[Highlight] Nikola Jokic played chess against the Timberwolves and scores his 18th point of the 1st quarter
I want yall to look at this clip and see the size and movement of this man.
Jokic is often viewed as big slow fuck with big brain which has connotations we won’t get into, but this man is one of the strongest players in the entire league and can absolutely move around.
We discount his athleticism because he isn’t Shaq, but he is a force. Physically he moves people around like chess pieces.
He definitely has another level with speed and effort that he generally reserves for the playoffs. He’s a force of nature when he turns it on.
NBA athleticism discussions basically only think about one prototype of it, which is basically the version that LeBron’s prime was the peak of. Explosive both on the court and in the air with strength on top of it.
Jokic isn’t explosive the way LeBron (or even AG to use a teammate as an example) is, but dude being one of the strongest in the league with insane stamina being called unathletic is so dumb.
One area I really appreciate the NFL over the NBA is the way positions play out means more types of athleticism have value. WR are different from edge rushers are different from offensive linemen etc etc etc. I actually feel like the current positionles nature of basketball is a detriment for that reason, it is condensing down to a single skillset plus a few offshoots (like you must have rebounding on the floor). This means there are even fewer people who can play basketball at an NBA level. This is a huge problem when you already need most players to be 6’4” + or to be insanely skilled to even attempt to play.
Similar to sumo. I think it’s more respected now, but when I (an oldhead) was young, sumo fighters (wrestlers? IDK the correct terminology) were considered a joke, a punchline, no one considered them athletes. Truth is they’re athletic as fuck, are probably faster over 20 meters than anyone reading this, insanely strong, incredible cardio. Just preconceptions about what an athlete is supposed to be.
Genuinely is there a stronger player in the league?
Off the top of my head only guy I can think of with an argument is Steven Adams, but I could easily be forgetting someone.
Haha one of the funniest things I’ve seen recently was Jokić’s trying to back down Adams before a ball was inbounded. Adam’s just moved jokic out of the way and Jokić looked astonished. It wasn’t like some of the other people‘s Adam’s have moved where adams literally picked them up like a sack of potatoes and moved them, but it was so funny.
there’s hardly anyone that can stop him
he treated AD like BBQ chicken, jokic could ragdoll AD all the way from the 3 point line under the rim just bouncing him around
one of the only brick walls he’s had was lebron who he couldn’t do that too, but lebron is legit one of the only dudes with the body and athleticism/strength to deal with him even in bursts
so even if people don’t consider him as very athletic, like you said, he’s still a force
you either swarm him and die by other people or you try to make him beat you by himself when hardly any teams even have a dude that can do much with him 1 on 1
his stamina is also underrated
straight up look at luka, luka is 26, luka can’t even go full 2 quarters consistently anymore, he’s gassed and winded
jokic is still jokic even going into OT
he might be a slow fat looking fuck, but he managed to get some lungs on him at least, especially for a dude his size
Slow is smooth and smooth is fast
And he’s smooth as fuck
Jokic made sure it was almost an automatic free basket powering to the rim everytime whenever Rudy was not on the court.
That was one of his misses… out of 6, in a 56 point triple double game… my god
Julius Randle had all day to recover on that, wtf was that?!
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Yup, that was one criticism people had of him on the Knicks
Lots of film of him reacting slow/lazy on defense and not showing much effort
Joker is too damn good
As requested by u/zkaiz