Nikola Jokic in a loss the 0-3 Warriors: 19 points on 49 TS%. -16
I don’t think it’s crazy to say Jokic hasn’t been the best player in the world for over a year.
https://www.espn.com/nba/game/_/gameId/401909876
Stunned at how pedestrian he lookedSpamming 3s against a team with no real center
our corner shooter is CB with a mind boggling 15% on wide open 3s and we refuse to run any plays for somebody else to take them
this was him in the playoffs too. Denver as a team simply don’t run plays to get him post ups or easy roll baskets anymore, so the open 3 is the best shot available
This Denver roster can absolutely not afford Jokic’s decline to start even slightly
I’d say they’re flawed enough that even with a peaking Jokic it’s hard to get past the second round with this Jokic can’t see them getting past the first
I can’t even see them getting to the postseason.
They will be pressed every night by everyone but the bottom 3 or 4.
Very interesting to see how they navigate back-to-backs.
We literally just saw the Pelicans press them.
There’s a lot of talent in this league, and I think a team with that poor of defense is basically just fully dependent on how hot their players can get on any given night.
They had amazing games by Murray and Brazile, and the Pels still almost stole it from them. I think any team in the league should be circling them as a beatable team considering how fucking the deep the league has gotten.
They are cooked for a while
Genuinely this nuggets team has looked closer to out of the play in than a top 6 seed so far
They are no where near top 6. They are a play in team this season. Way more teams who are way hungrier to win
Blazers, Grizzlies, Lakers, Clippers, and Mavs would smoke them just off of sheer effort.
I still have no idea if the Jazz suck or not, but they could be added to the list as well.
I really don’t think we belong in that group, at least not until we get healthy and have more than 2.5 options on offense and a starting C > 6’8.
Given our injuries, we just don’t have the offensive gravity to be clear favorites on most nights.
It’s super early to say that, y’all lost your first 3 games for example even after that brilliant run. Nuggets would not lose to any of those teams other than the Lakers maybe, in the playoffs I mean.
Fear his prime ended with that injury
His threes are gone sadly people didn’t want to admit it but the sample size is large enough to come to that conclusion. If he’s not hitting threes his roll man versatility is cooked
Also his archetype without the shooting straight up doesn’t work
The rule is basically that you can be a bad shooter or bad defender but not both
he is last year’s Sengun without the rebounding but with better passing. I think his lack of fight for rebounds is the most visible factor. He used to have like 25/12/8 against the Warriors by the 3rd quarters and today he didn’t hit 10 against a very small Warriors team
My argument against him winning another MVP was always his defense, im a Thunder fan and watching him “play” defense in that 2nd game was comical…dude was a traffic cone
They’ve played 3 games dude
The real reason they’re doing poorly is that Adelman keeps putting Braun and DeRozan on the floor together with Jokic. It’s 2 non-shooters, so the other team just has their defenders go and stand in the paint to guard Jokic and Murray/Tyus - Jokic throws the corner pass to DeRozan or Braun and they pass on the open 3 to do jack all.
Jokic is making the right plays and Adelman is putting terrible lineups out there for Jokic. DeRozan had a great night scoring inefficiently, because the defense is dictating that Jokic give DeRozan the ball. It’s really frustrating to watch. Adelman needs to play guys who can shoot with Jokic or at least only have 1 non-shooter. As it is now, we’re running DeRozan’s offense with Jokic on the floor as a spacer.
Agreed, I don’t like DeRozan and Jokic sharing many minutes. DeRozan doesn’t space well enough for Jokic, and the main reason for getting DeRozan was to help score when we can’t, so we should have him mainly play in the Jokic-less minutes.
Big issue is that our shooters are hurt though
You can blame Adelman all you want, but I think the blame more goes on the FO (and injuries).
Like who else do you think on the bench fixed this?
He’s looked like this since the turn of the year
Yeah he really just hasn’t been the same since that hyperextension
I honestly wonder if Jokic’s lax approach to conditioning caught up to him
Declining after the first real injury of your whole career is insane it’s not like it was an ACL or Achilles
Guys that aren’t overly athletic get the “imagine how well he’ll age thing” but if you’re already barely athletic enough to be a mvp candidate and you lose 10% that’s more impactful than like LeBron losing 10%
Lowkey feel like people try to wish this thought process into existence because
A. Most people aren’t athletic, so they think it’s ‘fairer’ that relatively unathletic players should age better
B. Most ‘classy’ players like Luka and Jokic fit this mould, so people are just hoping it comes true lol
It never has, players with the best longevity are usually mega athletes who fine tune their skills over time (LeBron, Kareem, Karl Malone, Vince Carter)
that’s just so wild considering lots of people thought Jokics game would be aging well into his 30s
he had 35/15/10 like 2 days ago
His conditioning has been great for years lmao what?
