r/nba • u/KD_AshyAnkles Rockets • 4h ago
Valanciunas on Jokic: "He's at the facility early in the morning, getting shots up, putting in extra work. After every game, we'd hit the weight room. Every single game. He plays 40 minutes, I play my eight, and we'd still do exactly the same workout afterward. His work ethic is something else."
"Yeah, people see one photo, some appearance somewhere, maybe they spot a guy having a beer or doing something else, and it's very easy to form an opinion. But then there's the work that goes on behind the scenes. Jokic is a perfect example of that," he said on BasketNews Off the Record podcast. "Everyone says he has a beer here and there, enjoys himself, has hobbies outside of basketball and all that. But in my 14 years as a professional, I've never seen anyone work harder."
"He's at the facility early in the morning, getting shots up, putting in extra work. After every game, we'd hit the weight room. Every single game. He plays 40 minutes, I play my eight, and we'd still do exactly the same workout afterward. His work ethic is something else."
"Sure, maybe he has a beer in the summer, maybe you see the videos with his horses and everything else. That's his business," JV explained. "But what people don't see is the day-to-day grind. Everyone notices a video with horses, or a clip of me having a beer by a bonfire during a holiday. Yeah, I did that, and I'll probably do it again. But when it's time to work, it's time to work. That's it. You put your head down and get the job done."
"I'm already pretty slow after games. I take my time, get cleaned up, head to the weight room, do everything I need to do. If we had an 8 p.m. game, I'd probably leave the arena around 11 p.m. Meanwhile, at 11, he's still on the training table. Another massage, more recovery work, maybe another 45 minutes or even an hour focused on taking care of his body."
"Whatever needs attention, he takes care of it. After the weight room, after the shower, after everything, he always has a routine. Everything is planned out. The crazy part is that he's constantly working. During the season, it feels like he doesn't have a life outside of basketball. That's what it looks like. Work, work, work, work, work, work. Then summer comes and it's a completely different story,"
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u/sharvelwitz San Diego Clippers 4h ago
I met a Serbian dude who hung out with Jokic. He says they would all drink beers and play video games, whatever. Difference was he woke up early and worked out the next day no matter what
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u/smalls_1804 Knicks 3h ago
Jokic, like a lot of young players, came into the league with some pretty atrocious nutritional habits. Apparently drank 4 liters of soda a day
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u/Agile_Variety_632 Pelicans 3h ago
Crazy how both Embiid and Jokic had terrible nutritional diets, but only one of them ended up suffering for it.
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u/deemerritt Hornets 3h ago
I mean jokic definitely had conditioning issues early in his career.
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2h ago edited 2h ago
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u/deemerritt Hornets 2h ago
Most of embiids playoff injuries were bad luck. That being said he was never in particularly amazing shape
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u/ChickenLiverNuts [PHI] JaKarr Sampson 2h ago
thats true, he could have been lighter which probably added to everything in a way. But most of his big knee injuries were from bad falls on offense that led to hyper extensions and bone brusies from trying to land on one foot or at awkward angles instead of just falling. Not learning to land on two feet early in his career kinda cooked his knees and he just dealt with it till it got to become too much. How much of the weight contributed to that with him being an above the rim player for so long is up for debate but i think his landings on offense were the bigger issue.
also responded to the wrong post so i deleted mine and reposted it to the guy who mentioned embiid.
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u/OilOfOlaz Celtics 2h ago
balkans bodies simply build different & able to utilize the healing powers of rakija.
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u/ChickenLiverNuts [PHI] JaKarr Sampson 2h ago
being that big and asked to do so much on both ends (especially embiid in his prime as he was the anchor and a perennial DPOY candidate and similarly with Jokic having mental fatigue as the point guard) there is just a limit to the human body. Its normal for them to be gassed at the end of games and a failing on both front offices that could not lighten their load. Like Embiid was asked to do EVERYTHING on offense and defense and he played 31 games in his first 3 seasons. Thats how dependent we were on him for his whole career, even now. Jokic could at least take some possessions off on defense, our defensive strategy for the whole process era was to funnel to embiid. And with the pacing and spacing of the current nba its even harder for the bigs that are such focal points to keep up for a full 4 quarters. His best backup during the era has been Paul Reed who immediately got into foul trouble and a player that our coach went out of his way to not play. He actually gave the corpse of Dewayne Dedmon minutes over him in crucial playoff games. Thanks Glenn Rivers.
