‘He is like Steph Curry’: How the Nuggets remodeled Nikola Jokic right into a legend

When Nikola Jokic arrived in Denver, the group had considerations about him.

He was once obese. His athleticism was once restricted. His paintings ethic was once in query. 

Nuggets assistant trainer Ognjen Stojakovic was hoping Jokic may turn into into a mixture of Dirk Nowitzki and Marc Gasol. However after running with the 19-year-old for a couple of years, he learned Jokic may transform a lot more.

“He is like Steph Curry, some of the guys who modified basketball,” Stojakovic informed FOX Sports activities. ” … Now you might have a large who’s if truth be told an all-around participant. That is the dream of each and every trainer, to have a man who’s a seven-footer, who performs from one to 5 offensively.”

Jokic’s dominance and exceptional versatility have made groups start to reimagine the function of giant males. It is very similar to how Curry made groups re-prioritize the 3-point shot, ushering in an generation of small ball.

Isaiah Thomas tweeted in Would possibly that if Denver wins the Finals, “The sport will trade.” Draymond Inexperienced stated on his podcast in June, “I don’t believe there is a harder participant to protect in a zone within the NBA than Steph and Joker.”

For the Nuggets, Jokic’s transformation has been not anything wanting implausible. 

Ahead of he was a two-time Maximum Treasured Participant who’s now one win clear of his first NBA championship, he had uncooked ability however was once undisciplined. Some inside the Nuggets group even puzzled whether or not he’d have endurance within the league. 

This a lot is evidently: Nobody noticed him changing into a once-in-a-generation participant who would modify the way in which his place was once seen. 

HIS BODY TRANSFORMATION

After the Nuggets decided on Jokic with the forty first general select within the 2014 draft, they did not know what to anticipate from the child from Sombor, Serbia, who weighed 300 kilos and did not glance NBA in a position. 

“He got here again slightly heavier than what we’d’ve appreciated,” Nuggets power and conditioning trainer Felipe Eichenberger informed FOX Sports activities. “The GM [Tim Connelly] was once speaking like, ‘What is going on? We have were given to modify this.'”

Eichenberger, who was once an assistant on the time, started running with Jokic.   

“I informed Nikola, ‘If you are lighter, you will have extra staying power,'” Eichenberger stated. “‘Your knee is not going to harm anymore. Now not like an damage, however your knee is sore, your ankle is sore, your again is sore.’ I might say, ‘Simply persist with me for slightly bit. Let’s move with it. After which we’re going to see how you are feeling.'”

A tender Nikola Jokic, pictured right here in January 2016, had to go through a frame transformation to transform the two-time MVP he’s these days.

All over offseasons, Eichenberger would shuttle to Sombor to coach Jokic. He says to know him, you must perceive the place he is from. They would follow on rims that Eichenberger suspected were not law top, and on courts that have been a ways from ultimate.

“There is tales the place we have been working towards, and we would have to forestall as it was once too scorching,” Eichenberger stated. “Or there is poop at the flooring that we needed to blank. Now, this is a lot other. However again then, the primary 12 months and the second one 12 months, was once simply about the place he is from, really.”

Via that, they constructed a friendship. 

Jokic began entrusting Eichenberger to turn into his frame. He stored continuously bettering his first few years within the league. However in 2019, a fireplace ignited in him that modified the whole lot. 

After Jokic reached the postseason for the primary time in his occupation, the Nuggets fell to the Portland Path Blazers in Recreation 7 in their second-round sequence. Jokic, who averaged 25.1 issues, 13 rebounds and eight.4 assists that postseason, blamed himself for his workforce’s loss after lacking seven of 10 photographs within the fourth quarter as a result of fatigue. 

He determined to way issues with a brand new depth. In 2020, footage surfaced of him taking a look 20-30 kilos lighter. 

“We created a regimen,” Eichenberger stated. “His regimen has been the similar for three-plus years. He does each and every unmarried factor the best method. He will devour his eggs first, after which he will devour his oatmeal subsequent. After which he will move get remedy, then he will move to the weight room, after which he will move shoot within the morning — then he will move follow.”

Now not simplest was once Jokic adhering to a strict exercise routine prior to and after practices and video games, however he utterly modified his consuming behavior. 

“We had him consuming each and every 3 hours each day, small quantities, six foods each day,” Eichenberger stated. 

Along with his new frame, Jokic’s sport reached a brand new degree 

In 2020, Jokic led the Nuggets to the Western Convention finals, the place they misplaced to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers. The following two years, Jokic gained again to again MVPs. 

Now, he is at the verge of perhaps main the Nuggets to their first identify in franchise historical past. This postseason, Jokic has had 10 triple-doubles, whilst the remainder of the NBA mixed has 3. He is averaging 30.1 issues, 13.3 rebounds and 9.8 assists. 

“You more or less take that as a right,” DeAndre Jordan informed FOX Sports activities. “However that is not commonplace.”

All over the Western Convention finals, Lakers trainer Darvin Ham known as Jokic “one of the vital highly-conditioned gamers of his caliber.” Nuggets trainer Michael Malone added, “His paintings ethic is off the charts.”

Nuggets trainer Mike Malone (R), who arrived in Denver in 2015-16 — Jokic’s rookie 12 months — stated that his middle’s paintings ethic is “off the charts.”

What is humorous is Jokic nonetheless does not have a chiseled frame. And in keeping with Eichenberger, he most probably by no means will. 

“I might love for him to be ripped, appearing the entire muscle tissue,” Eichenberger stated. “However that is not his frame. It is genetics, proper? You notice his circle of relatives and they are extensive. And he is extensive.”

Jokic would possibly glance extra like a bouncer than an NBA celebrity, however he makes the chiseled guys guarding him seem helpless and outmatched. 

