Beijing time on December 14, 2021, the NBA regular season continued, in the Nuggets vs Wizards game, Jokic played 30 minutes, 14 of 9, three points 2 of 1, slashed 28 points, 19 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals and 1 block, plus or minus as high as +21, the highest for the team, if it were not for the mid-fourth quarter referee twice consecutive technical fouls to Jokic, the latter would most likely achieve 30 + 20 + 10 large triple-doubles. After Jokic was sent off, the Wizards launched a wave of counterattacks, but fortunately the Nuggets were much ahead at the time and did not turn over.
After the Nuggets won the game 113:107, Jokic also talked about his own 2T expulsion after the game, saying: "The NBA referees are the best in the world, they have a very high level of enforcement, but honestly, I don't feel like I should be expelled, I just said to the referee's 'just blew the whistle', because it was a foul." I have to say that Jokic's post-match statement reflects high emotional intelligence, first raise and then suppress, praise a wave of referees to avoid being fined, and then turn the words to express their dissatisfaction, I believe that as long as it is a normal person, they all know that the words after the turn are the focus.
How strong is Jokic this season?
In fact, not only is it high emotional intelligence, but on the field, Jokic's ball quotient is also top-notch. This season, the Nuggets' two top salaried players, Murray and Porter Jr., can't play, the team's salary has been severely compressed, and the depth of the lineup is obviously not enough (equal to 2 and 3 pawns), but with such a lineup, Jokic has to take the Nuggets 14 wins and 13 losses, still ranking eighth in the West. So far this season, Mr. Yo has averaged 32.8 minutes per game, can cut 26.5 points, 13.8 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 1.3 steals, 0.8 blocks, shooting 58.4%, averaging 1.7 three-pointers per game, and shooting 37.4% from three-point range. He is 5th in the league in points per game, 2nd in rebounds, 11th in assists and 10th in shooting percentage.
As a 211cm center, Jokic has top shooting feel and solid interior skills, this season he has a total of 217 shots under the basket, hit 152 goals, shooting 70%, averaging 15 points per game on the inside, ranking first in the league. At the same time, he also has excellent outside shooting ability, shooting more than 55% from mid-range and shooting more than the league average from three-point range. In addition to his own offense, Jokic is also the axis of the Nuggets' offense, averaging 7.3 assists per game and a season assist rate of 36.7%, ranking fifth in the league, higher than ball-holding core assist rates of Ball, James and Alphabet Brother. After winning the Spurs, Spurs player Kelden Johnson openly praised Jokic: "He's a great player, you can see him on the floor." And Popovich did not hesitate to praise, directly saying: Jokic is too good, his playing style is a bit like Larry Bird, he can do everything on the field, God is really unfair.
The really strong don't just have the basic data excellent, the high-level data is also brilliant, and Jokic obviously did it. Here's a ranking of his high-level stats this season:
Efficiency value (PER): 33.94, ranking first in the league, far ahead of others (also the first in history);
Victory Contribution (WS): 24, also ranked first in the league, and in second place is Alphabet Brother, only 20.2;
Win contribution per minute (WS/48): 0.314, or first in the league, and second in line with Gobert, with only 0.2871;
BPM: 14.15, still ranked first in the league, and the second place is the letter brother's 10.14;
VORP: 2.82, or first, the second is the letter brother's 2.51;
5 high-level statistics, Jokic all dominate the list, which shows how good he has performed this season.
How important is Jokic to the Nuggets?
As the MVP of last season, Jokic's importance at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends is self-evident, he is not only the Nuggets' strongest personal offensive point, the best hard solution for the team's key moments, but also the team's offensive axis, a lot of the Nuggets' tactics are around him, it can be said that the Nuggets without Jokic are soulless. We may seem more general in saying this, so it is better to go directly to the case.
Between Nov. 22 and 27, Jokic missed four games, resulting in four consecutive losses for the Nuggets, and after Jokic's return, the team immediately won, the last 8 games, 5 wins and 3 losses, the winning opponents are the Heat, Wizards, Knicks and Spurs, to be honest, these teams are not bad. In addition, there is another stat that reflects Jokic's importance to the Nuggets, not counting this game, Jokic's ON/OFF value this season is as high as 29.1, ranking first in the league, and the data shows that when he is on the floor, the Nuggets can win 13.4 points per 100 rounds, and when he is not on the floor, the team loses 15.7 points per 100 rounds.
Judging from the stats and on-field performance, Jokic is undoubtedly the best player this season, he deserves to be included in the MVP discussion, if the Nuggets can enter the top four in the West this season, he will have a great hope of winning the MVP.