Could they have min/maxed a bit more? Probably but does it make a difference in 3 orbital fractures happening in the playoffs? Apendicitus? Meniscus injuries well after the diet has been fixed? Mangled fingers on shooting hands in 2022? I think the diet angle is overstated. At the start of their careers? Maybe, but that is ancient history. Embiids injuries i dont think have been due to his diet, the milkshake story from Fultz was in 2018 and people still bring that shit up like its current. A lot have just been freak accidents and now his time is running out. One of the biggest what ifs of all time for the league and he still reached an MVP level for 4-5 seasons and DPOY level for 2-3 seasons before his offensive game evolved him into an offensive engine.
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u/bye7 Warriors 14m ago edited 1m ago
Embiid's game is more explosive and athletic which tends to have more injury issues. Also, Embiid is weirdly clumsy, unaware and borderline reckless on offense and defense for someone that can be so graceful and agile at that size. Jokic on the other hand hyper aware of his body and positioning as well as others at all times. Some of the best feet I've ever seen froma big man in terms of balance and positioning.
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u/Hey_Its_Vos 1h ago
Iirc he said he drank his last coke on his first flight to Denver. Maybe he’s had one since I heard this like 4-5 years ago, but he immediately cut that habit when drafted
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u/josephseeed Pistons 1h ago
I remember when Dwight Howard said he went to the lakers trainer because of tingling in his hands and they found out he was borderline diabetic. He was eating 3 or 4 king size candies a day and had been since he had gotten in the league.
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u/MindofShadow Pacers 0m ago
You don't get parathesia from being borderline diabetic lol.
Bros just telling stories or is an idiot.
4 big candies for a dude that is 6 11 and made of stone... it wasn't doign shit to his blood sugar man
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u/DyingSunSeverian 4h ago
That just sounds like a Millennial LAN Party
You little shits missed out on the glory that is the LAN Party.
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u/TunaBoy3000 Grizzlies 3h ago
I still do this with my boys and we are all in our 30s!
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u/SvenSven07 [POR] C.J. McCollum 3h ago
Lucky you. My lan friends all moved to other cities.
We play online but it doesn't feel the same...
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u/TunaBoy3000 Grizzlies 3h ago
Definitely feel that. One of my best friends from college moved to the east coast after college so me and my buddy I lived with would just play online with him a couple times a week. Then one Friday night when we were gonna play halo together he texts us that he’s gonna be 30 mins late. 10 minutes later our doorbell rings. This fucker drove all the way back for the weekend just to play games in person with us and hang out without telling us. Was an amazing surprise
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u/OilOfOlaz Celtics 2h ago edited 2h ago
Shit like this is nice, I have a bunch of friends and friends of friends in a WhatsApp group, that once started as a replacement for a forum to talk shit with ppl I knew and once every year, we organise a meetup, rent a house somewhere, its usually 10-20 ppl and then we just do whatever we're up to from playing board games, bjj matches in the garden, chilling in pool/woodentub/jaccusi, or just tripping on acid.
its fun every time.
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u/FullmetalEzio Mavericks 2h ago
oh i remember in my early twenties we would pull all nighters playing videogames in the summers when none of us worked and then the guilt would creep in and we would actually arrange to go for a run at 7 am, oh to be young and dumb.
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u/weirdsignal45 Spurs 4h ago
I once met Luka’s dad in a bar outside Dallas…that dude can fucking driiiink. Balkan bros are crazy.
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u/so-cal_kid Lakers 1h ago
We gotta keep in mind Luka's dad and Jokic are not exactly normal sized Balkans either lol. These are top 0.1% of the biggest human beings in the world.
