There’s just no stopping Nikola Jokic.
The three-time NBA Most Valuable Player and now seven-time NBA All-Star continues to be an unstoppable force in his 10th year in the league. With the Denver Nuggets reeling from a few key offseason departures and hit hard by the injury bug to start the season, Jokic has been forced to look for his shot more often and it has translated into the best offensive campaign of his career thus far.
The 29-year-old center is averaging 29.9 points, 13.1 rebounds, 10.1 assists, and 1.8 steals per game over his first 38 appearances in this campaign while also hitting 47.9% of his 4.3 three-point attempts a night. All four of these are career-high numbers for him. Jokic is also averaging 13.4 rebounds, putting him on pace to average a triple-double for the first time in his career.

In a recent five-game stretch, Jokic found an even higher level, putting up a triple-double in each one of those games by the third quarter. He became the first player in NBA history to record four straight triple-doubles in less than 36 minutes of play and his most recent triple double–36 points, 22 rebounds, and 17 assists in their 132-123 win over the Sacramento Kings–made him just the second player to ever record 35+ points, 20+ rebounds, and 15+ assists in a single game, joining Wilt Chamberlain who pulled off this feat in 1968.
Jokic’s ridiculous statistics have helped the Nuggets stay afloat in the Western Conference postseason hunt where they are currently in fourth place with a 28-17 win-loss record.
As the Nuggets climb up the standings, so will Jokic’s case to win a second consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player award and the fourth overall in his illustrious career. He is in a tight race with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder who came in second last year to Jokic.

If Jokic manages to become a back-to-back NBA MVP for the second time in his career, he will join Kareem Abdul Jabbar (‘71 and ‘72, ‘76 and ‘77) and LeBron James (‘09 and ‘10, ‘12 and ‘13) as the only players to achieve this.
Regardless of the result of this year’s NBA race though, Jokic has already done enough to warrant a place in the discussion among the most dominant players to ever play the game. He may not have the same powerful style as Chamberlain and Shaquille O’Neal, but his ability to be the absolute fulcrum of Denver’s offense makes him even more impactful than the other legendary big men who have come before him.
What’s scary about Jokic is that he is still in the thick of his prime and his largely ground-based style of play should allow him to remain effective well into his 30s–that is, if he chooses to continue playing for that long.
