For many, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is the best player in the NBA, whether he's a favorite to win MVP this season or not. However, a recent viral post called into question a key stat.
Jokic gets fake assists because everyone gets fake assists. They're a poorly designed and subjective stat. If you want to swipe at Jokic passing really isn't the area to do it. https://t.co/BKJ7kynRzI
— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) March 29, 2026
Many questioned the validity of Jokic's recent 19-assist game, suggesting that many of them were not actual assists. In reality, he may have only had 14 or 15 assists, which is still impressive, especially for a center.
The assist counting this season has been bad, but you are going through several games throughout the course of a season to find these examples. Recently for Jokić it’s been so bad that you can just look at the last 5 games and it’s blatantly obvious.
— LegendOfWinning (@LegendOfWinning) March 29, 2026
However, it's long been known that the NBA has an assist problem. The problem is that assists are loosely defined and can be inflated easily.
The NBA has an assist problem and it's not going away
Jokic isn't alone in having so-called fake stats. Many have questioned the legitimacy of Hall of Fame point guard John Stockton's assist numbers.
He is arguably the best passer in NBA history and missed a shockingly low number of games in his 19-season career. Thus, it makes sense that he'd rack up a ridiculous number of assists. That makes perfect sense.
Nevertheless, there has been scrutiny surrounding the dramatic difference in his assist totals in home games compared to away games. Perhaps as a result, he holds the title of the NBA's all-time assist leader, a record that may remain unbroken.
Part of the NBA's assist problem is that stat keepers are hired by individual teams, not the league. That means during home games, those stat keepers have a say in how numbers are recorded. Am I the only one that sees a problem with that?
The NBA doesn't seem willing to solve the assists problem
They can inflate assist totals if they so choose. That can be done by awarding an assist simply for one player passing to another even though they have nothing to do with their teammate actually scoring.
If player A passes player B the ball and player B pump fakes, takes four or five dribbles, and hits a tough shot off the glass, is that an assist? If you chose no, you would be correct.
However, such plays often are credited as an assist even though the passer actually didn't create a shot for his teammate. As a result, I would argue assists are the most inflated stat in sports, yet the NBA seems unwilling to correct it. What are they doing?
The simple solution would be for the league to hire local stat keepers. That way they would have no direct ties to individual teams. If that were to happen, we'd see a decrease in inflated assist totals. That's what the NBA should want.
Therefore, the NBA must intervene to prevent further embarrassment, but whether that actually happens is still uncertain.