CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Nikola Jokic played himself into the conversation as the best young player in the NBA this season. It may have even been fair to call the Nuggets' 21-year-old big man an All-Star snub. He finished the season averaging 16.7 points, 9.8 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game.

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The Serbian's transition to America, on the basketball, court came quickly, and his life off it has followed suit, largely through the influence of a veteran who is 16 years older than him to the day.

It's easy to see just how close Jokic and 17-year NBA journeyman Mike Miller have grown. As Jokic warmed up before a late-season game against the Hornets at Spectrum Center, it was Miller who challenged him to a game of one-on-one. That's something they do before every game.

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"He usually beats me pretty good," Miller told Sporting News. "We have fun, it gets him loose and in the right frame of mind."

Miller's game isn't what it once was, and even at that, his playing style was never suited for attacking the rim against a 7-foot monster. He still got the best of though, prompting the opposing fans to cheer on the meaningless game before the real one began. "Seventeen years, still living off the jumper, brother."

The respect the two have for each other is apparent. Miller is often the first person to greet him coming out of a timeout. It has been that way since Jokic can remember.

"He came to me first," Jokic said. "I was young, I was a rookie (in 2015-16) and didn’t want to talk, and I didn’t want to mess with anybody. But he talked to me. To be honest, when I first met him I thought he was a little bit weird. But he’s real cool, a veteran, a leader, someone to look in front of you."

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Both laughed off questions about Miller being a mentor. That isn't what this friendship is.

"I call him 'dad,' like, 'basketball dad,'" Jokic said, laughing off the age gap.

He's almost like a family member to the Millers at this point. Mille said he thinks his kids, ages 14, 12 and 5, talk to Jokic more than he does.

"Jaelyn, Maverick, Mason, and Jennifer, his wife," Jokic said with with a smile. "I know his family, we’re really good friends. Probably my best friend in America."

It's high praise and Jokic means every bit of it. Miller is there for him on and off the court, something Jokic needed in his first years in the United States.

"I don’t know how to describe the things he’s done for me," Jokic said. "When I miss a couple of shots, he’s going to say, ‘Shoot more, you’re going to make it. You’re good.’ He just gives me confidence. You see him yelling at me when I’m on the court to do the right thing. It’s really easy to have eyes on the bench who’s playing for me."

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Miller holds high expectations for Jokic. He knows just how good he can be, because he has played with two brothers who are just like him.

"He has a lot of Marc [Gasol] in him," Miller said, "because he can go a whole game and dominate it with eight points and 14 rebounds and 12 assists. He can go like Pau [Gasol] and give you 30 and 20. Now that Marc is stretching the floor like that, [Jokic] is also stretching the floor like that. He’s just a special player."

The Nuggets see in Jokic what Miller does, and they've cleared the way for him to grow. They dealt Jusuf Nurkic, who was competing for Jokic's minutes, to the Trail Blazers in February.

In the 26 games after the trade, Jokic averaged 1.2 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists more in 3.5 additional minutes. He became the centerpiece in what was the league's second-best offense by adjusted efficiency rating after the All-Star break.

With a core so young, this team is already becoming his, something almost no one saw that coming from a player who was viewed much differently in the NBA Draft than high picks like the Sixers' Joel Embiid and the Timberwolves' Karl-Anthony Towns were.

"They were top picks, and he was the 41st pick (in 2014)," Miller said. "Us being in Denver doesn’t help, Minnesota doesn’t help Karl, but Philadelphia is a pretty big market, they love basketball. Eyes aren’t on guys when they’re the 41st pick. He had a lot to prove."

Before the media surrounded Jokic after his sixth triple-double of the season, Miller dapped him up and told him to call him later as he headed to the first team bus. It's an improbable friendship between two men a generation apart.