To change a quote that once described Stephen Curry, “Ladies and gentlemen, we got a star! In the Mile High City!”
By far, the most exciting thing to watch this year was Nikola Jokic bursting onto the NBA scene. A no-name second round pick coming into his second season, expectations were rather low around the league.
Denver Nuggets
How did Jokic back that up? Only by putting up insane nights with great highlights, and making his way as the player with the fourth most triple doubles this season. This stat is crazy, thinking that he only trails MVP candidates LeBron James, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook.
He’s become one of the best passing bigs in the game, as he will beat you in a number of ways. You defend him tight? He’ll find a wide open man with a beautiful pass. You defend him loose? He’ll beat you with his beautiful post moves/game. You leave him open on the three-point line? He’ll put a three in the eye of the defense.
I know that the phrase “unicorn” has been overused lately, especially in the NBA, but Jokic might be the best player to fit it. He isn’t very fast, but the amount of skill that he has in the other parts of the game are incredible.
He’s currently averaging 16.3 points, 9.5, and 4.7 assists per game (per basketball-reference), but keep in mind, Jokic rode the bench for a small period of time. At the beginning of the season, Denver experimented with “Jurkic,” or Nikola Jokic and Jusuf Nurkic down low. It failed, but instead of putting in Jokic, Nurkic had the starting role. After some great play off of the bench, Coach Malone gave Jokic another chance.
The Nuggets have had the number one offense in the league since that decision was made.