{"id":134960,"date":"2025-04-18T12:01:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T16:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=134960"},"modified":"2025-04-18T12:01:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T16:01:50","slug":"jokics-historical-season-means-nothing-without-playoff-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/18\/jokics-historical-season-means-nothing-without-playoff-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Jokic’s Historical Season Means Nothing Without Playoff Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid a year filled with turmoil for the Denver Nuggets, where they flirted with falling into the Play-In Tournament toward the end of the regular season and ultimately dismissed both long-time head coach Michael Malone and GM Calvin Booth, Nikola Joki\u0107<\/a> made history. He became the first center ever to average a triple-double while almost scoring 30 points per night (29.6). Not only that, but he dramatically improved one of the few offensive weak spots in his game which the Timberwolves took advantage of during last year’s playoffs<\/a>. That would be his three-point shooting, as he turned it into a major weapon, becoming one of the most lethal long-range threats in the league by shooting 41.7% from behind the line.<\/p>\n

Jokic’s Historical Season Means Nothing Without Playoff Success<\/h2>\n

Yet, NBA fans could forget all of that if the Nuggets stumble early in the playoffs. It\u2019s a shame that Joki\u0107, due to the team\u2019s late-season struggles, looks like he won\u2019t win his fourth MVP. But with lingering health concerns and the team\u2019s overall inconsistency, the MVP debate feels almost trivial. In the end, people will judge both Joki\u0107 and the Nuggets not by numbers, but by championships.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a cruel irony here. If Joki\u0107\u2019s historic season ends in a first or second-round exit, it may go down in history similarly to the other triple-double seasons we have seen in recent years, which, as things stand now, is quite unfavorable. Nobody knows that better than his current teammate, Russell Westbrook<\/a>. In the wake of Kevin Durant’s<\/a> departure, Westbrook carried the Thunder offensively in the 2016-17 season, leading them to a 47-35 record, making them the sixth seed in the Western Conference while averaging a triple-double. He became the first player to do so since Oscar Robertson<\/a>. It was a feat few imagined was even possible in the modern NBA, and it earned him the MVP.<\/p>\n

Yet, looking back, many question whether he truly deserved it, especially after witnessing the Thunder’s first-round exit and Westbrook’s inefficiency in the series against the Houston Rockets. Critics argue that these historical stats dazzled the voters, leading them to give the award to the Thunder star instead of the Houston Rockets’ James Harden,<\/a> or the San Antonio Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard<\/a> that year.<\/p>\n

The Thin Line Between Historical Season and Disappointment<\/h3>\n

Joki\u0107 has faced similar criticism in the past. Critics often labeled his playoff exits as underwhelming for an MVP, overlooking how shorthanded the Nuggets were. But history doesn\u2019t remember context, it remembers results. If this season ends in disappointment, fans might overlook Jokic\u2019s historical season, focusing instead on the fear that this version of the Nuggets could fall out of championship contention for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

However, if Denver manages a deep run\u2014or better yet, wins it all, everything changes.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, this becomes one of the greatest individual seasons in league history. The struggles and controversy of the regular season will be reframed as growing pains. The decision to part ways with Malone, shocking as it was, will look like a visionary move by ownership. Joki\u0107 will not only cement himself among the greatest big men ever, but he may begin carving out a spot on the Mount Rushmore of all-time<\/em> players, regardless of position. It\u2019s unfortunate that in this business, the narrative so often swings from one extreme to the other. But that\u2019s the standard by which the greats are judged. If Joki\u0107 wants to cement his place among them, he must show that this historically dominant season can translate into a championship.<\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amid a year filled with turmoil for the Denver Nuggets, where they flirted with falling into the Play-In Tournament toward the end of the regular season and ultimately dismissed both long-time head coach Michael Malone and GM Calvin Booth, Nikola Joki\u0107 made history. He became the first center ever to average a triple-double while almost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5490,"featured_media":135132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1608,62],"tags":[1230,72,53],"class_list":["post-134960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nuggets","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-michael-malone","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-russell-westbrook"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134960"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135133,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134960\/revisions\/135133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}