Nuggets Journal: Mark Daigneault found rulebook loophole to counter Nikola Jokic’s trickery. Jokic respects it.

While the Western Conference All-Stars gallivanted and goofed around during an open “practice” that was conceived more as a zoo exhibit for fans, Nikola Jokic drifted to the scorer’s table at Oakland Arena. The reigning NBA Coach of the Year was leaning against it, passing the time. The reigning MVP wanted to join him.

Jokic and Thunder coach Mark Daigneault spent a sizable portion of the practice window in conversation, “talking ball, just chopping it up,” Daigneault said afterward. Jokic later described spending time with Oklahoma City’s coaching staff as “maybe my highlight of the All-Star (weekend).”

The scorer’s table ended up being the epicenter of a controversy of gamesmanship involving Daigneault and Jokic three weeks later. For several possessions during the first quarter of Monday’s game between the Nuggets and Thunder, rookie Dillon Jones stood at the table as if to check in at the next dead ball. Except that he never removed his warm-up clothing.

Jones has appeared in 39 NBA games this season, playing first-half minutes in 25 of them. But he had already suited up for the Oklahoma City Blue in a G League game earlier that day, scoring seven points. If spectators were already puzzled, Daigneault only added to their bewilderment by never following through on the substitution. Jones stood still as a statue, bringing new meaning to the term “role player.” Daigneault had a name for it later that night.

Jones was a “permanent sub.” His purpose was to quell Jokic from seeking tactical advantage. Until the referees thwarted Daigneault’s plan.

“The officials are the ones in charge of pace of how fast the ball gets inbounded,” the 40-year-old coach said. “Jokic is savvy. And if I was coaching Jokic, I’d appreciate him doing this, too. But he gets the ball very quickly from them, and he starts the fast break. And the officials start the fast break for him because he demands the ball, they hand it to him, and he zips up the floor.”

Indeed, the urgency with which Jokic requests the ball from an official after a stoppage has resulted in too many easy Nuggets points to count. Even when his ambitious inbound passes don’t immediately lead to open layups or 3s, they can prevent opponents from setting their defense, occasionally skewing matchups in Denver’s favor and making the halfcourt offense easier to execute.

But if a player is at the table to check in — even hypothetically — the referees are obligated to allow time for the substitution to occur before handing the ball to an inbounder.

“I don’t know if there’s a rule against doing that,” Daigneault said. “I think you can have a sub up there and choose not to put him in the game.”

Daigneault tried to make that clear to the officials when they eventually put a stop to his antics. Oklahoma City received a delay of game violation with 5:17 remaining in the first quarter, forcing an indignant Daigneault to finally call for Jones to retreat to the bench. The plan lasted a little more than two minutes of game time, in total.

“That’s a smart move by him,” Jokic said. “I’m not gonna lie.”

It should come as no surprise that Jokic admires the ingenuity of Daigneault’s ploy. Nobody tests the rules like he does. When the Nuggets were protecting fourth-quarter leads during the 2024 playoffs, he turned loitering into an art by stalling before picking the ball up on the baseline, or by rolling it in to waste more time.

Officials can issue a delay-of-game penalty for “preventing the ball from being promptly put into play” or “interfering with the ball after a successful field goal or free throw,” according to the NBA rulebook. The league has started policing Jokic on it since the offseason.

“I cannot stall to inbound the ball, like I did last year,” he said Monday. “I stole like 25 seconds in one possession. So they want to speed up the game, and I just take advantage.”

If Jokic intends to gain a competitive edge regardless of whether he’s incentivized to slow down or speed up, then Daigneault plans to do the same.

“So I put a sub up tonight,” he said after Denver’s 140-127 win, “and I was like, ‘Hey, you’re gonna have to call him in, every single out-of-bounds (situation), in order to slow the game down.”

The Nuggets and Thunder are done playing each other in the regular season, but if they collide in the playoffs, Daigneault might feel inclined to try again. The rulebook doesn’t specifically address his permanent sub loophole, other than to indicate “a substitute shall be considered as being in the game when he is beckoned onto the court or recognized as being in the game by an official.” Open-ended questions linger. If a referee beckons for Jones to enter the game with a physical gesture, is Jones therefore required to follow through with the substitution?

Consider it one more subplot to look forward to if Denver and Oklahoma City eventually meet to decide the Western Conference champion.

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