![]() This pattern makes sense, because the postseason brings tougher defenses and worse offensive efficiency overall. The average player loses about 1.3 points of PER from the regular season to the playoffs, according to an analysis of active players with at least 100 postseason minutes. Like his peers on these leaderboards, Jokic is excellent in the regular season, but he’s managed to get even better when the games count the most-which is saying something given that he’s won two regular-season MVPs and finished as the runner-up for a third this season. Jokic is a career 41 percent 3-point shooter in the playoffs Klay Thompson, Ray Allen, and Steph Curry are all about 1 percentage point behind him.Ĭareer Playoff Leaders in Player Efficiency Rating Player That placement yields some jaw-dropping comparisons. Along with Kawhi, he’s one of just two high-volume shooters in playoff history with 50-40-80 shooting splits.Īnd no, that last paragraph didn’t contain a typo: Jokic really does rank second in career playoff 3-point percentage among all players with at least 1,000 field goal tries. Jokic is fifth in that group in 2-point percentage and second in 3-point percentage. What about shooting stats? Jokic excels here too, as he combines volume with elite efficiency-and better long-range shooting than even his most ardent supporters might realize.Īmong all players with at least 1,000 career playoff shot attempts, Jokic ranks second with 57 percent effective field goal accuracy (behind only Dwight Howard, at 59 percent), and he ranks third with a 61 percent true shooting mark (behind only Kawhi Leonard and Kevin McHale, both at 62 percent). Highest Combined Per-Game Averages in NBA Playoff History Player ![]() The three players right behind Jokic are arguably the three greatest players ever. (Larry Bird is the closest, at 22nd in assists and 32nd in rebounds.) And Jokic is sixth in points per game among that group, for good measure, with a career playoff average of 27 points.Īdd up all those stats-following the philosophy of Bill Simmons’s “42 Club”-and Jokic ranks second in his career playoff sum, behind only Wilt Chamberlain (who benefited from playing in a different rebounding era). No other player is in the top 30 in both stats. So as he prepares to tip off his first Finals appearance, and as he pursues that first championship ring, let us count the ways that Jokic is already one of the best playoff performers in NBA history.ĭo you like traditional stats? Well, among players with at least 2,000 career playoff minutes, Jokic ranks 13th in both assists per game (seven) and rebounds per game (12). A First Look at the NBA Finals Matchup Between the Nuggets and Heat He's coming off a season in which he averaged 29.4 points per game-the third-highest mark of his career-6.1 rebounds and 6.3 assists to go with 49.3 percent shooting from the field and 42.7 percent from three-point range.Michael Porter Jr. They've been one of the best trios the league has ever seen.Īnd as Kawakami wrote, what Curry wants, he should probably get.Įven at age 35, the greatest shooter of all time looks just as good as-if not better than-the player who won back-to-back MVPs in 20, the second of which was unanimous. Thompson, who's also 33, is coming off a rough stretch during the Warriors' postseason run and is set to become a free agent after next season.īut in the end, that core still deserves an opportunity to make at least one more run at a championship while Curry is still in his prime. Green has a player option, which many people expect him to decline in search of a long-term deal at age 33. looks like the favorite to take over for Myers, but whoever it is will have plenty of hard decisions to make to elevate this team back to a championship-caliber squad. Vice president of basketball operations Mike Dunleavy Jr. This offseason will be pivotal for the Warriors, as long-time general manager Bob Myers stepped down from his post after more than a decade with the organization.
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