Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic. Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

The 2020s belong to Nikola Jokic thus far

By Sai Mohan | Last updated 5/15/24

The 1980s belonged to Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. The 1990s were Michael Jordan's decade. The 2000s were dominated by Tim Duncan's Spurs and Kobe Bryant's Lakers. From 2011 to 2020, every NBA Finals featured either LeBron James or Stephen Curry. Are the 2020s about to be Nikola Jokic's?

The Serb has his fingerprints all over the first four years of the decade. In 2020, Jokic's Nuggets made the Western Conference Finals only to lose to the eventual champion Lakers. In 2021 and 2022, Jokic won back-to-back MVP awards and carried his team to the playoffs despite playing without an injured Jamal Murray. The minute he got Murray back in 2023, Jokic won his first NBA Championship and Finals MVP. And now, he seems primed to go back-to-back.

Jokic leads the decade thus far in postseason rebounds, assists, double-doubles and triple-doubles, and is second only to the Celtics' Jayson Tatum in points.

Nikola Jokic is leading the 2020s in

— playoff rebounds
— playoff assists
— playoff double-doubles
— playoff triple-doubles

Generational. pic.twitter.com/pjBk0ikp0u
— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 15, 2024

Despite playing only 78 playoff games, Jokic is already 12th among all active players in points, ninth in assists and sixth in rebounds. He has more playoff points than Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis, all of whom entered the league several years before the Nuggets star.

Here's another defining marker: Jokic has the best postseason field goal percentage (.533) among all active MVPs in the NBA — better than James (.497), Kevin Durant (.477), Curry (.453), Giannis Antetokounmpo (.527), Joel Embiid (.459), James Harden (.425) and Russell Westbrook (.405).

In summation, the 2020s have seen Jokic winning three MVP awards, one Finals MVP and one NBA title already. The scary part for the league is the 29-year-old is just entering his prime.

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