Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets guards Matas Buzelis of the Chicago Bulls (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

Nikola Jokic is arguably the best offensive basketball player in the world, but he has defensive limitations. As is well known, he is not fast, not athletic, and doesn’t jump high. To compensate for his mobility issue, Jokic needs to stay close to the basket on defense.

Defensive solutions like a Hedge or Trap, where the big man aggressively helps out on a ball screen, are not relevant for him. Switching is also out of the question - you don’t want your slowest player guarding Josh Giddey of the Chicago Bulls, for example.

The solution used by the Denver Nuggets and their coach, David Adelman, against the Bulls is known as “Nail Help.” Instead of Jokic, who stays deep behind, the player designated to help on the ball screen is the wing defender closest to the ball. Nail - because he provides help in the court area known as the Nail.

The Chicago Bulls, coached by Billy Donovan, have a built-in counter to this defense in their offensive principles: a movement called “Wheel,” executed on drives or pick-and-rolls. The principle is simple: when the dribbler drives toward you, you move one position away from the ball - drift from the wing to the corner, from one corner to the other, and so on, with the four non-ball-handling players moving in coordination like a wheel.

So, against Denver, with Jokic playing a one-person zone in the paint, when Cameron Johnson (23) provided Nail Help and had his back to his man, and similarly with Jamal Murray, Chicago’s simple movement generated a layup: Matas Buzelis drifted towards the corner, and the player who occupied the corner, Okoro, cut along the baseline. On his way to the second corner, Giddey found him with a pass for an easy layup.

In the following video, Buzelis drifts from the wing to the corner in a similar situation, with Johnson providing help at the Nail. Johnson’s attention and focus are on Giddey, the ball-screen handler. When Giddy passes to Buzelis, you can hear Johnson cry: “Shit!”. He just realized he lost his man, the second-year Lithuanian forward, a 40% shooter from beyond the arc.

This chain reaction, or we should call it a wheel reaction, is mainly because Denver is trying to compensate for Jokic’s defensive limitations. Still, Jokic had a triple-double of 36 points, 18 rebounds, and 13 assists in the 127:130 home loss to the Bulls. He’s the foundation of everything the Nuggets do, and his overall value more than justifies the defensive work they put in to cover for him.