The Denver Nuggets feared the worst when Nikola Jokic went down with a knee injury on Monday night. Jokic’s impact on the court is undeniable. He is fifth in the NBA in points per game (29.9), while leading the league in rebounds (12.2) and assists (11.0). He was well on his way towards earning his fourth MVP award. This knee injury, however, will have a major impact on his MVP chances and the Nuggets’ season as a whole.
The original fear was that Jokic could miss up to eight weeks with the knee injury. The Nuggets are a little more optimistic with his timeline. Brett Seigel of ClutchPoints reported that the team expects to have their MVP back before the All-Star break. The All-Star break is still over a month away, so the absence is going to be lengthy no matter how you spin it.
Denver is going to have to find a way to win without Jokic, but the injury will have a much larger impact around the league.
Nikola Jokic Injury Impacts End-of-Season Awards
GettyNikola Jokic is expected to be out until the All-Star break.
The NBA implemented a new rule a few seasons ago stating that a player must play in at least 65 games in order to be eligible for the end-of-season awards. The reason for the rule is that the NBA wanted to crack down on star players resting throughout the regular season.
After Monday’s game, Jokic is officially at 32 games played. Denver has just 50 games remaining in the regular season. With that in mind, to be eligible for the MVP award, Jokic must play in 33 of those 50 games.
The All-Star break, which is the timeline for Jokic’s return, is 24 games away. Jokic is expected to miss most, if not all, of those games. That means this injury will cause the three-time MVP to be ineligible for the award this year. An award he was the favorite to win heading into the new year.
Whether or not this rule is good for the league is irrelevant. But there is definitely room for improvement to help out those star players missing games for legitimate reasons (like Jokic). Nonetheless, unless he comes back well before his timeline suggests, Jokic will not be eligible to win the MVP.
Nuggets Could Slide Down in Standings
GettyJamal Murray will have to step up in Jokic’s absence.
Losing your star player is never easy to overcome. Denver has the talent on their team to stay competitive in the Western Conference, but it would not be surprising to see them slide a little bit in the standings.
As of December 30th, the Nuggets sit third in the West. However, just three games separate Denver and the Play-In games. With Jokic out, the Nuggets could easily fall into a Play-In game spot.
Last season, the Serbian missed 12 games. The Nuggets were 4-8 in those matchups and scored just 109.8 points per game. Denver runs their offense through the big man, and now they will have to switch some things up to keep up their scoring pace without him.
If Denver plays as they did last year without Joker on the court, they will fall into those Play-In games. The good news is Jokic will be back for the postseason. The Nuggets being a 7-10 seed in the playoffs, assuming they struggle without Jokic, means a top seed will have to see them in round one.
A Nuggets-Thunder or Nuggets-Spurs first-round series is something you would expect to see in the conference finals. If Denver falls in the standings, the higher seed that is forced to host them in the first round will be in for a battle.
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