Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone declared Nikola Jokic as the best center in the league today, and he offered some reasons for his claims.

Malone played down the talks about Jokic's massive body transformation and pointed out that the Nuggets star has been putting in some serious work even before the nearly four-month long hiatus. With that said, he expects the Joke to play at an elite level when the 2019-20 campaign restarts in Orlando.

“He looks great, but I think people are missing a major point here. Nikola had dedicated the last three months prior to the season being suspended to losing weight and getting into the best shape of his life,” Michael Malone said, per Alex Labidou of nuggets.com. “I expect him to play the way how he was playing prior to the league being suspended and come out and play at a very high level. He's the best center in the NBA, why wouldn't he?”

Jokic made the headlines last month when he appeared in public in a skinny and fit form. Prior to that, the 25-year-old big has received some criticism for his weight. Some analysts even claimed that he's terribly out of shape.

Nikola Jokic, however, remained in the headlines after testing positive for the coronavirus. Fortunately, COVID-19 didn't seem to negatively affect his health completely.

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On Tuesday, he finally joined his team in Orlando. Reports reveal that Jokic has been in Orlando since Saturday but had to remain in quarantine per the league's protocol.

The Nuggets hold the third spot in the West with a 43-22 record. They made waves last season when they made it to the Western Conference Semifinals. Now, they will look to improve on that performance and go all the way to the Finals at the Walt Disney World resort.