Wake Up With An NBA Countdown: Nikola Jokic
Good morning everybody, happy Tuesday! For today’s countdown I wanted to talk about someone who for years has flown under the radar of the casual NBA fan, but is one of the most talented players the league has. He doesn’t look like he would dominate the best basketball league on the planet, but I assure you he is as dangerous as they come. Maybe it’s because he’s white, maybe it’s because he’s European, maybe it’s because of the market he plays in, but the world needs to know more about Nikola Jokic aka The Joker aka Big Honey (what a nickname!)
You see at just 22 years old, Nuggets fans will agree that when talking about some of the best young big men in the league, Jokic doesn’t get mentioned nearly enough. People love to talk about Embiid, and rightfully so, but look the facts are the facts are the facts
A player who has improved in each of his first three seasons in DEN, we saw Jokic just get his massive extension this summer so maybe the tides are starting to turn as more and more people realize what a monster this dude is. From 10/7 on 51% shooting and 0.4 3PM his rookie year to 18.5/10.7/6.7 on 49/39% splits with 1.5 3PM last year. If I were to rank the best all around big men in the league I don’t know how you can leave him off, it’s basically like him and Horford as the two best passing bigs in the league, and while his defense is a DISASTER at times, and he doesn’t really protect the rim like you would expect a 7fter to, he certainly has time to improve on that end of the floor. I mean again, he’s a baby at just 22.
What I love about Jokic aside from his array of offensive weapons is the fact that the dude plays almost every night. He’s never had a season in which he’s played under 73 games, and I am confident that if he were to switch conferences he’d be a lock for the All Star game every since year. It’s not his fault he plays in a stacked conference for smallish market team that many people don’t stay up late to watch. But please, if you take one thing I ever write to heart, it’s you need to make DEN a regular part of your League Pass rotation this upcoming season. They are one of if not the most exciting young team on the come up in the West, and the firepower they play with on offense would make Steve Kerr blush. They play fast, they shoot threes, they move the ball, and a lot of that has to do with how Jokic plays. He is a facilitator first, but also can go and get himself a bucket when he needs it. I’d say you can bank on a 20/10 season from him this year, something not many in the league are able to accomplish.
The fact that the Nuggets were able to snag this guy with the 41st pick in the 2014 Draft and watch him turn into their franchise player is about as lucky as you can get for a franchise like DEN, one that isn’t exactly a popular free agent destination for whatever reason. Living in Colorado fucking rules and I’m not even talking about the legal weed. It’s just a bomb ass state that’s always sunny and the winters are a joke. For a while the Nuggets had probably the best return on their investment when they were only paying Jokic like $2M a year, but I would say he’s earned his slight bump up to $25M this upcoming year.
If you didn’t really watch much Jokic before, I’m not sure what you were doing. He’s one of the more fun players in the NBA to watch on a nightly basis, and I predict he’s about to get a hell of a lot more famous, especially if the Nuggets are good. So enjoy today’s video, I hope it makes the morning go by a little faster, and you have yourself a great Tuesday!