And what is loopy is Eichenberger believes Jokic is simplest going to recuperate. 

“Basketball gamers do not height till 29 to 31,” he stated. “And he is 27.”

THE TRANSFORMATION OF HIS SKILLS

Stojakovic knew of Jokic’s ability after observing him play within the Adriatic League as a young person. However he additionally knew of his shortcomings. 

Jokic post monster numbers in Serbia. However the NBA was once a special beast. With a view to shine there, he had to transform extraordinarily disciplined, an idea which he struggled with in the beginning. 

“We at all times chuckle about that as a result of for the primary 3 years we have been bumping heads as a result of he did not perceive why he had to paintings exhausting,” Stojakovic stated.  

Jokic was once a 19-year-old who was once with the exception of his folks. He did not discuss the language. He was once an international clear of his native land.  It took time for him to regulate, each off and on the court docket. 

However he at all times had implausible doable. 

“Nikola is only a other participant,” Malone stated. “From Day 1, what stood out to me was once the talent degree; the ball dealing with, the ball passing, the cushy contact.”

In the end, Jokic totally purchased in. He determined he sought after to be the most efficient participant he may transform. He began pouring himself into his craft. When requested what triggered that vary, Stojakovic attributes it to Jokic “maturing, rising up.”

The object is, Jokic has at all times had a surprisingly prime basketball IQ. It is what helped him make amends for now not being the speediest or having essentially the most spectacular vertical. So when his on-court intelligence and his paintings ethic coalesced, his sport skyrocketed.

“He is not very speedy, however he is very speedy as a result of he anticipates scenarios,” Stojakovic stated. “That makes him speedy.”

Jokic was a sponge, temporarily absorbing the whole lot that his coaches offered to him. 

He grew his mid-range and perimeter sport. He tweaked his shot, making his release-point upper, so it would not subject how prime he jumped. He perfected his footwork. He studied angles. Issues his coaches did not suppose he’d be excellent at, he mastered. He stored rising his sport, including nuance after nuance. 

It wasn’t lengthy prior to he evolved one of the vital entire offensive video games, perhaps of any participant within the sport’s historical past. 

Now, Jokic can end across the basket with a myriad of photographs with both hand. He can ranking from all 3 ranges of the ground. He reads defenses, inspecting in a fragment of a moment how somebody’s guarding him. He can pressure previous them. He is an excellent passer. No matter a defender does, Jokic has an infinite arsenal of strikes to counter with, reputedly at all times one step forward within the chess fit.   

Simply ask four-time champion LeBron James, who actually tipped his hat to Jokic after the Nuggets swept the Lakers within the convention finals.  

“When you’ve got a man like Joker, who [is] as giant as he’s, but in addition as cerebral as he’s, you’ll be able to’t in reality make numerous errors as opposed to a participant like that,” James stated. “Even while you guard him for some of the perfect possessions that you just suppose you’ll be able to guard him, he places the ball at the back of his head Larry Fowl-style and shoots it 50 ft within the air — and it is going in.”

The Nuggets swept the Lakers within the Western Convention finals in Would possibly. All over and after the sequence, LeBron James lauded Jokic’s IQ, calling him “cerebral.”

As for Stojakovic, when requested who he’d evaluate Jokic’s sport to now, he stated he is considered one of a type.

Stojakovic analogized him to an excellent composer, who, after finding out the entire largest works of track, has invented a fully distinctive genre.   

“You be told the notes, you be told the scales, you select up a few songs, and then you definitely begin to create your individual track,” he stated. “That is what he does now. He is the man who creates his personal track.”

STILL AS HUMBLE AS EVER

Jokic has metamorphosed from a wild card right into a trailblazer, evolving leaps and limits each mentally and bodily. 

However he has additionally very a lot remained the similar. 

“He is an ordinary individual,” Stojakovic stated. “After I say commonplace, he does not act like a celebrity. He acts like the similar individual he was once prior to got here to the NBA.”

After completing with the primary 30-point, 20-rebound and 10-assist sport in Finals historical past in Recreation 3 in opposition to the Warmth, Jokic was once requested for his ideas on that implausible feat.  

“I do not care,” he stated. “It is only a stat.”

It isn’t an act. 

We have all heard Jokic discuss how little successful MVPs method to him. He speaks the similar method behind-the-scenes, even amongst his closest confidantes. 

“His favourite quote is ‘Brother, I do not care,'” Eichenberger stated. “I used to be like, ‘Guy, you are the MVP.’ He was once like, ‘Bro, that is nice. However I do not care.’ … I believe his imaginative and prescient in his thoughts is: I simply need to play. I simply need to be unfastened. I simply need to do what I revel in, which is basketball and horses.”

What Jokic does care about is successful a identify. It is why he went from now not running exhausting sufficient to devoting himself to the sport with such depth that he is serving to turn into it. 

If Jokic wins a championship, he will be on the middle of the basketball international. 

Groups will scramble to take a look at to emulate the Nuggets’ formulation for good fortune, glorifying the idea that of a middle who’s positionless on offense, in a position to do all of it. 

And stale the court docket, kids will glance as much as a man who loves passing, who’s selfless and who could not care much less about superstardom. 

“That is nice for basketball,” Stojakovic stated. “I suppose commonplace is distinctive feature.”

It’s been an out of this world adventure for Jokic. 

And we are fairly perhaps simply in the beginning of witnessing its ramifications. 

Melissa Rohlin is an NBA author for FOX Sports activities. She prior to now lined the league for Sports activities Illustrated, the Los Angeles Occasions, the Bay Space Information Workforce and the San Antonio Categorical-Information. Observe her on Twitter @melissarohlin.

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