I’ve noticed a lot of people like to spew complete bullshit pretending like they know what’s going on, just to make it fit into whatever narrative they’re trying to make at the time
Would like to take this moment to remind people Jokic once played 65 minutes in a quadruple overtime game
white Harden
prime harden was an ironman
He has never been lax on conditioning. Where did you hear that? You’re literally just saying that based on the way he looks lol
Jokic and lax conditioning used to be a thing before COVID.
wtf are you talking about he’s been the best condition big man for years
Yeah, he shot nearly 50% and hitting all the bunnies. After coming back in February last season, he’s just bricking threes and missing all those short hopper he’d normally make.
Feel like he’s also mentally checked out tbh
Vučić lost and he’s sad lmao
I think it’s hard for some top players to just accept mediocrity around them.
People swear on their lives Jokic is going to be the same level of player until he’s 40 because he “doesn’t rely on athleticism.”
I’m not saying hes toasted, but it’s clear his game isn’t bulletproof to the effects of declining speed and agility. If anything, getting older will take away his already borderline ability to keep up with nba athletes.
This is always a dumb argument IMO.
Guys rarely make it that late in their careers, but super athletic players can age gracefully if they are skilled enough. Their high level of athleticism means they won’t be totally cemented to the ground as they get older.
Meanwhile, less athletic guys don’t just magically stay the same. They also decline, but they go from unathletic to super unathletic.
Obviously skill sets can still make this workable. For example, a guy like BroLo is the slowest guy I’ve ever seen on the court, but he protects the paint and shoots 3s. That’ll be good for 10-20 MPG with the right defensive scheme in his twilight years.
used up all his voodoo hitting those threes over AD
Some of the laziest defense I’ve ever seen tbh. Also looks much slower and exerting less effort overall? Idk guess booing fans really pissed him off
He looked checked out. Just going through the motions in the 2nd half.
Yaxel exposed the shit out of this Nuggets team
Nuggets were getting smoked by the Pelicans the other day and had to get into playoff mode to make a comeback
Also the refs flipped the momentum for them in that pelicans game
We were exposed long before tonight lol
Minnesota set the tone last season, we’re not good
Jokic PR really generational because I saw 5+ different places rank him #1 in the world even after minny emberasssed him in the first round without Ant
You’re doing his PR team’s work by selling it as “without Ant”, it was without 6 rotation players
We had to give TJ Shannon like 20 five out isos in game 6. Shit was crazy
But… but… but they didn’t have Aaron Gordan! So basically y’all had the advantage
“Play random” except it worked
Some Jokic fans try to equate Denver’s injuries with your guys’ lol.
If that’s the case, Aaron Gordon should be the unanimous MVP.
“We were missing Gordon!” Like that’s even close to missing fucking Anthony Edwards lol
His effort on defence was pathetic tonight. There was an early play where Yaxel got caught in the air and was forced to lay it up, and Jokic instead of taking the easy charge, made the business decision and stepped out of the way.
I think he benefited a ton from the Knicks who don’t have a real best in the world candidate winning the ring rather than the Thunder or Spurs
When that happens a lot of people just pretend like the playoffs never happened from a player ranking perspective
Everyone was ready to crown Wemby if he won the Finals but he didn’t so media just ended up defaulting to whatever ranking they had in March
He benefited a lot from people misunderstanding stats and doing dumb af fan calcs to justify their opinions. Besides the year they won the championship, the Nuggets have either gone out in the first or second round.
If we’re being real it’s also that SGA has the most obvious case now in terms of recent resume and everyone hates him so nobody wants to give him credit lol
When your main MVP rivals so far have been Embiid and SGA that’s a huge PR boost
It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation though
It’s not a coincidence that the two players who won MVPs over Jokic are the two most villianized players in the league
This isn’t even true lol they made it to the western conference finals in 19-20 and misunderstanding of stats is an absurd thing to say about Jokic.
Way to remove all context. Basically every year since 2021 the Nuggets have had significant injuries in the playoffs. Murray missed 2 straight playoffs with an ACL tear, Porter missed a year with back surgery, Gordon was playing on 1 leg and Porter on 1 arm against OKC in their championsip year and still took them to 7 games. Gordon was playing completely hobbled this past year.
People need to accept the fact that the Nuggets organization has completely failed Jokic for over a decade, and that he was basically keeping a bottom 5 front office and coaching staff in the NBA afloat by himself.
Don’t get me wrong he was awful in the playoffs last year, and he looks even worse this year. He looks burned the fuck out, but I can’t blame him too much because of how hard he’s had to carry the team for the past 12 years straight.
Comments like this really show me how OP Jokic’s PR is
It really is
Don’t forget Bill Simmons and Zack Lowe were having genuine convos abt him being better than Magic and Bird last season and even after that embarrassing exist a good chunk of media outlets were ranking him as the BITW
Bill Simmons’ voice was literally trembling when he had to move Jokic down his all time list, below Shaq & Hakeem after the embarrassing exit.
