Nikola Jokic made 1 huge change to his game this season and nobody noticed
Yesterday at 08:07 AM
With all the records Nikola Jokic breaks each season, it’s easy to understand why so many people take his talents for granted. In 36 games played this season, he’s averaging career highs in points, assists, steals, minutes, free throw attempts, 3-point attempts, and 3-point percentage.
Given how the Denver Nuggets have played this season, the spike in some of his stats shouldn’t be surprising. After all, Jokic is also a three-time NBA MVP about to enter his prime. However, the jump in his 3-point attempts and 3-point percentage is a bit peculiar.
Nikola Jokic has never attempted more than four threes a game on average
Compared to the 2023-2024 season, Jokic only averaged 2.9 3-point attempts a game. This season? He’s shooting nearly twice as much at 4.6. For context, the most threes Jokic ever attempted in a season was 280 when he played 75 games in the 2017-18 season. It’s only halfway into the season and he’s already attempted 153, which means he’s on track to attempt around 300.
Some argue that Jokic is simply adapting his game to suit today’s NBA. Meanwhile, others think he’s choosing to preserve his energy instead of trying to post up for 40 minutes. A solid argument considering the Nuggets’ offensive rating does drop from 120.1 to 110.6 whenever he’s off the court; an offensive rating that is good for 5th worst in the NBA.
This can be the first time Jokic can lead the league in 3PT%.
Of all the players this season to attempt at least 100 threes, Jokic has the highest percentage of all of them (at the time of writing), at 47.1%. A surprising percentage considering he’s also attempting the most threes in a season for his career. Nonetheless, that percentage is higher than that of Steph Curry, James Harden, Damian Lillard, and Klay Thompson this season, who are four of the top five leaders in 3-pointers made in NBA history.
If he can sustain that percentage for the rest of the season, and it’s looking more than likely he will, it would also be the first time he’d ever finish a season shooting above 40% from behind the arc.
So, just when you thought The Joker couldn’t get any better, he pulls another trick up his sleeve.
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