Denver Nuggets: 4 reasons Nikola Jokic is the MVP
By Sean Carroll
Why Denver Nuggets C Nikola Jokic deserves MVP: Offensive firepower
This season, Nikola Jokić is averaging 26.4 points, 8.5 assists, and 10.8 rebounds per contest, all career highs, and he’s doing it on 57-40-86 shooting splits. This is while opposing teams know exactly who’s going to have the ball in their hands for the majority of the time and without a hope in the world of stopping it.
He’s near the top of the league in usage (sitting at 29.4 percent) and when he’s on the court, the Nuggets have a 130 offensive rating and 109 defensive rating. For reference, the best overall offensive rating this season is Brooklyn with 118.1.
His 60.5 effective field goal percentage is actualized with some of the more back-breaking shots I’ve ever seen a player take. It seems like time and time again, other teams play solid defense for a whole 24 seconds, all for a flaming bag of poop to end up in Jokić’s hands before flying through the net.
On top of that, it seems like he and the rim are in cahoots sometimes; he’ll take an off-balance shot, he’ll throw in a quick put-back, or floater and the only reason he jumps up to “contest” the rebound is to make us mere mortals think he doesn’t know it’s going to bounce around and roll in.
The numbers support that as he’s in the 95th percentile and 87th percentile for his mid-range and three-point shots respectively per Cleaning the Glass. The only big men with a better shooting number from the mid-range with more than 1,000 minutes are Robin Lopez and Richaun Holmes.
But what’s impressive is that this is the most selfish Jokić has ever been in his career yet he still shares the ball as much as 20-year-old taking photos on their first trip to Europe.
When he’s on the court, the Nuggets’ offense jumps +12.9 points per 100 possessions according to Cleaning the Glass and his teammates shoot astronomically higher from nearly everywhere when sharing the court with the Big Tipper (I love that nickname).
I don’t often want to bring myself into articles because I’m very bad at basketball but I think if I shared the court with Jokić, I’d be set for at least nine points and they’d be some of the easiest ones I’ll ever get.
Pairing that passing ability with cutters, shooters, and elite athletes is a deadly combination, and Nuggets fans are lucky enough to get to watch it every night. Plus, fans of other teams would be lying to themselves if they didn’t get a wandering eye on NBA League Pass sometimes.