Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic has been widely regarded as the best player in the NBA for a couple of years now, but Danny Green doesn’t even have him in his top 3 right now. Green and Paul Pierce shared their lists of the three best players in the NBA on the latest episode of the No Fouls Given podcast, and while the latter had Jokic in there, the former did not.
“Giannis [Antetokounmpo] right now is in there, for me,” Green said. “… [Victor Wembanyama] is a offensive and defensive player. He Defensive Player of the Year, and he scoring 3o… So like, I’m now leaving Jokic out. I’m putting [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander], Wemby, and Giannis. And he’s leading the league in triple-doubles to start the season.”
Pierce had Victor Wembanyama and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on his list, too, with the only difference being Jokic getting in instead of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Leaving any of these four out of the list seems ridiculous at this point, but someone has to make way.
That someone is Jokic for Green. As the three-time NBA champion pointed out, the Serb is racking up triple-doubles for fun at the start of this 2025-26 season.
Jokic is just the third player in NBA history to record a triple-double in each of the first four games of a campaign. The 30-year-old is averaging 20.3 points, 14.5 rebounds, 11.3 assists, 2.0 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game for the Nuggets so far.
Jokic’s scoring average is down significantly (29.6 points per game in 2024-25), but that’s just because he’s taking a backseat. The three-time MVP is putting up only 14.0 shots per game and is content with just running the show at the moment.
The approach is leading to success as well, as the Nuggets are off to a 3-1 start. It’s not the best among this group, though.
Gilgeous-Alexander has his Oklahoma City Thunder off to a perfect 6-0 start. The reigning MVP has been on a tear too, averaging 34.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game. This usually would have been enough for Gilgeous-Alexander to be the clear favorite for MVP, but that’s not necessarily the case thanks to a certain Frenchman.
Wembanyama has led the San Antonio Spurs to a 5-0 start to this season and has looked terrifyingly good. He is putting up 30.2 points, 14.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.4 steals, and 4.8 blocks per game. Wembanyama is going to win Defensive Player of the Year if he plays 65 games, and we have him at the top of our MVP power rankings at this point as well.
Lastly, we get to Antetokounmpo, who is one of five players in NBA history to have won MVP and DPOY. The Greek Freak has the Milwaukee Bucks off to a 4-1 start with a far weaker supporting cast than that of the three other superstars mentioned here.
Antetokounmpo is averaging 36.3 points, 14.0 rebounds, 7.0 assists, 0.8 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game for the Bucks. He is shooting 69.5% from the field, which is quite outrageous.
So, you can make extremely strong arguments for any of these four to be in the top three. They are all playing at an incredibly high level, and we should be grateful that we get to see them in action on a nightly basis. We haven’t seen any of them face off against each other yet this season, and it should be quite a spectacle when they do get to lock horns.
