Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is the proverbial gentle giant in the NBA. He's a superstar whose reserved demeanor is a pleasant contradiction to the loud game he brings every night for his team. Having said that, that's not stopped people from taking shots at him and trying to reduce his on-court brilliance.

For Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, most of the criticism that Nikola Jokic is getting is nothing but a clear sign of how the Serbian has completely dominated the league.

“Maybe they're just tired of this player, this non-athletic player from Sombor, Serbia who continues to kick everybody's ass. Maybe people have a hard time with that. I don't know,” Malone said in light of some controversial takes which recently come at the forefront of basketball discussions, per Harrison Wind of  DNVR_Sports.

Nikola Jokic is indeed a force in the NBA. He has simply been unsolvable, with teams struggling to find a way to contain him. So far this season, Jokic is averaging 24.6 points per game on an absurd 63.3 percent shooting from the field and 39.8 percent shooting from behind the arc.

He is also recording 11.7 rebounds and 10.0 assists per game, putting him on pace to finish the 2022-23 NBA regular season with a triple-double average — and an efficient one at that.  Jokic is carrying an offensive rating of 124.8 and to go with a 66.1 effective field goal percentage and 70.3 true shooting percentage, which are either the best or No. 2 on the team regardless of minutes or games played this season.