Denver Nuggets: 2017-18 player grades for Nikola Jokic

Weaknesses

Nikola Jokic’s contributions are both a gift and a curse for the Denver Nuggets. While he does handle the ball a lot, outside of Murray, the Nuggets don’t have another ball-handler to make plays.

The only player outside of Murray that got the ball to Jokic with any type of frequency was Will Barton, who isn’t even a starter. Down the stretch, it came back to haunt the Nuggets as they ultimately ran out of gas in overtime against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Another thing to keep an eye on is energy levels of this team on the road. At home, Denver went 31-10. On the road, it was 15-26. In road games, Jokic’s scoring dipped slightly to 18.0 points per game, but other than that (and his defensive flaws), it’s hard to find too many weaknesses in his game.

In overall losses, Jokic did average just 17.8 points per game in 2017-18 while shooting 47.5 percent. He shot 51.6 percent in victories this past season. As mentioned earlier, he also averages just 4.8 assists per game in losses. These are areas to keep an eye on when discussing extra focus in key moments.