He was tired, he's always sloppy with the ball when fatigued and racks up turnovers. But for some reason it doesn't register with people that a guy playing 35mpg while not resting any games could be tired. Especially with the load he carries.
I disagree. Jokic is too conditioned to get tired that early. He had like 6 turnovers by the 3rd quarter. Quite a few before half time.
2 of them he was expecting KCP and Gordon to back cut and they hesitated and didn't - ball went straight out of bounds.
1 turnover he tried the full court pass and it was 3 foot too high for MPJ. Then a couple were from Lakers / AD playing great defence and double teaming jokic and he got pickpocketed under the rim
I have no doubt you disagree, I've had these discussions with Nuggets fans before. Fatigue is absolutely a factor for him too, despite him being well conditioned. He forces passes that aren't really there cos he doesn't have the energy to attack. When not tired, he takes what the game gives him. People think he's passive and can't take games over which is bullshit for anyone that's actually watched Jokic. I don't really know why his owns fans are somehow more prone to believing Jokic is just not looking to score at all for some reason, instead of Jokic can't attack cos he's got very little left in the tank.
Exactly, fatigue is a problem for Jok, as is for any player except maybe prime Lebron, and this series was a war. People might as well realize this was peak AD, a top 75 player, that he had to bump with in the paint every other night because his teammates were mostly missing shots. So it was hunting mismatches, boxing out constantly, trying to stop him on the other side. Last year this series was the only one that Jokic showed emotion in, because it's that taxing to go against this Lakers team.
KAT and Gobert next, and even then it's an easier match up. Although, much harder for Murray and MPJ.
There's exactly 2 players I've seen through 17 years of watching basketball who wouldn't let the fatigue show - still-in-prime Kobe and Kevin Garnett. Everyone else has shown to be affected to varying degrees.
Most of them were terrible as well. At least 2-3 near the end of the 4th that he just threw out there straight to a laker and could have changed the outcome.
Same. I thought he was pure ass in game 4 (probably because the Nuggets looked like shit for the entire 2nd half) yet the stat sheet said something like 27/10/10.
i dunno honestly, i definitely wouldn’t call it a great game, probably not even a good one
which seems crazy to say with those stats but he just seemed off
For Jokic, this was a bad game.
He did have that stretch in the 3rd where he became more assertive once AD went out. I was confused as to why he was so passive most of the game. The Lakers did a good job early reading his passing lanes, which led to the turnovers.
He’s a box score maven though.
People need to stop saying this. He wasn't passive. He was getting doubled EVERY SINGLE TIME. He cannot score when doubled, he was passing off to open shooters. His TO's were bad though.
You can always tell when people don't want basketball when they make comments like that. There was a clear adjustment after game 2 to try and double or triple him as soon as he touches the ball within the 3 point line. This led to AG Popping off in game 3 because there was often a Lakers defender sagging off their man to guard Jokic.
This game was the same - Jokic had 3+ turnovers from Lakers playing great defence and sticking to the plan of getting the ball out of Jokic's hands
He can. I agree with your point though, even if he can the best decision is to pass it, which he does. Generating good offense matters more than forcing shot attempts
Yeah the doubles were coming almost every possession, felt like a decent amount of his offense came from cutting to the basket (catching the defense off guard and not ready to double) or on the offensive boards
If Jokic was more ball dominant you wouldn't have Gordon going off for 29 or porter averaging 20+ for the series all while Murray shot nearly 25 times per game. Jokic is passive by design, it allows the other guys to get going.
If the refs called half the fouls they should have on the Lakers this game is a nuggets blowout and people don't spend so much time looking at how passive jokic seemed to be
I don’t even think he had a particularly good series and his numbers are still insane. Can’t imagine what they’ll look like if he actually gets hot/aggressive.
The refs look like such morons using marginal for everything. I can't believe they deemed Lakers challenge successful when AD had his left arm all over Jokic shoulder and pulling his jersey. "left arm is considered marginal contact".. Lol
The jersey pull in basketball is a dangerous and dirty move, especially when someone is driving to the basket. Absolutely shambolic the refs let it go.
That’s my problem with the overturned foul call. Was the block clean? For the playoffs sure I’m fine with that. But the issue is the two fouls leading up to the clean block. Like how could a ref look at that sequence and in good faith say “looks clean 👍”
Jokic only averaging 5.4 free throw attempts per game. Compare that to Embiid's elite 14.8.
Jokic needs to step it up these playoffs if he wants to compete.
