Who is the first man in the playoffs? Four dimensions versus six candidates How lonely Jokic is invincible

The 2023 playoffs have reached the Finals stage, and Jokic's first trip to the Finals is still invincible, he has 27 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists on 8-of-12 shooting in G1. In this year's playoffs, Jokic averaged 29.8 points, 13.1 rebounds, and 10.5 assists per game, is he the first person in the playoffs? Combining the four dimensions, Jokic is the first person in the playoffs without suspense.

Underlying data

The following figure compares the basic data of the six candidates:

Jokic isn't the most points per game in the playoffs, but he's undoubtedly the most prolific player in terms of overall efficiency and production, and the scariest thing is that his ball usage rate is just over 31%. Without sticking to the ball, playing selflessly and reasonably, Jokic averaged a triple-double per game, scoring a 0.2-point difference to 30 points.

What's scary about Jokic is that as a center, he's had nine triple-doubles in the playoffs this year, with assists in 10 games. In the past, Antetokounmpo's ability to quickly accumulate data per unit of time was amazing, but now Jokic has played even more amazing than Antetokounmpo. The other candidates don't have as versatile output as Jokic, except for Booker, who is also below Jokic in shooting percentage.

Jokic is an omnipotent presence, he can attack, he can take rebounds and push counterattacks, and he can send all kinds of good passes in positional battles. And for a lot of the time in this year's playoffs, Jokic gave the impression that he hadn't done much yet, and that kind of ease was very obvious. So far in the playoffs, opponents have tried a variety of defensive strategies, whether it is Gobert, Davis single defense, joint defense, or front and back blocking, no defensive strategy can suppress Jokic, he can find a way to crack.

High-order data

The following figure is a comparison of the high-level data of the six candidates:

Jokic continues the style of the "king of high-level data" in the regular season, and among the main high-level data to measure individual offensive efficiency and personal influence, Jokic has the upper hand in all aspects except for the true shooting percentage behind Booker, and the advantage is overwhelming. The Player Efficiency value proves how high his output is, and the 100-round goal difference per game reflects his super influence and indispensable presence for the Nuggets.

Why was Jokic unanimous MVP in the Western Conference Finals, who was unanimous in scoring less points per game than Murray? That's why. Scoring doesn't reflect Jokic's value, and the Finals G1 has said a lot, even if Jokic doesn't shoot, his impact on the game is unique.

The high-level stats reflect not only Jokic's offensive value, but also defense. Because players are positioned and positioned differently, it is difficult to assess their defensive value. But Jokic's defense is far underrated in terms of rebounding percentage (5th among all players in the playoffs), defensive win contribution (3rd), and defensive BPM (2nd). With Jokic on the floor, the Nuggets conceded just over 110 points per 100 rounds. The Cavaliers, who ranked first in defense in the regular season, conceded 109.9 points per 100 rounds.

Hard solution ability

This is probably the only part of Jokic that is slightly inferior in the playoffs. Jokic scored 1.07 points per round on the ball, which is already a very efficient level, surpassing Butler's 0.93 points and James' 0.98 points. However, Booker and Tatum's 1.08 points and Murray's 1.17 both overwhelmed Jokic.

One minor flaw in Jokic is his offensive efficiency in key moments, he finished third with 27 points in key moments, but shot 8-of-24 from the field, including 1-of-6 three-pointers, far from his normal level of efficiency.

stability

In this year's playoffs, no one can match Jokic in terms of consistency. Jokic's lowest output was in the Nuggets' 29-point win over the Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs, where he played less than 29 minutes and had 13 points, 14 rebounds, six assists, and he voluntarily applied to leave the game in the final stages. In the other games, Jokic scored fewer than 20 points in a single game. In Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals, Jokic was plagued by foul trouble, but still handed over 24 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, and such a strong ability to keep the floor is amazing.

The other players, each have at least two crotch pulling battles.

Butler shot 7-of-22 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, 5-of-21 from Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, and 6-of-14 from Game 1 of the Finals.

Murray shot 8-of-21 from the fourth game of the first round and 3-of-15 from the second round.

James shot 5-of-17 from the fifth game of the first round and 9-of-24 from the first game of the second round.

Booker was muted in the most important moments, shooting 8-of-19 from the fifth game of the second round and 4-of-13 from the sixth game.

Not to mention Tatum's consistency, even before he was injured in the Eastern Conference Finals, his consistency was very poor, shooting 1 of 7, 5 of 21, 6 of 18, and 8 of 22 from the field of play in Tatum's playoffs this year.

epilogue

Overall, Jokic is difficult to find in this year's playoffs, and he is experiencing invincible loneliness. Davis is already the strongest defender in this year's playoffs, but even he can't stop Jokic. Those players who qualified to compete for the first man in the league, such as Antetokounmpo and Embiid, were already out early, and they didn't even get a chance to make it to the Finals to challenge Jokic.