Nikola Jokic’s run to the finals is OBJECTIVELY more impressive than any run Steph Curry had

[Professor Emeritus]

Btw I don't like how ppl are trying to diminish Steph. He's the #1 reason, whether you like it or not, that basketball is played the way it is today. And with that being said, he's the only one to win consecutive rings in the past decade. Everyone is trying to copy the style(you saw that shyt Boston was trying) but only Steph and the warriors were consistently winning with it.

He's absolutely not, but at least his fans will always have the satisfaction of people thinking that he is.

Analytics has always driven the three-point shooting trend. It began before Steph and never accelerated meaningfully because of Steph, for the obvious reason that 90% of the NBA doesn't have a player like Steph and is under no illusions that they do. Steph is the greatest result of the new style of play, not the cause. He didn't even average 5 threes/game until his 4th year in the NBA, didn't average 10 threes/game until his 7th year, and Golden State trailed Houston in implementing the new style of play. He was able to take off as a star BECAUSE analytics-driven coaching allowed him to start letting loose from range.


In 2013, Golden State was 13th in threes.

In 2014, they were 6th, despite starting Steph, Klay, and Iggy with Barnes as the 6th man, because Jackson wasn't an analytics guy.

2015, their first title year, they were still back in 4th, trailing the Blazers, Cleveland, and WAY behind Houston who was already shooting 33 threes/game. The Cavs made the Finals shooting more threes than the Warriors did, and would have won too if Kyrie/Love didn't get hurt.

2016 was the one year they led in threes, barely in front of a tight pack. And they lost the title that year, to a Cleveland squad that during the regular season had been shooting almost as many threes as they were.

2017 they fell to fifth place, a full NINE threes a game behind Houston, who was shooting 40 threes/game now. Yet they won the title easily.

2018, Golden State was now 16th in threes. Literally the majority of the NBA was shooting more threes than they were. Yet they won again.

2019 the Warriors were 8th in threes, and would have won again if not for injuries. They were beat by a team that was 11th but with almost the exact same # as them.


Saying that Steph created the new wave doesn't make any sense, because no one plays like Steph. Houston is the team being copying, Cleveland is the team being copied, not the Warriors. Name a Steph copycat in the league? You can't say Dame cause he was already playing like that. You can't say Luka or Trae because they're more like Harden. Hield was 2nd in threes last year but he's more like Klay. Who is the Steph copycat, really?

If you've been paying attention, you'll realize that Steph is the mascot for the new wave. He's the face of the three-point shot. But he's never been the cause. The drive to analytics caused all of this.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

You could also say it's just another example of Steph playing against an injured player/team. He beat a guy that wasn't even healthy enough to not have to go to the hospital right after the game. So did he really beat someone or did he just luck out again?

If the Cavs had had a healthy player (anyone) on the court instead, would they have won? It's a real question.

Yup. Kyrie should have been guarding Steph but he was hurt. Shump should have been guarding Steph but he couldn't lift his arm over his shoulder. It should have been a 3-way responsibility, but instead Delly was stuck with it alone and played 81 minutes in two games, putting himself in the hospital.

 

[2legit]

32 Points
21 Rebounds
10 Assists

No one bumped this thread when Jokic is posting historical Shaq numbers in the finals

 

[murksiderock]

This postseason, Jokic has a 31.5 PER and 28.6 GmSc, higher than Steph's career highs on either count...

The numbers say '23 Jokic is a more dominant force than any Steph year and the eye test backs that up, too...

 

[2legit]

This postseason, Jokic has a 31.5 PER and 28.6 GmSc, higher than Steph's career highs on either count...

The numbers say '23 Jokic is a more dominant force than any Steph year and the eye test backs that up, too...

This thread is awfully quiet because Jokic is exposing how much better he is than some of the basketball idols these posters worship. I'm not going to name names, but there a lot of big name stars whose legacies are about to be challenged by Jokic in the coming years and these posters aren't ready for that conversation yet. It's coming. Yall better get ready for Jokic to become a top 10 player of all-time

 

[4-Rin]

This thread is awfully quiet because Jokic is exposing how much better he is than some of the basketball idols these posters worship. I'm not going to name names, but there a lot of big name stars whose legacies are about to be challenged by Jokic in the coming years and these posters aren't ready for that conversation yet. It's coming. Yall better get ready for Jokic to become a top 10 player of all-time

I'll be the first to admit I was wrong about Jokic. Everyone's been wondering who will replace Bron as the best in the league when he retires. Jokic is the only correct answer.

