[Mozzartsport] Jokic is out for a month
According to a Serbian sport website, Jokic has avoided serious injury and he’ll be out for a month. This confirms a previous article by Meridian sport.
Article in Serbian
How many games would that be? Would he be out of contention for end of season awards?
Think the Nuggets play 17 games in January so if he came back after January he would be right at 65 games if he doesn’t miss anymore games for the rest of the season.
Never mind if he doesn’t came back till after January he will be disqualified because they play the Raptors tonight so it would be 18 games from now till February. Would be 64 games if he didn’t miss anymore games
Well he is definitely missing the first B2Bs when he comebacks
What’s the rules for how long they have to play? Could he start then be benched at the first whistle? NFL has a lot of ‘Ironmen’ who do that sort of thing
Jokic, the guy who famously doesn’t care about individual awards, is def not gonna do that kinda corny bullshit to stay in awards contention.
Agreed. But this mother fucker hates missing games though too lol
Id rather him miss as many games as possible in the regular season if it means healthy playoffs tbh, the Nuggets have a really nice roster going and I wanna see em all healthy in the playoffs
You’re not wrong, I’m just pointing out, Jokic HATES missing games. So I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes back sooner than people think. I personally want him to only comeback when healthy
That’s true, he literally never misses games
Going through the same back and forth with Jayson Tatum. Having an iron man as your star is great as a fan, but scary when they finally get bit by injury
It fucking sucks because he’s by far and away the MVP. I get not giving a shit about other awards but even for Nuggets fans it would be a huge get for him to be qualified.
He’s the best player in the world but he’s not winning MVP even if healthy. He’s a +400 dog to Shai at -200 before the game. Odds makers are wrong but not by this much.
If OKC keeps on with the recent less than perfect record, these odds will definetly even up. But Shai can relax cause the Joker won’t rush back for an individual trophy.
we only play the Spurs 2 more times!
He will do what’s best for the team
All players care about individual awards, it’s just media training to say they don’t
Honest question: What media training - beyond the basic stuff the team/league tells everyone (don’t get political etc) - do you suspect Jokic has or has had?
The same amount or more as everyone else..? He is a star that someone invested half a billion dollars into
Bro just look at his day to day answers about everything, that’s media training
Honest answer: Every single player has had extensive and explicit media training where they are evaluated on their answers and coached on what to say instead.
Bro bro every player cares about being rewarded, is part of the game they love to play. Don’t fall for media memes please
He might if it comes with contract incentives. Lots of players get bonuses for getting awards. Jokic is a team player, but he’s not stupid
Minimum of 20 minutes. Enough time to make the injury worse if he’s still recovering
They can play less than 20 min in 2 of the 65 games, but the other 63 need to be 20+min.
He came out at 19 minutes in his last game so that’s already one gone
Thanks!
20 minutes. 2 games 15+ minutes. Halliburton did a bunch of 20 minute games while injured 2 years ago and it fucked his hamstring for an extra season.
You can count up to two games with only 15 minutes played. The rest have to be 20+ minutes.
20 mins, I think? Someone could correct me.
Jokic’s averages would tank if he only played a minute.
That’s your mvp? Someone trying to win by doing the minimum requirements to an excessive extent? He’s the current mvp but tricking the system eliminates you imo
I think that’d drag down his season averages and lower his odds of getting an MVP in that way. If he can get back to undeniable MVP form after that then he still has a shot but it’d be tough. All in all, its a flawed tactic to stay in the race.
The stats averages would go down, no ?
It’s not like he needs to play 35 minutes per game. I’m guessing if it’s just a bone bruise and he’s marginal for the awards they’ll put him back in on a minutes restriction. He can play 20 minutes a game for a while.
Maybe they could do it Wemby style and max him out at 20 minutes for his return.
Annnd just like that everyone will turn on the 65 game rule. Bc 55 or 60 games of this jokic is definitely worth a 2nd or 3rd team all nba spot.
I think people have already brought up the criticism’s before and I understand them. Think Zach Lowe has made a good point from the beginning that all-nba third team should have a lower games threshold because like you said 55-60 games of Jokic is better than a lot of guys who might make it over him now
Definitely agree with that.
