NBA Playoffs 2020: 5 reasons the Denver Nuggets can win it all

1. Nikola Jokic

This is your reminder that although the Nuggets missed opportunities to go farther in last year’s playoffs, it was not because Nikola Jokic underperformed. In his first career taste of postseason action, Jokic averaged 25.1 points, 13.0 rebounds, 8.4 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.9 blocks per game, shooting 53.7 percent inside of the arc and 39.3 percent from beyond it. By Box Plus-Minus, no one in last year’s playoffs, not even Kawhi Leonard, was more productive on a per-possession basis.

A championship run takes depth, luck and a host of strategic advantages but it also take a dominant talent who can bend basketball reality to their will. Jokic is a unique and unfamiliar template for basketball brilliance but he is among the game’s most productive players and he’s shown that playoff intensity is not a roadblock. If you’re thinking Jokic isn’t good enough to carry the Nuggets to a championship, just remember that Dirk Nowitzki wasn’t either, until he did.