The case for Nikola Jokic as the GOAT offensive player

The case for Nikola Jokic as the GOAT offensive player

What’s up, guys? Thanks as always for supporting the show. It would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss any more of our videos. Also, make sure you follow us all over social media so you don’t miss any of our content or show announcements. I have to just like make the case for you why I think Jokic is the best offensive player that I’ve ever seen. I think Steph Curry is the best advantage creator I’ve ever seen in the sense that just his sheer presence on the court creates more openings than any player that I can remember in terms of just like he just breaks the brain of every defense that he goes against and guys start making mistakes and jumping out on switches and and leaving dudes open and there’s dunks and layups that they give up. The thing with Steph is Steph was never as reliable as the top guys as like a key possession late in a game. He needs to get a bucket. the team does switch everything correctly. He just was never as good at that and there was a little bit more variance being that he’s a jump shooter, so he was prone to some cold shooting nights. LeBron to me was not quite as good of an advantage creator as Steph, but he was still nearly as good of an offensive player because he had the big physicality, the ability to get to his spots. Joic to me bridges the gap between both of those guys. He is a top tier historical advantage creator in terms of the ability to break the defense and create all of these o openings. He has a similar impact to Steph where his ability to consistently bring the rim protector out to the perimeter inverts the defense to where now there’s less size waiting at the rim for your cutters and your slashers and your closeout attackers and stuff like that. But then he adds to that this if you let me go one-on-one and you switched everything properly, I have a shot that I can get to that I’m gonna hit 60% of the time and there’s no variance. And like like even in the games where he played poorly, like game four for instance, down the stretch he was able to get to the bucket a few times and get get a couple like make a couple shots for him. And so to me, like he brings the best combination of indomitable on an island scoring, but like defense breaking advantage creation. And that to me like puts him I just can’t ever remember watching a player that had that same impact on a defense. You made a great case. I like it. I mean, look, here’s how I feel about Jokic. He’s the only to the not the only more so than any other player, including LeBron. There is no defense for him. like whatever you do because he has every skill. So, every defense is a compromise to something else. And there’s a lot of teams where even LeBron in his heyday it was, well, we’re going to force him into some mid-range. We’re going to run him off the line. We’re going to protect the paint. We’re going to do this or that. Joic is comfortable with literally everything. The question is, he’s a team player. He’s a, as they called Steph, a collaborative superstar. And so, you need the guys around him who can complete the plays because sometimes the right play is to drag things over and then find the open guy. I just don’t think he has any weaknesses. I tell people I think he’s the they say best passing big man of all time. He’s an S tier passer. I mean he’s the top five passer I think of all time. And then it’s not his number one skill. His number one skill is probably his touch from floater zone. Yeah. I mean it’s he’s 10 percentage points better than average from that spot and he can get to there anytime. And then the third skill he has that’s also probably number one all time or at least on a short list is he has the best hands I’ve ever seen. Every loose ball, every every passive rebound you could throw. I mean, this is why Russ was so good or one of the reasons Russ was so good. He’d throw a 90 mph pass for from me to you or where we are. Whip a pass like that and you just would grab it out of nowhere and finish it. So, he has three skills to me that he might be number one all time in or at least has a case for it and he can do everything. So, I I it’s a strong case. Here’s where I disagree or here’s where I go different. The the GOAT conversation or the greatest or any of those types of things. Basketball’s such a diverse game. It’s such a wide game that there’s so many different ways to dominate. I think there were guys who were more individually like the thing they did best. There were guys that were better at that than Jokic is at any one thing. So if you had to if you could press that advantage, it was like yeah, that’s the most dominant thing I’ve ever seen. And so there there’s that way to win. There’s oh, I can do more different types of winning. And then the last thing is the game is just so different. I mean, this is what makes LeBron so incredible is he came in in 2003. He was on TRL. I saw this on on Twitter the other day, which is I don’t think anybody listening to the show even knows what TRL is. It was a cable show from 30 years ago. I don’t know what TRL is. He was on TRL on MTV uh 25 years ago and he’s still playing in the NBA and he went from those Piston Spurs era grinded out, you know, he played with Verhao and Elowskis at the same time and then he evolved at all these different evolutions and his skill set fits all of it. I think Jokic is standing on the shoulders of giants both from the NBA history but also from European history and it’s just hard to compare and say what would have uh a lot of these guys done if they they Joic learned the game from them and then built on top of it in a way that I I think is underrated how much he’s added to the game. I mean, Joic coming into the league and what he’s added, even though you don’t have another Jokic, the game has changed and how pe the coaches think about it