Nikola Jokic had already firmly established himself as the very best basketball participant on the earth heading into the 2024-25 season with three NBA MVP trophies, one championship, and one NBA Finals MVP already underneath his belt earlier than he turned 30 years outdated. Jokic confronted one of many largest challenges of his profession this season with the remainder of the Denver Nuggets’ roster beginning to crumble round him. He’s responded with arguably the very best season of his profession.
Jokic is third within the NBA in scoring, first in rebounds, and second in assists to start out the brand new season. He’s working at large 30 % utilization whereas scoring with sky-high effectivity (65 % true taking pictures). The Nuggets go from among the finest groups within the NBA when he’s on the ground (+10.51 net-rating) to the worst when he’s on the bench (-15.28).
Jokic’s three MVPs tie him with Magic Johnson, Larry Hen, and Moses Malone all-time. If he wins his fourth this 12 months — and he’s the large front-runner proper now — he’ll be part of LeBron James, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Invoice Russell, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the one gamers with 4 or extra MVPs in league historical past.
On Thursday evening, Jokic recorded his league-leading ninth triple-double in Denver’s shut loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was Jokic’s 139th triple-double all-time, shifting him previous Magic Johnson and into third place in league historical past. The NBA used the event to rejoice the similarities between Jokic and Magic, and it’s downright eery how a few of these strikes really feel like a carbon-copy of each other. Watch the Jokic/Johnson supercut right here:
“He has the intuition of Magic Johnson.”
Nikola Jokić moved into third on the all-time triple doubles record!
He shares some eerily comparable spotlight reel moments with the Corridor of Fame guard he surpassed pic.twitter.com/WeYVpe9Wwj
— NBA (@NBA) December 6, 2024
Jokic is simply too younger to have ever watched Magic reside, nevertheless it’s clear the flexibility, creativity, and high-IQ that pulsed via Johnson’s sport are discovering a contemporary reincarnation via the Nuggets star.
There are additionally a variety of statistical similarities between Johnson and Jokic. Field rating plus/minus is an all-in-one stat that estimates a participant’s influence on the courtroom. Jokic and Johnson each in the top-5 in NBA history in the metric:
Win shares per 48 minutes is another stat where Jokic and Johnson both shine:
Solely 12 gamers in NBA historical past have ever averaged not less than 19 factors, seven rebounds, and 7 assists for his or her profession. Jokic and Magic are both on the list.
Magic has an ironclad case as a top-10 participant in league historical past. Jokic is getting there, too.