The Nuggets Have Made Nikola Jokić’s Life More Simple

Denver is no longer requiring the two-time MVP to shoulder a massive burden. Could it lead to a title?

In the history of the NBA, only two players who have won multiple MVPs have never made it to the NBA Finals. One is Steve Nash, who lost three times in the conference finals in a six-year span with the Suns, including both times he won the award.

The other is Nikola Jokić, who has won only five postseason games the last two years during his back-to-back MVP campaigns. The short playoff runs are indicative of the injury-laden rosters The Joker had to reluctantly carry for Denver. This season, Jokić’s numbers may not be at his MVP pace, but that’s arguably the best sign for the Nuggets’ championship prospects. That’s because, with the returns and additions of key contributors, Denver is no longer requiring Jokić to shoulder a massive burden. The result is a formula that could finally help the Nuggets reach their full potential.

“I just thought it would be a good fit for me, personally,” says Bruce Brown when asked how he ended up with the Nuggets. Denver has not typically been a destination for high-profile free agents or even role players looking for a championship chase. While Brown wasn’t exactly the type of player teams cleared cap space for years in advance, his services made sense for numerous franchises in the offseason. After all, who wouldn’t want a versatile defender who shot 40.4% from three last season, has valuable playoff experience and has shown a willingness to adjust his game around superstars?

“Initially, we were surprised we were even in the market for him because we had his valuation a lot higher,” says GM Calvin Booth, who signed Brown to a two-year deal (with a player option) worth slightly over $13 million. “Bruce, being a competitor, feeling he was undervalued, wanted a chance to get on a winning team. We both saw a natural fit. Luckily for us, Bruce saw a vision for him playing for our team.”

Brown, whose signing Booth says was a “watershed moment” for the franchise due to the number of suitors he had, was one of two incredibly shrewd acquisitions made by Denver’s front office in the offseason. The other was the addition of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the sharpshooting wing who was acquired from the Wizards in a trade along with Ish Smith. That deal cost the Nuggets two steady rotational pieces in Monte Morris and Will Barton. Still, the additions of Brown and KCP signified how the Nuggets were determined to get Jokić the help he needed to make that elusive Finals run. They are the type of moves teams have to get right when dealing with high-level talent. And so far, both have proven to be perfect fits.

“To win it, you have to have high IQ players and positional size,” Booth says about a championship formula. “It’s pretty much a copycat league. You see the teams having success, and you try to emulate that as much as possible. There’s only a number of ways you can realistically go about it. Getting better defensively, having guys that can play in different areas of the floor, that was the goal for us.”

Booth is right in that the winning formula is seemingly not complicated, but much easier said than done. It starts with finding players who can shoot and defend. And then finding the ones that specifically complement your stars. For the Bucks, that may mean finding ball-handlers who are particularly rugged defensively. For the Warriors, that may mean finding vets comfortable playing in Steve Kerr’s motion-heavy offense.

The Nuggets, after their dispiriting five-game loss to the Warriors in the first round, clearly needed help on the perimeter. The team was at a loss trying to slow down Golden State’s three-guard lineups, and Jokić needed assistance covering up his defensive shortcomings, which Stephen Curry was especially primed to attack.

Brown and KCP provide that exact perimeter help in spades. Brown is adept at guarding top scorers, regardless of their size. With the Nets, he typically took the toughest defensive assignment, guarding the likes of Jayson Tatum and Khris Middleton. What he lacks in height at times he makes up for in physicality, getting under bigger players and making their lives uncomfortable.

Caldwell-Pope was a key cog in the 2020 Lakers team that won a championship, taking on perimeter players of his own, including his current teammate Jamal Murray in that year’s Western Conference finals.

“Relentless” is how KCP remembers those Nuggets. He was impressed by the fight the team had shown that year coming back from multiple 3–1 deficits. And he says that series between Denver and Los Angeles was also a fight the whole time. Now, Caldwell-Pope is bringing that championship experience to the Nuggets and, as the title-winning vet, preaching “togetherness.”

“That was the word that was always on our board that season,” KCP says of the year he won a ring. “We have to build that chemistry and play for each other. No one is better than the next person. We know that Jokić is the MVP, we all have to fill in those gaps and play our roles to a T.”

Both Brown and KCP have thrived in their roles so far this season. Brown says he signed with the Nuggets in large part because they actually wanted him to play guard again, his natural position as opposed to the screener, faux-big role he played in Brooklyn. Brown, the team’s sixth man, has played 49% of his minutes at either shooting or point guard so far this season, per Cleaning the Glass. His last two years in Brooklyn, he played 96% and 97% of his time at one of the forward positions.

The positional alignment seems to have worked. In late November, Brown became the first Nugget other than Jokić to record a triple double since Andre Iguodala in 2013. In the second game of the season, he dropped 20 points in a win over the Warriors starting in place of Murray. And he’s guarded players all over the floor. Meanwhile, KCP has started every game and is part of a starting lineup that would be the Nuggets’ best both in terms of net rating and defensive efficiency since 2019, the first year a Jokić-led club made the playoffs.

Brown is shooting 40.3% on a career-high 3.4 attempts a night. And Caldwell-Pope basically turns into fire whenever he touches a basketball, converting a ludicrous 49.5% of his 4.6 threes a game. Thanks in part to the returns of Murray and Michael Porter Jr. as well, Denver is second in the NBA in catch-and-shoot three-point percentage behind only the Celtics. The Nuggets are also second in three-point percentage overall after finishing a middling 16th last season. With all the attention Jokić draws offensively, knockdown shooters are a must for Denver. A quarter into the season, the new perimeter prowess has earned the Nugs the third-best offense in the NBA.

Jokić can now also play a style of basketball more suitable to his tastes. His points per game are their lowest since 2020, which is almost certainly his preference. Instead, he’s averaging a career-high in both assists (8.9) and field-goal percentage (62.9). As the burden has decreased, Jokić’s efficiency has improved.

The question is whether the new formula will be enough to lift Jokić. The two-time MVP is now 27 years old, entering his championship prime. And so far, he’s escaped the kind of legacy conversations that have surrounded the likes of LeBron or Giannis at similar times in their careers.

“When you look at those guys you named, maybe Giannis beat it by a year or two, all of them won for the first time around the stage of career Joker is now,” Booth says about his confidence Jokić can enter the stratosphere of champions. “I think he’s already established himself as a player that impacts winning the same way those guys do.”

Entering December, the Nuggets are seventh in net rating and one game out of first place in the West. Overall, the defense is still lacking, coming in at 24th overall, though it’s been much better with Jokić on the floor, a sign that the pieces meant to complement him specifically are working. The starting lineup of Murray, MPJ, KCP, Aaron Gordon and Jokić has a defensive rating of 101.6, which is the best of any Nuggets lineup that has played at least 170 minutes together so far this season. (That group trails only the Warriors’ starting five in net rating based on the 170-minute mark.)

While there are title expectations that come with having the two-time reigning MVP, Booth says he doesn’t feel that pressure himself. (He says catching a bullet pass from Joker and hitting a three is more difficult than building out his roster.) Going forward, he says it’s in the hands of the coaches and players to execute the vision the franchise came up with in the summer. With Jokić not currently on the path to win MVP and the team still thriving, so far that vision has come to fruition. 

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