Jokic fared really well as rookie

The Nikola Jokic-Michael Malone relationship was one of the most fun to watch on the Nuggets this past season.

Jokic, a 20year-old going through his first year in America, became Jokic almost

like a son to Malone, the Nuggets’ first-year coach. They were always talking, joking and clearly enjoying each other’s company.

In addition, the Nuggets clearly enjoyed how Jokic played.

He was one of the NBA’s best rookies, ranking among the top 10 for first-year players in points (10.0), rebounds (7.0), steals (0.99), efficiency (15.5), offensive rebounds (2.3), fieldgoal percentage (.512), freethrow percentage (.811) and minutes (21.7).

Jokic said he has a long list of items he needs to work on this summer.

“My body,” he said. “I’m going to take care of my body to get stronger. I’m going to work on my midrange jump shot. I’m going to work on my post moves. I’m going to work on my defense; I need to improve my defense. As Coach says, defense is our best offense.”

Offense. Offensively, there wasn’t a situation Jokic couldn’t handle or at least figure out. He ranked among the NBA’s top 20 percent in points per possession (1.006) and was the Nuggets’ best post-up player.

The Nuggets love his basketball IQ , and that showed up in how Malone deployed him. Jokic had 10 percent or more usage rates in spot-up shots, putbacks, cuts, pick-and-rolls and post-ups, a testament to his versatility. In screen-and-roll situations, he was much more comfortable popping out and taking a jump shot than rolling hard to the rim. As he gets stronger, expect him to be a much bigger threat going to the rim.

Jokic’s ability to pass the ball made him invaluable. The Nuggets ran plays through him because of his awareness of where to make the right pass. He had one of the better assist-to-turnover ratios on the team (1.82).

Jokic needs to continue to refine his jump shot and must work to improve his left-handed shooting. On many occasions, he would do everything he could to stay with his right hand in post-ups. Developing his left hand will make him even harder to guard on the block.

Defense/turnovers. Metrics showed Jokic to be one of the Nuggets’ best defensive players. Of the players who finished the season with the team, Jokic had the best defensive rating (102.9).

He was smart when guarding bigs in the pick-and-roll. When involved in those plays, opponents shot just 42 percent and turned the ball over 18.9 percent of the time, according to Synergy statistics. Jokic showed better footwork than most thought he had, and that helped him become very good defending isolation plays.

Jokic had a stellar rookie season overall.

“I didn’t expect to play this good,” said Jokic, a secondround pick in the 2014 draft. “I wanted to play hard. I wanted to do everything that Coach asked me to do, and that’s how I need to play.”