Nikola Jokic Is Elite at Everything, Including Wasting Time

Is there anything the three-time MVP can't do?

Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Pundits were surprisingly quick to bury the Denver Nuggets after they dropped the first two games at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves despite the fact the reigning NBA champions have three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić on the roster and Adam Silver wasn't interested in disciplining Jamal Murray for launching things onto the court. Those knee-jerk takes have not aged particularly well now that Denver has evened up their Western Conference semifinals series 2-2 and regained homecourt advantage.

Jokić scored 35 points on 15-of-26 shooting on Sunday night and collected seven rebounds and assists. Typical ho-hum stuff we've grown accustomed to seeing from an incredibly unique and reliable player. But as always with Jokić, his true impact cannot be understood simply by looking at the box score. He sees the game differently and has worked out all the angles.

Including the one where you can prevent falling victim to a fourth-quarter comeback by simply taking one's sweet time inbounding the basketball or touching it while the clock is running. Which he employed to perfection during the final minutes last night, making it much harder for the Wolves.

No player in the NBA is as effective or blatant in stalling with a lead than Nikola Jokic. He does this by delaying the refs 5-second count (fumbling the ball or passing it to the ref) and then rolling it to his teammate. Tonight he wasted almost a minute of game clock in the 4Q. pic.twitter.com/ToKwHZooC1

— Hot Hand Theory (@HotHandTheory) May 13, 2024

Smart stuff. And incredibly easy to replicate. There's no reason every player in the league couldn't help their team win like this. Pretty telling someone this individually decorated is willing to employ such granular detail in helping the collective goal of winning.

Plus, Jokić's general lumbering and slow-cooked pace helps sell every little fumble and stumble so it they don't look intentional. The perfect crime — and it's not even a crime unless the officials start policing the time-wasting with more furor.