Nikola Jokic has established himself as the best player in basketball. He has the wins, he has the trophies and he has the stats to back it up, and the majority of the NBA landscape agrees with that — outside of the fanbase of a particular Western Conference team.
As a result, the joker has been ranked as the league’s No. 1 player for a second consecutive season, per ESPN. Jokic was one of six Nuggets to make the list, and this selection from the Worldwide Leader comes shortly after a poll of various scouts, coaches and executives shared a similar sentiment about the three-time MVP.
These rankings had high praise for Jokic, and laid it out in a straightforward manner that everyone in Denver has been seeing.
“Simply put, Jokic is at the peak of his basketball powers right now and should be regarded as an MVP favorite as long as he stays at this level,” the rankings said.
He is coming off arguably the best season of his career, even though it didn’t end with him taking any hardware back to the horse stable in Serbia. He set a career high in points per game (29.6), assists per game (10.2) and 3-point percentage (41.7%), and his 12.7 rebounds per game on top of those made him just the third player ever in the history of the NBA to average a triple double for an entire season (Oscar Robertson (1961-62) and Russell Westbrook (4x)).
Jokic also made history in the MVP voting scene, as his second-place finish made him just the first player in since Larry Bird to finish in the top-two of the voting for five straight seasons. Not bad company to be in, and it can be argued that he deserved the trophy the two times he finished in second — to Joel Embiid in 2023 and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander last season.
SGA finished in second place, while Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama rounded out the top five.
It’s a big season coming up for the Nuggets and Jokic. Everyone knows exactly what a healthy Jokic is going to bring to the table, but last year showed that the talent of the guys around him matters more in the playoffs than his individual ability. These rankings are a promising sign, as five of his teammates made the cut for the top 100, but all the numbers on paper go out the window as soon as the first ball is tipped when the season starts in late October.
