Could Nikola Jokic be a future MVP candidate?
Drafted as the 11th pick in the second round of the 2014 NBA draft, Nikola Jokic wasn’t really expected to emerge as anything more than just a decent player off of the bench for the Nuggets.
He didn’t go to college, as he was born in Serbia. Jokic played in one season for IJT in the Euroleague before getting drafted. In that season, Jokic averaged just 12.4 PPG on 62.9% shooting. At 7’0”, Jokic was finishing around the basket at will and showed some good potential. That’s why he was drafted as a second round pick.
In his first season with Denver, he played 21.7 minutes per game on a struggling Nuggets team that was led by Danilo Gallinari to a measly 33-49 record. In that season, he averaged 10.0 PPG, 7.0 RPG and 2.4 APG while missing just two games for the squad all year. Despite being an undersized center, he had a good jump shot and was really mobile when finishing around the basket.
The next season, Jokic played 73 games (missing 9 due to a calf injury) and averaged nearly a double-double, with 16.7 PPG and 9.8 RPG. His assist numbers started to increase, as he averaged 4.9 APG. That’s over double the amount he averaged in his rookie year.
Skipping ahead to this season, Nikola’s PPG and RPG totals have stayed relatively the same, but his assist numbers have continued to rise. Now averaging 7.2 assists a night, Jokic leads all centers in the assist column this season. He’s been getting double-doubles on a nightly basis, and even gets a triple-double once in a while.
He is notorious for breaking an NBA record last season, where he clocked the fastest triple-double in NBA history, having accomplished the feat before halftime in a game against Milwaukee.
He hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down and continues to be one of the best passing big men the league has ever seen. And the most impressive part is that Jokic is only 23 years old. That means he has a lot of years ahead of him to keep improving.
He is one of the main options on a Nuggets team that is currently third place in the tough western conference and could potentially lead his team to a good playoff run later on. Jokic was definitely a big draft steal for the Nuggets, and at this stage in his career, the sky’s the limit for him.