“The permanent sub” OKC Thunder’s failed plan to slow down Nikola Jokic
Nikola Jokic is a three time NBA MVP. So far, no one in the league has figured out a way to slow him down, but the Thunder tried some new on Monday night.
Nikola Jokic has dominated the NBA for the last half decade. He may not be the fastest, or the strongest or the highest jumper, but no one in the game does more for their team than the Serbian does for the Denver Nuggets.
Jones designated permanent sub role
Slowing him down has been a point of focus for all 29 other coaches in the league. No one has been able to do so up until this point, but on Monday Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault implemented a new strategy to try and slow Jokic and the Nuggets down.
Early in the game, Daigneault had one of his bench players stand at the scorers table acting as if he was going to check into the game. Rookie Dillon Jones was chosen as the “permanent sub.” After playing a game for the Thunder’s G-League team earlier in the day, he was called up and used as a prop in efforts for slow down Denver’s pace of play.
“The officials are the ones in charge of pace of how fast the ball gets inbounded,” the 40-year-old coach said. “Jokic is savvy. And if I was coaching Jokic, I’d appreciate him doing this, too. But he gets the ball very quickly from them, and he starts the fast break. And the officials start the fast break for him because he demands the ball, they hand it to him, and he zips up the floor.”
Is there no stopping the Joker?
Jones never took off his warm ups, and never ended up checking into the game, but he played a role in the Thunder’s defensive game plan against Jokic, and the Serbian took note. “That was a smart move by him, but I think the league wants to speed up the game,” said Jokic.
In terms of legality, Daigneault says he is playing within the league rules. “I don’t know if there’s a rule against doing that,” Daigneault said. “I think you can have a sub up there and choose not to put him in the game.”
The plan didn’t really work too well. The Nuggets scored 140 points in their win over the Thunder and Jokic posted 35, 18 and 8 assists against the Thunder and their “permanent sub.”
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