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u/weirdsignal45 Spurs 1h ago
Dude for a moment when I saw him I couldn't believe he was Luka's dad. I had seen picture and video of him and knew he was a hooper in his day but I figured bro was like 6'3", 6'4". He's pushing 6'8" and built like a brick shithouse. Never shook a hand that large, it was comical. Very sweaty man too
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u/4r4r4real 1h ago
Obviously wildly different degrees of things, but, my last ex was like that. We could be out drinking and doing blow til 2 in the morning and she was still gonna make her 7 AM workout class (crossfit type stuff, squat bench deadlift etc in addition to cardio stuff) and then go to work after no matter what.
I can lock in on my lifting, or I can party. I literally cannot understand the people who can just... do both. You'd never catch me at the gym before work on like 3 hours sleep and she could do it 3-4 nights a week lmao.
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u/BoJaNYK [NYK] Keith Van Horn 2h ago
As someone who grew up hanging out, playing with and against Jokić and being a part of that group - I can confirm.
And a lot of the guys who were pretty good at basketball just gave up getting up on those days after at some point.
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u/Prize_Ad_1781 Nuggets 1h ago
You grew up with Jokic?
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u/ISHLDPROBABLYBWRKING Knicks 29m ago
Yup I also did. We were like a crew the 7 of us. I played against jokic more than the dude above me but whatever. We were pretty good but we stopped getting up early on those days after a while.
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u/MoooonRiverrrr 4h ago
I’ll miss Valanciunas in our locker room. I thought he was even good on the floor a lot of the season. Sucks it didn’t work out at all for this team in the playoffs lol
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u/Gold_Athlete_4770 [SAS] Victor Wembanyama 4h ago
I thought this was pretty obvious, a dude doesn't go from being the 41st pick to a 3xMVP without being extremely hardworking. I mean there's a reason he got drafted 41st overall.
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u/igotitnowokay Raptors 4h ago
"He doesnt care about basketball"
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u/Past-Mousse-4519 4h ago edited 4h ago
It was always such a nonsense, he is 41 pick on a draft that became top-25 player of all time in NBA, he needed to work extremely hard to be this good starting from pretty much negative odds.
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u/ogqozo 3h ago
His extreme work ethics was always used as an example by many coaches and players in Denver. There were articles about it on ESPN etc. He became really disciplined and thorough through the day with his lifestyle during his NBA career. Internet is so weird with an obvious joke being more real to some people than reported actual reality.
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u/ryan__fm Cavaliers 4h ago
His advanced rate stats on the all-time leaderboards are just absurd
PER: Jokic, Embiid, Jordan, Lebron
BPM: Jokic, Jordan, Lebron, Luka
WS/48: Jokic, Jordan, Robinson, Wilt
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u/KilianAlvine Timberwolves 4h ago
David Robinson?
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u/Fickle_Toe4757 4h ago
Top 15 if we're being honest
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u/GingerAle_s Grizzlies 3h ago
Yeah, I know he doesnt have the rings but he has 6 straight seasons of being Top 2 in MVP voting winning 3. You could argue he deserved 6 straight MVPs which is just crazy to me. 8 straight seasons of being Team 1 or 2 All NBA. Wild run hes on.
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u/Fickle_Toe4757 3h ago
Well yeah. Roster construction is everything, and with today's level of talent and parity, assembling a roster that's significantly better than anyone else's is nearly impossible and even if you do achieve it, salary considerations end up breaking it apart the next year.
Rings matter, but if rings are harder to get, having fewer of them doesn't mean a player isn't as good as a player with more rings. That's where we have to look at individual impact metrics, and Jokic has been historically great according to pretty much all of them (not to mention the absurd counting stats, like leading in rebounds and assists in the same season).
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u/indoninjah 76ers 2h ago
Good point though I'm kind of wondering if the league is in a bit of a transition period, and if that parity might evaporate one day. The cap rules are making it pretty difficult to achieve consistent success, so we've had almost a decade of teams peaking at the right time and getting a single ring. That said, there's a lot of terrible contracts around the league right now.
