NBA: Nuggets All-In For Nikola Jokic As Playmaker This Season

The Denver Nuggets are working on supporting Nikola Jokic's playmaking skills this season.

With the way the game is played these days, a center often no longer plays with his back to the basket, and a point guard no longer has to bring the ball up. Jokic, who parks himself behind the three-point line as often as he’s in the paint and surveys the halfcourt the way someone half his size usually does is a perfect example.

Jokic has proven that he is not a typical big man. In fact, Nuggets GM Artūras Karnišovas is thrilled to have a hybrid player like Jokic in their team.

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Karnišovas detailed why the Nuggets believe that Jokic is on his way to NBA stardom. According to Karnišovas, Jokic is a point guard by heart but because of his size, all his former teams “ moved him to center position.”

“He was this chubby point guard, and he got pretty tall. So they moved him to the center position,” Karnišovas said about Jokic.

Karnišovas then continued by describing what makes Jokic’s game stands out among the rest. Based on his assessment, the only way to maximize the Serbian big man inside the court is to let him do his thing with the basketball.

“If you allow him to create, he wows you every time. You really cannot put him in a frame. You have to let him create. That’s the only way to unleash Nikola,” Karnišovas pointed out.

Last year, Jokic was apparently unleashed already. With his significant contribution, the Nuggets were the No. 2 seed in the West before they suffered a disappointing Game 7 loss against the Portland Trail Blazers during the conference semifinals.

Nuggets president Tim Connelly revealed that the team went into the summer looking for cutters and shooters to supplement Jokic’s playmaking skills. According to Connelly, Denver has been working out with role players who could move without the ball, take layups and launch 3-pointers once Jokic found them.

“You try to get guys who both help him and protect him,” Connelly said about Denver’s plan for Jokic this season.

As for Jokic, putting him in the point guard position would “good for Denver.” Not only because the team would be able to make use of his true abilities but because he believes that the approach is “something different.”

“I think it’s good for the team because it’s something different,” Jokic said.