If you are talking about the best hot guy in the NBA this season, you cannot leave out the Denver Nuggets star Nicola Jokic (28‧211cm). He handed over the regular season MVP title to his rival, Joel Embiid, and failed to win three consecutive awards, but he is flying in the playoffs as if protesting that he had a separate real goal this season.안전놀이터
Denver, who obtained the ‘1st seed’ by ranking first in the Western Conference, defeated each team they met by adding explosive power to the stable performance of the regular season. Both the Phoenix Suns, with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant’s ‘double guns’, and the LA Lakers, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, have not been able to compete, and are now fighting Eastern Conference champions Miami for the final championship.
Amidst Denver’s rise, the player who received the hottest attention from the fans was, of course, Yokichi. Everyone knew that he was a good player in that he was a regular season MVP for two consecutive years, but due to the monster mode in the playoffs, the reaction was ‘was it this much?’ Denver is not a popular team, and there was a feeling that Yokichi received less attention compared to his skills, but it is evaluated that his true value was belatedly recognized.
As can be seen from the fact that he was selected with the 41st pick in the second round in the 2014 rookie draft, not many expected Jokic to grow into the best center in his career. The fact that the moment Yokichi was nominated, the host broadcasting company stopped broadcasting and sent out advertisements proves this. The white big man, who had nothing special in terms of mobility and athletic ability, had no choice but to congratulate himself awkwardly amidst the indifference of those around him.
However, now Yokichi has risen to the center of the big game enough to summon the ‘four major centers’ in the 1990s. Although he has no choice but to take the physical weaknesses pointed out at the time of nomination, he is dominating the league with a unique play style that puts his own strengths first. The synergy effect derived from Yokichi is so great that even the saying ‘It can change the league trend like Stephen Curry’ is coming out.
The most outstanding part of Jokic’s play is his wide field of view and high BQ, leading reading and passing abilities. Often, a big man who is good at playing to save his teammates like Yokichi is nicknamed ‘control tower’, and it seems that he is the king of the end game of that type. It is because the center is showing perfect coordination ability to the extent that it is not too much to see the point guard.
Is it because of his unique play style? Recently, Yokichi is often compared to other position legend technicians who are not big men. Many fans say that Jokic’s passing play reminds him of Magic Johnson, the legendary tall point guard who led the Showtime Lakers.
After passing a smaller defender with a behind-the-scenes backdribble, he plays an alley-oop play with a teammate, and after a defensive rebound, a one-bound pass from a distance cuts through the opponent’s defense and the pass is delivered to a teammate under the goal. is exactly the right expression. It’s not just that it’s not fast, but if you watch a kill pass or a no-look pass that sharply stabs your teammates in an empty space while running while controlling the ball after rebounding, you can smell the magic.
The faster you run with the ball, the faster you go. He has a good eye for openings, so if he decides that it is better to solve it himself than to give the ball to his teammates, he dribbles without delay and breaks through the defense to shoot dunks, layups, or even floaters. Since he is a big man, it is inevitable that his dribble is rather high and looks clunky.
However, his ball handling is subtly good, so even in a situation where a marksman sticks tightly or a double team comes in, he often beats the defense with a behind-the-scenes backdribble and succeeds in the attack. He stands out for his play that raises the energy level of his teammates rather than moving a lot himself.
The ‘catapult shot’ and ‘free throw shot’, which are suddenly lowered even after raising the gear, are also powerful. When an attack is successful with a flashy technique, depending on the opponent, there are many cases where the fighting spirit burns, saying, ‘Let’s try it’, but among Yokichi’s attacks, there are many cases where he succeeds in vain, which often discourages him.
In terms of the mental damage the opponent receives, the Yokichi style may be much more powerful(?). Of course, Yokichi didn’t play with such concern, he just took his movements as he always did. Regarding such Yokichi, domestic fans call him ‘a neighborhood type who plays basketball’ and ‘a slow but fast technician’, and his unique form and movements are parodied as a gag concept by various YouTubers abroad.
Many people mention Larry Bird, one of the best small forwards of all time, in that he is a leader-type white technician who solves problems with sense, technique, and passing ability rather than athletic ability. In the case of Bird, he was a player who enjoyed his heyday before the Jordan era, and he was not a player full of splendor and personality like Magic, so his popularity overseas was not high.
This is the reason why their recognition is inferior to Magic among domestic fans even though they were rivals. However, as Yokichi made a big success and showed off his majesty as a non-black player, his old fans centered on his past performance, etc. are being re-examined. He is getting more and more favorable reviews saying that ‘he was a great player in a different sense than black technicians’.
There aren’t many people who watched Bird’s play live, and it’s not easy to find a proper game video because video media wasn’t developed at the time. In the meantime, as Jokichi showed a level of performance that dominated the league, more and more fans speculated that ‘Bird must have played that way too’. Comparison with the 4 major centers, even the summoning of Magic and Bird… , It is the latest that the status of Yokichi, which has risen this season, can be felt through the skin.