It’s bizarre that a guy who used to drink two to three liters of Coca-Cola every day and stated that when he got to the States from Serbia all of his teammates were more physical and athletic than he was to such a degree it made him want to go back home. Nikola Jokić, drafted by the Denver Nuggets in the 2014 Draft with the 41st pick, has emerged to become a perennial All-Star and franchise player.
The defending league MVP and 1 of only two second-round choices to ever win the Most Valuable Player award, along with Bill Russell. With a basketball eye when you’re observing Jokić as a fan, player, or coach, you can see the sensational tools he possesses; the fundamental brilliance that we’ve seen displayed by some of the greats are very much on display when Nikola is on the basketball floor.
Denver Nuggets Head Coach Mike Malone 3 years ago in an interview on SportsCenter said “From an analytical standpoint players don’t put up the numbers that Nikola puts up”. Malone in the same interview gave us a personal goal he wanted Nikola to tackle and that was to improve his body physically. Jokić has responded to that clarion call the last few years dropping a significant amount of weight, improving his conditioning and overall physique.
The Denver Nuggets President of Basketball Operations said in a 2019 interview that the reason Jokić was drafted so low was because “he was an inexact science”. Nikola Jokić didn’t have the physical attributes nor athleticism to be projected stellar by scouts for the NBA game.
At the helm of the Nuggets attack, corralled with a great supporting cast is The Joker. He’s improved statistically each year he’s been in the league and has brought the Denver organization front and center as a playoff-contending team in the Western Conference. Nikola this NBA season has again called us to marvel at his brilliance.
His PER is the highest historically for a player at a whopping 32.26 (ESPN) ranking him first in the league on a minute by minute productivity rating. In that dimension, it makes clear sense why Jokić is averaging historical numbers. His sheer volume as a point-center drives his high usage rate and he’s an absolute stud and genius-level basketball player in Mike Malone’s system, catered to his prowess and style.
The Joker is very cerebral in reading the floor and assembling an arsenal of attacks like the cartoon and movie depicted cynical character his nickname stems from. In a postgame interview last season Kenny Smith of TNT asked Nikola how he approaches having the ball so much throughout the game and his reply was “I take whatever the game gives me”. Listed at 6’11 he’s a top 5 passer in the league who scores, rebounds, screens, shoots and runs the offense as efficient as any top point guard in the NBA. Denver Nuggets Head coach Mike Malone asked Nikola how he developed his handle, and his reply was “I was a fat point guard growing up.”
