Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic had a fairly worrying take on his team after their season-opening loss to Oklahoma City.
The Thunder beat the Nuggets in Denver 102-87 on Thursday with an impressive performance on both sides of the ball. The Nuggets were held to 35.7 percent shooting overall and went just 7/38 from three-point range in the defeat.
After the game, Jokic suggested those performances were not a coincidence, and called out the team for not having enough good shooters.
“We don’t shoot the ball really good. Not a good shooting team except Mike (Porter Jr.) and Jamal (Murray),” Jokic said. “All of us are kind of streaky, not streaky, but just average shooters. But we have something else. We can probably have advantages in some other things on the floor.”
Nikola Jokic: "We are not a good shooting team, except Mike and Jamal. All of us are kind of streaky, not streaky, but just average shooters."#MileHighBasketball pic.twitter.com/bOH2TeRdEv
— DNVR Nuggets (@DNVR_Nuggets) October 25, 2024
Jokic is right that the Nuggets have certain advantages elsewhere, but the NBA has increasingly become a league that rewards shooting. Denver could run into real problems if it cannot take advantage of Jokic’s presence, as he would be even more effective with good floor spacing that opponents have to respect.
Jokic certainly does not think the Nuggets are in for a bad season, at least not yet. There are some others that are a bit more concerned about them, though.