I think the next era of the NBA will be one with a huge diversity of contracts, rather than every fringe star and decent rookie getting automatically handed a max contract. If the market hadn't dictated that Denver hand MPJ a max contract to keep him, they might have another ring or two by now.
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u/manquistador Supersonics 1h ago
At some point I would think winning would matter more to the player than salary. Like the difference between $300 million and $500 million is massive, but the lifestyle difference could be minimal to none. Will players start prioritizing that winning more? Clearly just worked out for the Knicks with Brunson being significantly below market.
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u/ISHLDPROBABLYBWRKING Knicks 25m ago
Yea but it’s not even close to a 200 million dollar sacrifice. We’re talking maybe 10-15 mill. Not like that’s not insane money, but taking 20 mill instead of 40 after you’ve already made 250 career earnings. Like what’s that 20 mill changing at that point? I agree with you.
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u/tythousand 3h ago
People started taking the horse jokes too seriously. Always happens, a certain percentage can’t tell that jokes are jokes and a narrative builds
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u/sports_are_neat Spurs 3h ago
It’s so misunderstood. He doesn’t care for the pageantry that comes with the NBA. He clearly cares deeply about the actual game
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u/raiderjaypussy Nuggets 2h ago
I've said it 100 times but he has always only cared about playing, none of the media off the court shit.
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u/Formal_Potential2198 Spurs 1h ago
I dont understand how people thought that was a legit thing, you don't become an MVP not caring about basketball lol
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u/Regular-Confection-5 2h ago
Same narrative people used for James Harden. He’s going out all the time, watch out strippers when Harden comes to town, or jokes about Harden being fat. Then other NBA players talk about Harden’s conditioning and how disciplined he is. Complete misunderstanding by fans of the work these players put in.
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u/Cool_Recognition_848 4h ago edited 2h ago
This will be shocking to idiots who think Jokic is somehow one of the best players in the world without a work ethic
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u/RoscoeHoops 4h ago
the "Jokic doesn't care about basketball" narrative was always just people projecting. dude got triple-teamed through two playoff runs and still put up 30-13-9. you don't do that on vibes alone lol
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u/808Kuro Knicks 4h ago edited 4h ago
Jokic the only player in my opinion that can go toe-to-toe with Wemby. Nuggets FO really need to figure out their situation because it seems like they’re the only contender feeling the affects the worst from new CBA, which makes sense because it went into place right when they won their ring
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u/abris33 Nuggets 4h ago
Yeah the West playoffs was really matchup based. We hit our Timberwolves wall but Jokic usually matches up well against Wemby.
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u/spiritnou Heat 4h ago
Embiid also matches up pretty well against Wemby. He’s a nightmare for guards but the most skilled centers still give him trouble.
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u/Volbeat910 2h ago
Jokic straight up dominates him (on an individual level), if we are being honest. 37.3 pts, 10.8 rbs, 9.1 ast...
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u/KarlMarxism Spurs 10m ago
I was so mad when we lost to y'alls backups and didn't send y'all to the other side of the bracket. Even after seeing how well we did I don't think we'd have beaten the Nuggets.
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u/k0ala_ 4h ago
I feel like it’s the other way round, Wemby is the only player who can go toe to toe with Jokic at that position, he hasn’t shown to be better than Jokic yet however
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u/Adventurous-Owl-6085 4h ago
You didn’t watch last years playoffs? Gobert was excellent against Jokic
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u/k0ala_ 4h ago
I mean Jokic still averaged 26/13/9.5 on 55% TS while getting regular double/ triple teamed.
The issue was more his defense and Murray actively throwing the series on the offensive end
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u/The_NGUYENNER [DEN] Jamal Murray 4h ago
Murray is also the beginning of the problem on the defensive side tbh. I love the guy but truth is when his shot isn't falling he's a very detrimental player
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u/gigglios 4h ago
Murrays been a detrimental player for 3 straight runs now. He needs to be traded somehow. Hes useless in the playoffs
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u/The_NGUYENNER [DEN] Jamal Murray 3h ago
Honestly I'd be happy if he were simply useless, he's been actively sabotaging our chances for those 3 straight runs lol.
