Nikola Jokic - Point Center (Scoring) 17/18

Nikola Jokic. Olympic Silver Medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics. He became an All-Star in 2019, and unless criteria drastically changed this past season for no reason at all, he SHOULD finish in the top 5 in Most Valuable Player voting. The question of first or second team All-NBA seems a matter of taste, but for my money, Jokic leading (read: CARRYING) the Denver Nuggets to the second best second in the Western Conference is worth more than anything any other center in the league has done to this point…but let’s flashback to the 2017-18 season.

The numbers: the Serbian Sensation finished 5th in Value Over Replacement Player. Behind the likes of MVPs LeBron James, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and All-NBA First Teamer Damian Lillard. He finished with a HIGH player efficient rating than Chris Paul, Most Improved Player award winner Victor Oladipo, and even Joel Embiid. He finished 8th in Win Shares (higher than Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons, and Stephen Curry). Plus, he was the only player in the top 10 in rebounding in the league to finish in the top 15 in assists (LeBron James and Russell Westbrook finished outside of the top 10 in rebounding, but finished as the top 2 assist men overall).

Basically, the Nuggets JUST BARELY missed the playoffs, but that was in no small part because of the Joker and his ballin’ out. This video is about his scoring and how deceptively agile he is. His footwork is freaking phenomenal, his ability to read the defense is outstanding, and he’s a pretty punishing presence in the post.

An underrated part about this is how he’ll unfurl that Dirk Fade with the off foot. A right footed launch on a right handed runner with range? That’s some world class balance right there (02:16 onwards).

Another one of my favorites is the display of his terrific touch (6:39). He just seems to both catch and cushion the ball and then he’ll redirect it into the basket with ease. Insane.

Technically speaking, the Jokic highlights from 2017-18 finish at 7:42. The rest are from the season prior (2016-17), some of the better highlights from that season that I had not yet used were going to continue to remain unused unless I put them in this video, so enjoy!