When the Denver Nuggets drafted Nikola Jokic with the 41st pick of the second round of the 2014 NBA Draft, many assumed he was going to become another afterthought. The Nuggets had a history of poor draft picks outside of Carmelo Anthony. Joker was selected during a Taco Bell commercial, after all. But thankfully, he blossomed into a blend of three Hall of Famers that Nuggets assistant coach Ognjen "Ogi" Stojakovic saw in him.
Stojakovic is currently one of the Nuggets' assistant coaches, but he was in the player development and video department when Jokic arrived. But the fellow Serbian already knew about Jokic's game. And what he saw in Jokic back then turned out to be very accurate.
In an interview with Bruno Feliks at Basketball Network, Stojakovic described his initial thoughts on watching Jokic play, saying he was like Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, and Pau Gasol. He saw all three greats in the way Jokic moved, passed, and scored.
"First thing when I saw him, in my mind, he was a mix of talent, and I always said it. I said Pau Gasol, Steve Nash, and Dirk Nowitzki when I saw him," Stojakovic said. He continued, "For me, it was okay, that’s interesting because Steve Nash wasn’t very fast, right? But he ran a lot. And then he wasn’t very athletic, but he could score. He had all those kinds of different shots that helped him to be kind of great. Also, a great passer and so on. Pau Gasol again, we know big, skilled. He could do a little bit of everything. Dirk Nowitzki, again, not an athletic guy, but he was able to score a lot of points."
It turns out that Stojakovic was very right about his gut reaction.
Jokic has become exactly the mix of the three players
Jokic's always been clowned for his lack of athleticism, so it's easy to see the comparison to all three of them in that regard. However, they were all their own version of athletic, combined with an abundance of skills that have made all four of them all-time greats (Jokic will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, too).
Nash was a great passer, leading the league in assists five times over his 18-year career and finishing with an 8.5-assist-per-game average. Jokic just won his first assist title last year while also leading the league in rebounding for the first time in his career. Jokic's career assist average isn't far off Nash's, at 7.5 per game.
But what's different about Jokic when compared to Nowitzki and Gasol is that Jokic does most of what they did, but better. Jokic's a better rebounder than Gasol and a better scorer than Nowitzki.
Gasol's best rebounding season was in 2014-15, when he played for the Chicago Bulls and pulled down 11.8 rebounds per game. Jokic has bettered that mark in four of his 11 seasons, topping out at 13.8 in 2021-22. However, Jokic is not the defender and shot-blocker that Gasol was.
Nowitzki's best scoring season was in 2005-06, when he averaged 26.6 points. Jokic has eclipsed that number three times, including this past season when he scored 27.7 points.
Nuggets fans are lucky the Nuggets took a flier on Jokic in the second round. They changed the course of the franchise and found an all-time great in the process.
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