Center On The Cusp

As I pulled into my driveway on Wednesday night, the Denver Nuggets were in the last two minutes of their game against the Orlando Magic, and the Nuggets had relinquished a pretty sizable lead after having come back from a similarly sizable deficit. It had been a roller coaster. But I’d primarily been paying attention to the stats of one player. One very tall, semi-goofy, Serbian player.

As I parked, I grabbed my phone to watch any last-minute stats between the car and the back door. And as I was walking up the steps, it happened. Nikola Jokic got the rebound that gave him a triple-double, the 33^rd of his career. I exulted a little too loudly for the neighbors.

Walking into our house, I informed my wife, “he did it!”, and was greeted by a confused face. By the time I’d pulled the stats back up on my phone, they’d been corrected. I was happy for the win, but sad for whatever had cost him the board. Jokic’s 33^rd triple-double would have to wait for another day.

Why was that important to this long-time Nuggets fan, you might wonder? A 33^rd triple-double would have tied the Joker with Bob Cousy on the All-Time list, in 10^th place. Simply being mentioned in the same sentence as Cousy is quite an honor, but it also would make Jokic one of the few Denver Nuggets to have his name on any one of the NBA’s career Top-Ten lists.

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Another former Denver Nugget also occupies space on the All-Time Triple Double list, as Fat Lever sits in eighth place with 43. That said, Lever spent five of his 11 seasons in the NBA with Portland and Dallas. Lever also sits in 6^th place All-Time in Steals-per-Game.

After that, the only name that really bubbles up on the list is no real surprise, in Alex English. English is 7^th All-Time in two-point attempts, and 8^th in two-pointers made. Even then, Alex spent five of his sixteen season on other teams. He made his name and legend as a member of the Denver Nuggets, but not every two-pointer that landed him on the All-Time list came in a Nuggets uniform.

From there, the list gets sparse. Of the 50+ categories that Basketball-Reference.com measures, only 9 other categories have a Nuggets player of any sort associated with them, and that list of names, while formidable, has as much-or-more claim to fame in another uniform. While Chauncey Billups is 6^th All-Time in Free Throw Percentage, the bulk of his illustrious career was sadly spent outside his home state. JaVale McGee actually sits on two Field Goal Percentage lists, but spent a smattering of his career in Denver. Marcus Camby spent more time outside Denver than in, and even the great Dikembe Mutombo had as many glory years in his post Mile-High days as he did in town.

Last but not least, Carmelo Anthony actually ranks eighth on one All-Time list, but between the fact that the ranking is for Usage %, and how many years of his career Melo spent outside Denver, even his stats are as split as most.

So, it circles back to our sometimes silly yet scintillating and stupendous Serbian Super Center. Whew. Say that five times fast. Jokic has earned every one of those 32 Triple-Double thus far in a Nuggets uniform, and will add several more to the tally under his current contract, let alone if he’s in a Nuggets uniform for the rest of his career. Jokic has set the fourth-fastest pace of anyone on the current Top-Ten list:

Should Nikola be able to maintain his current pace, and assuming an average career length, he could easily push himself into fourth or fifth place on this list. If he wants to push himself past Magic Johnson, he’ll need to play 1450 games.

Still, there’s a very real chance that Jokic could finish his career as a Top-Five player in NBA history, and in a category which was shared by some of the league’s all-time luminaries. Keep your eye out for Jokic’s next Triple-Double, Nuggets Nation. You’re about to have another rare star amongst the League’s Top Ten.