Following the Denver Nuggets’ 2023 NBA championship, Nikola Jokic is now extensively thought to be the very best participant within the league, deservedly so. For years he has been thought of the most effective passers, playmakers, and total offensive gamers within the league. Jokic can be the very best put up participant within the NBA, however the one space of concern was all the time his protection.
Whereas some NBA speaking heads claimed that Jokic was a non-existent rim protector, a traffic-cone on the perimeter, and that it will be unattainable to construct a championship-caliber protection round him, he proved everybody unsuitable. One of many greatest causes as to why his protection didn’t endure within the playoffs was resulting from nice schematic workforce protection and Jokic’s skill to have energetic fingers and get any a part of his physique into the passing lanes whereas overlaying screen-plays, together with his knack for kicked balls.
Not solely was Jokic eighth amongst qualifiers within the NBA in deflections per recreation (3.1), however he additionally made use of getting his legs and ft on the ball when wanted, getting “foot deflections” or as they’re extra generally often called, kicked balls. Jokic led the NBA with 47 kicked balls in 2022-2023, which was greater than 27 different NBA groups. With there being 333 whole kicked balls final season, Jokic accounted for 14.1% of all kicked balls. Right here is the highest 10 checklist for kicked balls within the 2022-2023 season:
Nikola Jokic: 47 kicked ball violationsNikola Vucevic: 19 kicked ball violationsNic Claxton: 18 kicked ball violationsJakob Poeltl: 18 kicked ball violationsJaden McDaniels: 16 kicked ball violationsDomantas Sabonis: 15 kicked ball violationsJusuf Nurkic: 13 kicked ball violationsLuka Doncic: 11 kicked ball violationsJonas Valanciunas: 11 kicked ball violationsPascal Siakam: 10 kicked ball violations
In a world of defensive hurdles for NBA gamers, kicked balls are a legitimate type of protection for Jokic.
The NBA is a league the place defending has grow to be increasingly troublesome resulting from no hand-checking on protection, defensive 3-second violations, travels and carries not being known as on offensive gamers, shifting screens going unnoticed, and the general spacing within the fashionable NBA.
For these causes, any edge {that a} defensive participant can get needs to be prioritized and celebrated, not criticized. A lot to the dismay of some NBA analysts and informal followers, who declare that kicked balls are foul play and an inexpensive or lazy approach to defend, it’s an elite defensive tactic that takes ability, timing, and anticipation.
Zach Lowe with ESPN mentioned on his podcast, “Jokic has 45 kicked ball violations this yr. [Number two] has 17. It’s his approach of claiming ‘I simply don’t really feel like taking part in protection.’ It’s good, however we shouldn’t permit guys to karate kick the ball…” Lowe does state that it’s a good defensive technique from Jokic however that he merely doesn’t prefer it, probably as a result of it disrupts the move of the sport and is by definition, a violation.
Regardless, simply because Jokic has discovered a approach to cope and survive regardless of all the defensive hurdles of the fashionable NBA, doesn’t imply that he “doesn’t really feel like taking part in protection”. If kicked balls had been straightforward to do, extra gamers, particularly huge males, could be doing it.
Kicked balls happen most frequently when a screen-play on the perimeter takes place and the opponent is trying to feed a go right into a participant who’s reducing to the rim or posting up. Kicking the ball in that state of affairs helps reset the protection and protects the rim, particularly for a workforce whose main blocker final season was Aaron Gordon at a measly 0.8 BPG.
When Jokic is kicking the ball, it’s nearly all the time when he’s not in place to contest a backdoor cutter. It additionally permits your entire protection to take a second for relaxation and restoration, which could be essential within the playoffs when star gamers are taking part in 40+ minutes an evening.
It’s fully truthful to say that extra huge males within the NBA needs to be adopting the kicked ball approach reasonably than attempting to power Jokic to cease doing it. Search for Jokic to attempt to hit 50 kicked balls in 2023-2024 which might break the document he set final season.
Printed on 08/14/2023 at 3:00 PM EDTLast up to date on 08/14/2023 at 3:00 PM EDT