He's putting up 2K numbers. If he pulls off another run like this in the future theres no way he doesn't crack everyones top 10 all time list

 

[DetroitEWarren]

I need the words "objectively" and "literally" to be scrubbed from humanities collective consciousness. Besides there/their/they're, I can't think of more misused words on Google Erf

"They're over there on their porch"

I've never understood how people miss/don't comprehend/ignore the differences in words like this. That shyt always flowed naturally to me. Seems as if I was aware of it even before kindergarten.

 

[Primetime]

This postseason, Jokic has a 31.5 PER and 28.6 GmSc, higher than Steph's career highs on either count...

The numbers say '23 Jokic is a more dominant force than any Steph year and the eye test backs that up, too...

Yup. Jokic is great, and his dominance is on par with what we've seen with Shaq, Duncan, and Hakeem.

Can't even use the back-in-the-day-ass arguments to downplay AD, Gobert, and Bayo's defensive credentials as if Matt Geiger, Todd McCullough, Keith Van Horn, the undersized Davis brothers, old ass Rik Smiths on one leg, old ass flopping Divac, a geriatric Congolese Gobert, and Rasho the gawd Nestrovich were goliath's in Shaq's way to championships.

He's the real deal and is fun to watch. The only unfortunate thing is the spike-up of coli-supremacists excited that they finally have a guy (who doesn't claim them) to troll the black players with. Luka was supposed to be their guy but they ditched him for the Serbian.

 

[Pressure]

This year's playoffs worked out in there favor, but they're gonna have to do more than best a bunch of play-in teams for me to rank this as a top run.

 

[murksiderock]

This thread is awfully quiet because Jokic is exposing how much better he is than some of the basketball idols these posters worship. I'm not going to name names, but there a lot of big name stars whose legacies are about to be challenged by Jokic in the coming years and these posters aren't ready for that conversation yet. It's coming. Yall better get ready for Jokic to become a top 10 player of all-time

It certainly seems like Jokic is The Guy about to take over The League. It's stronger than it ever felt with Giannis because Jokic doesn't have this choke factor in the playoffs, that Giannis has...

If he's currently risen all the way to somewhere in the Top 25 to 35 range, sky is the limit for fam. We very much could be potentially looking at a GOAT10 candidate...

This year's playoffs worked out in there favor, but they're gonna have to do more than best a bunch of play-in teams for me to rank this as a top run.

I get this too, but I'll just say, the last two years that we saw the core of Murray, Porter, and Jokic all healthy, they were in the WCF at minimum. They've added Gordon to that core. This team is poised to contend for awhile, every single one of these guys can handle the ball, every single one of them can shoot, every single one of them can penetrate...

This Nuggets squad gonna be an annual contender for a good long run, this very well may be the next dynasty loading. Remember, we didn't think the Warriors would become a dynasty in '15, and they'd been in the playoffs several years, but that championship run in '15 wasn't expected...

These Nuggets gonna be around awhile...

 

[Pressure]

get this too, but I'll just say, the last two years that we saw the core of Murray, Porter, and Jokic all healthy, they were in the WCF at minimum. They've added Gordon to that core. This team is poised to contend for awhile, every single one of these guys can handle the ball, every single one of them can shoot, every single one of them can penetrate...

Team is reliant on guys staying healthy, in particular, Murray.

The difference between this year and the last 3 is health.

But they'll be in the thick of things for the next two years as their core is under contract.

 

[2legit]

Better run than anything Steph has produced.

 

[Joe Sixpack]

 

[Osmosis]

 

[Mr. Jack Napier]

See it's threads like this which is why I didn’t want Denver to win. All these posters/media coming out the woodwork propping up Joker by sh*tting on other superstars, and superstars who have accomplished more.