Nikola Jokic didn’t exactly leave much room for offseason doubt.
The Denver Nuggets had been hearing the familiar questions all summer: can Jokic keep producing at a historic level, and can he carry this roster through another heavy season and deep playoff push? Then the Nuggets put out a practice clip that answered with a grin.
Jamal Murray fed him in the low post, Jokic went to work with his back to the basket, and what came next looked effortless even by his standards. He floated to his right, released the ball backward with a blind touch, and watched it kiss the glass and drop through the net.
That kind of shot is ridiculous. With Jokic, it barely feels surprising anymore.
He has a way of making the impossible look routine, which is why every fresh clip sparks the same reaction: first disbelief, then resignation. Of course he made it. It’s Jokic.
And then he carried that same energy into the Nuggets’ first preseason game against the Utah Jazz.
In the first quarter Sunday at the CU Events Center, Jokic was being forced toward the corner when he whipped a behind-the-back pass down the baseline like a skeet launcher. The ball flashed past three Jazz defenders and landed in the opposite corner with Cam Johnson, who buried the go-ahead three.
It was the kind of assist that stops you cold. Jokic not only saw it, he pulled it off cleanly, and Johnson was ready for it. That combination is what makes the play feel unreal.
Jokic finished with seven assists in just 14 minutes, including another one of his signature cross-court darts to Christian Braun, who finished by dunking on Svi Mykhailiuk.
Watching him do this stuff still invites the same bigger-picture question: how does he keep pulling it off? The simplest answer is still the right one. It’s Nikola Jokic.
He remains the best passer in the world, and the preseason already has one of those Jokic passes that people will keep replaying. For a game that usually struggles to draw much attention, that alone made it worth watching.
In Other News...
Christian Braun Is Suddenly Carrying Bigger Nuggets Expectations
Christian Braun came into Nuggets training camp with a straightforward goal: get back to the version of himself that could bend the floor with his burst and make life easier for everyone around him. After dealing with an ankle issue last season, Braun spent the offseason working to regain that explosiveness while also tightening up his ball-handling, and the early signs in camp and preseason have been encouraging for Denver.
The timing matters because Braun is now entering the first season of his five-year contract, which naturally raises the bar for what the Nuggets expect from him. If he stays healthy, he is no longer just another energetic rotation piece on a contender. He is the kind of young wing Denver needs to keep growing into a bigger role, and the next step is less about effort than whether his game can keep expanding with the opportunity in front of him. [Read more 🡒]
Cam Johnson Is Already Making The Nuggets Feel Better About That Bet
Cam Johnson has wasted little time easing any early nerves about the Nuggets decision to keep him in Denver at a $23 million price tag. After weighing options around the roster and salary sheet, the club held firm on Johnson and has already gotten the kind of preseason showing it was hoping for, with the forward looking more confident and comfortable as a steady part of the rotation.
The Nuggets clearly viewed Johnson as a player worth betting on for consistent production, even with the market around him drawing interest. Rather than treat him like a movable piece, Denver chose to make the financial fit work and leave open the possibility that the real payoff comes once the games count for more than tune-up minutes. [Read more 🡒]
Nuggets May Finally Have An Answer For Their Non-Jokic Minutes
Denvers second preseason game against Utah offered a welcome glimpse of depth, and it came from a group the Nuggets badly need to stabilize. The second unit looked far more organized under David Adelman, with Marvin Bagley III, Alpha Diallo and Julian Strawther all making a visible impact as the bench gave the team real minutes of production beyond the starters.
Bagley was especially active, scoring 10 points and posting a team-best plus-minus, while Diallo added 8 points with a pair of threes. Strawther also stood out with 15 points and three made triples, and the encouraging part for Denver is how cleanly that work fit into a bench rotation that has been searching for a better answer when Nikola Jokic sits. [Read more 🡒]