Think Zach Lowe has made a good point from the beginning that all-nba third team should have a lower games threshold
That’s a great solution. And it’s highly unlikely that a guy only playing 55 games will win any of the major awards anyway (MVP, DPOY)
My immediate thought too lol
Only for the all NBA teams ones. Winning MVP with 65 games played only vs someone that has close stats while having more games played shouldn’t be a thing.
While I fully understand it, the first big wave of criticism for this rule is coming if Jokic only plays like 60 games this year lol
I sort of hope that happens, I’ve maintained that the rule is dumb. Obviously he wouldn’t deserve MVP if only plays 60 games, but missing out on any All-NBA teams would be so stupid
I get the idea behind it because you had people playing 50 games making All-NBA teams which felt weird, and 65 games in theory sounds like a fine cutoff, but it’ll also feel weird when freak injuries cause players to miss out. Like I guess it feels like it was more meant for players who are constantly missing games here and there rather than one-off injuries causing a single big block of missed time for players who are otherwise pretty healthy.
At the end of the day I still think the rule is a decent addition but it will definitely be weird seeing Nikola MF Jokic missing out on All-NBA lol
I definitely get the load management deterrent, but players missing 15+ games is almost always due to random injuries
It feels stupid, but on the other hand, we have way less players sitting out randomly for ‘load management’.
I think players actually playing in games they are capable of playing is worth the trade off.
But yeah, if Jokic finishes the year with some all time great numbers but doesn’t make an all nba team it will look pretty silly. Accolades have been a pretty solid way to easily track a players ‘greatness’ throughout their career - this new rule could change that a bit.
people playing 50 games making All-NBA teams which felt weird,
Did it? Prime Curry, LeBron, KD, etc making All-NBA 2nd/3rd teams at 50-60 games played felt fine to me me. They were more valuable than worse players who played more.
I thought it made sense when they announced it. But Bill Simmons talked about it on his pod. They codified a rule that was already being followed ~95% of the time. Guys who missed too much already weren’t winning anyway unless in specific extraordinary circumstances
Plus 1 more game in December (tomorrow) so if he misses tomorrow and all of January, that’s 18 games and he’s out of awards contention.
They play the Raptors tomorrow, unless it’s a B2B2B for the Raps.
The 65 game rule has always felt weird to me. Because if you look at most award winners from the past, very rarely have they played less than a low 60s number of games, but at the same time I’m thinking instinctually if Jokic takes a month off and keeps playing the way he’s playing, there’s no way he wouldn’t be an all-nba player, even if this takes him out of mvp running
It’s going to be an interesting conversation if we have to let significantly worse players as 3rd or even 2nd team All-NBA for purely hitting the 65 game limit. Someone else mentioned that the threshold should be lower for the lower awards which I also feel should be the case
I don’t. I don’t understand why this is an issue. If you don’t play, you don’t win awards. That is fair. I think there are enough good players in the NBA to fill out the all-NBA teams.
I’ve kind of wondered if there’s a minute amount for a game to count?
Couldn’t the Nuggets just sub him into a game to keep his qualification?
I think this will put him out of contention if these reports are correct. Its not like he cares about MVP and would go full out down to stretch to make sure he hits the minimum.
Giannis, Luka, Wemby and now Jokic. Not sure why we need this minimum games requirement when some players can produce more value for their teams than others in a limited amount of time.
Rui hachimura is going to end up 1st team All NBA because everyone else is disqualified.
“Why aren’t the Lakers getting their only All-NBA player enough of the ball? They’re icing him out!”
Funny you say that cause he’s been out with a calf strain for a while
Fuck it then. Harrison Barnes and Mikal Bridges don’t miss games, they get to compete for MVP.
No Games = No Impact and no value
Pretty simple actually
Availability matters.
Sure, but Jokic/ Giannis playing 60 games is more impactful than guys like Avdija/ JDub playing 75
And not as impactful as an Ant/Mitchell/Brunson playing 75+
What a weird group of players they used for an example
You can use others as well. Brown certainly also fits that Bill If you wanted to hear that
Na didn’t care about that, thought it was weird they used Avdija/Jdub out of all players as a comparison for Jokic playing 60 games
Because this is the first stage of grieving for them. They’re realizing that Jokic won’t hit 65 games so now the minimum game requirement is bad!