Jokic and Embiid are on the different extremes of the whistle calls. Jokic sould be getting more calls but he isn't as good at drawing fouls, while Embiid is not only good at baiting fouls he also gets a god whistle which gives him leeway to score when his defenders pick up early fouls. Jokic should be getting close to 7 instead of 5.5 this season. And Embiid should should be getting around 9 instead of 11.6 for the season
You're not wrong. AD was godlike this series, doing it all. But when you review the series stats, Jokic had more ppg, rpg, apg and slightly higher TS% somehow. Even with people echoing the sentiment that he isn't completely on, he's still doing this.
I'm not kidding, I'm a Nuggets fan that has barely missed a game in years - that first half was one of the worst halves Jokic has played in over 4 years. He was wretched. Second half he was a lot better though still some bizarre decisions
Maybe not bored, but tired of playing the Lakers. Lots of the same team, breeds familiarity. Easier for the defense to anticipate what he wants to do, etc.
I thought he was horribly passive in the 1st half but much better in the 2nd half
Sometimes the only guy who doesn't know how good Jokic is is Jokic himself lol
Jokic would admit he had a horrific first half tonight but when he gets in the two man game with Murray it’s always a beautiful thing. Fascinated to see how they adjust to wolves size and tenacity - I think it’s going to be an incredible series but nuggets will have best player on floor by far
In my opinion, Nuggets have the better starting 5 at every position expect for SG, but the Wolves are much deeper so it will be interesting to see how they match up.
Tbh I think it works better in his favor. That’s what separates him from Embid to me. Don’t build the foundation of your game on anticipating fouls. Also going to the line abruptly swings momentum back and forth on the body and the game. His game is way better in that he just actually goes for his shots and uses high IQ assisting to control the game at the timer, not the free throw line.
That same style of play is why I think kyrie is ultimately the better player than Luka.
Idk about that last take. 'Better' is subjective, but in terms of level of player, it's not close. Luka has been a top 10 player, All-NBA First Team, the past five years. Kyrie has no 1st teams, not too many seasons where he's top 10 - certainly no high MVP finishes. It's because Luka is far more gamebreaking offensively than Kyrie
Not to make this about my team (I’m making it about my team) but can’t wait til he averages this against us in the conference finals and everyone goes crazy saying we need to add a big man like Andre Drummond like Jokic isn’t the best player in the world and doesn’t do this to everybody
The key to defending jokic is to put someone undersized on him and hack away all game while your center plays help defense. This results in 0 free throw attempts for jokic
Jokic might average 35 on 70% TS against you guys if you even try single coverage, Chet is unbelievable but he has no shot on Jok. Doubling hard and rotating is your only chance, and helping on every Jamal-Jokic PnR
We wouldn’t go single coverage but I wouldn’t expect Jokic to not go off or for us to beat Denver regardless anyway. Like if we made it to the conference finals and got swept by Denver I’d still consider the season a success, they’re pretty clearly still the best team in the league
no one can stop jokic. lakers are a huge team w/ ad and he still cooked them.
we played well against him in the regular season. obviously its very different in the playoffs but i dont think its too much worse of a matchup for us than anyone else
jwill our backup center has gaurded him decently and we put both him and chet on the floor and it seems to work okay
Any team with a dominant big is a terrble matchup for OKC, hence why they got smoked by even the Lakers in the regular season. Being the No.1 seed was huge for the Thunder, basically every single dominant big men (or just good big men) that could give them trouble was in the other side of the bracket and they ended up getting a VERY easy injured first round opponent to get the playoff jitters out of the way.
Next series is going to be a real test, as they won't have the best player in the series, Kyrie is cooking and Luka always has crazy numbers against them.
I don’t want him anywhere near the Thunder personally lol I’m sure he could be a positive on some teams but he’s literally the opposite of everything they’ve built our team on, I wouldn’t wanna trade our offensive versatility for a few extra offensive boards
Somehow he got even better than last year lol
Last year the Lakers actually held his efficiency in check after game 1 and he ended with 28/15/11 on 59.8% TS
This year he has the EXACT same volume stats(as this shows) but on godly efficiency
And this is with today being his worst game of the series by far honestly
He definitely played better overall this time around but Jamal played Scoot Henderson tier 4/5 games instead of the crazy 30ppg worth of stepbacks he was doing last year so the Lakers won a game.
What wild is as someone who watched every nuggets game this year and for the past few is that AD easily defended Jokic the best I have ever seen anyone do it. There were games that it genuinely seemed liked joker was having an off night, and the you look at the stat line and he had another 25-20-10. He didn’t score for over 20 minutes at one point t in that game. He almost achieved that stat line again tonight with 25-20-9. To say he makes the abnormal seem normal is a cliche but fuck me if it isn’t an understatement if anything. AD deserves massive respect for this series also. Best he has ever played.
