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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 29: Nikola Jokic #15 of the Denver Nuggets reacts during the second quarter of game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on October 29, 2024 in New York City.NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Michelle Farsi\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Nikola Jokic<\/a> has established himself as one of the best basketball players on the planet. He\u2019s also played his entire 11-year NBA<\/a> career with the same team, the Denver Nuggets<\/a>. The three-time NBA MVP wasn\u2019t always regarded as a can\u2019t miss talent though. Jokic was drafted with the No. 41 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n His basketball knowledge, mixed with his all-round abilities<\/a>, has turned the 31-year-old, All-NBA center into one of the toughest players to guard in the entire league. While at times, it\u2019s seemed that he\u2019s simply unstoppable, Jokic himself has admitted there\u2019s certain players he doesn\u2019t love seeing on the other side of the floor.<\/p>\n Nikola Jokic Reveals His Biggest Defensive Challenge<\/p>\n Some of Jokic\u2019s center opposition, no matter the triple-double numbers the Serbian powerhouse puts up, apparently give him fits. During an appearance this week on the \u201cJao Mile Podcast\u201d, Jokic revealed the NBA players who give him the hardest time on the defensive end.<\/p>\n \u201c(Ivica) Zubac guards me very well, and (Jusuf) Nurkic too. I guess we are bit chubby, so when we\u2019re battling physically, I can\u2019t really move them, uh, that much,\u201d Jokic said.<\/p>\n \u201cWho guards me the best? Everybody! The league is just as talented defensively as it is offensively.<\/p>\n Ivica Zubac and Jusuf Nurkic, they\u2019re chubby like me, so it\u2019s hard for me to move them. <\/p>\n Rudy Gobert: I know people say all kinds of things about him, but I think he\u2019s a great <\/p>\n Mile Ilic is a former professional Serbian basketball player who\u2019s turned to podcasting in his post-playing career. The exclusive conversation took place in the duo\u2019s native language of Serbian. The podcast is available on YouTube and anywhere you can find podcasts, however, the above clip was posted to social media by Basketball Sphere<\/a> (@BSphere_) on X. Translations from Serbian to English were provided in the captioning on the video. Video credit also goes to Ilic himself on X (@mileilic<\/a>).<\/p>\n Jokic went on to list a handful of players who he feels guard him well. Ironically, which he also alludes to, he\u2019s had monster performances against seemingly all of them.<\/p>\n \u201cRudy Gobert<\/a>: I know people have all kinds of opinions about him, but Rudy is a really good defender. He showed it in the last playoffs. Even though I\u2019ve had some good games against him, I really think he\u2019s a good defender. Jalen Duren<\/a> from Detroit, he\u2019s kind of smaller and tough to deal with. Wendell Carter<\/a> Jr. is another one, smaller but tough to deal with. The entire Oklahoma City team\u2026 Wemby, Victor,\u201d Jokic said.<\/p>\n Jokic Dominates Entire NBA Statistically<\/p>\n Jokic appears to be being nice, and modest. Assuredly there are better and worse defensive centers in the NBA. Jokic however, the walking triple-double, has dominated them all at some point in his career. Jokic paid a compliment to Gobert, the four-time Defensive Player of the Year. However, according to Basketball Reference<\/a>, Jokic has averaged 22.2 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 7.5 assists per game in the 56 total games he\u2019s played against Gobert. Those totals include 32 regular season games as well as 24 playoff games.<\/p>\n Jokic averaged 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 10.7 assists per game last season. He\u2019s also averaged a triple-double in back-to-back seasons now as well. He can talk about players who are hard to push around because they possess similar size as him, but the recipe for stopping Jokic on a basketball court hasn\u2019t been created as of 2026.<\/p>\n As per FanDuel Sportsbook, Jokic sits as the third-favorite to win the NBA MVP in 2026-27 (plus-600). He trails only Victor Wembanyama<\/a> (plus-200), and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> (plus-350). Jokic has won or finished runner-up in MVP voting in six consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tDave Ettinger<\/a> Dave Ettinger is a veteran sports writer, covering breaking and trending news across the NBA and NFL for Heavy.com. With over 10 years of experience in sports media, Dave\u2019s versatility extends to television, radio, and journalism. More about Dave Ettinger<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 29: Nikola Jokic #15 of the Denver Nuggets reacts during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-888026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}