Sure but 60 games of Jokic or Giannis is still good enough for all-nba third or second team.
Then reduce the limit for All-NBA teams. You can bump 2nd/3rd team requirements to 60⁄58 while keeping it 65 for MVP/DPOY/1st team.
Weird time to pick Dub here considering he already missed 19 games and isn’t qualified for any selection himself lol
Not one single person thinks Avdija or JDub is an mvp candidate. Maybe a couple delusional blazers fans.
Somehow the minimum games requirement is now only a problem when Jokic is at risk of missing an award. These Nuggets fans
Nah there were already plenty of people whining about the games played requirement ever since Wemby and Giannis got injured and look very likely to miss out on making all nba and defense teams
I agree availability matters, but it does seem to take the excitement out of award races when the stars are almost mathematically eliminated in January
No it doesnt. Part of being a true Star is being available.
Its sad that Jokic now got hurt, he usually is pretty durable. But the Times where a LeBron was gifted All NBA with 30-40% of the season missed had to end (4x this happened).
Rewarding Players who arent durable just isnt fair to those who are.
If you cant stay healthy you arent that valuable. That simple.
I feel I’m taking crazy pills and don’t understand why this is such a hard concept for people.
If you don’t paly you don’t demonstrate value and means you can’t be the mvp. But some people want to get rid of that because theor favorite player will not succeed…which I find is wack and disrespectful to other players who don’t get Injured.
Like okay let’s take this to the extreme jokic plays 10 games and scores 125 points in each. Basically a 2k generated player and then is injured and does not come back the res of the season. does that deserve to win over a dude who put up 27 and played every game? It feels like people would be fine with the first option.
One of these years it will lead to a ridiculous MVP outcome and they will change it lol
Embiid forcing himself to play while clearly injured in 2024 and then ending his season should’ve made them revoke the rule but everybody hates Embiid so I guess it is what it is
lmao yup.
once a non top 5 player wins the MVP people are gonna be like “wait, we might have made a mistake”
Well first off, the minimum games requirement was necessary to get players to stop load managing. And it succeeded at that. Missing awards due to injury is more of an unfortunate side effect of a necessary rule.
But that said, awards are for performance in an 82 game season, and guys who played less than 65 games didn’t win awards very often anyways. No matter how good you are, if you are injured and don’t play a game, your value to that game is a big fat donut.
when some players can produce more value for their teams than others in a limited amount of time.
I don’t think you understand the impact of missing games. Yes, Giannis and others are that much better than a bench player that they brings more value in 50-60 games than the bench guy does in 80. But that’s not true at all for other high level award candidates.
Here’s the easy way to see - take total points, rebounds, assists, etc for the season and divide by 82 games. Like take Giannis’ 63 game season a couple of years ago. His 31/12/6 would drop to a 24/9/4 over 82 games. Still great, but now we’re talking more fringe 3rd team All-NBA numbers rather than rock solid 1st team.
20% of games is A LOT, and missing them really crushes your value to the point that you probably shouldn’t be winning an award anyways.
Quick question - were the players load managing, or were the organizations load managing the players?
Yes.
I think it was absolutely mutual.
There very much are players around the league who don’t like load managing, even though it would have benefitted their teams just the same as guys like Lebron or Curry doing it.
Let’s say the legit top 5 all miss 64 games. It’s possible that the top vote getter happens to only play a few more games to marginally qualify over the 65 limit. People would just have to vote with taking the games played into account?
I mean you’re getting into crazy not real hypotheticals here.
4 of the top 5 players in the league got 1st team All-NBA last season. And the 5th guy, Luka, only played 50 games - Mitchell was much more deserving of that spot last season..
Barring major injury, SGA will probably play enough games to qualify and one of the legit MVP candidates will end up winning MVP.
But it would be an interesting stress test for the minimum games requirement in a year where all the “legit” MVP candidates missed the mark. That would probably be what causes the NBA to reevaluate the criterion.
I personally didn’t mind requirement because playing 80% of the season seemed pretty reasonable to be a front runner for being the most valuable. But in a season where all the obviously most valuable players miss significant time and someone who is fringe top 10 becomes the front runner, the congitive dissonance of knowing that player is no where near being the MVP will be hard to reconcile.
