The Serbian big man Nikola Jokic wasn’t a household name when he got drafted by the Denver Nuggets back in 2014. Quite frankly most fans didn’t even know what he looked like when the 41st overall pick of the 2nd round was selected. This is because ESPN aired a Taco Bell commercial when the pick was announced! At the time, there weren’t an abundance of european athletes in the NBA with most of them fitting the mold of one of two athletes, either a crafty guard or an extremely large big man who had some shooting ability. Jokic fit the mold of the latter, but not in the best ways. He stood 6 '11 which wasn't overly tall for his position, but was considered oversized in weight and deemed a bottom-tier athlete. He also could shoot a bit but wasn’t considered one of the better stretch bigs in his class. Though with the help of his large wingspan and supposed great basketball IQ, there was hope he could be a serviceable backup center in the league. A direct quote from a scouting report made about Jokic was, “Unfortunately, his defense will likely prevent him from ever playing 30-plus minutes or starting. However, there's no shame in being a respectable reserve on a winning team in the future.” (Daniel O’Brien, Bleacher Report). But what happened next came to everyone's surprise as Jokic played well when given minutes and earned more and more.
By his second season he was averaging nearly 17 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists a game, budding into a star big man in the league. By his 3rd season with the Nuggets he became a full time starter and was considered one of the best centers in the game. The Nuggets showed good faith to their star and signed him to a 5 year extension worth 147 million total. After this he started to receive accolades for his stellar play, becoming an all star in the 2018-2019 season and continuing to be one every year since. In the 20/21 season he took his game to a new level and won MVP of the league, and when you thought he couldn’t get better, repeated in the 21/22 season. The Nuggets most recently rewarded their top 5 player in the league with a brand new supermax extension worth 5 years and 272 million, and he has shown no signs of slowing down with the current MVP polls ranking him at the favorite to win another MVP award, which would make it 3 consecutive years for the Serbian.
The story of Jokic is quite frankly a phenomenal one, going from second round pick who literally nobody knew about to one of the best centers of all time. It couples a recent increase in European athletes coming into the NBA and dominating the league with other stars such as Luka, Giannis, and Kristaps Porzingis.
One must question how these European prospects coming into the NBA and having so much success, especially when scouting them can be so difficult due to the limited minutes they play in European leagues. When you look at the draft profiles for some of these international draft prospect you will oftentimes see them averaging under 15 minutes played per game, less than 10 points per game, and at first glance, most don’t see why they are touted to be a high prospect. But I believe this is why these scouts are paid the big bucks to research athletes overseas because their training regime from childhood is simply different from those of kids raised in America. These top prospects will start playing professional basketball at age 15 or 16 with grown adults that are the best basketball players in their respective countries. That is why these guys may not get more than 15 minutes a game, because a 16 year old has no shot to be able to compete for 30 minutes against 25+ year olds. But they practice against them day in and day out, where their skills and raw tools are put on display. The stigma against European athletes is that they are always raw prospects coming in, that need to be developed in America. But with the likes of guys like Jokic, or Luka Doncic, one must wonder how long this stigma will continue with these athletes' ability to produce at the highest level quickly. I believe it will be interesting to see how long Jokic continues to dominate the NBA and how many more of his European counterparts come in and continue to have success in this world's best basketball league.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70848134/usa_today_16243633.0.jpg)
It is crazy to think that Jokic fell all the way to the second round, but hindsight is 20/20. Looks can be deceiving, and I'm sure that Jokic's chubby build did not impress any NBA scouts. Part of what makes him so good seems to be that he doesn't really care about social media, attention, or individual accolades. He is focused on the success of the team. He has said before that he prefers an assist to a field goal. If he ends up winning his third straight MVP that will mark the fifth straight MVP won by an international player, perhaps cementing the shift of the NBA to a truly global sport.
ReplyDeleteThis article was a great read for me as Nikola Jokic is one of my favorite players in the NBA to watch. I think this entire topic of the growth of European players in the league is an extremely important one to discuss, not only because it is fascinating but it brings awareness to the success of the "European-style" of play. In today's world of sports, it is rare to see anything but flashy highlights and mixtapes, so the growing youth that plays basketball tries to mimic that, and it has changed the integrity of the game. If you scroll through Twitter or Instagram you won’t miss a player going for a big dunk in traffic or taking a deep Steph Curry-esque three-pointer. But when you take the time to truly watch how the European leagues play, you see an entirely different brand of basketball. A brand of basketball that is team-oriented and not stained by the hero-ball type of basketball that starts as early as AAU. I appreciate that you mentioned the difficult yet important job that scouts have to explore past just the United States, but look for some hidden gems within the European Leagues.
ReplyDeleteA great part of this article was when you mentioned the fact that these players overseas start at a young age with much older players, and over the years through practice and games develop their skills. I think that is a really important part of this article - to really expose how although these Jokic-type players may not get many minutes and average 25 points like some NCAA players, they are consistently working on their skills…not trying to master an in-between-the-legs layup or a thirty foot jumpshot. I agree that that’s why we see these European players like Jokic, Luka Doncic, or maybe even Viktor Wembanyama come into the league and see success, despite having a much different background than American NBA Players.