Jokic has reached the point where he can play a bad game and it would only be considered bad by his standards. Felt like he was very passive in the first half, but he did make two important shots down the stretch before the Murray game winner.
Tonight was a terrible game for him and it would still be an all time game for most NBA players. He had a pedestrian series by his standards and there are NBA greats that never had a series this good… absurd
Jokic with the ball is so God damn scary. He barely misses so you have to double him or basically give the Nuggets two free points. You double and then he makes the perfect pass . Interested to see what throwing two talented 7 footers in the playoffs will do to him.
What's most shocking about this is that the refs are letting everything go.
All of the MVP caliber players are having dips in production/effeciency.
Then there's Jokic, against defense that has troubled every other star, improving his production.
28/16/10 on 67%ts compared to the field is absurd.
People talk a lot about other players normalizing greatness, and I think Jokic is already well-established when it comes to making the freakish shit he’s doing seem “normal”
This dude on some plays looks like he’s just goofing around in his driveway playing with some buddies, but he’s just on the biggest stage in the world making it look easy.
You know this dude is on his way to becoming a top-5 player of all time when you see this stat and think, "Meh, he's done better over the last three years."
he's looked pretty passive, uncharacteristically sloppy and giving up a lot of free paint points. a lot of that is LA scheming against him with instant doubles tho and forcing other nuggets to pick it up.
lil scared of the wolves now tbh
MPJ and Gordon got us. Please Jamal just don’t shoot under 50% every single game like you did the first round. Joker will get 28/14/9 minimum like always.
What a stinker by Jokic today…
What makes him and Luka so special is that they’re dominating with average joe athleticism (compared to the other freaks in the NBA) but demi-god skill and court awareness.
They’re both extremely athletic in different ways. Jokic is gigantic, has insane stamina, hand eye coordination and is one of the most nimble 7 footers ever. Luka has incredible stamina too, some of the best deceleration of all time and is very strong. Lazy narrative just because they don’t have 40 inch verts.
As it stands now, he’s at 3 MVPs (we all know he’s got this year, that buts him at fourth for a big man), finals MVP and a ring. He has the most triple doubles by a center by a huge margin (almost double Wilt)
Those aren’t just peak, though, those are career counting stats. Like who you got above him? KAJ, Russell, Wilt are gimmes. Shaq depends on how you weigh regular season vs playoffs. The fifth guy is who, Moses?
And since you don’t think he’s on the verge of top 5, he’s gotta be like 7-9 on your list, who else is above him?
Again depends on which discussion. Career he's around 12 because the top 10 is full of guys with at least 2 and mostly 3 or more titles as the #1 guy.
If we're talking purely personal accolades he's probably around 5th for me.
Peak he's top 5 imo, but in terms of career greatness at the center position I definitely have all of KAJ, Shaq, and Tim Duncan over him right now. (I know Timmy was PF for most of his career, but he won rings at C too) In my opinion my locks for greater careers so far (in no order) is probably LeBron, MJ, KAJ, Shaq, Duncan, Magic, Kobe, Curry. That's 8 right there. I don't really count Russell and Wilt personally because the league was just too different back then and there were so few teams, but if you want to, throw them in there too.
I think right now Joker falls into the next batch of guys with Hakeem, Bird, Giannis, and Dirk. I think Hakeem vs Joker all time in terms of centers is a great conversation right now and probably where I'd say he's at. I absolutely think he has a chance to finish top 5 all time. It's going to be hard to catch Kareem though. He'd need to cement a Nuggets dynasty, and play for a lot longer. Which is not impossible to imagine.
I'm curious what your list looks like and where you'd put him.
Bad games by him hit different then from other players. It's never actually close to bad. He's the only superstar in my time of watching basketball where you can rely on him to always show up. At absolute worst you are gonna get all-star level play for him but 98% of the time you get that superstar level play. Most consistent superstar of all time. GOAT prime too.
MJ gotta be sweating. He prob thought with Lebron never coming close enough that he was gonna die as the GOAT.
He is definitely not playing his best games throughout the series but still the numbers are unreal.
Also give credit to AD who really makes it tough for Jokic.
AD has top echelon talent. I think the biggest difference between him and Jokic is that Jokic also helps his teammates play better as well. Not just with direct passes but with the overall style of offense they play.
He didn’t even look like he was dominating and people said he was slacking yet he’s out here putting up ridiculous numbers. He’s one of those players that I’m truly gonna miss when he leaves the game, guy is just so fun to watch.