We might see MPJ, Murray and Jalen Duren make all-nba teams over Giannis, Jokic, Luka and Wemby lmfao
If SGA gets hurt and also misses it, all hell will break loose lol - I wonder who would win it in that case
Probably Cade or Brunson.
Hell yeah give me that Mickey Mouse MVP for Brunson, idgaf 😤
Luka
I was gonna say Giddey but he got hurt too
Ha, that’s a good one. Spit my drink a little though so thank you for that
If will happen one season and then everyone will lose their mind. This year Jokic, Luka, Wemby and Giannis will all be close to not playing enough games. I’d say that’s four out of top5 MVP candidates. If SGA gets injured, then I don’t even know who’d win it. Maybe Cade? Brunson?
I mean it gets super interesting in terms of the delta
Like how bad of a player would you need to be to not be worth the extra 15 games or so
Obviously just in terms of driving winning in the regular season
Like 75 games of Cade/Brown/Ant etc or 60 games of Jokic? I’d be happy for those guys to get the award that year tbh haha
People who’d choose Jokic in that scenario would be insane. However I don’t think the delta in games played will be that large, certainly not for ANT.
Lol its actually crazy that there is a decent chance all 4 misses the mark this season at the same time I mean Wemby and Giannis got barely any games to spare afaik, Jokic now this, Luka maybe has 9-10 idk but the calf seems to be a recurring thing now with the increased load after AR’s injury. If SGA gets injured as well, there is a good chance we have the Top 5 players all miss out on awards
Jaylen Brown MVP LFG
it’s interesting how the general opinion on this rule has flipped now that some of people’s favorites players are being affected
The best ability is availability. Thats sports 101.
This was literally THE argument against the minimum game requirement. Expect this to happen every couple years I guess
This is a very lenient limit to begin with. Historically, only one player has won MVP playing fewer than 65 games in an 82 game season. So even using that subjective bar, these players would’ve all been disqualified. Being hyper optimized to achieve “more talent in the league than ever” has its downsides. You put up better numbers than your predecessors, but you miss more games. Your accolades should reflect that.
MVP is not the only end of season award.
The man just avoided season or possible career ending injury, I wouldn’t give a shit about personal awards at this time.
What kind of career ending injury could that have been lol
Tyreek Hill’s hypertension tore every ligament in his knee, though it was obviously severe during the injury.
Jokic was able to walk afterwards
Yeah SGA is definitely winning if this is true. Even if Jokic makes it, he would likely play 66 games AT THE MOST and that would be too low if Shai plays around 78 games.
Even still the record difference is going to be 15+ games.
The Nuggets are not going to win shit without Jokic even if we do get Gordon and Braun back next week.
We’ve got one more initiate against the 65 game minimum, boys!
An average of 12 games
I mean a month sounds fairly serious
It’s not an acl brother scream for joy
Yeah - “a month” really means “we’ll see where he’s at in 4 weeks”.
I also don’t really believe this info. Until the imaging tests, they can’t really know the severity of what he’s dealing with.
They can usually tell with fair accuracy it’s not an ACL with physical testing. If it’s not then they can guesstimate a general timeframe.
However, I have no reason to believe this is accurate from a Serbian sports website unless Jokic’s brothers are the source because he told them.
We have the ASB coming soon as well. Not out of the realm of possibility where he won’t be back until after.
The Nuggets are more than deep enough where they can let him take all the time he needs and still get a fine playoff seed.
See you in the first round buddy
Pretty much. Lol
Definitely not a day to day thing or rest for a week.
But 1 month is better than 3 months or 9 months, I guess
Could it be that Westbrook injury? The one in the knee? Miniscus?
If he’s out for a solid month then that’s 15 games minimum.
This article is just speculation. Source: am Serbian
Just how official is this source? I’d expect this information to be everywhere if this was legit
First article was published on another website by a basketball reporter called Djordje Matic. He has pretty good local sources and usually when he publishes exclusive info, it’s pretty credible.
Mozzartsport is the biggest sports website here in Serbia so they usually post credible articles as well.
