Nikola Jokić and best Bigmen passers of all time

Mickey8 · Post #141 » by **Mickey8** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 6:21 am

He's up there, being one of the best passing center of all time.

clyde21 · Post #142 » by **clyde21** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 6:23 am

The right coach will unlock a perennial MVP caliber player with Jokic. He's that good.

baldur · Post #143 » by **baldur** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 6:25 am

oh man. what a game winner assist. sick court vision and accuracy, handling. how the hell did he see gary harris coming up there? plumlee's injury might do wonders for the denvers as he is being utilized utterly correctly.

Post #144 » by **THE J0KER** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 6:36 am

Nikola Jokic in last five matches, which includes games vs some of the league best defenses this season (BOS SAS OKC), together with tonight's amazing 29-13-14as (with 2 TO) triple-double has averaged:

19pts 11reb 10ast (with just 2.5 TO)

Appart of Wilt, no way ever any NBA center achieved something like that in 5 consecutive matches (3 of them with 10+ assists). That is another reason why two weeks before his 23 birthday we are already safe to say that there is no one player in NBA history which played the center position with such passing skills like Nikola Jokic!

Dominator83 · Post #145 » by **Dominator83** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 7:46 am

Hes arguably the best passer in the league right now of all positions

GameBredAPBT · Post #146 » by **GameBredAPBT** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 7:51 am

clyde21 wrote:The right coach will unlock a perennial MVP caliber player with Jokic. He's that good.

You ain't lyin'.

Who knows what he will become. He's got the tools to become one of the GOATs. Some of the most transcendent court vision the game has ever seen & he's just getting started.

Dominator83 · Post #147 » by **Dominator83** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 8:36 am

GameBredAPBT wrote:
clyde21 wrote:The right coach will unlock a perennial MVP caliber player with Jokic. He's that good.

You ain't lyin'.

Who knows what he will become. He's got the tools to become one of the GOATs. Some of the most transcendent court vision the game has ever seen & he's just getting started.

Can't believe the scouts didn't see this. How in the heck was he a 2nd rounder?

GameBredAPBT · Post #148 » by **GameBredAPBT** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 8:42 am

Dominater wrote:
GameBredAPBT wrote:
clyde21 wrote:The right coach will unlock a perennial MVP caliber player with Jokic. He's that good.

You ain't lyin'.

Who knows what he will become. He's got the tools to become one of the GOATs. Some of the most transcendent court vision the game has ever seen & he's just getting started.

Can't believe the scouts didn't see this. How in the heck was he a 2nd rounder?

How was Gil Arenas a 2nd rounder?

Players work hard too. Look at Butler.

Jokic is special though. I'm assuming scouts thought his pedestrian athleticism would greatly hinder him in the pros. Not the case. The guy's a freak. Generational offensive bbiq.

Mickey8 · Post #149 » by **Mickey8** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 8:54 am

The scouts , especially back then have mostly followed youth NT tournaments or the bigger international club youth competitions. Jokic only played one NT competition representing Serbia , summer before he was drafted , u19 world championship , where Serbia was defeated by USA in the finals (Harrell,Winslow,Okafor,Peyton,Gordon etc),. He had good showing but he was coming off the bench and his role was limited, also he was playing for the smaller youth club in Serbia, so he was kind of mystery even in Serbia , even though he dominated junior league there , that's why he was overlooked , he also had good scrimmages at the Nike Hoop Summit but he went unnoticed in the actual game, he was drafted in 2014 even though he was eligible for 2015 NBA Draft , actually that was the wish of his agent to get drafted in the second round and stay one or two seasons in Serbia or somewhere in Europe. If Jokic was declared for the 2015 NBA Draft he would have been chosen in the first round , no doubt about it, he had statistically monster season 2014-2015 in the Adriatic League , he was the MVP of the league.

UcanUwill · Post #150 » by **UcanUwill** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 9:22 am

Dominater wrote:
GameBredAPBT wrote:
clyde21 wrote:The right coach will unlock a perennial MVP caliber player with Jokic. He's that good.

You ain't lyin'.

Who knows what he will become. He's got the tools to become one of the GOATs. Some of the most transcendent court vision the game has ever seen & he's just getting started.

Can't believe the scouts didn't see this. How in the heck was he a 2nd rounder?

Low key team, a bit chubby guy. If you followed him, you could have seen massive potential, he was insane in Adriatic league. Surprised Spurs didn't see him comming tho. But workethic is hard to predict. No one knew he would end drinking 12 pepsi's a day and start working on his bod more

AleksandarN · Post #151 » by **AleksandarN** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 12:25 pm

Look at this breakdown video for NBA breakdown

Watch on YouTube

Howling Mad · Post #152 » by **Howling Mad** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 1:56 pm

Voted for Sabonis. Big men weren't allowed to play like PGs in the way Jokic does now, especially when you're 7'3''. If Sabonis could play the way bigs do now his numbers would be equally impressive. Jokic is great though and by the end of his career, if he does this for 15 years, we might be saying the same about him.

This thread needs the Big man passing timeline

Vlade Divac > Chris Webber > Brad Miller > Joakim Noah

You can even say Magic Johnson had an influence in Valde's passing skills. A young Vlade played with Magic. Vlade then went to SAC and spread that passing big man game to Webber and Brad Miller. Brad Miller played with the Bulls and passed the big man passing torch to Joakim Noah. Joakim Noah took the torch and smoked the hell out of it. Puff, puff, pass, Joakim got the roach.

