Nikola Jokic Rumors

The first day of the Round of 16 at FIBA EuroBasket 2025 ended with the tournament's biggest surprise. Heavy favorites Serbia, led by three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, were upset by Finland 92-86 and eliminated. For the second EuroBasket in a row, Serbia's campaign ended in the Round of 16. In 2022, they were knocked out by Italy, 94–86. This means Jokic remains without a EuroBasket medal.

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Lauri Markkanen scored 29 points (8/24 FG) to take down Jokic and Serbia, but the hero of the day could also be called Elias Valtonen with eight straight clutch points at the end of the fourth quarter. Nikola Jokic had 33 points (9/13 FG) and eight rebounds for Serbia, but that was not enough. He and Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic combined for 53 out of Serbia's 86 points in the game.

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In the biggest Eurobasket upset so far, the Olympic bronze medalist Serbia is out of the tournament after losing to Finland, and coach Svetislav Pesic explained why a key point, which was among the biggest concerns of the scouting, decided the outcome. As he said in the press conference: “Congratulations to Finland. We knew before the game how the Finnish team is playing: energy, transition, shooting, and offensive rebounds”.

EuroHoops.net

The last two words are the most important, as Pesic elaborated: “They are the best team in offensive rebounds per tournament, 16 per game, and tonight they got 20. So it’s an opponent that we could not underestimate. We didn’t find a solution for the offensive rebounds, so we lost the game despite Finland shooting 41% and they ended up having 92 points”. Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic echoed his coach: “We didn’t come to the game ready, it starts from me as the youngest one. I was not ready from the jump. As the coach said, they got 20 offensive rebounds, which is unacceptable. We were prepared well, we watched the film, but they were more physical than us. They simply had more shots. They are more aggressive, more humble, so what else can I say?”.

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EuroHoops: End of the tournament for Nikola Jokic and Serbia #Eurobasket

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EuroHoops: 🇷🇸😲 Serbia has been eliminated in back-to-back #EuroBasket tournaments in the Round of 16, scoring exactly 86 points each time!

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Vassilis Spanoulis: “At least to times, he should have been awarded unsportmanlike fouls, and we have to face everybody with the same criteria. If we face Luka, Jokic, and Sengun, Markkanen, like this, we have to face Giannis the same way. Just 12 free throws are few for Giannis; he could have had another 10 for sure. We have a team in which we respect everybody, and first of all, me, as a person, I respect a lot coach Scariolo and Spain, which has accomplished amazing things over the last 15 years, but I have to be fair with myself and the game, and to say the truth”.

EuroHoops.net

On the final day of group play in Riga, the much-anticipated duel between Alperen Sengun and Nikola Jokic lived up to the hype, showcasing two of EuroBasket’s brightest stars. Both big men delivered a spectacular performance, but Sengun proved decisive down the stretch, leading Turkey to a 95-90 victory over the three-time NBA MVP and his Serbian team.

EuroHoops.net

So give us a bit of a behind the scenes look if you can. What's the rating system like? How do you guys go about putting together ratings? Ronnie 2K: Yeah, there's 30 some-odd mini ratings and mini attributes that get cooked into a formula, and it's based purely on performance on the court. In some cases, it's based on, like the young guys, right? We don't have a ton of sample information of them playing against other NBA people. So their's can kind of dramatically increase or decrease based on performance as you would expect and then the people that have been in the league for 10 or 15 years. It's a little bit more sticky, right? Like they're rating is kind of what you would expect. LeBron and Steph. I think they're both down one point from last year. People like Giannis and Jokic have stayed about the same. You would expect that, but like somebody like Cade Cunningham, whose in year three or four and missed a good chunk of the early parts in his career just jumped up six points. [Victor Wembanyama] hen we jumped up six points, so there's a lot of people that are going to grow.

Clutch Points

The the most controversial ratings list I've seen so far is the mid-range jumpers list. That one, a lot of people seemed to react to it with Nikola Jokic being number one, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander technically being ranked fifth and then Kawhi Leonard not being ranked anywhere in that top ten. Ronnie 2K: Yeah, let me talk about that. I think a lot of people see things in terms of volume or feel and both of those are wrong. What it really is based off of is per-36 or whatever metric that we have that's based on how often they're shooting it and how successful they are shooting it. I saw this example: I think if you look at the three-point list, it's actually even more relevant. You have Isaiah Joe, who's not even a starter on the Thunder, gets about 20 minutes and I think he's 5th on that list or something like that. You're like why and it's because his per-36 numbers are behind only Stephen Curry percentage-wise and in terms of volume, he shoots I think he makes like five every 36 minutes or something like that uh so yeah a lot of it's based on on per-36 as opposed to like pure volume.

Clutch Points

On top of that, Nikola Jovic gets to share the floor with the Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic. The Heat forward admits that spending the summer with Jokic is an immense experience. "I learned a lot from him, offensively and defensively," Jovic told BasketNews. "Playing with him is just easy. He's the best player in the world. He knows what he's doing." "If you're in the right spot at the right moment, he'll find you. So it's easy to play with him. He's so smart, so talented that it's really easy to play with him," Jovic added.

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Unbeaten Serbia got the 82-60 win over winless Czech Republic with Aleksa Avramovic having 14 points, Filip Petrusev 13 points, and Nikola Milutinov adding 12, while Nikola Jokic (6 p., 7 r., 4 as.) getting some rest. Vasa Micic got an injury scare, but coach Svetislav Pesic and Micic himself, speaking to Serbian television, confirmed that he is ready to go, so the issue at the press conference was the upcoming game against Turkey.

EuroHoops.net

who you think is the greatest basketball player of all time? Michael Porter Jr: Um... I’m going Nikola Jokic. The reason I say that is because he could have won MVP five years in a row. Can you name another player that could’ve won MVP five years?

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The Serbian national team received bad news prior to the game against hosts Latvia in Riga, as a hamstring injury kept Bogdan Bogdanovic on the sidelines. However, Nikola Jokic took care of business with one of the best performances in Serbian national team history, leading the charge to a 84:80 victory. Serbia kept its perfect record, improving to 3-0, as Nikola Jokic recorded a double-double with 39 points and 10 rebounds, breaking a scoring record for his national team at the European Championships.

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