Jokic and Embiid, how to beat the Lakers?

Jokic would love to get the first 50 points in his life, and he stayed on the court when the Nuggets were leading the Jazz by more than 20 points, with only three or four minutes left in the game, and his counterpart Gobert had long been off the court.

Unfortunately, slamming to score is not in line with Jokic’s character, and he scored only 2 points in two or three minutes. It wasn’t until the last 1:39 that the coach felt really embarrassed and switched him off.

The Nuggets ended the Jazz’s 11-game winning streak, and Jokic’s new personal high of 47 points pushed a very recent hot topic back to the forefront: will the MVP return to the big center this season?

Embiid, Jokic, Gobert and Vucevic, the traditional type 5 centers, have been unusually popular this season. Not only are they the tactical core of the team, but most of them have made a significant improvement in the team’s record. In the last few years of small ball trend, the status of traditional centers had fallen, but these centers with excellent skills, most of them can be inside and outside, evolved into a new generation of all-around centers and become a dominant force in the league.

In less than five years, the big centers have returned.

What was the last time a big 5 center won an MVP?
In 2000, it was O’Neal.

In that decade, O’Neal, Yao Ming, Howard, these star centers, do not have to run to the three-point line to shoot, as usual, eat and drink. But with the NBA’s offensive and defensive transition rhythm is getting faster and faster, Yao Ming can not run, he said to O’Neal: we such a center, like dinosaurs, to become extinct.

Howard, who is good at running and jumping, was able to hang on for a while. In 2011, three people wrote Howard’s name on the first position of the MVP ballot, but 113 people wrote Rose. It was the last time the traditional №5 center appeared at the top of the ballot. Four years later, the small ball, represented by the “Splash Brothers,” won the championship.

Since 2011, the MVP vote scored the top 10 stars of each session, the real 5 center, regardless of technical characteristics, the closest to the MVP can only be ranked fourth, respectively, Noah in 2014 and Jokic in 2019, Duncan, Aldridge and Embiid ranked seventh.

Jokic, Embiid, Davis and Aldridge such skilled centers, gradually rising in the top 10 ranking, the frequency increased, representing a trend: skilled centers kill back, they kill a path in the small ball trend, regained the spotlight for the big centers, MVP back in their hands, it is also a matter of time.

So, using the term “traditional center” to describe them is not accurate. The generation of centers, Embiid and Jokic, have the advantages of traditional centers — tall and dominant under the basket — and also have strengths that their predecessors did not have, most of them can shoot from long range, have a wide field of vision and can pass the ball, although not fast, but also can dribble layups.

Now, at least a few teams are playing with a big center at the core of their game — the 76ers around Embiid, Jokic is the Nuggets’ organizational center, the Magic rely on Vucevic, and in the Timberwolves it’s Towns. Some teams are still centered on the outside, but a good big center is an important component, for example, the Jazz’s tactics all start with Mitchell and Gobert’s block, the Suns have Ayton, the Mavericks are Porzingis, the Cavaliers have not been out to let the rebounding king Drummond, Aldridge is not playing, the Spurs win or lose a lot of influence.

Of course, the team’s record must be allowed to change essentially, the star big center’s status can be recognized.

The best player in the East as rated by the NBA last week was Embiid and the West was Jokic. This is Embiid’s fifth career weekly best, and only Barkley and Iverson have had more than five in 76ers history. We can see from Embiid taking on both Jr. Gasol and Davis how dominant he is today. He can both play hard under the basket with opposing centers like Ewing and Olajuwon did in the past, and dribble to the basket and play backhand pull-ups like a guard.

When Embiid uses his Eurostep from the outside to the basket like a guard, we know what kind of level the top centers are at today. Embiid won’t turn 27 for another month and a half, and his prime years are just beginning.

A center’s peak age is 28, which means that until that age, big centers can keep getting better, and after 28, most centers will go downhill, just like climbing to the top of a mountain to go down. Super good centers, if they can discipline themselves, can turn the tip of the mountain into a platform and stay at the top for a long time, like Olajuwon, O’Neal and Duncan.

Embiid only took the 76ers to the top of the Eastern Conference rankings and it was temporary, he has a lot more to do.

Good and well-rounded big centers get rehired, not to deal with small ball. Embiid came into the NBA in 2014, before small ball was a big deal, and if it weren’t for the injury risk, he would have been a definite candidate for the top spot in any given year. Jokic was drafted in the second round in 2014, and the Nuggets came up looking at his passing and shooting skills, and in 2017, the Nuggets chose the former between Jokic and Nurkic.