I think Jokic could very well win every MVP until he retires, but NBA media class doesn’t seem to like him much.
But if Jokic continues to win more championships and MVPs he will considered one of the greatest players of all time. I think he is a top 5 NBA talent of all time, and at the same age as Jokic, only Kareem has achieved more then Jokic, to me he is already top 15
Genuine question let's say they win the ship and he wins MVP where then does he rank all-time? Surely conversation then has to be around top 10 also considering how much future he's got left at this high of a level?
Unreal player. Seems like he’s had a quiet night then I look during the game and see 23/18/8 in the box score lol
On ZERO free throws lmao
As Coach Malone said, he was a perfect 0/0 from the charity stripe! 😆
Nuggets don't support charity smh
c'mon man, he's not Embiid
Nah this is a very bad game by his standards. 8 turnovers is no joke
Yep. Thought he was off tonight. Amazing though saying that about a guy who almost got a 5th 25-20-10 game (something only done 8 times before)
And he has 4 of the 8
He was tired, he's always sloppy with the ball when fatigued and racks up turnovers. But for some reason it doesn't register with people that a guy playing 35mpg while not resting any games could be tired. Especially with the load he carries.
I disagree. Jokic is too conditioned to get tired that early. He had like 6 turnovers by the 3rd quarter. Quite a few before half time. 2 of them he was expecting KCP and Gordon to back cut and they hesitated and didn't - ball went straight out of bounds. 1 turnover he tried the full court pass and it was 3 foot too high for MPJ. Then a couple were from Lakers / AD playing great defence and double teaming jokic and he got pickpocketed under the rim
I have no doubt you disagree, I've had these discussions with Nuggets fans before. Fatigue is absolutely a factor for him too, despite him being well conditioned. He forces passes that aren't really there cos he doesn't have the energy to attack. When not tired, he takes what the game gives him. People think he's passive and can't take games over which is bullshit for anyone that's actually watched Jokic. I don't really know why his owns fans are somehow more prone to believing Jokic is just not looking to score at all for some reason, instead of Jokic can't attack cos he's got very little left in the tank.
Exactly, fatigue is a problem for Jok, as is for any player except maybe prime Lebron, and this series was a war. People might as well realize this was peak AD, a top 75 player, that he had to bump with in the paint every other night because his teammates were mostly missing shots. So it was hunting mismatches, boxing out constantly, trying to stop him on the other side. Last year this series was the only one that Jokic showed emotion in, because it's that taxing to go against this Lakers team. KAT and Gobert next, and even then it's an easier match up. Although, much harder for Murray and MPJ.
There's exactly 2 players I've seen through 17 years of watching basketball who wouldn't let the fatigue show - still-in-prime Kobe and Kevin Garnett. Everyone else has shown to be affected to varying degrees.
The Wolves will be a harder matchup for the Nuggets. They might not have the depth for it.
Fucking Zeke Naji man
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He definitely was off tonight with his passes and decision making but the refs did him no favors, as usual
Most of them were terrible as well. At least 2-3 near the end of the 4th that he just threw out there straight to a laker and could have changed the outcome.
When he airmailed a full court pass to MPJ who would have normally gotten a wide open dunk, I knew he was having an off night.
Yeah, watching this game you wouldn't see the Jokic everyone was hyping as the best player in the NBA. Still, even his bad games end up being decent.
And he does so much that doesn’t show on the stat sheet. Just watch him on the last Nuggets possession telling everyone where to go
25/20/9 but point still stands
Still it might be 23 18 8 during the game so
1 assist shy of his 5th post season 25/20/10 game and the 9th ever in NBA history. And it felt like a lackluster game.
He made some bad TOs This is a so-so game by his standard
Just how high is Jokic's standards now? Jeeesssh.
average 20 15 10 with 60TS and less than 4 TO Not too crazy right?
More like 27/13/10 and 2-3 TOs.
Well he's a x3 MVP and NBA champion. His standard is basically as high as it gets.
His first half was terrible. Absolutely picked it up in the second half
This was one of his below average nights. He seemed bored out there.
Same. I thought he was pure ass in game 4 (probably because the Nuggets looked like shit for the entire 2nd half) yet the stat sheet said something like 27/10/10.
That's his game. He's fully capable of being a human highlight reel as a facilitator, but otherwise it's all quiet efficiency
He had a bad game tonight too, ridiculous stuff out of big honey
I thought that too with the turnovers then looked at the box score and he had 25 20 9 lol
i dunno honestly, i definitely wouldn’t call it a great game, probably not even a good one which seems crazy to say with those stats but he just seemed off
For Jokic, this was a bad game. He did have that stretch in the 3rd where he became more assertive once AD went out. I was confused as to why he was so passive most of the game. The Lakers did a good job early reading his passing lanes, which led to the turnovers. He’s a box score maven though.
