This is not meant to be an anti nuggets post. More about how ridiculous Jokic is. If Jokic was out for the year due to injury how many wins would the Nuggets get? I feel like Jokic is worth like an additional 20 wins.
Let’s take the other 3 teams of Vegas top 4 title contenders
Boston: Take out Tatum and they are for sure making the playoffs
Milwaukee: Now that they have Dame I think they would for sure make the playoffs if Giannis was out for the year.
Phoenix: Whether it’s KD or Booker, if only one of them is out they should definitely still make the playoffs.
Good thing for Denver is Jokic is built like a horse
You must log in or register to comment.
I bet they would not even a play in team
They would be if you just replace Jok with a serviceable center. Gordon at the 5 is fine for stretches but you can’t go the whole season like that, and they don’t have any genuine backup 5 rn.
I say bring back Plumdog and they’re a playoffs team.
Without a replacement level player replacing him? 0 chance. They’ve got nice complimentary pieces but murray getting a year by himself with the rest of the core tops out as like a 10 or 11 seed. They’d have to also entirely reconstruct their offensive scheme
They should be. Murray, KCP, MPJ and Gordon is enough talent to at least make the play-in
I don’t think so. Yes on paper that is a good amount of talent. But when you look at the non Jokic minutes even from last year they suck. No matter what combination they throw out it is still not good.
Maybe that has to do with the style of offensive changing so massively but I also think it speaks to the ability of Jokic to just get everything to connect and fire at full power. I think what is super underrated about Jokic is how great of a teammate he is. When your playing with Jokic you don’t have to worry about shot attempts or touch’s you know if you have a good look your going get the ball, if your hot your going to get the ball. While Murray could do that just no where near the same level.
In the west?? Not a chance. Small chance maybe in the east.
Idk depending on who you get to replace him I still don’t see them making it out the playin.
The Nuggets had the highest +/- in the NBA with Jokic on the court last year.
The Nuggets were dead last in the NBA in +/- without Jokic on the court last year.
Do what you will with that information.
Yes I think that sums it up nicely haha
Thats probably true for a decent number of guys though.
You’re comparing starter only minutes or bench only minutes to combined starter/bench minutes
There’s only one player in the NBA who is first and it’s Jokic.
And if you are into advanced stats, in addition to leading the league in BPM, Jokic also leads the NBA in WS (win shares) which measures a players direct contribution to wins.
The Nuggets also have a larger differential in net rating when Jokic is on vs. off the court than any other team’s differential with/without any other player in the league.
There’s actually not a lot of stats, advanced or not, that can point to any other player in the NBA being more valuable to their team than Jokic is to the Nuggets.
So the question becomes, how shitty are the Nuggets without Jokic? Well, they certainly had a dogshit record without him, and were (anecdotally) comically bad whenever he was on the bench, but it also turns out they have the worst net rating of any team in the NBA when those teams have any one of their starters off the court.
But if you’d like to submit a team that falls off more without any one particular player on the court, I’m all ears.
Thats probably true for a decent number of guys though.
How can “the highest in NBA” be true for a decent number of guys in NBA.
By highest in the NBA, most people mean “better than the best offense in the NBA”
Otherwise he 100% is not the best in the NBA. Like boban played 31 games and had a better net rating.
Moreover the nuggets play a lot more starter concentrated minutes than other teams. That leads to their starters having a better net rating, and their bench players have a worse net rating.
The warriors used to do the same thing. Every curry minute was really curry + Draymond on, and the offense stats were curry + Draymond off. Unsurprisingly, that will exaggerate your raw on off numbers
The Nuggets are probably better than what the stat suggested without Jokic because their team is structured around Jokic. It would be different without him but still not much better. Probably a play in team at best.
No chance whatsoever
Considering that last season’s Nuggets were 5-8 without Jokic and 48-21 with Jokic, I’m gonna say they would NOT be a playoff team
If you just delete jokic than no, but to be realistic, you’d have to consider his salary now being available and if you put a starting caliber center in replacement for jokic as well as all of that salary being used for said center or more pieces then they are making the playoffs but probably 1-2 round exit
They would be one of the worst teams in the league
Which speaks to just how otherworldly Nikola Jokic is
If you took out Tatum Boston would not make the playoffs
If Jamal activates his playoff mode for 70+ games, yes
No
Markieff Morris, is that you gaging the public opinion? Just let it go dude, let it go…
Probably not but I wouldn’t judge that based on their +/- with and without Jokic, who because of his greatness has an outsized impact on those numbers than your average player. They’d also learn to adjust and develop plays/etc. as a non-Jokic team and get the most out of what they do have.
Just not enough top end offensive talent without Jokic to be a playoff team in the West, IMO. Gordon would have to take a scorer role and he wasn’t amazing in Orlando in that role. KCP and MPJ likely become less efficient. I do think Jamal would continue to be very good.