’ll see. Maybe he scored 40+ points, maybe he put up 20+ rebounds, maybe he dished out 15+ assists, and on some nights he does all of those things.
This season, he has even expanded his range of crazy stats to include leading the league in heaves, setting a new mark for the longest average 3-point attempt, and much more. Beyond his crazy triple-double stats, he’s also near the top of the league in 3-point percentage, steals, and deflections.
Jokic’s touches per game the new number to watch
But suddenly, a new statistic has come under the microscope and it relates to the way teams are defending Jokic and the Nuggets. We saw JJ Redick’s gameplan work to perfection, bothering the Joker with constant physicality and pressure.
They worked relentlessly to hound him with bodies all over the court, keeping him away from his spots and denying him the ball as much as possible. The strategy proved to be effective as the Nuggets’ offense looked completely out of sorts and the Lakers won big.
We’ve since seen other teams attempt to copy this defense and keep the ball out of Jokic’s hands as much as possible. To add some perspective, Jokic averages 104 touches per game on the season, but in the loss to the Lakers, he touched the ball just 82 times.
The Kings mimicked this gameplan, holding Jokic to just 87 touches, and had great success, managing to keep the game close until the final minutes. Going forward, it seems like a certainty that teams are going to defend the Nuggets this way as much as possible.
Jokic averages 104 touches per game.
— SportShorts (@den_shorts) March 6, 2025
He only had 82 vs the Lakers and 87 vs the Kings, who both played the aggressive fronting and triple team on the catch defense.
If I’m the Nuggets opponent, this is the key indicator I care about more than any other stat on the team.
No team is going to be able to completely eliminate Jokic, but the more teams can limit his impact, the better chance they are going to have of beating Denver. The Nuggets’ offense is elite because of Jokic. If he can be taken out of the game, the Nuggets become extremely pedestrian and beatable.
It’s something that Michael Malone and his staff are going to have to work on and figure out. They can’t change the personnel, but they can find a way to put as much shooting and spacing around Jokic and find ways to get him the ball in good spots or take advantage of teams that try to prevent that.
They still have 20 games to work on before the playoffs, but the Nuggets are going to see this more and more. Jokic’s touches per game are going to be a major talking point down the stretch and something to monitor closely as the team tries to work through it.