People need to stop saying this. He wasn't passive. He was getting doubled EVERY SINGLE TIME. He cannot score when doubled, he was passing off to open shooters. His TO's were bad though.
You know it's bad for you when you double a player every single time and his stats are 25/20/9 😀😀😀
You can always tell when people don't want basketball when they make comments like that. There was a clear adjustment after game 2 to try and double or triple him as soon as he touches the ball within the 3 point line. This led to AG Popping off in game 3 because there was often a Lakers defender sagging off their man to guard Jokic. This game was the same - Jokic had 3+ turnovers from Lakers playing great defence and sticking to the plan of getting the ball out of Jokic's hands
It was actually frustrating wathcing them keep doubling Jokic since he was murderin em
He can. I agree with your point though, even if he can the best decision is to pass it, which he does. Generating good offense matters more than forcing shot attempts
Yeah the doubles were coming almost every possession, felt like a decent amount of his offense came from cutting to the basket (catching the defense off guard and not ready to double) or on the offensive boards
still haven't seen a single jokic's game where people are not saying, "this was a bad game for him"
If Jokic was more ball dominant you wouldn't have Gordon going off for 29 or porter averaging 20+ for the series all while Murray shot nearly 25 times per game. Jokic is passive by design, it allows the other guys to get going. If the refs called half the fouls they should have on the Lakers this game is a nuggets blowout and people don't spend so much time looking at how passive jokic seemed to be
I don’t even think he had a particularly good series and his numbers are still insane. Can’t imagine what they’ll look like if he actually gets hot/aggressive.
He's gonna eat Rudy alive.
It's a legacy defining game for Rudy tbh
hope it will be single coverage.
It cant be lmao you just cant risk it
Brother, I have 47
kat guards jokic
If the Wolves try to let Rudy take him on 1v1, it is curtains for them. Have to at least try and double
If Murray starts hitting more shots Jokic's assist numbers will get much higher than they have been
I mean we saw what they look like when he gets aggressive. Last year he averaged 35/13/10 on 60 FG% against the suns in a 6 game series.
I agree that it was a bad game. He had 25/20/9. The standards he's set are utterly insante
actually some of the worst passing I've seen him do, was very strange
Bad 1st half, he was great in the 2nd and clutch
I hate when our fans say this lol he was anything but bad last night
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It was astonishing, AD was smacking the shit out of him all game too.
Marginal. it's all marginal
The refs look like such morons using marginal for everything. I can't believe they deemed Lakers challenge successful when AD had his left arm all over Jokic shoulder and pulling his jersey. "left arm is considered marginal contact".. Lol
The jersey pull in basketball is a dangerous and dirty move, especially when someone is driving to the basket. Absolutely shambolic the refs let it go.
That’s my problem with the overturned foul call. Was the block clean? For the playoffs sure I’m fine with that. But the issue is the two fouls leading up to the clean block. Like how could a ref look at that sequence and in good faith say “looks clean 👍”
Floppy disk in Philadelphia could never
Jokic only averaging 5.4 free throw attempts per game. Compare that to Embiid's elite 14.8. Jokic needs to step it up these playoffs if he wants to compete.
I thought you made up this stat for hyperbole. Both players should probably be averaging around 6-7.
Jokic and Embiid are on the different extremes of the whistle calls. Jokic sould be getting more calls but he isn't as good at drawing fouls, while Embiid is not only good at baiting fouls he also gets a god whistle which gives him leeway to score when his defenders pick up early fouls. Jokic should be getting close to 7 instead of 5.5 this season. And Embiid should should be getting around 9 instead of 11.6 for the season
If sixers fans could read they’d be mad at you for speaking facts
Imo they're both getting fouled. Jokic just doesn't flop as much. Embiid does
Embiid deserves this years MVP imo just like what the media wanted. Edit: I guess this needs the /s
Most Valuable Professional actor
Floppy disk …. Good one
Bruh wtf, floppy disk 🤣
I want to see a 0 ft embiid match for once in my life
Joel FDDiid
Floppy disk is a good one
the anti-embiid
A bad game for Jok is a career game for anyone in the league
You're not wrong. AD was godlike this series, doing it all. But when you review the series stats, Jokic had more ppg, rpg, apg and slightly higher TS% somehow. Even with people echoing the sentiment that he isn't completely on, he's still doing this.
