Yet another historic performance of the Nuggets’ long should be worth much more than the second MVP. Jokic is already today something never seen in history.
End an NBA game with 30 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, shooting 10/11 from the field and 9/9 from the line, it’s not that easy. First of all, it means being extremely precise, allowing yourself a few smears and empty passes, controlling the game in several aspects, affecting two halves, not finding valid oppositions in the defense. Here she is statline mentioned concerns the last 15 minutes of Nikola Jokic’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans tonight. 15 minutes played between the last quarter and overtime which were then decisive for the Denver Nuggets’ victory and which contributed to a final loot that, in terms of quantity and quality, is unmatched in NBA history, except when it comes to another player belonging to a basketball from another era.
In fact, Jokic finished with 46 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists, 4 blocks and 3 steals with 16/22 from the field, and to find another such game with a triple double of 45 points and 70% shooting. one must bother with the league’s record-man par excellence, Wilt Chamberlain. A legend that the long Serbian in reality has repeatedly approached, reached and even dethroned in various sensational statistical rumors, revealing even to the most skeptical eye how by now in talking about the number 15 of Denver, MVP in charge of the league, we must really do reference to one of the strongest longs that basketball has produced and not only to the overfavorite to repeat the award again this year.
More “valuable” than that …
When the NBA awards the MVP at the end of the season, the Most Valuable Player 2021/22, like every year, he will find himself having to make assessments on an endless list of phenomena that for different reasons believe, by popular acclaim, to have valid arguments to raise the statuette. Having said that of all the NBA superstars Jokic really looks – in style with the character – the world’s least interested player in collecting trophies and records, it will be very difficult to find any explanation for an award given to someone other than the Sombor native. That due to the impact on his team (orphan of second and third best player on the roster, that is Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Junior) in terms of wins and losses, he is demonstrating the meaning of the word night after night “valuable“in terms of positive influence on its boundary.
LeBron James in history: he is the best scorer ever in the NBA between regular season and Playoffs
From a very quick check on one of the many sites specialized in nba analytics (clealingtheglass.com), we find out how the presence on the field of Nikola Jokic alone moved an overall number of 46 victories for the Nuggets: 64 against 18. Put simply, without him Denver would be worth the misery of 18 games won and would be in full lottery and with what looking at the current records of the most modest NBA teams, would be the worst of the 30 teams in the league.
The way in which the Serbian manages to raise the level of his modest teammates (Denver brings 5 players in double figures from Will Barton’s 14.8 to Jeff Green’s 10.3) with a ‘innate ability to manipulate opposing defenses and exploit his incredible vision of the game to anticipate their movements and their choices, it has no equal not only in the current panorama but, also considering the size, in the history of the game. Jokic has indeed revolutionized the concept of long in its own wayhistorically crystallized between the old school big-men and the newest generation of “unicorns”, the 7 feet capable of shooting from 3, giving the role a completely different meaning and adding to the characteristics of the modern long classic able to play shoulders and face to basket a playmaking and an ability to create shots for himself and his teammates that no other player of this size has ever been able to show.
Denver wants to lock up his phenomenon
The Colorado franchise has first of all the merit of having first chosen with the call number 41 a player whose potential could be glimpsed but who all expected limited by weight problems and a poor work ethic, and then to be able to touch the right strings to transform the lazy talent admired in the first few years into a decidedly player “committed“, as they would say in America, and that from the famous Playoffs played in the Orlando bubble he seems to have set himself the goal of bringing a ring to Denver, working incessantly on precisely those aspects that after the first seasons everyone expected could be an insurmountable limit, that is weight and defense, moreover linked to each other.
Working painstakingly on physical form, lateral mobility and even verticality, today Jokic seems a very distant relative of the very first versions admired, when as the minutes went by and as the season progressed, many highlighted how his poor effort in defense was a penalty for Denver. Today the Serbian has become a player capable of determining victories even with clutch plays near his iron: there are in fact 3 “winning blocks” in the season.
And the Nuggets, that around his talent they have built a roster as functional as it is unfortunate so far given the injuries occurred in series to Murray and Porter, but close to returning, they are not by chance ready to bind themselves to their phenomenon for life offering him in the summer – as confirmed by his agent – the richest contract ever seen in NBA history: between 255 and 270 million dollars for 5 years. A way to first confirm trust and gratitude, but also to lock the milestone around which to attempt the climb to the ring. A ring that accomplices the difficulties of the Warriors, the Lakers crisis, the gaps in the Jazz and a group that is still immature like the Grizzlies, would see Denver in full able to challenge the Phoenix Suns already in this post-season, in search of the Finals and waiting to understand who will come out of the eastern jungle. With Nikola Jokic, winning cannot be just a possibilitybut a goal to be achieved as long as the long will continue to prove to be one of the rarest pearls ever seen in the history of basketball.
