Does Jokić lack the killer instinct needed to win a title?

[SelfishPlayer]

It's interesting that people like Skip Bayless criticized LeBron for being unlike MJ in the way that he allows teammates like Kyrie to take last second shots. What is Skip's opinion on Jokic doing this?

[tsherkin]

Same **** people used to say about Lebron.

Both guys make the best play, nearly all the time. But Kobe conditioned some of you guys to take a bad shot as the mark of a real winner.

I have made very similar comment also mentioning Lebron, how to some, making great reads was a "weakness". But I have figured I was ptobsbly trolled so I deleted it. Doesn't take away that people croticizing Lebron for passing to wide open teammate, were actually serious...

People glow up Jordan about it all the time, which is the shape of hypocrisy in these discussions, no less.

[Effigy]

This is obviously a troll.

[ShootersShoot]

Man what a stupid thread

[ChipotleWest]

They don't get an *, but they did beat two 8 seeds one 7 seed and a 4 seed. That's the lowest seeding in NBA history on the way to a championship.

How did those lower seeds made it so far into the postseason? Perhaps by beating the higher ranked seeds before advancing?

The West was just not that impressive last season with Memphis and Sacramento being the #2 and #3 seeds, both of them lost to the Lakers and Warriors in the first round. Miami did it in the bubble too with a low seed beat everybody and got to the Finals because sometimes it's about matchups. But I believe the Bucks or the Celtics would have been a tougher matchup for Denver in the Finals. To start the playoffs they got Minnesota with a 21 year old Ant, and no Reid and McDaniels, then in the second round they got Suns Durant should have been out for the season with an injury in March but tried to come back, Paul was washed, they just got swept against the Wolves (although Beal there instead of Paul) and they're a bad matchup for the Lakers with 38-39 year old Lebron.

I don't get why people get so offended that I say I'll be more impressed if they win this year than last year. It's not as if every championship is equal as far as which teams you face which teams have injuries or don't. Some paths are harder than others, this will be a harder path to the championship. I'm not saying it's impossible for them to do it again but I got them losing.

[Raps in 4]

He's certainly no Embiid.

[Godymas]

no, the question is does Jokic have the killer instinct to win MULTIPLE titles

as seen with Giannis, you can have a guy that's good enough to get one, but some shortcoming will prevent them from getting back to 2

[UcanUwill]

It's interesting that people like Skip Bayless criticized LeBron for being unlike MJ in the way that he allows teammates like Kyrie to take last second shots. What is Skip's opinion on Jokic doing this?

Skip is a troll himself. This reminded me of one of my favorite coaches - David Blatt.

Remember that one game where CAVS inbounded from baseline to LeBrons game winner? And after the game LeBron revealed that Blatt wanted the play for someone else, but LeBron wanted it to be for him so they made the pjay for him...

I remember how fans bashed what idiot Blatt is for not even wanting Lebron to be a shooter. I always remembered that because it shows how actually unaware fans are. They acted like Blatt's idea is out of this world, fire worthy...
This stuff happens all the time, even with teams with big stars. Coaches drew up the initial play for someone else, and star vetos it. Happens all the time, I bet happened for LeBron with different coaches. Fans do not hear much of it, because it is not news worthy and often game winning shots actually miss. LeBron being who he is, he needed to add how game winning shot was not only made by him, but brought by him. Lebron never even says he vetoed the play if thay shot misses... How it goes.

[Bum Adebayo]

Where is this rule that says your best player is the one that has to take the last shots?
Our former MVP had 0 points in 4th quarter from the field, and it's not like he wasn't trying to score.

[SoulJah]

Watching last night got me thinking. We all know Nikola Jokić is widely regarded as the best player in the NBA, 2x MVP with a 3rd this year, Finals MVP, 3x 1st team All-NBA, a walking triple double.

But it was not him who took the shots to win the game in Games 2 or 5. He passed the buck to his teammate, non All-Star Jamal Murray, who took the big shots instead.

So as good as Jokic is, does he have the Killer InstinctTM needed to win a championship? As we all know from the high level basketball analysts on this board and the media, no superstar can ever let their teammates take big shots, which shows a total lack of Killer Instinct and is something no great player would ever do. Some have even gone so far as to asterisks rings won by superstars because their teammate made a big shot and they didn’t show enough Killer Instinct.