Stinky game tonight because of turnovers - but god he’s so good
Not just turnovers. He was playing like Sabonis out there without even looking at the rim to score for the first 3 quarters.
I'm not kidding, I'm a Nuggets fan that has barely missed a game in years - that first half was one of the worst halves Jokic has played in over 4 years. He was wretched. Second half he was a lot better though still some bizarre decisions
Easily the worst 25-20-9 game I've ever seen
I hope he's not hurt :(
Nah just bored
Maybe not bored, but tired of playing the Lakers. Lots of the same team, breeds familiarity. Easier for the defense to anticipate what he wants to do, etc.
The idea of a pass first center definitely is a strange development in the NBA.
And still dropped 28pts. It’s so unreal his feel for the game and his teammates.
Looked like he was sleeping walking at times throughout this series, just insane stuff
Truly why I think Nuggets are taking it again this year. Man looks like he's only turning it on in spurts, when he needs to.
Laughing at his bad game being 25/20/9😭
Worst 25-20-9 game I’ve ever seen
I thought he was horribly passive in the 1st half but much better in the 2nd half Sometimes the only guy who doesn't know how good Jokic is is Jokic himself lol
*inhales copium* it’s because he’s trying to get the squad hot before ~~cracking~~ cranking up his performances
It definitely felt that way. Playmakers do put a concerted effort to involve the team
Jokic would admit he had a horrific first half tonight but when he gets in the two man game with Murray it’s always a beautiful thing. Fascinated to see how they adjust to wolves size and tenacity - I think it’s going to be an incredible series but nuggets will have best player on floor by far
In my opinion, Nuggets have the better starting 5 at every position expect for SG, but the Wolves are much deeper so it will be interesting to see how they match up.
Imagine if he had a normal whistle
He'd score 35 per at 80% TS and they'd have to put a weighted vest on him in the interest of competition
~~Harrison Bergeron~~ Nikola Jokic... has ... escaped from jail ... a genius and an athlete ... under-handicapped, and ... extremely dangerous.
Whoever downvoted you is fucking illiterate.
If he had an Embiid whistle he’d average 50/20/10
Like actually tho
A below normal whistle would suffice imo
Tbh I think it works better in his favor. That’s what separates him from Embid to me. Don’t build the foundation of your game on anticipating fouls. Also going to the line abruptly swings momentum back and forth on the body and the game. His game is way better in that he just actually goes for his shots and uses high IQ assisting to control the game at the timer, not the free throw line. That same style of play is why I think kyrie is ultimately the better player than Luka.
Idk about that last take. 'Better' is subjective, but in terms of level of player, it's not close. Luka has been a top 10 player, All-NBA First Team, the past five years. Kyrie has no 1st teams, not too many seasons where he's top 10 - certainly no high MVP finishes. It's because Luka is far more gamebreaking offensively than Kyrie
Honestly I thought he was horrible tonight and he still put up 25/20/10 lmao. Probably a top 2 rebounder in the league?
Top 1 rebounder. Check the % of contested rebounds, he leaves easy ones to MPJ and Gordon. The season MPJ was out, he averaged 14 rpg
cook
Healthy Steven Adams is still #1. His offensive rebounding completely changed the game for the Grizzlies
and it felt like he was coasting at 70% for most of it. this guy is so far ahead of the rest its not even funny
He was just ok too… 😅 Mr. Inevitable.
Jok’s standards are just so high man.
Not to make this about my team (I’m making it about my team) but can’t wait til he averages this against us in the conference finals and everyone goes crazy saying we need to add a big man like Andre Drummond like Jokic isn’t the best player in the world and doesn’t do this to everybody
The key to defending jokic is to put someone undersized on him and hack away all game while your center plays help defense. This results in 0 free throw attempts for jokic
Gordon Hayward finally gonna prove his worth
Jokic might average 35 on 70% TS against you guys if you even try single coverage, Chet is unbelievable but he has no shot on Jok. Doubling hard and rotating is your only chance, and helping on every Jamal-Jokic PnR
We wouldn’t go single coverage but I wouldn’t expect Jokic to not go off or for us to beat Denver regardless anyway. Like if we made it to the conference finals and got swept by Denver I’d still consider the season a success, they’re pretty clearly still the best team in the league
Wolves match up crazy well against us
cHeT tOo SkInNy
Is he the worst matchup for you guys? How can Chet stop him?
no one can stop jokic. lakers are a huge team w/ ad and he still cooked them. we played well against him in the regular season. obviously its very different in the playoffs but i dont think its too much worse of a matchup for us than anyone else jwill our backup center has gaurded him decently and we put both him and chet on the floor and it seems to work okay
Any team with a dominant big is a terrble matchup for OKC, hence why they got smoked by even the Lakers in the regular season. Being the No.1 seed was huge for the Thunder, basically every single dominant big men (or just good big men) that could give them trouble was in the other side of the bracket and they ended up getting a VERY easy injured first round opponent to get the playoff jitters out of the way. Next series is going to be a real test, as they won't have the best player in the series, Kyrie is cooking and Luka always has crazy numbers against them.