because of his impact. And so, it’s so hard to compare guys that didn’t have that advantage to stand on his shoulders. Yeah. You know, it’s been fascinating. I had a I had a mailbag question the other day where someone was like, “Why does nobody high volume post up anymore in the NBA?” And there’s like a chasm. Like you if you look at Joic’s post, if you just like sorted all uh players in the NBA by the number of postups they run, Joic is just on a it’s it doesn’t even look right. He’s like off the chart. And I’ve always I I kept I obviously on the spot had to come up with an answer. And what I immediately went to was like NBA defenses are so sophisticated now with their ability to shrink the floor and to make things feel tight on a post up. Like I watched this with Anthony Davis for years. I I watched Lakers fans be like, “Why don’t they force the ball to Anthony?” I’ll tell you exactly why they didn’t force the ball to Anthony Davis because he’d get down there and they would load up the strong side and the open man would be in the weak side corner and he was just unable to get the ball there in a way to where he actually had an advantage he could attack attack there and so as a result like there’s just like I was watching DeAndre Aton footage uh you know obviously scouting him for the Lakers and like if you watch Aton’s postups he just like doesn’t know what’s happening around elsewhere on the floor while he’s down there and like Jokic just has that like court awareness level 100 to where like he didn’t even have to look to know where help defenders are and he just is always aware of what’s happening around him and so he can actually abuse size mismatches and take advantage of where the opening is in the defense in a very sophisticated era of NBA defense and and it just it it to me has been the separator and this is like some fun because we’re both basketball players so I think you you might resonate with this when you’re playing not just pickup but really more structured game and you get the ball in the post what direction or what kind of move at least for me what that I’m going to try to attack with has a lot to do with how I’m being guarded and where the help is cuz and this is what Jokic does every single time. It’s okay. I see this guy over here. So, I’m going to make the move towards the center of the paint cuz I want him to be the help guy. And this is what he’s doing all the time is like I’m attacking here. Oh, he’s not helping. All right, I got to my spot or I spun the other direction. And that’s what he’s doing every single time. So, when people say they can’t post up or these numbers, I always look at it go, “This game was straight up. Nobody helped. Nobody doubled.” Yokush would have a 1.9 points per possession on post up. But he’s so he’s not just going to score. He’s going to just read and he’s constantly manip everything everything he does is to manipulate somebody else on the court and it’s fun when you watch it over and over again you see it more and more and you’re like this is fun to watch man it’s just a cat-and- mouse game with all five guys and all five guys are kind of sitting there a second behind him going like am I doing the right thing am I wait nope oh he was attacking me yep my bad it’s so funny because I in general over the years different players resonate with me more or less than others like I have grown to enjoy watching Steph Curry so much. But then like shake Alexander for instance, I I it’s hard I don’t enjoy watching him play basketball as much. Even Luca and I I’m a believer in Luca’s talent. I don’t think Luca would derive the same reaction from Tim Hardway Jr. and Cam Johnson playing with Now they would be like, “Yeah, we’re going to get some open looks, but they’re not going to enjoy playing in that system as much because Joic is very much a collaborative talent in the sense that his success comes in ball and player movement. Whereas for Luca, it comes in pounding the air out of the basketball and passing with 4 seconds left on the shot clock to an open shooter. And I just I I I thought that that that clip that you shared of those guys reacting is just a is like the embodiment of the Jokic experience. You watch him and you just smile because it’s beautiful basketball. I get to participate in it. Not to be the recipient of it. I get to participate in it. And I think for a guy like Tim Hardaway Jr. that especially, I think that’s what he’s looking forward to. And it’s one of the reasons I think he of everyone is going to benefit because it’s not just stand in the corner. It’s, hey, come run some pick and roll with me. I I’ll read what’s going on. I’m going to flip the screen. I’m going to flip it. Whatever it is. And it’s like you’re involved in it.

Jason and Adam Mares discuss Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic and why he has a case for the GOAT offensive player.

Follow Jason Timpf on social:
Tweets by _JasonLT
https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/

Follow us on social media:
https://www.instagram.com/hoopstonight/
https://x.com/hoopstonite
https://www.facebook.com/hoopstonight/

@hoopstonightjasontimpf

Learn more about the Volume:
https://www.thevolume.com

GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, (800) 327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY).

Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD).

21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT/OR/NH. Eligibility restrictions apply. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS).1 per new customer. $5+ first-time bet req. Max. $150 issued as non-withdrawable Bonus Bets that expire in 7 days (168 hours). Stake removed from payout. Terms: sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos. Ends 3/16/25 at 11:59 PM ET. Sponsored by DK.

#nba #nbaplayoffs #nbafinals #nbahighlights #nbabasketball #basketball #sports #reaction #nuggets #denvernuggets #nikolajokic #goat