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🏀 Should Jokić demand a trade?
Nikola Jokić is not the type of player, or person, who's likely to demand a trade. But a decade into his career, is it time?
Mile High mess: The Nuggets' decision to fire both their head coach and GM on the eve of the postseason, which Jokić called a "heavy day for everybody," was shocking. It was also indicative of a franchise that hasn't done nearly enough to surround its future Hall of Famer with a solid foundation and a worthy supporting cast.
From Yahoo Sports' Tom Haberstroh:
Cleaning house in April, days before the playoffs? In a league of chaos, this is beyond the pale.
Imagine if this happened on a team with LeBron James. Or Stephen Curry. Or Kevin Durant. With any other all-time great, we'd be asking the question: How in the world can he be OK with all this?
But with Jokić — who has famously shied away from publicly or privately throwing around his enormous political weight — we skip over that part of the news cycle. We assume that he'll be fine with it all.
Frankly, it's an insult to Jokić, who has been cheated out of multiple championship runs by the Nuggets. By his own admission, he's at the peak of his powers, averaging 29.8 points, 12.8 rebounds, 10.2 assists this season. Three-time MVP, first-time triple-double average.
The 10-year vet has been a contender with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the MVP race this season, but his best argument for the hardware is buttressed by how terrible his supporting cast is.
When SGA has been off the floor, the Thunder have outscored opponents by 75 points across 1,199 minutes. When Jokić has been off the floor? The Nuggets have *lost*by a whopping 252 points in 1,366 minutes.
When it comes to quantifying his supporting cast, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
One-man show: This will sound made up but I promise it's not: Jokić has never played alongside a single teammate who was named an All-Star, All-NBA or All-Defensive player that season. That's not just unfathomable; it's unprecedented.
He's the only one of the last 24 MVPs, dating back to Moses Malone in 1983, who's ...
