hardenASG13 wrote:ballzboyee wrote:No, Jokic is not better than prime Lebron James.
It's just crazy. People watched them. Lebron is 39 and not in his prime,
yet still played close to as good as prime Jokic in this series. He was a much better player when he was 29, a decade ago.
Jokic: 28/16/10 on 59/33/93. ::: .320 WS/48, 14.3 BPM
LeBron: 28/7/9 on 57/39/74 ::: .191 WS/48, 10.6 BPM
23 year old Jokic in his first playoffs: 25/13/8 ::: .263 WS/48, 11.6 BPM
You wouldn't know what "close to as good" means if it hit you over the head. I just gandered a look at the advanced metrics of James Harden and
peak Harden had two post season runs as good as LeBron this year. Embiid has literally never played as well as LeBron has in this year's playoffs (other than right now against the Knicks).
What Jokic is doing in the past two playoffs is
breaking basketball as we know it with not just statistics, but game management that rivals peak LeBron. Murray may get the shine because he hits the big shots (after being the reason Denver is down each game) but Jokic is the steady, consistent engine that keeps Denver within distance minute after minute, game after game...
I view Jokic as kind of a father figure to the entire Denver Nuggets roster similar to how LeBron was a father figure to Kyrie. He ensures that this rag tag group of journeymen and non-all stars is allowed to explore their limits during the regular season, but come playoff time Jokic corrals them all back in line and everything becomes about game management allowing him to play chess against the opposing team's head coach.