USA TODAY — Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic is not your traditional big man for many reasons, including that he rarely decides to dunk in a game.
Considering he is such a great passer and distributor, he already has more triple-doubles than dunks this season.
Jokic has a standing reach of 9-foot-3, but he was described as having “possibly the shortest vertical leap” of any player in the league. One report described his vertical jump as less than five inches.
Jameer Nelson, one of Jokic’s former teammates who is 13 years his senior, has described himself as “old and fat” but says he’s still able to jump higher than the 23-year-old.
Michael Malone, his head coach, has joked that fans should get free hot dogs whenever he decides to dunk because it’s such a “rare” sighting.
To put this in perspective, he has made 157 layups (32.4 percent of shots made) while his dunks have accounted for just 1.6 percent of his field goals. Last season, layups accounted for 37.8 percent of his total shots made. As a rookie, that mark was even higher at 47.2 percent.
According to Cleaning the Glass, he ranks in the 49th percentile for accuracy near the rim, but in the 80th percentile for his midrange shots as well as long-distance attempts.
He is 6-foot-10 and has averaged 8.1 points per game in the paint, which is still impressive. But for comparison, rookie Donovan Mitchell is 6-foot-3 and has averaged 8.5 points per game in the paint.
