Nikola Jokic has been the National Basketball Association’s best player for a while now. In fact, it can be reasonably argued that he has had no peer in the league since the turn of the decade. Not for nothing has he claimed the Most Valuable Player award in three of the last four years. And not for nothing is he slated to bring home a fourth at the end of the 2023-24 season. His numbers so far have been nothing short of ridiculous; he’s norming a triple-double while setting the pace in scoring and rebounding. For good measure, he’s likewise without peer in three-point shooting.
To argue that the Nuggets will only go so far as Jokic takes them would be understating the obvious. The on-off figures are undeniable, and serve to underscore how critical he is to the cause of the blue, yellow, and red; they’re close to unstoppable when he’s burning rubber, and all but scraping the bottom of the barrel when he takes a rest. And for the uninitiated, all it takes is a game — any game — seeing him in action to be convinced of his ascendancy. He’s simply better than anyone he shares the court with, bar none.
The irony, of course, is that Jokic possesses neither the athleticism nor the quickness supposedly required to excel in the modern iteration of the sport. And yet he’s utterly dominant, using a unique combine of intelligence, instinct, and mastery of the craft to orchestrate proceedings as he pleases. Yesterday, for instance, he found no trouble directing the Nuggets to yet another shellacking of the Lakers. He and, by extension, those around him have so smothered the purple and gold in recent memory that they might as well view victory as a foregone conclusion even before the start of any set-to.
Indeed, Jokic is so good that he can lift up the Nuggets regardless of the state of their roster. Yesterday, they missed vital cog Aaron Gordon and got mediocre production from the inconsistent Jamal Murray, and, still, there was no stopping them from running away with the triumph. Perhaps they’re collectively just the Lakers’ foil, armed with the precise set of talents that — under the tutelage of head coach Michael Malone — have every counter. For the most part, however, they’re buoyed by the capacity of their principal playmaker to get them to be better than the sum of their parts.
Considering the depth of the competition in the West, the Nuggets continue to have their work cut out for them. That said, Jokic’s mere presence makes them dangerous. It doesn’t matter that they have suffered from a cap-induced roster turnover since they brought home the Larry O’Brien Trophy last year. Bottom line, he’s around to set the table, and invariably manages to serve up an outstanding meal regardless of the ingredients.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
