Few can claim to have played with two all-time greats in LeBron James and Nikola Jokic, but Kentavious Caldwell-Pope can say that they have. Caldwell-Pope was a starter on the 2020 Los Angeles Lakers and the 2023 Denver Nuggets, both of whom coincidentally beat the other in the Western Conference Finals in those seasons.
LeBron and Jokic are two of the best passers the NBA has ever seen, especially with their size, and they make life a lot easier for their teammates with their high IQs and ability to create openings. Caldwell-Pope has benefited greatly from playing with both of them and sees a lot of similarities between them.
Caldwell-Pope recently appeared on The Draymond Green Show and thanked LeBron and Jokic for making the game a lot easier and his career great by playing with them on the Lakers and Nuggets respectively:
“You see Bron on the ball most of the time, he brings the ball up, even though Jokic can do the same thing, point five. Both of those guys, man, they demand attention the minute they put the ball in play and I just took that as a cue. I knew those guys were going to have so much attention on them and either I was going to get an open shot or we were going to create an open shot and now the defense has to move because somebody’s open… Which made it so much easier, and that’s why I say I don’t see a difference between the two of them, their IQs are off the charts. They can shoot, they have a complete game. I would say for me, what made my career great was that they were ready to pass the ball when you got open. No matter what type of pass it is, if you got open, they’re going to try to pass it to you. All I had to do was be ready to shoot.” Kudos to those two guys, they made my career better later in my years. They my brothers.”
While there are certainly physical differences between the two, the similarities in how they see the game and control everything with their vision and passing certainly stand out. For Caldwell-Pope, it’s their willingness and ability to pass the ball with either hand from any angle and from any spot on the pitch that makes all the difference.
At this point, as he said, all Caldwell-Pope has to do is be ready to shoot when the ball comes and he always is, which is why he was an integral part of the Lakers and Nuggets’ championship runs.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope believes Lakers should have beaten Nuggets in 2024 playoffs
Sure, the Lakers and Nuggets have met several times in the playoffs recently, with last season’s first-round series ending in a five-game victory for Denver. But the series was extremely close, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope believes the Lakers probably should have won.
Caldwell-Pope recently revealed that The Nuggets felt the Lakers should have beaten them last seasonnoting that they were ahead at halftime in every game. The Lakers also led by double digits in three of their four losses, but simply weren’t able to hold on and while most would simply say the better team won, apparently even the winners aren’t sure that’s the case.
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