Beckett Basketball March 2019

(Ben W) #1

His exploits earned him a spot on


the World Team for the Rising Stars


Challenge and from then on out there


was no looking back. He inished his


rookie season in the top 10 among


rookies for rebounding, scoring,


ield goal percentage and steals. Such


production earned him a spot on the


All-Rookie irst-team. It was just a taste


of things to come.


Season two saw development across


the board. His scoring skyrocketed


from 6.7 points to 16.7 points per game


and his efective ield goal percent-


age shot up a staggering 7% to 60.5%.


hat’s not even taking into account


his assist numbers which more than


doubled (2.4 to 4.9 per game). he then


21-year-old had begun to establish himself as one of the premier


ofensive big men in the league.


here were issues throughout the 2016-17 within the coach-


ing staf on how to integrate Jokic alongside Bosnian big man


Jusuf Nurkic. Nurkic was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers


which solved that dilemma and signalled a clear direction of


who was the foundational big man for


the franchise.


In another massive improvement


Jokic had 23 more double doubles than


in his rookie season and lodged the irst


six triple doubles of his career. hose


triple doubles ranked him fourth in the


league behind only Russell Westbrook,


James Harden and LeBron James. he


sophomore was the epitome of the


‘Unicorn’ phenomenon sweeping the


league’s big men.


While he had shown major strides in


his ofensive game, the defense was still


a work in progress. His lack of athletic


prowess was an obvious problem, but he


still was able to make an efect on that


end of the loor in other ways. His size


and strength were integral to making him an efective defender.


Per NBA.com, when being defended by Jokic in the post he


forced opponents to shoot just 40.7% from the area.


he addition of Paul Millsap before the 2017-18 season would


be both a blessing and a curse. here were some adjustments that


Jokic was forced to make to accommodate his new teammate.


10 BECK E T T.COM


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