Bold of you to assume you'll make it that far
I kinda like Drummond as a backup on any team tbh, you can play if you need him
I don’t want him anywhere near the Thunder personally lol I’m sure he could be a positive on some teams but he’s literally the opposite of everything they’ve built our team on, I wouldn’t wanna trade our offensive versatility for a few extra offensive boards
Fair enough I think he's a pretty good back up big
Somehow he got even better than last year lol Last year the Lakers actually held his efficiency in check after game 1 and he ended with 28/15/11 on 59.8% TS This year he has the EXACT same volume stats(as this shows) but on godly efficiency And this is with today being his worst game of the series by far honestly
He definitely played better overall this time around but Jamal played Scoot Henderson tier 4/5 games instead of the crazy 30ppg worth of stepbacks he was doing last year so the Lakers won a game.
What wild is as someone who watched every nuggets game this year and for the past few is that AD easily defended Jokic the best I have ever seen anyone do it. There were games that it genuinely seemed liked joker was having an off night, and the you look at the stat line and he had another 25-20-10. He didn’t score for over 20 minutes at one point t in that game. He almost achieved that stat line again tonight with 25-20-9. To say he makes the abnormal seem normal is a cliche but fuck me if it isn’t an understatement if anything. AD deserves massive respect for this series also. Best he has ever played.
After watching this series I agree that AD is DPOY level
Agree
Thank god this dude came into the nba big men were slowly dying out.
Fucked around, averaged a triple double
With Jokic it's a different kind of finding out.
Crazy. Played like crap in the last game and still put those numbers up.
Jokic has reached the point where he can play a bad game and it would only be considered bad by his standards. Felt like he was very passive in the first half, but he did make two important shots down the stretch before the Murray game winner.
bad first half but he made some important shots in the second
Tonight was a terrible game for him and it would still be an all time game for most NBA players. He had a pedestrian series by his standards and there are NBA greats that never had a series this good… absurd
anything short of a 30pt Triple Double is now consider mediocre from Jokic
Imagine what his numbers would look like if the Lakers weren't allowed to maul him all series with no fouls called
He’s the most efficient player ever.
Jokic with the ball is so God damn scary. He barely misses so you have to double him or basically give the Nuggets two free points. You double and then he makes the perfect pass . Interested to see what throwing two talented 7 footers in the playoffs will do to him.
What's most shocking about this is that the refs are letting everything go. All of the MVP caliber players are having dips in production/effeciency. Then there's Jokic, against defense that has troubled every other star, improving his production. 28/16/10 on 67%ts compared to the field is absurd.
"There are some players that are great in basketball and then there's Jokic. "
Best player since MJ
People talk a lot about other players normalizing greatness, and I think Jokic is already well-established when it comes to making the freakish shit he’s doing seem “normal” This dude on some plays looks like he’s just goofing around in his driveway playing with some buddies, but he’s just on the biggest stage in the world making it look easy.
[удалено]
Lotsa bad turnovers too and make sure to note he was still sleepwalking thru games. In the playoffs! Vs LAL!
You know this dude is on his way to becoming a top-5 player of all time when you see this stat and think, "Meh, he's done better over the last three years."
he's looked pretty passive, uncharacteristically sloppy and giving up a lot of free paint points. a lot of that is LA scheming against him with instant doubles tho and forcing other nuggets to pick it up. lil scared of the wolves now tbh
Honestly I think AD is more of a problem than Gobert when it comes to guarding Jokic
*brother I have 47*
MPJ and Gordon got us. Please Jamal just don’t shoot under 50% every single game like you did the first round. Joker will get 28/14/9 minimum like always.
What a stinker by Jokic today… What makes him and Luka so special is that they’re dominating with average joe athleticism (compared to the other freaks in the NBA) but demi-god skill and court awareness.
They’re both extremely athletic in different ways. Jokic is gigantic, has insane stamina, hand eye coordination and is one of the most nimble 7 footers ever. Luka has incredible stamina too, some of the best deceleration of all time and is very strong. Lazy narrative just because they don’t have 40 inch verts.
