Nikola Jokić might be shooting himself straight into the GOAT conversation

Before the start of the 2015 NBA Finals, LeBron James was asked how a defense can slow down Stephen Curry, who at the time was about to win his first of two straight league MVPs. 

"The same way you slow me down," James famously said. "You can't."

Indeed, teams have been trying, and failing, to solve the opposing superstar riddle for NBA ages. James was right: you can't stop, or really even slow down, the best of the best when they have it going. And oh my lord did Nikola Jokić have it going Wednesday night when he became just the fourth player in history, and the first this century, to score at 55 points on 78% shooting. 

Somehow, the numbers don't do justice to how unbelievable Jokić was in this game. Of the 18 shots that he made, four hit the rim. Not including four bank shots and a dunk, Jokić connected on nine shots, eight jumpers and a jump hook, outside of the restricted area. Eight of them were swishes, including four of his five 3-pointers. 

His most impressive swish of the night actually wasn't included in that highlight package. Have a look at the touch on this teardrop. 

That is a 7-foot, damn-near 300-pound giant downshifting from full speed to float a first-gear feather over the outstretched fingertips one of the highest-flying athletes in the league. The best players on earth could attempt that shot a hundred times and they wouldn't swish more than 10% of them. Jokic does this stuff regularly. 

Indeed, it's not even about whether Jokić makes his shots anymore. It's about how he makes his shots. A story went around about Curry before he was drafted and how he wouldn't leave the court until he swished five straight free throws. It was presented as an impossible standard to which only the greatest shooter to ever live could be held. But that's the bar we might be at with Jokić, whose touch, from everywhere on the floor, has probably passed his passing as the single-best skill of the best basketball player on the planet. 

The numbers are beyond ridiculous. 

Understanding that it's only been 11 games, those numbers have never even been approached by anyone with anything close to Jokić's shot diet over a full season. These are numbers reserved, historically, for the guys who attempt only dunks and layups. 

Take a look at Jokić's range breakdown, per NBA.com shot tracking. 

These percentages are mind boggling. The guy has made 86 of 110 shots from the touch-range of 0-9 feet. The 15-19 foot range is, analytically speaking, the worst shot in basketball, and Jokić literally hasn't missed from there yet. He's a perfect 7 for 7. 

The 50-40-90 club -- 50% from the field, 40% from 3 and 90% from the free-throw line -- is reserved for the most exclusive shooters in history, but Jokić is on track to start a brand new club on an even higher floor: the 60-40-80 club. No qualifying player, meaning someone who actually takes 3s, has ever approached these numbers. At this rate, it would be surprising if Jokić didn't do it. 

Small sample sizes, sure. But come on. Jokić is averaging 28.8 PPG on just 16.1 shots this season. The only other player in history to hit those marks is Charles Barkley, who did so in 1987-88. The difference? Barkley took almost 12 free throws per game that year. Jokic is taking fewer than six so far this season. These are straight-up buckets at a clip the league has never even come close to seeing. 

Meanwhile, he's also leading the league in rebounds (13.1) assists (10.9) per game while the Nuggets are outscoring their opponents by an average of 15.3 points per game when he's on the floor, also a league-best mark. To say Jokić is the early season MVP favorite is an understatement (+200, per Caesars). 

It's also not nearly enough. Fact is, Jokić would have won the last five MVPs were it not for human voters and their time-honored need for new blood. Just as Michael Jordan should have more than five MVPs and LeBron should have more than four, Jokić should be going for number six this season. If that were the case, it would be easier to start talking about him as possibly the greatest player not just currently or even during this era, but potentially ever. 

That's going to sound dramatic to a lot of people. But it's not. He may never get there in terms of numbers or longevity (although maybe he will; he's only 30), but from a straight up "that's the most all-around skilled basketball player I've ever seen" standpoint, he's making it increasingly difficult to argue against him.

He's already one of the top handful of offensive players in history. That can't even be debated. The simple truth is there has never been a player who could not just beat you, but dominate you, in as many ways as Jokić can. 

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said it after Jokić's 55-point outburst Wednesday night. "Our game plan was to make him score and take away his passing." Broadly speaking, next game someone will try to take away his scoring by sending double teams at him and he'll hit them for 20 assists. On the extremely rare nights that you somehow mange to control his passing and his shots aren't falling, he'll control the game from the glass.

More granularly, it's the different ways he can go about the scoring and passing domination. Put a big on him, as the Clippers did with Ivica Zubac, an All-NBA defender, and he pops out for jumpers and literally runs off pin-down screens like a shooting guard. Put a smaller player on him, and he's the best post-up player in the world. He faces up. Fades away. Cuts. Runs the floor. 

As a passer, he's a DHO hub. A point-center in transition. A high-post pilot. The best players in the world, pretty much in all sports, are typically the best at one or two things. The pitcher with the best fastball isn't supposed to also have the best curveball, slide and changeup. That's Jokić. He's Shaq down low. Magic running point. Kevin Durant as a shooter. 

He is, all at once, the best scorer, passer and rebounder in the world and has been for more than a half decade. And somehow, with these preposterous shooting numbers, he's raising the bar even higher this season.