NBA - Main

I'm with you on Jokic as an all time passer but I think it's wrong to say he does nothing or is just scanning and then gets a pass out of nowhere. That's certainly how it looks but a lot of comes as a result of fooling defenders with his eyes or directing his teammates where to go, sometimes possessions in advance. And especially nowadays, teams are very much reacting to his dominant ability to score which opens up more passing options as a result. It's pretty hard to evaluate passing in isolation to a players other skills sometimes because in theory a player could be the best passer in the world but if they're not good enough as a dribbler/scorer/shooter, you might never see it because they rarely generate an advantage. So ironically, as Jokic has gotten better as a scorer, I've been somewhat less impressed with him as a passer because it's easier now.

That all said, I remember thinking even in 2018 or 2019 that he was the best passer I've ever seen in terms of the creativity and the advantages he creates with his passes, and it's cool to see consensus approach that.

One other thing that's interesting to me about thinking about passing as opposed to most other skills over time is that there are ways in which it's gotten much easier, as teams take more threes and players are much more spread out on the court. Magic could pinpoint passes to teammates in the paint even with 7 or 8 other guys in there and nobody has to do that anymore.