In the 2020 NBA Playoffs, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic’s conditioning could become a major storyline.
Denver Nuggets star center Nikola Jokic has never had the type of physique that you think of when it comes to professional athletes.
While that storyline is tried and perhaps tired, with the league suspending the NBA season on March 11 and not planning to resume the season until July 31 (per The Athletic’s Shams Charania), that four and a half month layoff begs the question of how Jokic will look when the Nuggets take the floor again.
Jokic is unlikely to be sitting around all day, eating non-healthy foods and failing to work out. However, Jokic only averaged 15.4 points per game over the first two months of the 2019-20 season due to the doughy shape he was in.
If Jokic hasn’t been maintaining his weight then the Nuggets could be in trouble.
That said, Jokic made the conscious decision to lose weight during the 2019-20 season, showing that he’s not oblivious to the importance of his conditioning. In a February interview with NBA on ESPN, the Serbian sensation revealed that he lost 20-25 pounds and credits that weight loss to his improved play.
There’s additional evidence that points to the likelihood that he’s been working hard to maintain his physique while NBA play is suspended as well. Prior to the 2018-19 season, Jokic would tell Nuggets reporters that he’s “bigger, better and stronger” than ever and in the best shape of his life after running “thousands” of sprints.
Though Jokic has said that he likes playing at a higher weight so that he doesn’t get pushed around by the leagues stronger big men (per ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk), there’s a difference between adding muscle mass and simply gaining weight. Jokic would be better served with the former.
No player will be in game shape, or “midseason form,” when the NBA returns in late July because every player has been unable to play in a meaningful game for the same amount of time. That will work in Jokic’s favor.
However, although nobody is asking or expecting Jokic to be the most fit player in the league when play resumes, his conditioning will matter as much as any player. The Nuggets did go 13-4 in the 17 games between October and November when Jokic was averaging just over 15 points per game but they were 2-1 against current Western Conference playoff teams.
The playoffs have a different level of intensity though. Considering how dominant Los Angeles Lakers big man Anthony Davis — one of the most athletic players in the league — has been when facing Jokic and the Nuggets this season, one can only hope that Jokic has been doing sprints non-stop over the last few months.