Nikola Jokic’s Game Takes a Dramatic Turn: Is the Nuggets’ Star Still the Same MVP or Facing a New Chapter in His NBA Career?

DENVER — In the high-altitude air of the Mile High City, the laws of physics have always behaved a little differently. Baseballs fly further. Breath comes shorter. But in the history of the National Basketball Association, the laws of aging and athletic progression have remained stubbornly consistent: players peak, they plateau, and eventually, gravity claims them.

By Year 10, the tread on the tires usually begins to show. The burst isn’t quite as explosive; the recovery takes a little longer. Even the all-time greats, the pantheon dwellers, usually spend their tenth season refining what they have rather than reinventing the ceiling of what is possible.

Nikola Jokić, however, has never had much use for convention, athletic or otherwise.

Currently navigating his tenth NBA season, the three-time MVP, Finals MVP, and champion has done the unthinkable. He has not just maintained the status quo of being the “best player in the world”—a title he has held with a reluctant, somber grip for years. He has shattered his own ceiling.

We are witnessing a statistical and aesthetic anomaly: a superstar who, a decade in, has returned better, sharper, and more dominant than the version that already conquered the league. The Denver Nuggets, currently holding the second-best record in the Western Conference, are riding the wave of a player who has turned the game of basketball into a personal algorithm that he solves with frightening efficiency every single night.

The Statistical Absurdity

To understand the leap Jokić has taken, one must first appreciate the baseline. For the first nine years of his career, he averaged a formidable 22 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists. If you isolate his prime—the era beginning with his first MVP in 2020—those numbers jump to 26 points, 12 rebounds, and nine assists on 58 percent shooting.

That version of Jokić was a Hall of Famer. That version won three MVPs and a ring. That version was inevitable.

The 2024-25 version of Jokić is something else entirely.

Through the first quarter of the season, the Serbian center is averaging 29 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists per game. He ranks seventh in the league in scoring, but first in rebounding and first in assists. He is currently on pace to become the third player in NBA history to average a triple-double, but doing so with a scoring volume that dwarfs his predecessors.

But in the modern NBA, volume is often a product of usage. Efficiency is the true marker of mastery. And this is where Jokić separates himself from the mere mortals of the sport.

He is shooting 69 percent from inside the arc, a figure that ranks eighth in the NBA. However, context is king. The seven players ahead of him are low-usage rim-runners—lob threats and dunkers whose shot charts are exclusively restricted to the painted area. Jokić has made more field goals than many of those players have even attempted. To carry a superstar’s scoring load with the efficiency of a role player who only dunks is a mathematical paradox.

Digging deeper into the shot chart reveals a level of touch that borders on the supernatural. He is finishing 79 percent of his shots at the rim. From the floater range—that tricky 4-to-14-foot dead zone where offenses usually go to die—he is shooting 66 percent. And from the mid-range out to the three-point line, he is connecting on 81 percent of his attempts.

According to tracking data, he has missed exactly three jump shots from that 14-foot-to-arc range all season. Three. In a league obsessed with analytics that deem the mid-range jumper inefficient, Jokić has turned the “bad shot” into a layup.

The Myth-Building Moments

Statistics can often feel cold, detached from the visceral experience of watching basketball. But this season, the eye test has confirmed the spreadsheet. Jokić has produced a string of performances that feel less like athletic competitions and more like exhibitions of mastery.

Take the recent dismantling of the Golden State Warriors. In a game that felt like a changing of the guard, Jokić poured in 26 points on 80 percent shooting. He didn’t force the issue; he simply took what the defense conceded and converted it with robotic precision.

Then there was the trip to Sacramento, a 35-point masterpiece where he shot 85 percent from the field, silencing the Kings’ beam before it could even flicker. Against the Minnesota Timberwolves—a team built specifically with the size of Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns (prior to his departure) to stop him—Jokić scored 25 points and missed exactly one shot the entire evening.

But the magnum opus of this early season came against the Los Angeles Clippers. In a 55-point outburst that will likely lead his career highlight reel, Jokić made 18 field goals. A breakdown of the footage revealed a staggering detail: only six of those shots even touched the rim. The other 12 were “swishes”—pure, clean rips of the net.

He did this while being guarded by Ivica Zubac, a capable center who earned Second Team All-Defense honors just last season. It didn’t matter. Jokić treated the defensive pressure as a suggestion rather than a hindrance.

Beyond the arc, the story remains the same. He is shooting 40 percent from three-point range and 86 percent from the free-throw line—both career highs. He has become a three-level scorer without a single weakness, a puzzle with no solution.

The One-Man Ecosystem

While the scoring leap is the headline, the playmaking remains the heartbeat of the Nuggets. Jokić has always been the best passing big man in history, but this season, he is making a case for being the best passer, period.

The most telling statistic of the young season is this: Nikola Jokić is assisting on 49 percent of his team’s made shots while he is on the floor. That ranks first in the NBA.

To put that dominance into perspective, the players trailing him—LaMelo Ball and Josh Giddy—are ball-dominant point guards who control the rock from the inbound to the half-court. Jokić is doing this from the high post, the low block, and the top of the key. He is six percentage points ahead of second place. In terms of total assists, he has 35 more than the next closest player.

