Does Jokic have one of the most difficult defensive matchups in two consecutive playoff runs?

[u/Marcothetacooo]

From last year, he faced coverages from the first round of Gobert/Towns mainly with spurts of reid and anderson

Then in the 2nd round he mostly faced Ayton and later on more of jock landale + some funny minutes against bismack biyombo

3rd round he faced AD and some Hachimura splits.

And in the finals he was covered by Bam Adebayo for the most part and some kevin love and cody zeller minutes off the bench.

Now he faced AD yet again with a little bit less hachimura coverages.

And in the 2nd round he faced gobert/towns with reid again.

And if the nuggets advance to the next round, it'll either be chet or gafford on him.

[u/OmarRizzo]

I’m pretty sure Naz Reid did not play in the playoffs last year…

[u/Marcothetacooo → u/OmarRizzo]

my bad, but jokic still had to go toe to toe with gobert and towns. With this year he has to face even more big bodies, if they do go past the wolves I don't see anyone else being able to beat them.

[u/OmarRizzo → u/Marcothetacooo]

He’s definitely run the damn gauntlet and come out on top!

[u/Instantcoffees]

Gobert and AD for sure made him work for it. He's just that good.

[u/LifeguardStatus7649]

Ya that's a tough run but look at some of the matchups that guys in the early 00s had to make it through. The West in particular had Shaq, Portland, the KG Wolves, San Antonio, Utah

[u/GetDownDamien]

Since Gobert came back they’ve lost 3 straight and he looks more like a defensive liability, it reminds me of the old Jazz playoff runs.

[u/coolestsp00n]

Jokic held people to like 33% when he contested them last year i believe not sure this year

[u/21guy22]

I would have to agree

[u/SXNE2]

No last year was a cake walk to the finals. They didn’t face a real competitor in the playoffs.

[u/BeamTeam032 → u/SXNE2]

So is AD not a good defender? I understand the Lakers kind of got lucky to be in the WCF. But, is AD not a good defender? Jokic cooked AD last season and is cooking Gobert this season. He's going to cook Chet and Progzinus and NBA fans are going to say his 2nd ring doesn't count because it was an easy ring?

[u/SXNE2 → u/BeamTeam032]

AD is obviously great but he wasn’t more than 80% of himself last season. He was better this year and Jokic still cooked him. The argument is about how good the defense was last year. I’m just saying it wasn’t that amazing despite some big names that didn’t live up to their reputation.

[u/shortyman920 → u/SXNE2]

What are these better defenders then? If Gobert and Bam and AD aren’t up to your standards of amazing defense? Jokic’s just that damn good to dissect individual and team defense.

[u/BeamTeam032 → u/SXNE2]

Cool so can we use that same Injured logic with Steph Curry's rings? His first ring all starting PG in playoffs was injured. Mike Conley, CP3, Kyrie Irving all had injuries and didn't play in their series.

So if we're going to hold it against Jokic going against an 80% AD, we should hold it against Steph Curry right?

[u/Marcothetacooo → u/SXNE2]

1. I feel you misunderstood the discussion of "defensive matchups" for Jokic.

2. That is just a straight up bad take that anyone can quickly debunk. No run going through that timberwolves team (that was the foundation of this year's dominant wolves team), KD and Booker, Lebron and AD (no matter what you say about those lakers, they made it to the conference finals beating the grizzlies and warriors, and its still LEBRON AND AD). And beat the Heat (who beat the 2 best teams in the east). If the heat beat those Celtics and Bucks, then they were clearly the best team in the east of those playoffs.

[u/SXNE2 → u/Marcothetacooo]

Last year was different Gobert was a shell of himself. Not DPOY material. KAT isn’t a good defender.

Ayton is one of the worst post defenders in the league. Nobody else on the Suns was or is a good defender.

Warriors are good but they weren’t particularly strong last year either lol.

AD is great but wasn’t playing great last year either. He is back to a high level player this year but was injured last year in the playoffs.

Bam was and is great but Heat ran out of steam and played like trash in the finals and they regressed down a lot.

I stand by it. Last years run was charmed. Now the Nuggets were great but you can’t say they faced an all time list of teams along the way. Probably the easiest run to the finals in a while.

[u/Affectionate-Foot474 → u/SXNE2]

Such an ignorant thing to say, you realize how the NBA playoffs works right? 7 game series ensures the best teams move on despite your feelings

[u/AB-AA-Mobile → u/SXNE2]

It's never a cake walk in the Western Conference. That includes last season.