Rrekydoc@fediverser.communick.devBtoNBA@fediverser.communick.dev•Nikola Jokic is a better offensive player than Wilt ChamberlainEnglish
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1 year agoFor most of his career, Wilt was averaging twice the possessions that Jokic played this past year.
Per possession isn’t really a fair comparison.
Just to be clear, Jokic is not more efficient for his era. Nearly every year Wilt set the record for points, he was scoring with efficiency as impressive as Jokic’s first MVP season. When Wilt was scoring as little as prime Jokic, he was as efficient or moreso.
You seem to be overestimating the skill gap. Wilt was generally much more skilled as a scorer, but he didn’t have the range or reliable free throws Jokic does (Jokic’s greatest scoring gift is how terrified offenses are to crowd him). Jokic is better a passer, but not by as much as you seem to think; Wilt was still doing things we haven’t seen Jokic do or at least do quite as well as Wilt.
Wilt had high “basketball iq” and even Jerry West said he was one the best at knowing what the other players were going to do before they did it.
Other than shooting range, Jokic’s biggest offensive gap is being a fantastic floor general. While Wilt proved he could facilitate the greatest offense the game had ever seen, he wasn’t making that level of adjustments in his team’s schemes to create or exploit flaws in his opponent’s defense.
Wilt was drafted only a year before Oscar Robertson and everyone then still considered Wilt to be the “greatest offensive player ever”.
The fact that Jokic is in the conversation and is still improving is downright amazing… but there’s no way I’m crowning him this early in his career.