Yes, this man ranked Jokic over Shaq & Hakeem prior to the timberwolves series, and only reluctantly moved him down.
Bill’s been waiting since the 1980s for the best player in the world to be white again lol, he’s going to hang on until the bitter end.
The fact that Jokic basically got no slander for how he played vs OKC, and won’t get much today, proves to me his time as the best in the world is done. SGA got more in their matchup while playing better and winning
For me, the best in the world should have the highest expectations, he doesn’t.
Same dude took single digit shots in an elimination game loss and people just ignored it.
“All the praise, none of the expectations” should be the title of his documentary
Generational traffic cone
Never mind when he won against a 39-40 yo Lebron. Mfs were genuinely making the argument that he was better than Lebron all time, lmfao.
Never heard the word “peak” much in NBA convos until Jokic Stans. Half of the posts in NBADiscussion and NBATalk since 2023 were peak Jokic peak Jokic peak Jokic. Is he the best offensive player of all time. Peak Jokic better than peak LeBron. Lmfao never have I heard peak as much before
Gotta talk about peaks, cause old boy cant sustain for shit lol
People were arguing Jokics offensive peak over Steph. Steph’s offensive peak completely revamped the sport and led the greatest team of all time
He was never #1 anymore ever since that year when SGA won both MVP and FMVP, but somehow after each offseason Jokic fans try to sneak him into the #1 spot by default
Yup and they act like you’re taking crazy pills for him not automatically being considered the best. He’s not been top 3 since the start of the year. Wemby, SGA, Luka and Ant I got clearly over him since then.
The whole career narrative is different because they played an 8 seed in the Finals
He hasn’t been the best player in the world for over 6 months now
Lowkey 2 years but people aren’t ready for that convo yet
SGA won mvp, finals MVP, and at the very least matched (i think he outplayed) Jokic in their playoff match-up in 2025. He was the best in the world that year.
He did outplay him. Jokic had some crazy stinkers against the thunder in the playoffs.
It’s insane how ESPN didn’t rank him number one on their list in 2023 but have ranked him number one every year since then when he’s been getting worse every year
SGA been the best player in the world for 2-3 years and counting now, not really arguable imo
Nuggets window is slammed shut.
Prime was ended by a guy using AI to make LinkedIn posts about how much the team mascot makes it’s so sad
CB is a bum feel bad for nuggets fan
He’s depressed at the results of the Serbian election
His wrist is absolutely still cooked - ur shooting doesn’t collapse suddenly like it has over last 65 games. He won’t get the surgery
Shooting is also with your legs
He hasn’t been who he was since the injury last year.
And it’s weird. I don’t think he’s carrying an injury in any way. He’s just … not quite the same.
What’s weird is how it seems more mental than anything else. When he finally decided to play some basketball in the 4th quarter of the Pels game he looked like himself. Other than that he’s been totally checked out. And he was like at the end of last season too–looked like himself when they played the Spurs at the end of the regular season, didn’t have a shit to give in the postseason
It’s always seemed like he wasn’t one of those guys who lived for basketball.
I wonder if he’s looking at how tall the mountain he’d have to climb to win another title is, looking around at his team, and just kinda thinking, “Man, I’ve done that already, I don’t need to do that again.”
Can’t even farm bad teams for his usual 30/15/15 to prop up his stats anymore
Jokic post-injury has just not been the same. It might just be a slump, but he’s been slumping for a long time. (Relative to his herculean normal self)
And the efficiency drop is alarming because Jokic’s efficiency has historically been an outlier strength
It’s been the area where he sets himself apart from the other high-volume players a Jokic around 60⁄61% TS is significantly less special than a version closer to 70% especially given his position
I remember everyone saying he could play till 40 because his game doesn’t revolve around being athletic. A Hyperextended knee was all it took too, no wonder he refused to jump or put in any effort on defense.
Putting up a performance like this after telling his fans they can’t boo is quite embarassing. Rough start to the season for the Nuggets
He’s declining. And it’s seriously not good
it’s crazy how rapidly it was just off one injury
He’s 31 and was never athletic. He’s just aging normally. Not everyone ages like LeBron, Steph or KD
He is probably checked out because people finally overthrown dictator and criminal regime in Serbia, which he supported. His feet are burning because of involment with criminals and soon the justice is due.
He genuinely has been so ass to start the season. He was pretty good defensively against OKC but dog shit on offence so he was a net negative. Against the Pelicans, he coudln’t give two shits until the 4th quarter so i would consider him a net negative once again. Today, he was okay for 1 quarter and then started trolling after checking back in in the 2nd quarter.