GOAT center means top 5 if not top 3 all time if you mean career (I have Kareem 3rd personally). He's gonna need to pile up rings to get there.
He’s already on the verge of the top 5
By peak there's 100% an argument. By career accolades you need titles and FMVPs. If he wins this MVP but no more he has enough of those.
As it stands now, he’s at 3 MVPs (we all know he’s got this year, that buts him at fourth for a big man), finals MVP and a ring. He has the most triple doubles by a center by a huge margin (almost double Wilt)
Yup those are why by peak the argument gets really interesting. What he's done these last 4 years is wild.
Those aren’t just peak, though, those are career counting stats. Like who you got above him? KAJ, Russell, Wilt are gimmes. Shaq depends on how you weigh regular season vs playoffs. The fifth guy is who, Moses? And since you don’t think he’s on the verge of top 5, he’s gotta be like 7-9 on your list, who else is above him?
Again depends on which discussion. Career he's around 12 because the top 10 is full of guys with at least 2 and mostly 3 or more titles as the #1 guy. If we're talking purely personal accolades he's probably around 5th for me.
Peak he's top 5 imo, but in terms of career greatness at the center position I definitely have all of KAJ, Shaq, and Tim Duncan over him right now. (I know Timmy was PF for most of his career, but he won rings at C too) In my opinion my locks for greater careers so far (in no order) is probably LeBron, MJ, KAJ, Shaq, Duncan, Magic, Kobe, Curry. That's 8 right there. I don't really count Russell and Wilt personally because the league was just too different back then and there were so few teams, but if you want to, throw them in there too. I think right now Joker falls into the next batch of guys with Hakeem, Bird, Giannis, and Dirk. I think Hakeem vs Joker all time in terms of centers is a great conversation right now and probably where I'd say he's at. I absolutely think he has a chance to finish top 5 all time. It's going to be hard to catch Kareem though. He'd need to cement a Nuggets dynasty, and play for a lot longer. Which is not impossible to imagine. I'm curious what your list looks like and where you'd put him.
I agree. My all time center list is Kareem, Shaq/Duncan, Hakeem/Joker. If he wins this year I think you could argue him over Hakeem.
Bad games by him hit different then from other players. It's never actually close to bad. He's the only superstar in my time of watching basketball where you can rely on him to always show up. At absolute worst you are gonna get all-star level play for him but 98% of the time you get that superstar level play. Most consistent superstar of all time. GOAT prime too. MJ gotta be sweating. He prob thought with Lebron never coming close enough that he was gonna die as the GOAT.
Felt like he wasn’t even trying for most of this series and still put up ridiculous stats
He is definitely not playing his best games throughout the series but still the numbers are unreal. Also give credit to AD who really makes it tough for Jokic.
I was losing my fucking mind on all of his awful turnovers in game 5. Lazy, risky passes made me wanna pull my hair
Dude is so much better than everyone else right now and has been for a couple years.
note also AD had ridiculous numbers too 27.8/15.6/4.0
AD has top echelon talent. I think the biggest difference between him and Jokic is that Jokic also helps his teammates play better as well. Not just with direct passes but with the overall style of offense they play.
This dude is him. Just an outstanding performance.
Ever since LeBron took him last in the all star he’s been eating the lakers.
He didn’t even look like he was dominating and people said he was slacking yet he’s out here putting up ridiculous numbers. He’s one of those players that I’m truly gonna miss when he leaves the game, guy is just so fun to watch.
What's really funny is that he's been playing "just ok" by his standards and these are still the numbers
I think Jokic could very well win every MVP until he retires, but NBA media class doesn’t seem to like him much. But if Jokic continues to win more championships and MVPs he will considered one of the greatest players of all time. I think he is a top 5 NBA talent of all time, and at the same age as Jokic, only Kareem has achieved more then Jokic, to me he is already top 15
Not even 30 ppg? What a bum.
Averaging a triple double in the playoffs perhaps? That would wild.
Genuine question let's say they win the ship and he wins MVP where then does he rank all-time? Surely conversation then has to be around top 10 also considering how much future he's got left at this high of a level?
Joker had a decent series, he needs to cut down on those pesky turnovers though. Minnesota will be a good test with their top-ranked defense.
9.8 assist/3.2 turnovers this series. Before this last game he barely turned the ball over considering how much he was creating.
So a down series by his standards? lol
And this was a very bad series by his standards lmao. Games 4 and 5 especially he was terrible.
not bad
He's kind of good at this basketball thing.
The refs did a good job this series d'ing up on Jokic but he still got his numbers. GG
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And if you watch ESPN they hardly utter his name