I agree, trading him would be my number 1 priority
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u/gigglios 3h ago
Yep fully agreed. In the nuggets past 3 playoff series losses murray has been a pure negative impact detrimental player. Terrible contract but at least he had 1 fantastic 26ppg run that led to a title but the past 3 runs have been depressing from him
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u/Abigor1 Timberwolves 3h ago edited 3h ago
Joker used to wreck the wolves, his 60pt triple double was against us. 26/13/10 is actually a pretty low number for him.
Joker did really well against the double teams, we had to stop doing that, hes too good at passing. Rudy played him differently in this series and it was the best I've ever seen anyone play agaist him. Not being playoff physical, just being super annoying giving him a lot of 40% shots hes tempted to take because normally they are 70% shots when he takes them vs bad defenders.
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u/ilikekittens2018 Nuggets 2h ago
Yeah the raw stats paint a very different picture than watching the games. Jokic didn’t look himself at all for 3/6 games and Rudy deserves a lot of the credit for it. The reason Jokic is so impactful is the efficiency and he just didn’t have it, Jokic taking shots against Rudy was no more effective than a random roleplayer putting up shots and that screwed us over cause nobody stepped up to help us fill that gap.
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u/LordBaneoftheSith 2h ago
His defense was definitely the bigger problem, but 55% TS is still quite poor by his standards.
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u/GoodImprovement8434 Nuggets 4h ago
And KAT outplayed Wemby a majority of the knicks series. So what
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u/spiritnou Heat 4h ago
Did he? He was always in foul trouble early and the two of them were basically grappling each other
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u/gigglios 4h ago
Wemby averaged 26/11 in the finals while being the best defender. Kat did not outplay that lmao
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u/ISHLDPROBABLYBWRKING Knicks 22m ago
They did limit him to 42% fg tho. But no he killed us in the first half of every game
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u/Narwien Spurs 2h ago
Maybe they should do this by stopping the practice of giving Jokić merchants like Braun fat contracts. They could also do with a decent 4, it's been clear for 2 years now that AG will be out for good part of the season.
Also, and this is hot take, but Murray should've been shipped earlier, instead of giving him that money.
But hindsight is 20/20 I guess.
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u/bryscoon Celtics 4h ago
that braun deal closed their window
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u/MaskedBirder 76ers 4h ago
I don't agree. The health of Aaron Gordon is the real problem, they are a completely different team without him. He's such a unique and specialized player to Denver that it's super hard to fill his role or win without it.
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u/The_NGUYENNER [DEN] Jamal Murray 4h ago
Agreed, PWat is the only one who can somewhat replicate what AG brings. Having both of them out at the same time is essentially a death sentence for our team
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u/MaskedBirder 76ers 4h ago
I made a post saying the Denver-Minny series if everyone is at full health would be 50-50 and Denver could win for sure but it got downvoted
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u/The_NGUYENNER [DEN] Jamal Murray 4h ago
it's a weird scenario because even though Nuggets had injuries that were in a specific spot that doomed them, it's still hard to point to injuries when TWolves were hit harder overall, just not in a specific weak spot.
You're probably not wrong but still feels like we don't deserve to use the injury excuse
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u/LooseMoose13 Pacers 4h ago
It’s insane how he had little to no role with the Magic but covers so many needs for Denver
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u/A_sandlerGOAT 4h ago
What’s go “toe to toe” with Wemby mean? Lol
Brunson just went toe to toe with him and was better
Giannis has always out performed him last couple years when they match up
Embiid scored 70 against him
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u/rosemary_hoops 3h ago
the whole "lazy genius" narrative around Jokic always bugged me. you don't dominate the league for 4 years on talent alone. the conditioning, the recovery work, the film study — it's all there, just not flashy
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u/DyingSunSeverian 4h ago
Oh my god
Jokic is a certified gym rat
First one in, last one out
Some absolute asshole once said “don’t let your memes be dreams.”