So while his team won, the jury is still out on Jokić. What can Jokić do to prove he has the Killer Instinct needed to win championships?

He has already won a title "without a killer instinct" so...

[zimpy27]

Jokic ran to the lane to stop LeBron at the end, this is why Lakers didn't get a quality shot, if he doesn't do it then LeBron probably gets a good look and it's LeBron

[G35]

Same **** people used to say about Lebron.

Both guys make the best play, nearly all the time. But Kobe conditioned some of you guys to take a bad shot as the mark of a real winner.

That sounds like an oxymoron...who is to say what the best play is? The results tell you what the best play is....

[1993Playoffs]

Murray is the closer on that team

[ForeverTFC]

Same **** people used to say about Lebron.

Both guys make the best play, nearly all the time. But Kobe conditioned some of you guys to take a bad shot as the mark of a real winner.

That sounds like an oxymoron...who is to say what the best play is? The results tell you what the best play is....

It’s based on expected value. You can win the lottery but that doesn’t mean playing the lottery is a good decision.

[Dan33185]

[G35]

Same **** people used to say about Lebron.

Both guys make the best play, nearly all the time. But Kobe conditioned some of you guys to take a bad shot as the mark of a real winner.

That sounds like an oxymoron...who is to say what the best play is? The results tell you what the best play is....

It’s based on expected value. You can win the lottery but that doesn’t mean playing the lottery is a good decision.

You can also not play in the lottery, which many people do not.

But basketball is a results based activity...the lottery is not.....

[ForeverTFC]

That sounds like an oxymoron...who is to say what the best play is? The results tell you what the best play is....

It’s based on expected value. You can win the lottery but that doesn’t mean playing the lottery is a good decision.

You can also not play in the lottery, which many people do not.

But basketball is a results based activity...the lottery is not.....

What? This doesn't make any sense. We just went through an entire era that optimized shot distribution for the highest expected value leading to an offensive revolution and an increase in ORTG, and you're trying to tell me expected value is irrelevant in basketball?

[chudak]

I mean he just won a title in dominant fashion and just proceeded to knock out a very good Lakers team in 5 games averaging 28, 16 and 12 on 59%fg.

Not sure what else you want.

Obviously every series should go 7 with Jokic hitting the game winner in all 7 games.

While playing 48 minutes and averaging a quartable double on high efficiency and playing defense ranking ttop 5 in blocks and steals

[lessthanjake]

Obviously this is a troll thread, but this criticism of players has always been almost entirely stupid.

There is an extent to which it’s not just *purely* stupid though—which is to whatever extent fear of the moment comes into play. I think our baseline assumption should be that the “right” basketball play is the correct one to make at any given time. But in a high-pressure situation, that can get warped if the “right” basketball play would require that a shot be made by a guy who is going to be tight and afraid of the moment. That won’t be the case for a lot of role players though (and it’s certainly not the case for Jamal Murray, or Kyrie Irving for that matter), so it’s really person-specific and moment-specific. Sometimes a guy out there will just not be in a state to take the final shot, and in that case asking them to do so isn’t the “right” play even if it should be on paper. When does this sort of situation come into play? Well, we have no idea, because the fact that someone misses a shot doesn’t mean they missed because of a mental block. Players miss shots! Anyways, since we can't actually really know when this comes into play, it doesn't make sense to criticize any particular instance of a superstar letting someone else take the last shot (unless it's actually not even the right basketball play and is like a Ben Simmons situation or something). I'm just saying that in reality there actually will be scenarios where a superstar making the selfish play is actually the correct play, because the guy knows his teammates more. This reminds me of the Steve Kerr-Michael Jordan conversation before Kerr hit that game-winning shot. Obviously Jordan knew he'd likely have an option to make the "right" play to pass it to Kerr, and was wanting to scope out with Kerr whether he was going to have the yips or whatever in that moment and therefore make sure that that “right” play really would be the right one. I imagine stuff like that happens often, and superstar guys have a sense of who on their team isn’t afraid of the moment. I suspect the times LeBron has been criticized for deferring to teammates he was likely not deferring to people who were afraid of the moment in any meaningful way.

[Dubnation]

Given the fact that he has already won a title, I would reckon that he does not lack the killer instinct needed to win a title

/thread