Nikola Jokić is having a historic season, leading the league in several advanced stats, including Box Plus/Minus (BPM), which measures a player’s contribution per 100 possessions¹. Jokić has a BPM of 11.7, which is the highest in NBA history, barely ahead of Michael Jordan’s 11.6 in 1987-88². Jordan is the only other player to have a BPM above 11 in a single season.
Jokić is also the reigning MVP and Finals MVP, and he is making a strong case to repeat both awards this season. He is averaging 25.5 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 9.2 assists per game on 56.9% shooting³. He is leading the Nuggets to the third seed in the West, despite missing Jamal Murray for most of the season.
Jokić is not only the best player in the league right now, but he is also one of the best players of all time. He is literally taking over almost every advanced statistic in NBA history. He is a generational talent and a joy to watch.
Tonight, Jokić will face the Indiana Pacers, who rank 20th in defensive rating⁴. If Jokić maintains his current BPM, he will need to have a plus-minus of at least +9 to surpass Jordan’s record. If he has a plus-minus of +10 or higher, he will be the first player ever to have a BPM of 12 or more.
What do you think of Jokić’s historic season? Do you think he can lead the Nuggets to another championship? How do you rank him among the all-time greats? Let me know your thoughts in the comments..
Source:
(1) Jokic Plus Minus | StatMuse. https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/jokic-plus-minus.
(2) NBA Plus Minus 2021 2022 Nikola Jokic | StatMuse. https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/nba-plus-minus-2021-2022-nikola-jokic.
(3) Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić named NBA’s Most Valuable Player. https://www.nba.com/nuggets/news/jokic-mvp-20210608.
(4) NBA Real Plus-Minus – National Basketball Association – ESPN. https://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm.
(5) Nikola Jokić Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Draft Status and more …. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jokicni01.html.
(6) NBA & ABA Career Leaders and Records for Box Plus/Minus. https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/bpm_career.html.
(7) About Box Plus/Minus (BPM) | Basketball-Reference.com. https://www.basketball-reference.com/about/bpm2.html.
(8) 10 Greatest Individual Seasons In NBA History – TheSportster. https://www.thesportster.com/best-greatest-individual-seasons-nba-history/.
(9) Michael Jordan Career Plus Minus | StatMuse. https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/michael-jordan-career-plus-minus.
(10) Getty Images. https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/basketball-legend-michael-jordan-arrives-for-comedy-court-news-photo/2981947.
by kaostriker04
8 Comments
Why doesn’t nba let me post?
https://twitter.com/madeyoulookhere/status/1746511755755594034?t=hWzY7Q8uKi-a7EfzgdfdiQ&s=19 source
[deleted]
He’s the greatest player active rn
Did you use AI to write this? It reads weird as hell, no offense. Stats are cool though.
He’s not the reigning MVP. Embiid is
Jokic already holds the BPM record and has the highest career BPM by a significant margin?
At this point it’s become the norm for him