It wouldn’t be unusual for the local reporters to get the scoop before the big US outlets since Jokic has a Serbian manager and this is probably directly from his camp.
Looks like it was legit.
It used to be among the best springs in Serbia
Ne taj izvor bugi
Hahaha umirem
It’s BS. Article bases it on a random NFL injury expert’s estimate who saw the clip of the injury and gave a wide range of possible diagnoses to cover his bases: it might be a mild contusion sidelining Jokic for a few weeks or a major season-ending tear requiring medical intervention.
The nuggets just put out the exact same information
You sure about that now?
This is no more or less official than a tweet from Shams or McMahon.
It’s just speculation with hidden sources
Thank fuck it’s bone bruising boys
Bone bruises can really linger sometimes so could still heavily affect the season.
Still, better than a fucking acl. As far as knees go, it’s good news
True
Kendric Nunn missed whole season due to bone bruise
i know we say “bone bruise” because its easier to understand but i sometimes wish people would call it by the more accurate name, “microfracture”
because when people hear “bruise” they automatically think “nothing structural was damaged” and that’s not really true for a bone bruise. there might not be a full fracture or break in the bone, but there is disruption of the bone’s weight-bearing architecture on a microscopic level
SMH ducking Embiid in Philly next week.
Ducking Zach Lowe. Last year Lowe convinced a group of friends to go to a Nuggets Pelicans game after hyping Jokic up, when they happened to be in New Orleans. It just so happened that Jokic’s wife was giving birth so he missed that game.
This year he is in Toronto visiting his Wife’s family, and explicitly told his family that they have to lock in and watch him, because he is a basketball god. Now he suffers his first big career injury.
Lmao. I’m imagining the disappointment
Lmao
Phew, at least its not 4 weeks.
Imagine it was 31 days, would be terrible.
Let alone a twelfth of the year.
So SGA by default is the MVP surely. No one else was close.
Hopefully he’s healthy for the Thunder game on 2⁄1
I feel like if it’s really “a month”, there is a good chance they’re just taking the extra two weeks to get past the All Star break.
A month of no Jokic probably knocks them out of any reasonable chance of the 1 or 2 seed, and I’m not sure fucking around within the 3-6 seeds is worth is worth rushing Jokic back.
I think it really doesn’t matter what seed they get, as long as their roster is healed come playoffs, they could be in the play ins and I’d still have them as favorites.
This honestly, Denver plays better on the road anyways. I have okc as favorites, but outside the spurs currently being our kryptonite the nuggets first or last seed are everyone’s problem
Right now I’m hoping the Nuggets and Spurs are a 2, 3, 6, or 7 seed.
We’re all just speculating here but I’d be shocked if he plays that game at all, let alone meaningful minutes. Unfortunately. Should have been a season highlight game with both teams healthy
Glad I didn’t buy tix to that game yet.
Won’t see him until after all star. Shame, league as a whole misses out without him.
Mozzart are usually very reliable with rumors and news, lowkey tier1 for most sports.
People are upset that he might not make the threshold for awards but some years you’re unlucky. Not much to complain about. 80% games played is reasonable
I disagree. Let the judges decide if you’ve played enough. And if you don’t trust the judges…
I felt this sub had had this discussion over and over again. Someone did a statistical analysis on how many previous award winners were even affected and it was maybe 8%? Definitely less than 10%. I just don’t think it matters that much. As a previous season ticket holder, I really dislike this trend of players not playing especially with games getting more and more expensive. I like that players are incentivized to play. Either that or shorten the regular season which they’ll never do
I’m all for judges saying, “You didn’t play enough to win this award.” But putting a number on it means that you don’t trust the judges. And I think it’s terrible when stars don’t play, but like you said, that’s a schedule thing. I remember going to a WWF event, and John Cena wasn’t 100%. He still wrestled but apologized to the fans that paid good money to see him. But that should have nothing to do with MVP. Steph isn’t going to be MVP this season. Does that mean he should sit out more?
2 years in a row with foul baiting SGA is annoying
But it is what it is
We’re really about to see Denver take out the #1 seed or #2 seed in the playoffs, aren’t we?
