CHICAGO – Nuggets All-Star Nikola Jokic doesn’t know quite how to explain his brand of dominance, so he’ll start here.

He doesn’t have the muscles of LeBron James, nor does he have the hops of Giannis Antetokounmpo. What he does have, though, is an inherent advantage over opponents foolish enough to underestimate him.

“Maybe I just put them in that mindset that I cannot do anything,” Jokic told The Denver Post ahead of his second consecutive All-Star appearance in Chicago. “It’s just a mindset that they have about me.”

Not many lumbering 7-footers in NBA history have dominated the game like Jokic, and none with his supposed athletic deficiencies.

At one moment, his passing can unzip a defense. At the next, he can turn into a battering ram inside. Throughout his ascent from an obscure second-round pick in 2014 to All-NBA center, he’s never ceased using the court as his lab. Always tinkering, always experimenting.

“He’s just too good,” said teammate Will Barton. “Don’t matter how you do it, when you do it that effectively and at that high of a level. Nobody can stop it. You’ve seen different players dominate the league in different ways. You’ve seen Larry Bird, he wasn’t the fastest, but he dominated. Magic (Johnson) wasn’t the most athletic, he dominated. Mike (Jordan) didn’t really shoot threes, he dominated. Great players do it in their own different way.”

Through 55 games, Jokic is the only NBA player averaging 20-plus points, 10-plus rebounds and six-plus assists this season. Only six players in history (Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird, Kevin Garnett, Russell Westbrook and Jokic in 2018-19) have ever reached those benchmarks. It’s why Nuggets coach Michael Malone has said he could be Hall-of-Fame bound once he’s done imposing his imprint on the game.

“Any success is good success,” said veteran Paul Millsap, a 14-year champion of fundamentals. “To see him doing what he’s doing, at that size, it’s unbelievable.”

Of course, Jokic would love to be able to glide like Antetokounmpo or leap like Philadelphia center Joel Embiid. It’s just not in his arsenal. Instead, he makes up for his physical limitations by keeping his opponents guessing.

In Denver’s Feb. 5 win over Utah, the Nuggets suited up only seven players and were on the second night of a back-to-back. So Jokic toyed with two-time reigning Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, logging 30 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists, including a game-clinching, one-footed, fadeaway jumper. Only two games before that he hung 39 points on then-Pistons center Andre Drummond.

“You turn on First Take and ESPN and all those times he’ll have a crazy triple double, they may show one clip, but like, I just feel like he should get way more recognition,” said teammate Monte Morris, who served up the assist on Jokic’s dagger in Utah. “Every big that’s supposed to be a so-called defender, he goes out there and handles his business and kills him.

“They’ll post (on social media) a guy who got two points but had a crazy dunk, but won’t post someone who got 31, 20 and 10. If you’re really a basketball guru and watch what he does, it’s crazy. You just gotta watch it…He’s not windmilling on people and stuff like that. He just plays the game the right way and puts up big numbers.”

Jokic’s favorite moment comes when one of his moves, a slow-motion spin or maybe an up-and-under deke, catches an unsuspecting defender off guard. Nothing is more satisfying than when his defender assumes he’s all out of tricks.

“Oh, yeah, that’s the best thing just because it’s kind of fun to see their faces, to see their reactions when you do something good,” he said.

Years ago before Jokic gained a reputation as the best center in the NBA, Barton used to relish watching opponents’ faces — him knowing what was coming, them being blissfully unaware.

“I would be laughing at the other big men because they’re looking like, ‘Man, what the (expletive)? This slow, fat (expletive) is killing us and we have no answer for him,’” Barton said laughing. “But now, it’s pretty much they know what’s coming.”

Highlight worthy or not, it’s an All-Star profile for Jokic, whose basketball purity is one of the most refreshing aspects of his rise to NBA stardom.

“I wish I can do all those things, but I can do something else,” Jokic said. “I’m trying to be the best I can be in what I do…It’s a compromise.”