A dish indeed.
this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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Gordon has completely transformed being in this team. You love to see it.
He loves Jokić so much, he went to Serbia to watch his horses race.
And before that, went to Czechia to see Jokic play for his Serbian team.
Having Gordon be the 4th scoring option but letting him do a decent amount of passing and handling while having him defend the other teams best wing is basically the perfect situation for him, he’s very lucky he ended up in such a good situation but deserves a lot of credit for taking the opportunity so well
It’s easy to forget in the ~10 games right after he was traded they instantly looked like they jumped to an insane level. Then Murray goes down and when he’s back for a full season, they win a championship.
One of the great “fits like a glove” trades that unlocked their whole roster.
All for RJ Hampton and the shell of Gary Harris (though I still want him back on the Nuggets)
He's the perfect fit for this team as a lob threat and paint scorer. Just a beast.
That combined with AG being a very underrated passer too. It's just an absolute nightmare of a frontcourt to defend
Ya he's not the most dynamic scorer, but he's a matchup problem for a lot of teams. Especially when you already have to guard Jokic. Very impactful player
It's crazy that passes like this have become routine for Jokic. Catching the ball with one hand above the 3pt line and immediately passing it for a reverse lob without even touching the ball with you other hand is insane and happens like once every few years, if that.
If you played waterpolo, it really isn't. In water, you are forced to catch balls with 1 hand because you need the other hand for balance and positioning . Now basketball is a bit bigger and maybe a bit heavier than waterpolo ball, but jokic is 7 feet tall , so for him, it's basically the same size .
lmao yeah I mean I'm sure it's different in a completely different sport that's played in water but I don't see how that has anything to do with basketball. It's kind of like saying that archers have great accuracy so pitchers in baseball should follow suit
Jokic used to play waterpolo. That's one theory as to his unique skillet. I kinda think it's chicken or the egg personally but that's why they brought it up lol
You don't see it cuz you never played. You also can't understand that skills transfer from sport to sport . I guess I should have explained it like to a 5 year old, my bad .
When exactly did Jokic play waterpolo to such an extent that waterpolo movements seeped into his basketball skill set? Given that he was already a star basketball player by 18 with NBA aspirations I'm finding it hard to believe that he had some hidden waterpolo career going on in the meantime. It's not exactly a sport you can play by going to the park for some pickup.
When he was younger, also he stopped playing basketball for a year or so because he wanted to do be a horse rancher or something.
Also, the whole talk about waterpolo is about how softly he receives the pass from kcp with 1 hand and controls it with his hand without gripping it much with his fingers . We are taught in waterpolo how to handle the ball without gripping it with fingers and if you ever played waterpolo you would know how much of that jokic uses to manipulate the ball . You don't need to play for years to master that , you get the jist of it pretty fast and with jokices natural talent he just incorporated that into basketball
Yeah I mean that's fair. I know waterpolo is a relatively popular sport in Serbia but it's still one of the most physically demanding sports in existence and requires a ton of development to even be able to play casually for a few minutes. I run 3-hour marathons and just a couple of minutes of screwing around with waterpolo made me want to pass out.
World Champ AG
The pass is amazing. But it's how he scans the floor and sees a matchup/coverage he can take advantage of immediately and finds/executes that as proficiently as he does that's just as impressive.
This is why the Nuggets are so tough. The Clippers mess up their assignments after a made basket, Jokic/Gordon see it, and it immediately leads to a dunk.
As an old person who has seen some shitty basketball, I still can't believe this is my Denver Nuggets.
God he's a freak
The behind the head dunk needs to be mentioned