The List: Nikola Jokic is getting to the foul line

“The List” is a brand new series that serves as a companion piece for the “Notebook” episodes of the Locked on Nuggets podcast and the DNVR Nuggets podcast. In this edition, I share some notes on Nikola Jokic’s career night and Michael Porter Jr.’s continued struggles with the playbook.

1. Paul Millsap has struggled on both ends of the court over the last month but he’s still far and away the team’s best backside help defender. In the clip below, watch how well he plays cat and mouse with Trae Young, disguising his tag on the rolling big man by making it look like he is about to release to the corner.

So much of the back side help in pick and roll (PnR) is about making the ball handler guess wrong when it comes to hitting the roller or kicking out to the corner.

2. Nikola Jokic scored a career-high 47 points on Monday night thanks in large part to a career-high 16 free-throw attempts. The 16 attempts was the latest in what has been a growing trend with Jokic. Over the first 27 games of the season, Jokic was averaging just 2.6 free-throw attempts per game and had attempted 5 or more free-throws in just 5 of those 27 games. Over the last 9 games, Jokic is averaging 6.9 free-throw attempts and has eclipsed the 5 attempt mark in 7 of those 9 games.

Jokic has clearly made an effort to draw more contact in the post. A finesse player by nature, Jokic has a tendency to initiate contact early in the post before going to a jump hook or turnaround away from the defense. Tonight, he never stopped going toward the basket.

This is a key development for Jokic. Already a 20 point per game scorer, if Jokic can hover around 5 or 6 free-throw attempts per game, he’ll increase his overall offensive impact and change the way teams cover him.

3. The Nuggets have gone to this play quite a bit to get Michael Porter Jr. in the post, enough that we can unofficially label it the “MPJ Play.”

It’s a staggered cross screen that aims to get Porter Jr. the ball on the block where he can isolate and attack his defender with the side cleared out. In the example above, the Hawks do a nice job of snuffing out the initial option but Denver segues nicely into the second part of the play. The ball reverses before Mason Plumlee sets a screen for Porter Jr. who attacks toward the rim.

Two other examples. In the first one, Porter Jr. feels the defense trailing him over the screen and is able to curl toward the basket for a dunk.

In the second clip, Porter gets to his spot on the elbow and goes to work.

4. It’s been well publicized that Porter Jr. is struggling to remember the plays, defensive schemes and principles and other aspects of the mental part of the game but this play is one that he has successfully run two dozen times already this season so the fact that he still messes up from time to time is head scratching.

5. He also got lost on this wedge roll play that is another staple of Denver’s playbook.

6. This exact play made it onto the list for a completely separate reason later on in the game. Watch as Jamal Murray inexplicably fails to get Jokic the ball as he cuts toward his spot above the right block. Jokic had 44 points at this point and was cooking everybody in the post so failing to get him the ball here was especially bizarre.

7. Lastly, Jerami Grant has struggled to find his niche in Denver’s offense. In the first part of the clip, he rushes a trail three despite coming at a fairly crucial portion of the game when the Hawks were making a run. In the second part of the clip, Grant demonstrates his inconsistent technique as a backside helper. He first rotates into position to stop the roll but then makes an awful play on the basketball that results in an and-one.