We Now Have Video Evidence That Nikola Jokic Is In Fact "Beach Ready"
A few weeks ago that picture of Jokic looking skinny as hell surfaced on the internet. At the time I declared it the upset of the century because if there was one player who you thought would come back skinny, Jokic had to be near the bottom. This was that picture
The thing is, you can mess with angles and shit when taking a picture. A still photo looked promising but for me it's another thing when you see live video. Then it becomes indisputable. Well look at Jokic in that video! Who is that guy! The last time we saw Jokic on the floor he was certainly more trimmed than how he started the season after FIBA. He even admitted he lost 25 pounds as he played his way into shape and his production skyrocketed.
Well, should we assume the same thing will happen now that he's even skinnier and more in shape than when we went on hiatus in March? In February this dude was putting up 25.5/10.0/7.2 on 64/35% shooting. He was playing around 33 minutes a night. Well now what if he's in good enough shape to bump that up to well over 40? Last season he averaged about 39.8 and had that one game against POR where he played around 60+ minutes. You have to think this version of Jokic is going to be able to play at least that if not more, and considering he put up 25.1/13.0/8.4 on 50/39% shooting in last year's playoffs that has to have me over the moon as a Nuggets fan.
Maybe now this statement by the Nuggets GM makes a lot more sense
“Nikola looks unbelievable… He’s in fantastic shape. Not just Nikola, a lot of our guys have taken this whole process very seriously. And I give them and our performance and strength-and-conditioning staff a ton of credit for keeping these guys locked in, but I’ve never seen him in better shape.”
I could understand being skeptical upon hearing that, but it looks to be the truth. We could very well see a quicker Jokic which doesn't really matter offensively but for sure could impact his defense. If he's not getting tired as easily, he won't make the same mental mistakes or be slow on rotations, shit like that. Maybe he'll have legs to be able to make late fourth quarter threes. A never before seen in shape Jokic changes a lot of things for the Nuggets and their potential postseason run.
I know personally I cannot wait to see what a thin Jokic can do. How will it change his game? A big part of why he's so tough to guard is he can just barrel into you and completely dominate you on the block due to his big ass and heavy frame. Are we maybe going to get a Jokic that has a quick offensive arsenal? Maybe some Dream Shake action? The possibilities are endless now that he isn't fat as shit.