As the Nuggets and the rest of the basketball world wait to see when Nikola Jokic will return from injury, fans try to read every tea leaf and predict the future. There was some optimism after seeing Jokic walking into a game comfortably, laughing, and hearing that he had already started bike work. Excitement was starting to build around an early return.
But yesterday, Shams Charania went on ESPN and poured a little bit of cold water on the situation, reporting that Jokic is still eying a late January return, with more reporting coming in from Tony Jones of the Athletic indicating that the Nuggets are hoping to have Jokic back before the All-Star break.
It’s not like this is bad news or anything. There haven’t been any setbacks, and Shams even added that Jokic has been “rehabbing around the clock” and has started doing spot-shooting on the court already.
This is obviously all good news, and if Jokic returns by the All-Star Game in mid-February, that would give him two months of the regular season to get back into a rhythm and help the Nuggets establish seeding in the Western Conference.
Jokic All-NBA dream likely dead
So, while it’s certainly not the end of the world and overall, everything appears to be progressing according to schedule, it’s hard not to be a little disappointed. Fans were getting excited about a potential early return, thinking the Joker would beat the expected timeline and probably only miss a couple of weeks or so.
That would help the Nuggets immensely, stem the tides of some of their recent losing, and potentially save the Joker’s campaign for regular-season awards. As has been well-documented thanks to recent NBA rule changes, players must hit a 65-game played minimum to be eligible for any awards.
Before the injury, Jokic was running away with the MVP race and was a lock to be named to an All-NBA team for the seventh straight year. But with his original four-week timeline, he was initially expected to miss at least 16 games, which would put his maximum potential games at 64. One would assume that he’ll sit out at least a game or two once returning, which would make it almost impossible for Jokic to hit the plateau.
If Jokic could return early and hit the 65-game mark, he’d still have a shot to win his fourth MVP award and would surely make an All-NBA team, but if he returns at the end of January, it will be nearly impossible, and if not till the All-Star break, it’s completely off the table