Can Nikola Jokic surpass John Stockton in career assists? Projecting the rest of the Joker's career

Nikola Jokic is arguably the best player in the NBA right now. He's the reigning MVP and leading the charge in the MVP ladder for the upcoming 2025 award. Jokic is known to be a triple-double machine. He can score, grab rebounds, and dish the ball to teammates. With that kind of skillset, the Joker could break a few records.

Considering the elite performances he gives out on a nightly basis, let's break down whether Nikola Jokic could surpass John Stockton in career assists.

Note: This article reflects the opinions of the writer solely. Readers should take this article with a grain of salt.

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Looking at the trajectory of Nikola Jokic's ball distribution

As mentioned earlier, Nikola Jokic is a triple-double machine. That means he's equally efficient in scoring, rebounding and distributing the basketball, which makes Jokic one of the best passers in the NBA today.

This season, the Joker is averaging 9.5 assists per game for the Denver Nuggets. He has 4,293 career assists, including 256 this season. Averaging his total assists per season before the ongoing one, Jokic is dishing out 518.5 per campaaign.

Looking at John Stockton's all-time record, he holds the record with 15,806 assists. Nikola Jokic is turning 30 in February. If he remains healthy and plays for a while, he might play for another 10 years.

Now let's do some maths: Jokic is projected to come up with approximately 5,185 more assists in the next 10 seasons, going by his season average. That should bring his total assists to 9,478 by the time he ends his career, which would be 6,328 shy of Stockton's record. Based on the Joker's current season average, it would take him another 10 seasons to break the record, meaning he would have to play until 50, which seems quite unlikely.

Hence, it seems like an impossible feat for Jokic to break John Stockton's assist record. The best the reigning MVP could achieve is crack the top 10 all time leaderboard.