Not treated well by the alliance, but quietly rose to the first place in the west! James and Durant have become more difficult to compete for a championship
The NBA kicked off the new season and the fierce battle is in full swing, the Nuggets won the championship last season, which made many championship teams go to the extreme, and the Warriors got Paul for the possible final window of this season; The Lakers are also in the limited salary space, constantly improving the depth of the front, although there is no one to play again; The Suns regrouped the Big Three, and as a result, Beal's return date from a back injury is unknown; The Clippers got Harden and built a super luxury lineup of Harden + Wei Shao + Xiaoka + George, but to tell the truth, there are many unknown factors in the overall age + injury hazards. Since the start of the new season, the teams with the best records in the West, the Nuggets and Warriors, are both 5-1, the Mavericks and Pelicans are 4-2, and the Lakers, Clippers, and Spurs are all 3-2. Quietly rose to the first place in the west, but was not welcomed by the alliance! James and Durant have become more difficult to compete for a championship.
Last summer, the Nuggets' sudden rise exploded, quite dreamy. Because in the journey of winning the cup in the playoffs, they have an overall record of 16 wins and 4 losses, except for the series loss of 2 games against the Suns, such as the Timberwolves, the Lakers, and the Finals opponent Heat, did not put much pressure on them. Jokic's average of 30 points, 13.5 rebounds and 9.5 assists per game in the playoffs, coupled with a two-point shooting rate of 54.8% + 46.1%, led the team to be called a dimensionality reduction blow, and no team can find an effective way to limit Jokic. This summer, Bruce Brown and Jeff Green, the Nuggets won the championship, were poached by the Pacers and the Rockets with high salaries respectively, and only a few people from the Nuggets bench had the energy to contribute, but after the start of the new season, the Nuggets quietly rose to the first place in the West, why?
Let's start with a set of data. The Nuggets shot 51.1% from the field this season, ranking first in the league; With an average of 29.7 assists per game, they rank second in the league, and their three-point shooting percentage has declined significantly, with their average shots and shots per game outside the top 20 in the league, but they only average 14.8 free throws per game and only 10.0 free throws per game, both of which are the league's bottom-to-last! To put it bluntly, the Nuggets' outside shooting efficiency has come down, but the interior finishing efficiency is very high, but even if the interior scores more, they can't get the penalty compensation they deserve. Malone has more than once secretly complained about the scale of blowing penalties after the game, such as the game at a critical moment, including Jokic or Murray, and some physical confrontation referees directly ignored it, which was very unfavorable to the Nuggets. The key Nuggets averaged 14.8 free throws per game, 3.2 fewer than the second-to-last Timberwolves, and fell off a cliff to the bottom!
And the comparison between Jokic and Embiid is even more vivid: Embiid's style of play, everyone understands, if you can shoot, you don't attack the basket, and if you can lie down, you don't stand. Embiid is averaging 9.8 free throws per game and 7.3 points per game of his 30.3 points per game this season. Jokic is averaging 27.3 points, 12.2 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game this season, Jokic is averaging 18 points per game in the league (Embiid is averaging 15.5 points per game, fourth in the league), and Jokic is averaging only 4.2 free throws per game! As his partner, Murray is no better, averaging only 3.2 free throws per game! In fact, many of the Nuggets' passing and cutting combinations were initiated by Jokic and Murray, but the confrontation encountered at the end of the basket, they were obviously treated differently by the referee. It's not an exaggeration to say that the Nuggets aren't being treated well by the league.
The Nuggets team and Jokic have a trait that overcomes rigidity with softness and static braking. In the second half of the regular season last season, when Embiid was on fire and competing for MVP, Jokic rested several games, and the Nuggets lost consecutive upsets. Even so, the Nuggets didn't give up the first place in the West, but Jokic "got his wish" and gave up MVP, and Embiid got his wish. To put it bluntly, Nuggets coach Malone and the core Jokic don't care about the results of the regular season and personal honors, so far this season, Jokic has averaged 1.41 points in exchange for 1 shot, and only the unreasonable Curry in the league is more efficient than him! At the age of 28, Jokic has already scored 7 30+ triple-doubles and has a true shooting rate of more than 90%, the first in NBA history! The average points per game is not much, and the efficiency is not the highest, but it is the most comfortable.
To give an inappropriate example, like in the exams in school, the first and second in the class may end up doing nothing, but the person who is about the tenth in the class often lives well. Jokic is the kind of guy who worked hard in the offseason when the rest of the league worked hard and made his own racetrack, and after the new season started, he improved and became more efficient. Learn and practice secretly, relax and not indulge, busy but not blind. It must be said that the Nuggets have the strongest starting five tigers in the league, and they can't stop Jokic alone; Wrapping Jokic, he led his teammates again. Can the Lakers' thick eyebrows limit Jokic? Can the Suns' Nurkic and Eubanks follow Jokic to the outside? The Warriors are tougher, and none of them are worthy of the position; It's hard to say whether the Clippers' small cards and George can be healthy and make it to the playoffs.
To put it bluntly, Durant and James, including Curry, will have a tough journey to the championship this season. Jokic and the Nuggets, as long as they maintain similar results in the regular season, they don't care whether they end up in the first or second place, just to make a healthy transition to the playoffs and then play the role of Thanos! If you want to climb over the mountain of Jokic, the Lakers used to have such a player who could restrain him, but now he is gone. Why is it not treated by the league, just because of the appearance of Jokic and the Nuggets, which completely stopped all kinds of traffic brigades, and who are you not targeted?