Former NBA coach George Karl wildly compares Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic to Hall-Of-Famer Tim Duncan.
Advertisement
Nikola Jokic is easily one of the best players in the league currently. Behind his leadership, the team, which was considered as a lottery team over the last couple of years, are now a title-contending team.
With his unique game style, Jokic has broken the stereotype of how the “typical” centre position is played. The 6-foot-11 big man has completely transformed basketball making it a position-less game.
Also Read: Skip Bayless snubs the Nuggets superstar in favor of the Philly star as his MVP pick
The Serbian star can do it all – handle the ball, find open teammates, shoot consistent jumpers and even grab rebounds. This is why Nikola is able to stuff the stat sheet on a nightly basis with his unreal performances.
This season, the Denver Nuggets All-Star has had the best year of his six-year career. Averaging an incredible 26.4 points, 10.9 rebounds and 8.4 assists per game on 56/40/85 shooting splits, he has been the front runner for the MVP award.
Due to his unique style of play, Jokic has received several player comparisons in his career. However, former coach George Karl has a peculiar comparison for the 284-pound beast.
“Nikola Jokic is this generation’s Tim Duncan”: George Karl
Former Denver Nuggets coach had a peculiar comparison for the 3-time All-Star. George Karl gave Jokic huge props by calling him this era’s Tim Duncan. Karl, who is pretty active on social media, took to Twitter.
Jokic is the modern era Tim Duncan. And that’s a helluva player to be!
— George Karl (@CoachKarl22) May 5, 2021
This is quite an interesting take by Karl. Tim Duncan and Nikola Jokic both, are terrifying to guard down in the post. Both players aren’t very athletically gifted with speed or agility. However, both the players rely heavily on their incredible skill with a deep offensive arsenal.
Also Read: Draymond Green sings Cavaliers star’s praise, calls him one of the best young guards in the NBA
While the two stars have are equally dangerous in the post, Jokic can also handle the ball like a guard and be the main facilitator for the team.
However, it is on the defensive end that Duncan has an edge over Jokic. Duncan, a 15-time All-Defensive player, is considered to be the best defender at his position. Even though Nikola isn’t a bad defender, he is quite far from Tim.
Both, Nikola and Tim have a huge variety of skills and are unique gameplay. Even though this comparison seems a bit odd, it is understandable to see where George is coming from with this comparison.