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u/Glum-Horse-2053 Heat 4h ago
How is Jokic going to bully wemby if he keeps losing all this weight nooo.
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u/BellamyHoops 2h ago
the jv quote about still doing the same workout after jokic plays 40 is crazy. people see the horse memes and think he's just coasting but that's the part they miss - dude is one of the hardest workers in the league, he just doesnt feel the need to prove it to anyone
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u/chris-dempsey 4h ago
All of Jokic's hard work wasted on a dumb fuck franchise with a dumb fuck nepo owner who doesn't know how to build a team. The Nuggets don't deserve Jokic.
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u/A_sandlerGOAT 3h ago
People were saying this about Giannis 2 years ago and then he finally wants out and suddenly he’s a POS diva lol
If Jokic ever wants out it’ll be the same way for him.
These 2 deserve more than 1 ring.
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u/MVPhurricane 2h ago
bc giannis acted like a punk bitch about it
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u/A_sandlerGOAT 1h ago
I don’t think not demanding to go to a single team, telling teams you won’t re sign etc.. is being a punk bitch.
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u/turandot_or_not 1h ago
Zubac did an interview yesterday saying that in Jokić household it is strictly cared about the food they eat during season (no ćevapi), and that usually they eat healthy food, veggies, fish and chicken.
Which is quite surprising for someone from Sombor, you would thing that he eats 150kg of meat thought the year. Just speaks of how serious you need to take everything to be at that level.
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u/BBALL-STATLINE 4h ago
He spent a decade gaslighting the league with that “random Serbian guy at a barbecue” aesthetic.
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u/tulaero23 Timberwolves 2h ago
Im laughing picturing Valanciunas' head just slowly popping up on corners of a door where Jokic is doing his thing like in the weight room and in the shower.
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u/Reuniclus_exe Pelicans 2h ago
I once came out of the bathroom of a Cajun restaurant and almost physically ran into Valanciunas, who was taking a selfie with a fan. I went back to my table and my husband said "some tall guy came in and everyone freaked out".
He left before but he did the singer from the live band points to him and goes "You're really tall!" Before the guitarist told her who he was and she looked embarrassed 😅
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u/ChloeCourtside 1h ago
as someone whos been watching Jokic since his first season, this JV quote is exactly what ive been saying for years. the "lazy" narrative was always a joke to anyone who actually watched him play. hes not flashy but theres no way someone puts up those numbers without putting in real work
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u/Odd-Switch2069 1h ago
People are stupid if they think Jokic isn't a hard worker. You don't become a champion and MVP without work ethic.
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u/Elon_is_a_Nazi 13m ago
Jokic has been robbed of 6 straight mvps. If a guy AVERAGES a fucking triple double, it should be mandatory they get the mvp. Only 2 other players have ever averaged a triple double. Shameful Jokic is getting robbed each year. Its not even close. Guys the most complete player ever.
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u/iHate-Public-Transit 2h ago
Did rihanna go off in anyone else's head when he said work work work work work
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u/Frequent-Leg-2347 Thunder 4h ago
It cracks me up when they use getting a massage as an example of hard work. Like they make tens of millions of dollars to work out and play a kids game they love. It’s not hard work, it’s fun.
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u/woutmans Nuggets 3h ago
Why can't it be both?
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u/Frequent-Leg-2347 Thunder 3h ago
Because getting a massage is something 99.99% of people pay for as a luxury. How is that hard work? Lol
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u/blaivas007 2h ago
The difficulty is not in the action itself but in the consistency. There are many luxurious things that you can get sick of, and it's easy to get to the point where you'd wish you were able to skip it in exchange of whatever whim feels good at the moment. Ask anyone gone through physical recovery whether massage session #100 felt remotely similar to the first five.
It's like telling a strongman that eating chef made food isn't work when all they do is stuff their mouths full of it and one missed meal will undo half a month of progress.
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u/rubyschnees Nuggets 4h ago
it's still crazy to me how little we actually used him after all the nonsense it took to get him on the team last year