From [Zach Lowe’s latest ESPN piece](https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/insider/story/_/id/34998708/lowe-10-things-boston-small-ball-rebounding-karl-anthony-towns-guessing-wrong-lot):
> He’s clearly doing it on purpose, starfishing his legs at bounce passes as an alternative to playing actual defense. It’s smart, honestly, if you sense you’re at a major disadvantage. Jokic is a so-so defender who hasn’t looked quite as engaged so far. He’s contesting more shots at the rim than anyone, per NBA.com, but some of those contests are meek waves; opponents have hit 65% at the basket with Jokic nearby, a mark that typically ranks toward the bottom among big men. (He looked livelier this week.) A kicked ball allows the Nuggets to reset their defense.
>
> It can be hard for officials to discern intentional soccer kicks from incidents in which a bounce pass hits the foot of someone playing real defense. But some Jokic kicks are obvious non-basketball plays, and I don’t really get why the NBA allows martial arts maneuvers intended to interrupt game flow. (The penalty is a shot clock reset to 14 or 24.) Should a blatant kick merit a technical? How about one warning, and kick No. 2 — which would be rare — gets a technical?
by nowhathappenedwas
45 Comments
That’s more than draymond
I’m surprised Draymond isn’t leading this
Should be a technical foul if it’s intentional.
LMAO what an elite defensive strategy, just kick the ball and reset the play. The good ole Tom Brady totally not intentional grounding to avoid a sack
You penalize his take-foul now you want this gone too? When does it end Zachary
He started doing it against the warriors last playoffs. It does seem like a bit of a problem if everyone starts doing it.
getting ready for World Cup
If hes playing within the rules I dont see the problem. Though the rule might need to be change if it starts getting abused.
Jokic taking advantage of that
When I started watching the NBA some ways back, it was always weird to me how kick balls were just a clock reset, but noone seemed to really take advantage of it.
If more people start doing what Jokic is doing, maybe we will see a rule change down the road. Maybe for every intentional kick ball after the first one(warning), a free throw and possession or something among those lines.
Before this season, Draymond was the player who always stood out doing this. He did it most often on inbounds plays
I always wondered why players didn’t do this. Ofc it’s jokic lmfao
This thread is another example of flirting vs harassment when it comes to exploiting rules lmao
As a new NBA fan it’s genuinely surprising that kicked balls aren’t fouls, especially when done on purpose
That’s what an elite defender does 😤
What does this tell us? It tells us that Jokic’s perceived success in the league is largely inflated by unsustainable, wildly outlier stats in his 18 games as perceived elite talent. When you adjust for the future by bringing down his outlier stats, he regresses heavily to a slightly above average QB of 2018 Dak tierdom.
Snitch smh
Considering so man teams are cooking bigs on high pick and rolls tnis just seems smart, a great way to save a bad situation.
Still, less than one per game? Kinda feels like a non-story until it actual happens in clutch minutes and truly affects a game.
I want to see him do a bicycle
THE JOKER STRIKES AGAIN
Dude thinks he’s Aleksandar Mitrovic
I interpreted this wrong
i feel like plenty of players try to do this, it’s just a lot harder than yall are making it out to be.
8 isn’t really a big deal. That’s what, like 20 extra seconds max? Less than 2 IRL minutes across 11 games isn’t a big deal tbh.
Refs have no clue how to call kick balls. It has to be intentionally kicked. 90% of the time it is an accident yet they still call it. its so frustrating to watch.
Section IV part b: Kicking the ball or striking it with any part of the leg is a violation when it is an intentional act. The ball accidentally striking the foot, the leg or fist is not a violation.
The Big Starfish
the euro league
Probably daydreaming about playing soccer with his mini horsies
Can’t tame those European soccer instincts
The greatest players of all time force the games to change the rules
The greatest players of all time force the games to change the rules
Dude keeps breaking records.
I just saw the luka thread of “you guys have stats for everything” and now see this LMAO
I think a few players actively try for the kick on passes too, like im pretty sure dwight powell does the starfish pose at least twice a game
I feel like this could be because of the lack of take fouls. Jokic needs to catch his breath
This is really not a problem. Who cares if you kick the ball? It’s not any more dangerous or disruptive to the game then tipping a pass out of bounds, and it’s better for the defenders than an open shot. If you wanna day this is an example of Joloc being lazy on defense then fine, but I’m sure there’s plenty of other ways to show that and once again this is better then letting the pass go by uncontested.
> He’s clearly doing it on purpose, starfishing his legs at bounce passes as an alternative to playing actual defense
> but some of those contests are meek waves
lmao that’s my center
Zach Lowe does it again. This sub complains so much about not watching the actual games, and here is a guy who watches it so closely, he noticed stuff like this lol
Ngl, This worries the shit out of me
I don’t get it, I’ve always seen kick balls that prevent bounce passes as totally fine. It’s not like it’s super common (less than once per game doesn’t seem like a big deal) and it’s a solid defensive reaction.
Anyone who actually plays basketball knows that this sort of thing is reaction based and punishing it would be pretty bs
I’ve always thought that not allowing kickin g in basketball is basically telling people without arms to go fuck themselves. Let people use their feet, it would be good for the game
Him and Luka love to kickball lol. Luka it’s more throwing it off the opponents foot
well the world cup is starting soon, so
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but the kick ball rule is dumb. It should be treated like any other deflection. I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t be allowed to use your legs
Wants to go to the world cup
Draymonds gonna kick some balls soon don’t worry