Nikola Jokic’s incredible cognition breaks NBA website’s scale

For years now, Nikola Jokic has wowed the NBA world with his rare combination of size and skill. When attempting to put it into a numerical value, his basketball IQ is actually off the charts.

Part of why Jokic is one of the league's top superstars is because of his ability to read the game faster than his counterparts. He always seems to be a step ahead mentally, which leads to him picking apart opposing defenses with ease.

In today's age of advanced statistics, player's abilities are constantly broken down to provide some kind of numeric value. Nikola Jokic's brilliance is so ahead of his peers that even numbers don't do it justice.

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Nikola Jokic's basketball IQ breaks chart on notable NBA website

For the fifth consecutive year, Nikola Jokic finds himself front and center in the MVP conversation. He's put together arguably the most dominant regular season campaign of his career, becoming just the third player in history to average a triple-double. Across 70 appearances, the Nuggets star posted averages of 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists.

As he continues to lead the Nuggets on a playoff run, Michael Pina of The Ringer broke down the star big man in a recent column. While breaking down his masterful play, he touched on his chart-breaking basketball IQ.

In recent years, the website CraftedNBA was built to gauge who are the smartest players in the league. The formula accounts for a wide range of factors and then gives each player a numerical value. While speaking on Jokie, the site's creator admitted that had to lessen his number because it was too high.

"But according to the site’s creator, Daniel Kavanaugh, he also breaks the scale. On the site, Jokic’s assessment tops out at 100, but that number is manually lowered so the full scale is easier to understand. He actually grades out at about 117."

Jokic is one of just two players on the site to have a basketball IQ of 100, the other being Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler. Though as mentioned, the Nuggets star is still in a class of his own.

At this stage in his career, Jokic has cemented himself as one of the smartest players to ever play the game. While his passing is another key factor, how he sees things in real time is what makes him such a generational talent.

The Nuggets now find themselves heavily reliant on Jokic and his masterful play as they continue to navigate the postseason.