We’ve heard a few different nicknames for Denver Nuggets rookie center Nikola Jokic this season; whether it be “Joker” from the Altitude crew for his sense of humor, Serbian Sensation honoring his home country or Big Honey from teammate Will Barton. But Michael Malone threw one a new one last night when my colleague Harrison Wind asked Malone about Jokic’s increased role as facilitator in the team’s offense.

“We’re trying to put him him in different positions, let him be our playmaker, try to allow him to make plays for his teammates,” Malone said in the post-game media scrum to Wind’s question. “Some of his passing, like especially even in transition — he rebounds, he pushes. If our guys would just run, he would even have that many more assists, because he’s like Magic Jokic. He’s king of the no-look. And if guys would run, he’s going to get them easy shots.”

MAGIC JOKIC? 

That’s a new one and the highest praise for a passing comparison in the NBA. Magic Johnson is the standard for creative passing. Could Jokic really have some Magic in his game? Well, check out this play from Magic to Byron Scott (yep, the same Byron Scott who is currently coaching the Lakers).

In the play above you see Magic running the fastbreak, surveying the floor as he goes, getting into the paint, utilizing a high-step in midair and magically getting the ball to Scott on the no-look beauty.

The following pass from Jokic to teammate Kenneth Faried can easily be compared to Magic’s dish above, even if the no-look pass doesn’t totally live up to the one above from the best point guard of all time. Jokic leads the break after grabbing the offensive board, surveys the floor as he moves up-court, goes airborne in the paint with a high-step and feeds Faried for the easy finish — fooling the defense in the process with the no-look.

Watch that play above again, this time pay attention to how Derrick Williams freezes and Arron Afflalo can only shake his head in disbelief, after being fooled by the no-look into moving towards Gary Harris on the perimeter and realizing Faried got the open dunk.

That play was certainly nice — there isn’t a long list of centers that can lead fastbreaks in today’s game — but it was more of the same for Jokic. He’s been finding teammates in spectacular ways all season.

Here’s Jokic feeding Danilo Gallinari against the Sacramento Kings, in George Karl‘s return to the Pepsi Center, with an over the shoulder assist after getting a steal, charging down floor on the break and getting an offensive rebound in traffic before finding Gallo.

Here’s another one… Jokic got to do a little cherry-pickin’ against the Brooklyn Nets as Emmanuel Mudiay gathered in an air-ball on a quick shot, raced down floor, found Jokic under the hoop and Jokic unselfishly threw the over the shoulder pass again, this time to Kenneth Faried for the crowd pleasing dunk.

Running the offense through Jokic 

The Memphis Grizzlies have found success running their offense through talented playmaking center Marc Gasol. Marc’s brother Pau Gasol also is a very effective playmaker out of the high-post and low-post. Malone is finding out that he also has a weapon to utilize on the offensive end and has been experimenting with ways to use Jokic all season.

“As we approach these last 18 games,” said Malone post-game after the Nuggets thumped the Knicks. “now putting him in different spots; he’s proven time-and-time again — whether it be low post, high post, elbow — he can make a play for himself or more importantly for his teammates.”

Malone and his staff have drawn up a variety of effective offensive plays this season. One that has been having success, with Jokic out on the elbow near the 3-point line, involves running a couple of screen for Gary Harris, allowing him to loop around the defense, then race to the rim where a Jokic pass awaits him.

This one worked last night versus the Knicks for a Jokic / Harris lob that was good for an and-1. Watch Harris navigate around the defense and Jokic time the pass to perfection. Harris being such a good off-ball mover is what makes this play so effective, but you can’t discount the accuracy of the pass from 22-feet either.

Here is that same play again but this time against the Kings. This time both Jokic and Faried do a better job of screening Harris’ defender, Rajon Rondo, and by the time Rondo realizes what is going on — it’s too late. Jokic opts for the bullet pass instead of the lob as Quincy Acy is alerted to help from Rondo screaming, but again… it’s too late because of the bullet pass (Acy appears to be in position to leap to stop a lob, but not the bullet).

Low Post Pass

Here is an example of Jokic operating out of the low-post. He’s a little far out, but it looks to be designed that way as he catches the ball and immediately is looking to be a facilitator, not a scorer. Watch as Gary Harris sets a back-screen for Kenneth Faried in the paint to give him just enough space for the Jokic pass. The Grizzlies tried to switch back on the play, not realizing they didn’t have enough time to do so on the designed call.

On the play above, we’ve also seen Jokic elect to take the shot if the pass is not there, but that’s secondary for him.

“Hell of a playmaker, hell of a passer and I love watching him play because he plays the game the right way,” said Malone. “He’s always trying to make somebody around him better.”

And in turn, Jokic is making the Nuggets a better team.

Credit to BSN Denver’s Harrison Wind for the quotes above.  Video from the BSN Denver’s clip machine An Nguyen.