Denver Nuggets: Malone Excuses Nikola Jokic's Poor Start
The Denver Nuggets, who were suppose to have the NBA’s next superstar big man in Nikola Jokic, have seen him struggle through the team’s first twelve.
After a huge Olympics for Serbian Nikola Jokic, he earned the starting center spot, but after quick experimentation, it was quickly changed to power forward. With the first several games starting a “Jurkic” lineup, Malone quickly switched it up.
His switch up sent Jokic to the bench where he has continued to struggled. I recently wrote this regarding Jokic’s shift to the bench:
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“His efficiency is down, his shooting his down, his rebounding is down- something must be done for Jokic to continue to unlock his star potential. Now it is coach Malone’s hands, and he must find out who Jokic thrives and use his accordingly.”
According to BSN Denver, Malone said this about the expectations regarding Jokic, “You guys got to understand, he’s not going to be the same player he was last year,” Malone said after Jokic scored eight points, grabbed 12 rebounds, struggled defensively, but notably closed the fourth quarter and overtime for Denver. “Gallo was out, Wilson Chandler was out. Last two months of the season we played our young guys, we played them 35 minutes a night almost. We’re healthy, we have guys playings, so everybody stop expecting Nikola Jokic to be something he’s not. I think it’s unfair to him.”
Jokic has been the Nuggets ninth best scoring in terms of points per game scoring. HIs efficiency has been a problem all season.
With all that said, is it time to start worrying about Jokic instead of Mudiay?
Personally, the biggest problem has to be his efficiency, and hopefully that starts to take a turn for the best soon.
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