![]() ![]() “I think he has the mind of all five positions,” Nuggets assistant coach David Adelman says. Bam Adebayo and Karl-Anthony Towns both finished around five per game. According to Second Spectrum, Jokic came off 9.5 screens per game this season, which is nearly double the next-highest average from any center. Jokic is peerless when it comes to centers using off-ball screens regardless of position, league wide, he’s also the most efficient. It’s largely thanks to these actions-shaped and perfected over the past few years-that the Nuggets may be on a path to win the first title in franchise history. He could bum-rush the offensive glass, run rim to rim, initiate dribble handoffs, and spend chunks of every game as an amalgamation of Jonas Valanciunas, Nikola Vucevic, and Joel Embiid.īut instead, Denver unlocks all his skills-and, in the process, everyone else’s too-by moving Jokic off a variety of picks that force the defense to answer uncomfortable questions on the fly. He could exclusively be the screener in a pick-and-roll, dining out on push shots and popping out to the perimeter. The Nuggets could repeatedly set him up on the block. Our Top 100 players, the most exciting guys to tune into on League Pass, and moreĮven if Jokic acted like a “traditional” center, he would still be an All-Star. “He could be on the left block, he could be on the right block, he could be at the nail … that level of creativity and randomness makes it very difficult to guard him, and it’s cool that he embraces that.” “You can’t prepare for every situation because you don’t know where he’s going to be,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla says. No center is less predictable, which is why no center is harder to stop. There’s a constant guessing game, dealing with tactics that are methodical, camouflaged, chaotic, and transparent at the same time. When Jokic comes off a screen, the defense can’t help but lean on its heels. To guard him away from the ball is to accept a challenge unlike anything basketball has ever seen from a 7-footer. Jokic’s identity is as someone who flourishes ahead of the curve. Pace, space, and myriad factors have altered the value and responsibility big men hold on any given possession. The center position is continuously evolving. It’s here where the two-time MVP distinguishes himself, while simultaneously grounding and lifting one of the most efficient offenses of all time. When he’s without the ball, coming off a screen, Jokic transforms into the sport’s most singular player. But the root of all Jokic’s success can be found in the subtle moments that prelude those exclamation points. His post-ups and isolations (which he does about as infrequently as Saddiq Bey) are a choose-your-poison nightmare. ![]() His jumper comfortably extends to 25 feet. Jokic’s passes are deliberate genius, anticipatory and dizzying-from lobs out of a pick-and-roll, to 75-foot-long touchdowns, to no-look slingshots that buzz through the paint.Īs a scorer, Jokic’s floaters, turnarounds, and putbacks are nearly automatic. He’s the NBA’s most supportive superstar, happy to share the ball, allergic to monopolizing a system that revolves around his decision-making. ![]() The range of remarkable ways Nikola Jokic dominates basketball games is unparalleled.
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