No one in the league makes his team better than Nikola Jokic. When on the court, the Nuggets project to win about 45 more games than when Jokic sits—a league best number. According to Cleaning the Glass, they would win 19 games without him in the lineup. The Thunder, meanwhile, would win 57 without Shai: enough to secure them the second seed in the west this year, and the first seed in 2023 and 2024.

Jokic leads SGA in almost every single box score stat despite having much less help. Famously, Jokic has never had a teammate selected for the All-Star Game or for an All-NBA Team while playing with him. It’s not just that Jokic plays while despite a subpar supporting cast, though. He elevates that supporting cast. He has resurrected Russ’ career and turned Christian Braun into the league leader in transition points. He is in a battle for the second seed with DeAndre Jordan and Dario Sarić each averaging double digit minutes. The 9th man on the Thunder, meanwhile, is Alex Caruso.

Think about it like this: Russ and Jokic became the first two teammates to ever have multiple triple doubles in the same game in a single season. During Jokic’s five game absence in March, Russ shot 35% from the field, 26% from three, and had 29 turnovers, essentially 6 per game.

At time of this writing, Jokic boosts his team’s effective field goals percentage by 8.4%, compared to 2.1% for SGA. Jokic increases offensive net rating by 22.2 points per 100 possessions, compared to Shai’s 10.7. Jokic boasts a 39.9% assist rate, compared to Shai’s 28.9%. His usage to assist rate is in the 97th percentile, while Shai’s is in the 8th.

In short, Shai’s teammates are better than Jokic’s. Yet Jokic is putting up historic numbers, and leading Shai in almost every box stat we have. It’s pretty simple, when you think about it. If you put SGA on the Nuggets, are they still in the hunt for the second seed? They may not even be the eighth. The Thunder, meanwhile, demolish opponents whether SGA is playing or not. It’s clear who impacts his teammates most.