Nikola Jokic has been so good these last bunch of years that fans are running out of new ways to describe his greatness. Yet, somehow, he continues to get better, stretching the limit of how impactful a single player can be to an NBA offense.
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Jokic quite literally does it all on the offensive end. He initiates the Nuggets’ offense, he draws in the defense, and combines the league’s best court vision with its softest shooting touch. He is as close to unstoppable as anyone can be.
LeBron James and Steve Nash took some time out of the newest episode of Mind the Game to marvel over what Jokic is doing this year. Even LeBron, one of the most thoughtful players of all time, struggled to fully encapsulate what the Serbian big man has been able to do.
When Nash asked him if Jokic was the best offensive player that he had ever played against, LeBron said, “I will say this. There has not been a more dominant, complete player that I’ve played against.” He then reiterated some of the things Nash had said, such as Jokic’s passing, shooting and rebounding as ways he can impact the game like no one else.
“There’s nothing he cannot do on the offensive end, like nothing at all. Nothing,” LeBron emphasized. “You try to double him, he’s going to make you pay, you try to play him single coverage, he’s going to make you pay. He even brings the ball up the floor, they outlet the ball to him.”
The stats back up Jokic’s case for being the best offensive player alive. Nash mentioned how when he’s on the court, the Nuggets average 1.3 points per possession, an absurd number. They’re +22 per 100 possessions when he’s on the court versus -6 per 100 possessions when he’s off the court.
Jokic lost out on the MVP to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander last year despite putting up gaudy numbers. And now it looks like he’s going to be in another epic battle this time around, with LeBron’s teammate Luka Doncic joining the fray with his league-leading 35.2 points per game.
Nash made sure to mention that Jokic’s crazy stats are only through three weeks of the season, but LeBron wasn’t having any of it. “We know it’s only three weeks,” he said, “but three weeks is a lot of basketball. We’re not talking three games. We’re not talking three or four nights, we’re talking three weeks of just complete flawless dominance.”
Jokic’s history proves that this isn’t an aberration, as he’s been the best player in basketball and yet has continually gotten better over the last five years.
He’s constantly raising his game to new heights, and after pushing the Thunder to seven games in last season’s playoffs, the Denver Nuggets may be the best chance to stop an OKC dynasty, though LeBron and Luka may have something to say about that, too.
