Even with three MVP awards and a Finals MVP already in his trophy case, Nikola Jokić did something he had never done before this season.
With a 26-point, 16-rebound, 13-assist performance Friday in a 117-109 win over the Memphis Grizzlies, the Denver Nuggets center guaranteed he will become the third player in NBA history to average a triple-double for an entire season.
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The only other players to do it: Oscar Robertson and Jokić’s teammate Russell Westbrook, who has done it four times.
Jokić had come tantalizingly close to a triple-double season before, averaging 24.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game in 2022-23, the season he led the Nuggets to their first NBA championship. Over the best five seasons, he hasn’t posted a mark worse than 24.5 points, 10.8 rebounds or 7.9 assists per game, while winning an MVP or a Finals MVP in every season.
And yet, this season is shaping up to be the most productive of a very productive career, with career highs in points and assists per game and the best 3-point shooting mark of his career. He has also posted a career high with 61 points in one game, which also happened to be the highest-scoring triple-double in NBA history, and the league’s first 30-20-20 game.
Nikola Jokić might be finishing up the best season of his career. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
(AAron Ontiveroz via Getty Images)
All of that is one half of one of the most competitive NBA MVP races in recent memory. Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is still the heavy betting favorite to win his first career MVP award, but Jokić has been steadily building a case that would probably win in most other seasons.
Jokić is having not only his most productive season, but one of the most productive in NBA history, while playing with a supporting cast that has atrophied so badly since winning the title that the Nuggets fired head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth. Without Jokić, it’s hard to see the Nuggets coming close to even the play-in tournament.