Why Nikola Jokić is coming off the bench and more observations from Serbia's win over the Philippines

 

Nikola Jokić and efficiency have always gone hand in hand.

As a 20-year-old rookie, Jokić broke into the league as one of the NBA’s most efficient players. In 2015, he posted a 53.5 Effective Field Goal percentage, a top-30 mark that season and then a year later climbed the EFG% leaderboard further, finishing sixth in the statistic behind only DeAndre Jordan, Rudy Gobert, Clint Capela, Dwight Howard and Otto Porter.

Jokić is still one of the NBA’s more efficient players today. Need proof? Look no further than some of his more memorable performances from last season like the triple-double in the second game of the year against the Suns when Jokić shot a perfect 11 of 11 from the floor. What about when he tallied a career-high 43 points on 19 of 30 shooting in the Nuggets’ Game 6 loss to the Spurs?

Still, in those moments, Jokić never deviated from his game. He still passed up good shots for better ones. He always took what the defense gave him. He was patient in his approach and never rushed.

Jokić has been exactly that player and then some for Serbia so far in the FIBA World Cup while managing to take his efficiency to a new level. In two games, Jokić has missed just one shot, going 9 of 10 from the floor and converting on all four of his 3-point attempts.

Here’s a bit of what he did Monday in Serbia’s 126-67 drubbing of the Philippines.

(Yes, that’s two-time Chinese Basketball Association All-Star and 2017 CBA Champion Andray Blatche defending Jokic)

Serbia moved to 2-0 in World Cup play after their latest victory which came around 48 hours after Serbia blew out Angola 105-59 to open the tournament over the weekend.

Here’s what stood out from Jokić and Team Serbia’s performance against an overmatched Philippines.

Why is Jokić coming off the bench?

It’s been a puzzling storyline for Serbia throughout their exhibition slate and opening two games of the World Cup: their unquestioned best player — a top-10 player in the NBA who just finished fourth in Most Valuable Player voting last season and is the second-best player in the World Cup behind NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo — appears to be his team’s sixth man.

Jokić coming off the bench during Serbia’s exhibition matchups throughout the month of August was justifiable. He set a new career-high in minutes played last season for the Nuggets and with Denver reaching the second round of the playoffs, Jokić played into the middle of May for the first time in his career. Jokić also arrived at Serbia’s training camp this summer around two weeks after many of his teammates, something which is customary for NBA players who are coming off long seasons in the states.

Serbia wanted to ease Jokić into things, which was smart after the taxing season he had. The Nuggets probably aren’t too upset with the 20-25 minute workload Jokić has been getting either, especially with such a highly-anticipated season right around the corner. If Serbia wants to keep his playing time down in the early stages of the World Cup with the thought that he’ll play more and start later on in the tournament, bringing Jokić off the bench now makes some sense.

Throughout Serbia’s exhibition schedule, Jokić was stellar off the bench. He went for 18 points and 11 rebounds in just 22 minutes last month in a win over Turkey. He then scored 22 points in only 20 minutes a day later against Italy.

His strong play has continued to open the tournament. Jokić logged 22 minutes off the bench versus Angola and finished with 14 points, five rebounds and six assists. Against the Philippines, he tallied 11 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in just 19 minutes. He was a plus-40 in those 19 minutes too. A PLUS 40!

Serbia also used their exhibition slate and first few games of the World Cup to experiment with different lineup combinations for when they’ll face stiffer competition like, France, Spain, Greece, Lithuania and the United States, and Jokić has already logged minutes at both the power forward and center spots for Serbia next to a handful of other different big men.

International basketball is different from the NBA in a lot of ways and while being a part of a starting lineup in the NBA is a status symbol to most, the starter label doesn’t carry as much weight abroad.

It doesn’t matter to Jokić either and the Nuggets’ All-NBA center is fine with the current arrangement, according to sources close to the superstar. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with his unselfish nature either. He couldn’t care less about his personal statistics.

It’s not a bad thing that Jokić is coming off the bench. It’s just been odd.

Jokic is logging a lot of minutes at power forward

A byproduct of Jokić coming off the bench for Serbia is that he’s playing a lot of power forward next to seven-footers Miroslav Raduljica, Nikola Milutinov and Boban Marjanović, and Serbia’s coach Sasha Djordjevic is clearly a fan of lineups featuring two big men. It’s probably a smart move too since Serbia is a bit light on wing scorers outside of Bogdan Bogdanovic and has a surplus of quality bigs, but it also seems like Djordjevic wants a solid defensive option at center next to Jokic most of the time.

Jokić has looked good at the four. Against the Philipines, he hooked up with Milutinov a few times on high-low plays like the one below. We saw this type of action executed between Jokić and Kenneth Faried quite often a few years ago and it’s not difficult to imagine Jokić and Jerami Grant hooking up on lob plays like this a lot next season.

He also found a cutting Raduljica right before halftime for an easy lay-in.

Raduljica couldn’t quite handle this left-handed behind-the-back whip-around from Jokić in the second quarter which would have been the assist of the tournament thus far.

This Serbian team can win the World Cup

Top to bottom, no team at the World Cup has more talent than the United States and they should be considered the favorites. But Team USA can be beaten and Serbia is most equipped to pull the upset.

Serbia is flush with big men but also has one of the top scorers and shooters in the tournament in Bogdanovic, the 6-foot-6 Sacramento Kings’ wing who can pour in points in a hurry. Bogdanovic scored 24 against Angola and chipped in 17 more versus the Philippines. He’s a marksman from 3-point land who can score from anywhere on the court.

Nemanja Bjelica, a teammate of Bogdanovic’s in Sacramento, led Serbia in scoring with 20 points against the Philippines. He’s a 6-foot-10 four-man who’s been underrated for years and can hit from 3 but is also big enough to bang inside. You’re probably familiar with Marjanović, the 7-foot-3 giant who signed with the Mavericks this summer.

Serbia has solid guard play too with Vasilije Micić, Marko Gudurić and Stefan Jović shouldering most of the ball-handling duties. Marko Simonović, who at 33-years-old is the eldest statesmen of Serbia’s roster, is a knockdown shooter from three who converted on over 40% of his triples for Zenit in Russia last year.

But what can put Serbia over the top is their chemistry. They look like they’ve been playing together for years despite the fact it’s the first time that this collection of players has suited up together. Team USA doesn’t enjoy that level of comradery.

Serbia should be able to score with every other top contender. Against the Philippines, Serbia shot 75% from the field, the most-efficient shooting performance in a World Cup game since at least 1990. Serbia’s 37 assists were also the most the country has ever recorded in a FIBA World Cup game.

Serbia’s ability to string together consistent stops on the defensive end of the floor may determine if they capture gold.

Serbia’s first real test will come….

On Wednesday, when they face Italy. Serbia went a perfect 10-0 in their exhibition matchups in the lead-up to the World Cup with close wins over Lithuania and Greece but haven’t been tested yet in the World Cup.

Danilo Gallinari and the Italians will make Serbia work. Italy is 2-0 as well and also has easy Group D wins over Angola (by 31) and the Philippines (by 46). Marco Belinelli and Luigi Datome will give Serbia’s wings problems.