The next 12 names on the assist leaderboard are point guards. Then there is Jokić, a 7-foot center who sees angles before they exist.

When you combine his scoring and his assist generation, a terrifying reality emerges for opposing coaches: roughly half of the points the Denver Nuggets score in a game are either scored by Jokić or directly created by him. He is not just the engine of the offense; he is the ecosystem. He is the sun, the soil, and the rain.

Remarkably, he is achieving this omnipotence with the 17th-ranked usage rate in the league—the fifth highest of his career, but far below the heliocentric dominance of players like Luka Dončić or Joel Embiid. He dominates the game without dominating the ball, a distinction that keeps the Denver offense fluid and unpredictable.

The Supporting Cast: The Perfect Storm

So, how does a player entering his athletic twilight—at least theoretically—produce the best basketball of his life? How does the slow-footed Serbian with the vertical leap of a phone book become even more unstoppable?

The answer lies in the roster. For the first time in his career, the Denver Nuggets have constructed the perfect machine around their operator.

For years, the narrative surrounding Jokić was one of solitary brilliance. He has famously never played with an All-Star teammate. No teammate of his has ever received a single All-NBA vote during their tenure together. It has been Jokić and the island of misfit toys, dragging lineups to relevance through sheer force of will.

That narrative dies this season.

The Nuggets’ front office, aggressive and calculated in the offseason, has surrounded Jokić with the best supporting cast in franchise history.

It starts with the internal growth. Aaron Gordon is in the midst of a career year. The former Arizona Wildcat, who spent years in Orlando trying to be a primary scorer, has fully actualized his role as the league’s premier “dunker spot” threat and defensive Swiss Army knife. Before a recent injury setback, Gordon was playing at an All-Star level, posting the best shooting and scoring numbers of his life. His chemistry with Jokić has evolved from telepathic to symbiotic.

Then there is Jamal Murray. After an up-and-down recovery from his ACL tear years ago, the “Blue Arrow” has returned to the form that made him a playoff legend in 2023. He looks quick, explosive, and crucially, in elite cardiovascular shape. He is no longer just a scorer; he is a reliable secondary playmaker who punishes defenses that tilt too far toward the MVP.

Christian Braun, the young wing whose defense was vital in the 2023 title run, has stepped into a larger role. While his offensive numbers have fluctuated due to minutes and nagging injuries, his perimeter defense remains the glue that holds the starting unit together.

The New Blood

However, the true catalyst for Jokić’s Year 10 ascension is the injection of new talent. The Nuggets’ offseason acquisitions have been nothing short of transformative.

The addition of Tim Hardaway Jr. has provided exactly what the second unit lacked: irrational confidence and spacing. Hardaway Jr. is a heat-check scorer who thrives in the chaos Jokić creates. He slashes, he shoots, and he keeps the floor spaced wide.

Perhaps the most emotional and impactful move was the return of Bruce Brown. A key piece of the 2023 championship team who left for a payday, Brown is back, and his reintegration has been seamless. He provides the secondary ball-handling and gritty defense that defines Denver’s identity.

The blockbuster trade for Cam Johnson brought a legitimate sharpshooter with size to the wing. After a slow start acclimating to the altitude and the system, Johnson has found his rhythm, punishing teams for leaving him to double the post.

And finally, there is Jonas Valančiūnas. For the first time in the Jokić era, Denver has a backup center who is not a liability. Valančiūnas is a brute force, a walking double-double who can anchor the offense for the 12 to 14 minutes Jokić rests.

The Value of Rest

This depth has unlocked the final piece of the puzzle: rest.

In previous years, Denver’s net rating would plummet off a cliff the moment Jokić went to the bench. It forced him to play extended minutes, to carry a mental and physical load that wore him down by May.

This season, the “Core Four” of Denver are all averaging fewer minutes than in years past. But it isn’t just the quantity of rest; it is the quality. Jokić can sit on the bench without the gnawing anxiety that the lead is evaporating. He watches Valančiūnas bully opposing backups, he watches Hardaway Jr. hit threes, and he relaxes.

He returns to the court fresh. A fresh Jokić is a dangerous Jokić.

The Chase for the Crown

The context of this season cannot be ignored. The Oklahoma City Thunder are the defending NBA champions. They are young, hungry, and loaded with talent. They are the team to beat.

This reality has seemingly lit a fire under the Nuggets. There is no complacency in Denver. They are not the hunted anymore; they are the hunters.

Jokić still walks slowly. He still barely jumps on the opening tip. He still looks, at times, like he just wandered in from a Sunday barbecue rather than an elite training facility. But make no mistake: this is a different animal.

This is a version of Nikola Jokić that is fully armed. He has the shooters. He has the backup big. He has the co-star in Murray. And he has the experience of a decade in the league.

In Year 10, when most legends begin to look at the sunset, Nikola Jokić is staring directly at the sun. The stats are historic, the efficiency is baffling, and the team is elite.

We asked how a three-time MVP could make a giant leap. We asked how the best player in the world could get better.

We still don’t know how. We are just lucky enough to watch that he did.