Sothron · Post #153 » by **Sothron** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 2:17 pm

Vlade was already a good passer before he went to the Lakers. Euro big men have been taught from small age all the way through development to be well rounded players.

Post #154 » by **og15** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 2:30 pm

GameBredAPBT wrote:
Dominater wrote:
GameBredAPBT wrote:
You ain't lyin'.

Who knows what he will become. He's got the tools to become one of the GOATs. Some of the most transcendent court vision the game has ever seen & he's just getting started.

Can't believe the scouts didn't see this. How in the heck was he a 2nd rounder?

How was Gil Arenas a 2nd rounder?

Players work hard too. Look at Butler.

Jokic is special though. I'm assuming scouts thought his pedestrian athleticism would greatly hinder him in the pros. Not the case. The guy's a freak. Generational offensive bbiq.

It is odd, but people don't generality worry too much about athleticism of C's, so still odd if they thought he was very skilled. He was likely undervalued and/or made some quick improvements as a player. Going from essentially being fat to, well, not, that's not necessarily one scouting could have predicted.

kololoco · Post #155 » by **kololoco** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 2:44 pm

I am from Serbia, and trust me, he was not this good of a passer here. He showed flashes, but I think spacing in the NBA really showed his full potential.

Mickey8 · Post #156 » by **Mickey8** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 9:37 pm

You could see even in the youth competition in Serbia that he was a gifted passer , he's born with it , you can't teach that.

anthony00 · Post #157 » by **anthony00** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 9:39 pm

clyde21 wrote:The right coach will unlock a perennial MVP caliber player with Jokic. He's that good.

he needs Stevens or popovich

Hobo4President · Post #158 » by **Hobo4President** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 9:59 pm

kololoco wrote:I am from Serbia, and trust me, he was not this good of a passer here. He showed flashes, but I think spacing in the NBA really showed his full potential.

Mickey8 wrote:You could see even in the youth competition in Serbia that he was a gifted passer , he's born with it , you can't teach that.

Who do I believe

Post #159 » by **THE J0KER** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 11:41 pm

Hobo4President wrote:
kololoco wrote:I am from Serbia, and trust me, he was not this good of a passer here. He showed flashes, but I think spacing in the NBA really showed his full potential.

Mickey8 wrote:You could see even in the youth competition in Serbia that he was a gifted passer , he's born with it , you can't teach that.

Who do I believe

Nikola played in Serbia for the team which is not real basketball club, but more shop store of youth players and training center for young players development, which owner Misko Raznatovic is probably biggest European basketball manager right now. So they don't care about their results at all (just to be enough good to stay in Adriatic League for the next season), and that 2014/15 season when Jokic is their best player and MVP of the whole league is especially bizarre because that team MEGA has both main MVP contenders of that season with the highest efficiency index, but team finished on 10th place out of 14!? It is equivalent to eventual last season NBA case if Westbrook and Harden played with same 2016-17 numbers for the same team, but that team didn't even qualify for the playoff!? So that team where Nikola played, which almost every season change their host city in Serbia and don't have regular fans like all other teams in the world, tends to use anti-competitive methods of game which only goals are the improvement of some particular player or to make him look better because team owner wants to sell him. That season player which that owner wants to sell as next European superstar in making is not Nikola, but young point guard Nenad Miljenovic which finished with almost identical value index (efficiency) which decide automatically regular season MVP, and more important, which makes that season all-time record of Adriatic League in assists (about 8.5 per game). So they didn't use Jokic at all on the way which we see today in Denver, but even in such circumstances, Jokic has 3.5 assists per game, maybe the highest score for a center in the history of that league!

So-called (Ex-)Yugoslav school of basketball was very based on passing and has a long tradition of encouraging tall players to develop their passing talent if they have it. First well-known center with all-around skills was Kresimir Cosic, then you have Vlade Divac which becomes one of best passing centers in NBA history. Toni Kukoc is PF, but there are just a few other 6'10+ tall players in basketball history with such passing skills. Another name which deserved to be mentioned is Dejan Bodiroga, which is "just" 6'9 tall but you have never before or after European player of such size which played point guard position. One Croatian center, Nikola Vujcic, is also well known for his passing skills and when playing for Maccabi team in EuroLeague he couple times achieves triple-doubles which are extremely rare achievement under FIBA rules basketball in 4x10 format. When Jokic is 19 old no one can see he will be passing GOAT for centers, but it is already obvious he is going to be next big thing in passing for tall players from ex-Yugoslavia region if he finds a way to solve his lack of athleticism problems. In his rookie season in Denver, or during Olympics tournament in Rio, you can see many attractive assists from him, but his role as unique point-center happens for the first time ever in the middle of the last season. Actually, he played during his very early juniors days as a point guard because of his great passing talent, but that is changed when he suddenly grows over all expectations and early projections, and he becomes center.

Mickey8 · Post #160 » by **Mickey8** » Fri Feb 2, 2018 11:56 pm

I am talking about the period when he was 14,15 before he went to Belgrade, he was posting up triple doubles playing for the club called Vojvodina, he always had that gift, for making the great plays , you could see it back then that he was a special kid , despite of him being very chubby and not explosive at all

Who is GOAT passing bigman?