They made the conference finals in the bubble but lost in five games to the eventual champion Lakers. The Nuggets have been flirting with the transition from good to great for the last three years. That means Murray’s return is butting right up against the start of the postseason, not accounting for any rust the 24-year-old needs to knock off.Īs evidenced by his top-25 usage rate, Denver is leaning heavily on its MVP to move toward the top of the Western Conference standings. The Nuggets need Jokic in order to battle the top teams in the WestĪCL injuries usually take a year or so to recover fully. Already with an MVP under his belt, the Serbian is off to the greatest start to a season in league history. He was also named the Defensive Player of the Year that season, along with the Sporting News MVP, and he won the scoring title. Michael Jodan finished with a PER of 31.7 during the 1987-88 campaign, the first year he won NBA MVP. He shot better than 55% from the floor and 63.1% on two-point attempts that season.
Giannis Antetokounmpo landed at a PER of 31.9 during his 2019-20 MVP season when he averaged career highs in points (29.5), rebounds (13.6), and free-throw attempts (10.0). With the league average PER being 15, Jokic is more than twice as valuable as your run-of-the-mill role player. The goal is to try and summarize all of a player’s statistical accomplishments with a single number. The player is also docked for things like missed shots, turnovers, and personal fouls. According to Hollinger, who at the time worked for ESPN, Player Efficiency Rating is “a rating of a player’s per-minute productivity.”Ī player gets assigned different values for positive stats - adjusted for both pace and minutes played - like field goals, 3-pointers, assists, and rebounds. PER is a stat created by John Hollinger in 2007. It’s important to define exactly what PER is in order to fully comprehend what Jokic is accomplishing during the first few weeks of 2021-22. Jokic’s PER of 35.0, if he keeps up his pace, would pass Wilt Chamberlain (32.1 PER in the 1961-62 season) for the best all-time, according to StatMuse. One number in particular, though, shows that The Joker is off to the best start to a season in NBA history. They’re also among the best in the entire NBA - and in some cases, are the best. Jokic’s stats don’t just lie atop the Nuggets’ leaderboard. The Joker is following up his MVP campaign with a historic first few weeksģ1.7 - Jordan (’87-88) /nCtRik4We9- StatMuse November 9, 2021 That’s the way the cookie’s crumbled in Denver’s six wins. Unsurprisingly, that came behind a triple-double from Jokic - 25 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists. The Nuggets beat Miami to move to 6-4 through the first three weeks of the season. It’s also good for 24th in the entire NBA, ahead of any member of the Lakers and ahead of franchise-carrying superstars like Damian Lillard and Jimmy Butler. The Denver offense is clearly running through The Cookie Monster - his usage rate of 29.4 is nine points ahead of Barton and more than 10 points ahead of Michael Porter Jr and Gordon. Jokic is second on the team in minutes behind Will Barton but has a significantly higher usage rate. Only five Nuggets have played more than 265 minutes despite the team being healthier than a number of other NBA squads, even with Murray’s absence. The 26-year-old is also the Nuggets leader in free-throw attempts, rebounds, assists, and steals and is tied with Aaron Gordon for the team lead in blocks per game.ĭenver head coach Michael Malone has been rolling with a fairly tight rotation so far this year. In his stead, Jokic is leading Denver in points, field-goal percentage, 3-point percentage (minus Zeke Nnaji, who has barely played more than 10 total minutes this year), and assists. At this point, there’s no timetable for Murray’s return. | AAron Ontiveroz/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Imagesĭenver is without lead guard Jamal Murray, who tore his ACL in April. Nikola Jokic has single-handedly kept the Nuggets afloat Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets is ejected after striking Markieff Morris of the Miami Heat with a retaliatory blow during the fourth quarter of Denver’s 113-96 win. Jokic - who has been suspended for one game - is squarely in the NBA news cycle now, but he should have been all along as the Joker is off to an unprecedented start to the season. Morris turned his back, and the Denver center unleashed a vicious forearm shiver, sending the Heat forward flying to the ground and nearly igniting an all-out brawl. LA forward Markieff Morris decided he’d hip check reigning MVP Nikola Jokic on a half-court heave, something Jokic didn’t appreciate. Perhaps the most entertaining occurrence to hit an NBA floor so far in the 2021-22 season came when the Denver Nuggets hosted the Miami Heat on Nov.
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