u can give Jokic the edge in passing and shooting all I know is that I doubt players will be asking to train with retired Jokic over the summer like they’ve done with Hakeem
I understand Jokic is super skilled, but it's not really close. Jokic is a better passer and 3 point shooter. Despite being a better passer, Hakeem had such gravity that he just needed to make a simple pass to the open man around the 3 point line to net an equal result as Jokic's "make something out of nothing" passes.
This is like going to trailer park with a bullhorn and announcing "Walmart sucks!" just blasphemy....
And it's not really even fair to give him credit for being a better 3 point shooter, because in Hakeem's era there was no value placed on bigs being able to hit threes. If there were, does anyone in the world doubt he could have mastered it? He was an excellent free throw shooter.
Forget about Hakeem... Jokic is even nowhere close to Dirk Nowitzki as of now..and Nowitzki was arguably better skilled, better shooter than Jokic.
Jokic is historically great offensively, so yeah he's probably more skilled offensively than Hakeem, and that's not a knock on Hakeem. But looking at the overall game, Hakeem has more to offer. He's an all time great on both ends of the court. Dude, Hakeem would FEAST in this era.
The first thing I think of when I think of basketball skill is shooting, passing, and dribbling. Jokic clearly wins on those. Foot work is also a skill, as is timing on shot blocking and getting deflections. Shot making on mid-range fadeaways as well. Hakeem wins there. Hakeem was awesome on the jump hooks too -- not sure how good Jokic is at that. Hakeem was an athletic unicorn, and Jokic clearly isn't. It was the way Hakeem blended his athleticism, skill, and instincts that made him so potent.
If the underlying reason is that nothing about defense constitutes as a skill, OK fine. Problem is, defense is also a collection of skills and no matter how you cut it, there is not a single defensive skill where Jokic lags far behind Dream.
