As one of the most successful business leagues in the world of sports, the NBA's commercialization path has been extremely outstanding in the past 10 years. The market value of each team has soared. Top players and top teams have played a vital role during this period. , but this does not mean that small-market teams cannot compete for championships. Under the NBA's draft system, small-market teams can compete with wealthy and wealthy teams with their excellent draft vision and mature operating system.
In recent seasons, the Nuggets are undoubtedly the representative of small-market teams against giants. As one of the founding teams of the NBA, the Nuggets do not have the glorious team history of traditional giants such as the Lakers and Celtics.
does not have the advantage of the Internet and investment like the Warriors, nor does it have a wealthy owner like Ballmer of the Clippers. It only has the ice-covered Devil's Plateau home court and a barren fan market.
As a result, the Nuggets will hardly become the first choice for superstar players, and even their signings in the free and buyout markets have suffered setbacks. After all, most players are unwilling to go to a small market team that lacks exposure.
Even after winning the first championship in team history with a crushing force last season, the Nuggets were not able to gain any advantage in signings. Instead, the two core players, Jeff Green and Bruce Brown, were poached in rotation.
Faced with such an unfavorable situation, the Nuggets can only do the next best thing and keep low-priced players such as Reggie and DeAndre Jordan, and at the same time, try their best to mine and treasure through the draft, resulting in a gap between the Nuggets' starters and substitutes this season. There is a huge difference in strength.
Whenever entering the transition period, the Nuggets' bench will inevitably lose points, and the starting lineup fills holes in almost every game.
Fortunately, the Nuggets' starting lineup was good enough. Even with obvious flaws in the rotation, the team still managed to achieve a record of 45 wins and 20 losses. After Towns was injured, the Nuggets quickly overtook the Timberwolves and rose to second place in the Western Conference. , only 0.5 wins away from the first place Thunder.
Whether it was crushing the championship last season or maintaining competitiveness in the face of various disadvantages this season, the stable performance of core Jokic is the key to the Nuggets being able to overcome all difficulties.
Jokic has continued his absolute dominance this season, averaging 26.2 points, 12.3 rebounds, 9.2 assists, 1.27 steals and 0.8 blocks per game, with a shooting percentage of 58.2%.
More importantly, he played almost full attendance, playing in 63 of the first 65 games and only missing 2 games by rest.
His stability, efficiency and versatility ensure that the Nuggets have ultra-high upper and lower limits. In the latest game against the Raptors, Jokic proved this with actions.
When the team was once behind by 22 points, Jokic just relied on his unsolvable performance to lead the team to complete the reversal.
Jokic made 14 of 26 shots and 1 of 3 three-pointers. He easily scored 35 points, 17 rebounds, 12 assists, 6 steals and 2 blocks, a luxurious triple-double.
With this performance, Jokic became the first player in NBA history to score at least 35 points, 5 steals and a triple-double in a single game.
's 22-point reversal in this game is also the fourth time in the history of the Nuggets that they have completed a reversal of more than 22 points since the 1996-97 season.
This kind of performance is also the epitome of Jokic's overall impressive performance this season. This game is Jokic's 21st triple-double, only one triple-double away from the first place.
ranks fourth in history with 126 triple-doubles in his career. He is 13 games away from the third-placed Magic and 72 games away from the first-placed Westbrook (198).
Considering that Westbrook has been completely reduced to a substitute this season, as long as Jokic stays healthy, it is almost only a matter of time before he surpasses Westbrook and becomes the historical triple-double king.
Based on a conservative calculation of 25 triple-doubles per season (regular season + playoffs), it will only take about 3 seasons for Jokic to surpass Westbrook and become the historical triple-double king.