Best case scenario really. With Murray’s injury history they’d be wise not to try to overwork him. They can still make the playoffs with Jokic out for a bit I think.
Yeah this is bench development time for sure. Time to give Spencer Jones that contract
don’t be scared of this evil foreign website guys, ESPN will tell you what to think any minute now and it will be beautiful and patriotic and written in proud American 🇲🇾
Bob Iger wants to know where to send the check
Glad it’s just a month and that he avoided serious injury. He’s one of the GOATs and it would suck to see his career get cut short due to something like this.
At least it’s not the entire season
I received court side tickets for christmas for tomorrow in Toronto just to see him. I am crying. 😭
Love the crying about the 65 games threshold. If you play less then 80 percent of your teams games, you don’t deserve it. Availability is a big part of it and I’m fine with that.
Same here, I love all the crying now. When Embiid was missing games, it was an issue. Luka, an issue. Giannis, an issue. But when Jokic is the one to get injured, here comes his riders saying that the 65 game requirement is unfair
It’s quite funny, hate reading this thread on the way to work has been a pleasure
To be fair, I’ve seen arguments about the 65 game requirement long before it was about Joker
What is this dumb comment?
People complain about a 65 game rule when big injuries happen?
You probably were going for some extreme victim route here but you are a clown.
Exactly. Fans are how wanting the rule to go away simply for Jokic. Jokic isn’t above the nba and the sane rules that applies to everyone, applies to him. Tough sh**.
Censoring yourself in a Reddit comment is hilarious
Everyone is going to miss enough games to the point that Jordan Poole is the league MVP. Then Silver will say, “fuck this” and create some bullshit tournament to decide the MVP or something because tournaments are his only solutions to anything
Jamal please stay healthy
Only hyperextended his knee
PRAISE THE LORD
Glad Joker is okay, that was scary
While I hope he avoided ligament damage, the Nuggets could literally lose every game for the entire time he’s out.
Yea with 4⁄5 starters out its not looking too good. The only positive is that their schedule during the next month is pretty weak.
Leave him out for 2 months, just make sure he is actually fully healthy. Too many serious injuries recently from guys coming off smaller injuries too quickly.
One month obviously is no where near the worst case scenario of season ending stuff and ligament tears/structural damage, but I can see the Nuggets slipping out of even the Play In by that point.
The hope now is that they are still in a position for Jokic to carry them to a top 6 seed, and dont rush any of the other starters back to overcompensate, or that Murray ends up hurt trying to carry.
If I’m a Nuggets fans I’m thinking can Murray hold up with increased usage?
Stop saying “avoided serious injury”. It’s sensationalist garbage
Ok so lets put the entire season on hold for a month tbh
If Jokic comes back and keeps playing like he has been this year, but can’t even be considered for awards because of this injury, I feel like the pressure to revise the game requirements will explode overnight.
It shouldn’t. The rule is fair for everyone. The players need to play games to win awards. This isn’t that complicated.
Tough blow to what was turning out to be an all time offensive season, it will be interesting to see what level Joker returns at and if the Nuggets can stay afloat with so many injuries
We have the watch
It will take some time for the starting unit to adjust to playing with Valanciunas, but this is why they brought him in. It’s a much different pool for teams and although he’s not the playmaker that Jokic is, he will be able to rebound and score. He’s solid.
We have no starting unit bro. We are down 4 starters right now.
I’m much saying when they get Gordon, Braun, Cam Johnson etc. Someone has to start, and they’ll have to adjust to Valanciunas. Actually, this unit may be a natural. I’m just speaking a someone that has watched the Nuggets and Valanciunas kill the Clippers every year.
Damn, Nuggets are still dangerous then
They’ll have 4k video of him at a Serbian race track by the end of the week. No shade.
sga back to back mvp confirmed
When Luka wins an MVP, it’ll just be because he’s the only star player eligible.
It’s gonna be hilarious when the nuggets go like 12-5 without him
They won’t lol. Maybe if three other starters weren’t also injured, but Jamal is not carrying the team to a winning record in Jok’s absence by himself.
I could see them going .500 for sure. Half their schedule during the next month are teams that should be tanking
So, let’s say that every big hitters are out for injury and can’t play 65 games, who’s getting MVP ?