Monday felt like an innocuous enough day on the calendar for the Nuggets, as they enjoyed some extra time off after their game on Sunday was postponed. But this day was actually quite important as it marked four weeks since the initial injury update for Nikola Jokic, saying he would be reevaluated in four weeks.
Well, four weeks have passed, and the Nuggets’ injury report has been released for their game in Detroit on Tuesday. And Jokic is still out. There has been no official update, and we don’t know of any setback, but we now know he’ll miss more than four weeks, and we still don’t know when he will return.
Shams Charania of ESPN offered an encouraging update a few weeks ago that indicated Jokic was ahead of schedule, but then David Adelman threw cold water on the report days later, essentially saying the recovery has been up and down and that there are good days and bad.
Still, we had every reason to believe that things were progressing according to schedule, and everything we’ve heard has made it sound like Jokic is itching to get back out there. I think a lot of Nuggets Nation, perhaps unfairly, just assumed that he would be back as soon as we reached the point of reevaluation.
Jokic looking increasingly likely to be ineligible for MVP, All-NBA
But that’s obviously not the case, and now we must sit and wait to hear more. Hopefully, the return will only be delayed by a day or two, but with a player of this magnitude, we probably shouldn’t assume anything.
Tuesday night’s showdown with the Pistons will mark the 15th straight game that Jokic will have missed, putting his ceiling at 67. He’s getting dangerously close to missing the 65-game minimum to be eligible for honors and awards like MVP and All-NBA.
That’s the last thing to worry about at a time like this, but it would still be frustrating to see Jokic miss out on well-deserved accolades that, rightfully or not, go a long way to building his legacyand resume. With the postponement in Memphis on Sunday, it seemed like Jokic and the Nuggets were catching a break, and in a way, they still are.
But it may no longer be the difference in allowing Jokic to reach the 65-game mark. He can now only miss two more games for the entire season, and we don’t even have any reason to believe he’ll be back for Thursday night’s game against the Nets back in Denver.