Of all the supremely skilled offensive players in the NBA, perhaps none is as tough to defend as Nikola Jokic. The Nuggets center has the deepest toolbox in the game, with the ability to see the floor like no one else. One of the best passing big men to ever play, Jokic can also score both inside and out, while making everyone around him better.
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Any time Jokic gets matched up with four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, it’s a treat for basketball fans. Gobert is the anchor of the Timberwolves’ defense, a shot-blocking, rebound machine who is one of the few players capable of taking Jokic out of his comfort zone.
Gobert recently joined The Young Man and the Three podcast, and he was asked by host Tommy Alter what his perspective was when going against the three-time MVP.
“Just trying to make him work as hard as I can, trying to bother him enough to give my team a chance to win the game,” Gobert said. “I always embrace those challenges. When I wake up and I get to play Jokic, I’m always grateful that I get to try to stop one of the best players in the world.”
Jokic can beat you in so many different ways, but Gobert said that it wasn’t necessarily his passing or scoring ability that was the most impressive thing about his game. “I think the way his brain works, the way he’s able to adapt to situations, and most of the time make the right play,” the 7’1″ Frenchman said.
“Doing it while tired, doing it while playing a lot of minutes, I think that’s what makes him unique,” he continued. “He’s very big, very tall, has an amazing touch, but I think the way his brain works is very unique.”
NBA fans have definitely seen Jokic’s brain in action, as he often makes seemingly impossible passes that would never even occur to other players. From full-court outlets to no-look touch passes, perhaps no player in the league has as many non-shooting highlights as Jokic does.
Gobert and his Timberwolves have faced Jokic and his Nuggets twice in the playoffs, in 2023 and 2024. Jokic led his team to a 4-1 victory and an eventual championship in 2023, but the Wolves shocked the world by overcoming a 3-2 series deficit and winning Game 7 in Denver in 2024 on their way to the Western Conference Finals.
The teams nearly met again this past year, but the Nuggets were eliminated, again in Game 7, this time by the eventual champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round. Had they advanced, they would have faced the Wolves with a spot in the NBA Finals on the line.
Both the Nuggets and Wolves are expected to be contenders this upcoming season, but with a brutally difficult West that includes the Thunder, the new-look Rockets with Kevin Durant, the Luka Doncic-led Lakers and the Warriors with their first full season of Jimmy Butler, meeting again deep in the playoffs is no guarantee.