Embiid, Jokic and Vucevic, the skills of these international centers, have always been the envy of the American basketball world. There is no prevalence of small ball, these centers will be recruited to the NBA, the difference is, to what extent they change the style and shape of the NBA lineup. Today, Embiid’s 76ers are in first place in the East, and Jokic led the Nuggets to the Western Conference Finals.

This shows that the trend of small ball is still evolving, gradually, five small lineups will no longer be so popular, after all, basketball is a tall sport, as long as the skills are comprehensive, not too slow, five small will first be replaced by “a big four small”, and then a tall big center, two centers back to the traditional position. The difference is that they can shoot, dribble and pass the ball.

The Rockets’ “ultimate five” is dead, and now they have Wood playing 5, averaging 23+10 per game this season. wood is tall and skinny, not as strong as Jokic or Embiid, but his skills allow Silas to continue his “five outside” tactics. The game has been a great success.

But in terms of technical versatility, Jokic and Embiid are the best. It’s fun to watch Jokic play Gobert because Gobert is too tall and moves even slower. The Jazz play a “big four”, so they use Bojan Bogdanovic to guard Jokic and Gobert against Millsap. Even so, Jokic has made his offensive options full of possibilities.

The matchup that ended an 11-game winning streak saw Gobert finish with just 12 points and 8 rebounds on 4-of-7 shooting. Gobert is one of those traditional centers of the past — beastly, with little shooting skill, but tall, explosive and good at protecting the basket.

Jokic is not a great cap specialist because he is lazy and not very athletic, but most teams now have smaller lineups and Jokic can take a little advantage by defending guards from breakaway layups.

Nowadays, the evaluation of center defense can no longer only focus on rebounds and caps, can change the defense, how fast the feet move, have become important reference standards

Now joint defense is popular in the NBA, mainly due to two reasons: first, not many big centers can both attack and defend, can only reduce the height, especially the height of the 4; second, the prevalence of small lineups, weakened the ability to protect the basket, had to resort to joint defense of the area protection features.

Like Gobert can only guard not good at offense center, the use of value in reducing.

When starting, the Nuggets don’t have a point guard in the actual sense, and it’s Jokic who organizes the play. Against the Jazz this game, Jokic assisted 12 times, after once averaging a triple-double, now the assists dropped to 8.6 per game, ranking fifth behind Harden, Luka, Paul and Trae Young. It’s a strange sight on the assists list.

Ever since Divac and Sabonis showed off their passing skills in the NBA that year, Americans have admired this mastery of European centers. Now the Magic’s Vucevic also knows this trick.

The level of play of a big center can increasingly determine the fate of a team in the playoffs.

Some fans think I’m an old-school “if you have a center, you have a center” guy, but that’s a misconception. I would never absolutize the role of the center, but at the playoffs and finals level, when every position has been built to perfection, the ultimate decision is likely to be the №5 center.

Such a judgment is tried and true. Rockets vs Lakers, fans came to ask what the outcome would be? I said the Rockets do not have a big center, so look at the Lakers, this judgment is based on the “yes” and “no”. The Nuggets met the Clippers, what will be the result? I feel that the Nuggets, because Zubac and Harrell is not as good as Jokic, this judgment is based on the “good” and “bad”. What will happen when the Nuggets meet the Lakers? I think it’s the Lakers, because Davis is the “master key”. In fact, Davis is really one on one with Jokic, or quite a struggle, but fortunately they still have Howard, he is the solution to Jokic’s credit.

This season everyone is trying to figure out how to solve the problem of the 5 position, which is absolutely related to Embiid and Jokic’s generation of centers growing up. The Lakers’ approach is to find small plus and Harrell, matching up three different heights and types of centers, big and small; the Clippers’ approach is to find Ibaka and drive Zubac to the bench. If you ask me again how the Lakers and Clippers meet, I think it’s the Lakers, because the Lakers have three different centers to choose from.

The Lakers checked Embiid with three centers, holding him to 28 points and 6 rebounds, and it wasn’t the centers that made the difference, it was Tobias Harris who was the key player at the end.

If the Lakers touch the 76ers in the finals, still the same, the role of the decision is not the 5, Embiid, Davis, small plus and Harrell, just the basis of the duel.