The NBA regular season continues, and today the Nuggets host the Thunder, and they lost to the Thunder 87-102 in the end. Although Jokic personally got a triple-double of 16 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists in this game, he was unable to support himself. The other players had a terrible performance, especially their perimeter core Murray, who scored just 12 points on 4-of-14 shooting. Wei Shao did not adapt immediately after coming to the Nuggets, shooting 2-of-10 from the field and scoring only 6 points on 1-of-6 shooting from beyond the three-point line.

After watching the whole Nuggets game, we really felt a little sorry for Jokic, because it looked like Jokic really couldn't take these players. In this game, Jokic faced the defense of many people from the Thunder team after getting the ball, and many people surrounded Jokic. Why did the Thunder adopt the strategy of encircling Jokic? It all comes down to the Nuggets' outside players not being able to shoot three-pointers. Neither Willis nor Braun nor Aaron Gordon have a consistent shooting ability from beyond the three-point line. So the Thunder can be very patient to flank Jokic.

The Nuggets' most consistent outside shooting point is undoubtedly Murray, but Murray's overall performance has been very sluggish since last season's playoffs until now. The performance of the Olympic Games was also very sluggish. It looks like Murray's career is on the decline, considering he's been a player with a major injury before. However, Murray signed a four-year contract extension with the Nuggets this offseason for a whopping $208 million. This contract will undoubtedly overdraft the future of the Nuggets. Because if Murray had been in this form, the Nuggets would have completely lost the ability to compete for a championship.

Now the Nuggets' offense on the court is miserable, although Jokic is still the same as the previous Jokic, and he is still unstoppable. But the performance of the other players in the attacking team is really unbearable. So from this moment on, Jokic's hard days may be coming. Gone are the full-blown offenses they had before. In the final analysis, there is an obvious problem with the operation of the Nuggets management, they have let go of many excellent players over the years, but they have not focused on recruiting shooters with projection ability. As a result, Jokic is currently facing a lot of trapping.

What's next for the Nuggets? can only rely on Murray's gradual recovery, can only rely on Porter Jr.'s hand to be stable. But the Nuggets at this stage have lost their dominance, and they are no longer the same team that won the championship back then. Therefore, it is very difficult for a team to maintain its core competitiveness, which requires the efforts of the management, but also the efforts of the players themselves, and their individual competitive form.