Which player is actually ‘best’ at guarding Nikola Jokic
For whatever reason before the WCF in 2023, there was a conception that Anthony Davis does very well against Nikola Jokic however that narrative has completely flipped.
I’ve seen Nurkic, Ayton, Draymond and Gobert mentioned before but the facts (stats) seem untrue.
While there might not be a Jokic stopper, is there an actual player that defends Jokic well to the point of keeping him to or below his averages?
How does Embiid do against Jokic because he’s bigger and probably stronger and is a great rim protector
Embiid is better at guarding Jokic than Jokic is Embiid (at least that seems clear in their limited matchups), but I don’t think either is great at it. I think Embiid could be but he’s always kinda worn down on the offensive end.
This hasn’t been true outside of 1 half last year. Go watch the first half of that matchup and tell me Embiid played better defense than Jokic.
I’ve only seen them play each other like twice, but both times I remember screaming at my TV that Jokic was getting eaten by Embiid and they should switch to trying to have Gordon guard Embiid and send help if he gets deep. Just seemed like Jokic was always a half step too slow for Embiid and they’d be better off asking Jokic to be a help defender.
Joking was cooking Embiid in the first half of that 47 point game. The 76ers then switched PJ Tucker on Jokic in the second half and slowed him down
It was more so to allow Embiid to stay near the rim rather than get pull away and Jokic hit a cutter for an easy 2 since no one else in the team can protect the rim
That’s because it’s always a much better decision to not have your best rim protector on jokic. It just takes them away from being able to guard anyone else. If they’re moved off they can constantly help with defending him, but can also influence the rest of the defence. It’s why the lakers switched AD and Rui as well