David Adelman isn’t buying the easy Nikola Jokic criticism.
Speaking recently to SiriusXM, the Denver Nuggets coach pushed back on the idea that Jokic is a weak link defensively, making it clear he sees the big man as more than the label some critics attach to him.
“I think the biggest thing for us, and not just him, is our team, and as I said at the start, in the transition defense, if we don’t stop the ball, then we put Nikola Jokic in compromised positions.”
Adelman then drew a hard line between Jokic and the kind of center who lives at the rim.
“He’s not a shot-blocker; this is not Rudy Gobert. People have got to get past that. You’re not supposed to be doing what he’s doing offensively, and then morph into a different player,” David Adelman said.
That’s the heart of his argument: Jokic should be judged in the context of what he actually is, not what some people wish a traditional big man looked like. Adelman said Jokic is carrying more defensive value than he gets credit for, especially when the Nuggets are organized and working within their structure.
“So I think he commands, from us as a coaching staff, and I’m not just saying this because I coach him, he’s much better defensively than people think. And it’s funny when people use numbers and choose not to. If they want to deep-dive analytically, he’s pretty good in a core-defensive situation.”
He finished with a blunt nod of approval.
“I got no complaints about 15, man, that’s for sure,” Adelman concluded.
The comments arrive months after Jaden McDaniels of the Minnesota Timberwolves ripped the Nuggets’ whole roster for poor defense during the first round of the 2026 NBA playoffs. Adelman’s remarks appear to be aimed at that same crowd of Jokic skeptics, and at anyone who reduces the conversation to one trait: rim protection.
Jokic’s career averages of 1.3 steals and 0.7 blocks per game don’t make him a classic paint anchor, but they do point to a player who can disrupt passing lanes and read the floor well enough to stay involved. That’s where Adelman’s defense of him lives - not in pretending Jokic is something he isn’t, but in arguing that his awareness, positioning, and physicality matter.
The Nuggets’ team numbers don’t help the public case. Denver finished as the ninth-worst defense in the league last season with a 117.4 defensive rating, and that kind of stat can make it easy to flatten the conversation around Jokic. Adelman’s point is that doing so misses the bigger picture.
Even in off-ball situations, Jokic can get nasty. In last night’s preseason game against the Jazz, he got into a heated exchange with Jaxson Hayes after Hayes pushed him away for being too physical with his defense.
Adelman’s message was simple: if you judge Jokic only by the traditional box for defense, you’re missing what he actually brings. He may not be a rim protector in the Rudy Gobert mold, but Denver’s coach clearly believes he does enough in the right settings to keep winning with the right support around him.
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