Adelman’s running nothing for him since the playoffs. That’s why his go to shot has been the dogshit open three which doesn’t work when he can’t shoot. I like Adelman’s philosophy of not using Jokic as a hub and treating him like just a cog in the system. No offence to him, Jokic works because he is an unreal offensive player which makes up for his subpar/mediocre defense
He couldnt even back down draymond just how much weight did he lose?
How many players have had success backing down Draymond?
Jokic
He hasnt been able to post up a lot of people who arent as good as Draymond though this season, thats why he’s been taking more 3’s.
Couldn’t even back down Draymond is a crazy thing to say lmao. I know he’s not very likable but come on.
hes doing the “correct play” gimmick, where hes making the team better by giving CB wide open corner 3s at 15% clip and the paint is too packed to be “the correct play” but adelman is trash so nobody else takes any shot and we end up with a jokic 3, its so fucking bad
No one is on top forever.
Didn’t he delay his extension as well? If this keeps up wonder what number that will be. Not saying he’s washed or even declining, just think he’s having a terrible start to the season. But if this keeps up 👀
Jokic could avg 18/7/6 the rest of the season and still get offered the max. Teams will chalk it up to nagging injuries and waning motivation on a noncontender.
him jacking up 3s is a symptom of CB being a TEN PERCENT CORNER SHOOTER, on wide open 3s every time and adelman running 0 plays for AG/jamal to shoot 3s, get this fucking bum to bring the ball up and make jamal a SG already dude
jokic was 100% checked out later in the game and you saw it from him frustratingly facepalming every horrendous play the team made in the first half, he needs to lock in instead of giving up but we need to address the underlying issues already cause this is pathetic
I’ve been on Reddit for almost 10 years and there’s been no bigger defender of Jokic than me, I’m getting close to being done with this dude. His performance on and off the course the last few months has been an embarrassment. He had the interview over the summer saying he’s being more rude to fans, the other night he tells booing fans they aren’t welcome. You wanna be a prick off the court that’s fine, you better back it up on the court. He looks like he doesn’t give a shit out there. He picks and chooses when he wants to give effort, his defense is so pathetic it’s infecting the team’s play. There was a play in the third quarter when Derozan got knocked down on a foul and instead of going to pick up his teammate he turns his back on him and walks away. Denver truly has been the most pathetic team to start this season. I hope the next head coach will maybe have the stones to put Jokic in his place and get him to maybe have some pride while he’s on the court because since he’s returned from that injury last year a majority of the games Jokic looks like he’d rather be anyone else.
I honestly wouldn’t be nearly as shocked at this point if he doesn’t re-sign in Denver
He looks completely checked out
KAT for Jokic
Maybe he’ll sign with LAC and we can lose 5 more picks after 5 disappointing years after it’s found out that Ballmer bought him horses under the table.
I’d trade him right now while he has a ton of value if I were Denver. They aren’t going anywhere.
The issue comes to if he’d sign an extension. Which if he will, they can easily get a 4-5 pick haul with some interesting prospects.
Think theres something to the whole extension stuff with this?
If you’re Denver, you offer him the max regardless. That or you trade him for a kings ransom.
I agree man. He’s been my favorite player since I’ve started watching the sport and his performance through the first 3 games has been horrendous. It genuinely looks like he doesn’t care. No one has more blame in the Nuggets losses than Jokic. If he plays at an MVP level like we expect him to, we could be 3-0 potentially.
Genuinely something has shifted. I like that he’s not as angry with refs this season, but maybe it’s a sign he doesn’t care. He’s not running toward the rim as much, he’s shooting an amount of 3s he never even took when he could shoot them.
His touch is worse, the passing isn’t as flashy, there’s no movement from the team. It’s just not fun to watch. Even last year when everyone was injured we were at least fun to watch.
Honestly Bagley has been unbelievably good. Does well in his minutes, tries hard, shows effort and care, and does it on both ends. I have more fun watching non Jokic minutes right now than his minutes even though we losing both.
I think the roster has just reached its ceiling and it’s going to be a slow decline.
They don’t have the role players to compete and bring energy anymore. 2021 and 2022 were such wasted years for this roster. Gordon can’t cover all the dirty work every game at this age and Murray despite last season seems to have lost athleticism. Braun is ass and Cam doesn’t have the X factor MPJ did to win games without Jokic/Murray going nuclear
On top of that they have a depleted roster and no assets despite never trading for a superstar
He seems like he doesn’t want to post up just because he doesn’t want to spend the effort lol
Jokic’s best days are behind him. Winning wise and individually. With the new crop and voter fatigue I think this is where he finishes resume wise. An all time great
First Jaden McDaniels and now Yaxel Lendeberg
Jokic and Nuggets have been thoroughly exposed by athletic wings.
Don’t even need to be a star. Even role players can pound this team in the playoffs and regular season.