Nikola Jokic Was Already the Best Basketball Player Alive. Somehow, He’s Even Better Now.

The Denver Nuggets star is leading the NBA in rebounds and assists per game—and he’s not far off the pace in scoring. Is the three-time MVP somehow making another leap? And is it a bad sign that the Nuggets need him to?

Nikola Jokic is already one of the most accomplished players in NBA history. He’s a three-time MVP—one of just nine players to win so many. He’s the single-season record holder in player efficiency rating and the career record holder in PER and box plus-minus. He is, in the greatest honor of all, the unanimous no. 1 player in The Ringer’s Top 100 ranking for the second year in a row.

So it’s really saying something that Jokic’s start to the 2024-25 season represents the best stretch of his regular-season career. Don’t just take my word for it; the numbers say so.

According to game score—an all-in-one metric designed to capture a player’s overall production—Jokic is somehow one-upping himself.

The following chart shows the best non-overlapping 10-game stretches of Jokic’s career; his start to this season ranks second, behind only a 10-game span—from Game 4 of the first round through Game 2 of the conference finals—during his run to a championship in the 2022-23 postseason.

Best 10-Game Stretches of Nikola Jokic’s Career

Start Date End Date Game Score PTS / REB / AST

4/23/23 5/18/23 32.3 33.5 / 14.5 / 10.6

10/24/24 11/10/24 31.7 29.7 / 13.7 / 11.7

3/22/22 4/16/22 31.6 33.3 / 14.4 / 7.0

12/8/22 12/28/22 31.1 31.5 / 12.6 / 10.5

1/19/22 2/6/22

Jokic has six triple-doubles in 10 contests, the past five all wins for a Nuggets team that scuffled out of the gate. His career-best 29.7 points per game rank fifth in the league. His 13.7 rebounds rank first. And his 11.7 assists rank first, too. He’s already an NBA legend, and now his numbers look better than ever.

No player in NBA history has led the league in both assists per game and rebounds per game in separate seasons, let alone the same season. (Wilt Chamberlain was an 11-time rebounding champion and led the league in total assists in 1967-68, but he placed second to Oscar Robertson in assists per game.) Only seven previous times has a player finished in the top five in both statistical categories in the same season—twice from Jokic and five times from Hall of Famers more than half a century ago.

Top Five in Both Rebounds and Assists per Game

Player Season RPG Rank APG Rank

Nikola Jokic 2023-24 4th 3rd

Nikola Jokic 2022-23 2nd 3rd

Wilt Chamberlain 1967-68 1st 2nd

Wilt Chamberlain 1966-67 1st 3rd

Bill Russell 1964-65 1st 5th

Maurice Stokes 1957-58 2nd 3rd

Maurice Stokes 1956-57 2nd 3rd

Even the two players who have averaged a triple-double over a full season didn’t lead the league in both categories. Russell Westbrook never finished higher than sixth