Nicca JOKIC was gassed at the other end, which is why Zu was able to "do his thing", as you said.
When I say Zubac "did his thing", I'm talking about what he was doing defensively, which really, didn't affect Jokic too much. Zubac's defense was more about shutting down scoring opportunities inside of the paint for anyone else that came in there.
What affected Jokic was having to burn energy trying to shut down the threat of Harden's shooting. And then having to deal with multiple big wing help defenders in his vicinity (which he wouldn't have issues with in the 90s because of the illegal defense rule).
What was Zubac doing to stop this?
Jokic was flopping and flailing like never before that Clippers series because Zu had him under pressure. He was banging with an oak tree he rarely goes against in today's NBA.
I remember you posting this nonsense during the series, only for Zubac be the one who ended up tapping out and could barely score in Games 6 and 7. Jokic was flopping because he couldn't buy a call because the Clips were hacking him without getting called for fouls, and the only way to get calls in his favor was to sell contact. It had little to do with what Zubac was doing, himself.
If all Jokic had to compete with was banging with a player similar to his size, the games would be a breeze for him.
But he's got to worry about pesky ass wing defenders encroaching on his space when he posts up and fouling him. He's got to worry about guarding the high PnR to stop guards shooting 3s. That's what takes it out of him, as it would any other big man.
Now let's ask him to bang bodies with Shaq or Ewing, or deal with Dream or D.Rob's power, skill and athleticism and still put up insane numbers on offense.
Shaq and Ewing would tap out by halftime having to cover all the space on defense, and then have to worry about Jokic running the offense from the top.
Dream's career is so romanticized to the point that a lot of folks forget he constantly came up short in the postseason because he lacked game awareness and constantly got into foul trouble - he was far from a perfect player, and a lot of his foibles have been forgotten about over time. He would fail coming up against someone like Jokic more times than not.
DRob would probably be the best player of the bunch to give him problems (on both ends), but then again, he was primarily a face-up player who wasn't exactly reliable in a playoff environment.
Again, I must stress, it's less about the actual 1v1 player in this scernario, and more about the help they have and what they can do on offense to tire him out. Because Jokic could hold his own against any great big in a series.
