![]() ![]() Jokic playing the 4 has been a major weakness of his game so far this season, but Nurkic has been exploding in his new role this year, averaging 10.8 points, 8 rebounds, and a block & a half per game. Malone has been experimented with the so-called “Jurkic” combo by moving Jokic to the 4 spot and allowing Jusuf Nurkic to take over at Center. ![]() “I feel like I've done him a disservice” Coach said after the Nuggets loss to Detroit at home. Malone has some hurtfully true things to say about the issue of Nikola Jokic in the Denver Nuggets roster. Something is clearly off with Jokic and it's up to him and coach Malone to figure out what's going on. Not to mention his personal foul numbers have gone from 2.6 to 3.4 per game. Compared to his final stats of 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 0.6 blocks in 23 minutes of playtime per game. He's only averaging 8.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2 assists, and a minuscule 0.2 blocks in 21.7 minutes of playtime per game. The appropriately hyped Serbian giant has not put up great numbers in the Nuggets first 10 games. But despite his early success during his rookie season, Jokic is off to a lackluster start in the 2016-17 NBA season. It was a dream come true for any young basketball enthusiast and seemed all uphill from there. From all angles, Jokic is a production beast and is a threat from any corner of the game. Among rookies, he was 4th in rebounding, 5th in FG%, 7th in blocking, 8th in scoring, and an amazing 6th in assists. He won a silver medal with his home country of Serbia and was picked 3rd best rookie of the year by NBA.com. I think that’s important.Nikola Jokic just had one of the better off-seasons of any rookie in the NBA. “But I’m anxious to see closely what we’re going to do offensively, be able to pivot a little bit, adjust, see what he does well and then the rest of the guys. Although you’re coaching him and he was playing, it was just the Pro Bowl. It’s a half-hour long, from stretch to last whistle - it’s kind of entertainment city. “When you coach a guy at a Pro Bowl - you guys have to be at a Pro Bowl practice. “I’m anxious to work with him,” Payton said. The Broncos’ fortunes under Payton are about more than the quarterback’s level of play, but that doesn’t change Wilson’s importance going forward. Payton this past week in Arizona told the “Up & Adams” show that when a team goes 5-12, “a lot of people have dirt on their hands. “I think Sean does all of those things at the top level of play-callers in the NFL.” ![]() “There’s a difference between a guy that designs plays well and a guy that can adjust and call them well in a game,” former Saints quarterback Luke McCown said recently. But before that they were never worse than 12th in his 14 other seasons as the head coach. The Saints finished 19th in 2021, Payton’s final season there and the franchise’s first after Drew Brees’ retirement. 22 in the NFL in scoring since Peyton Manning retired. Those who have worked with Payton in the past think he is well-equipped to find the right recipe for Wilson and the rest of Denver’s offense, which hasn’t finished better than No. I’m learning about every one of these players, not just Russell.” “How do we get them comfortable and highlight their strengths? That’s the process that’s going to begin right now. “I don’t like singing, period, but none of us want to be at a karaoke bar with a song we don’t know the words to,” he said. He’s more interested in the other side of the equation. Payton said that, sure, “It’s easy to point out what players don’t do well.” Wilson, of course, is coming off the worst season of his pro career. We played him quite a bit just because we were both playoff teams in the NFC at that time. You take that and you understand the skill set. I know he’s an extremely hard worker, and that’s important. … Here’s what I know: I know that he’s a hard worker. “Then, let’s try to put them in those positions. 1 job for us as coaches in evaluating our players is, what are the things that they do really well?” Payton said Monday at his introductory news conference. ![]()
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