{"id":46582,"date":"2025-05-21T02:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T02:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/46582\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T02:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T02:00:09","slug":"george-karls-plan-to-save-nikola-jokics-nuggets-title-window","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/46582\/","title":{"rendered":"George Karl’s plan to save Nikola Jokic’s Nuggets title window"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA\u2019s Mount Olympus comes with a two-trophy cover charge.<\/a><\/p>\n

Bill Russell notched 11 titles. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar got six. Tim Duncan landed five. Shaquille O\u2019Neal won four. Hakeem Olajuwon and Wilt Chamberlain? Two apiece.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Nuggets kind of drive me a little crazy,\u201d George Karl, the Hall of Fame basketball coach whose resume includes three division titles in Denver from 2004-2013<\/a>, said of Nikola Jokic when I called him Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got the best player in the game of basketball and I want him \u2026 \u00a0I mean, I want a Nuggets championship for Denver, yes. But I really want (Jokic) to be recognized with what I think as one of the top 10 players of all time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if he doesn\u2019t win another championship, I don\u2019t know if he\u2019ll get that recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karl is one of us. Even as a Pirates fan, he wouldn\u2019t mind seeing somebody else buy the Rockies. He wants the best for the Joker, because the Joker is the best he\u2019s ever seen here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Or, for that matter, just about anywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a blessing (to have him),\u201d Karl continued. \u201cI said this a few years before he won the MVP. He\u2019s a blessing for the city of Denver to have such a gifted basketball player. Year in and year out, he\u2019s gotten a little bit better and played with a great, humble attitude. It\u2019s truly like he and Tim Duncan are kindred spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nuggets aren\u2019t in a pickle. They\u2019re in a hoagie of hurt, sandwiched between two of the deepest teams in the NBA right now.<\/a> While Oklahoma City and Minnesota are tussling in a steel cage match to reach the NBA Finals, Chopper Circle is without a general manager, without a head coach, without a draft pick in 2025, and without much cap space.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I would pick his brain,\u201d Karl said of Jokic. \u201cNot only is (Joker) a (generational) basketball talent \u2014 he\u2019s a very bright player, a very intelligent basketball player. And I think (I\u2019d) want to be getting him revved up and juiced up for next year, to support whatever changes they make. I\u2019d still do whatever (he) wanted me to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d follow Jokic\u2019s counsel. Then I\u2019d hire a GM first and let that GM pick his coach and pick his vision. Because roster management is going to get messy, even in a best-case scenario.<\/p>\n

Changes to the NBA\u2019s collective bargaining agreement, as we\u2019ve learned the hard way, make keeping the so-called \u201cmiddle class\u201d of your roster harder \u2014 especially if you\u2019re rewarding your stars\/starters.<\/p>\n

Over the last two years, the Nuggets have lost championship-winning support pieces in Bruce Brown (Indiana), Jeff Green (Houston) and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (Orlando) to free agency.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the Nuggets, per Spotrac, have committed almost $163 million in \u201925-26 cap salary to Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon.<\/a> The projected cut line for the NBA\u2019s second apron, meanwhile, is $207.8 million next season.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s precious little wiggle room for any GM, experienced or otherwise. The only way to create any serious flexibility now would be to move one of those \u201ccore four<\/a>\u201d contracts, or to convince a team to take on Zeke Nnaji\u2019s $8.1 million cap hit for next season. Either way, Godspeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Nuggets fan, I have my opinions,\u201d Karl continued. \u201cI\u2019m very frustrated that, for almost seven years, maybe eight years, the only time they\u2019ve had a good bench was the year they won (the title in \u201923).<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I love good benches. I think the bench is really important to a small-market team. Denver, over the last two or three years, and now with (Christian) Braun coming on, their starting five is a top 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that depth \u2014 the game, because the game has gotten faster and more finesse-oriented, the game evolves and it comes in different packages. And OKC and Minnesota \u2026 making the finals and the two L.A. teams and Phoenix and Dallas and Golden State and Denver, they\u2019re all gone. Geez. \u2018Did we fall back? Or did they move up?’\u201d<\/p>\n

The mixed blessings run a Mile High. Tim Connelly and Calvin Booth left their successors a good team with key pieces in place. Yet they also locked those pieces into the point where there\u2019s almost no easy way to course-correct if one of those pieces gets hurt or seriously underachieves. The S.S. Nuggets are set to autopilot, wheels locked. Which is fine, until the icebergs start looming past the starboard bow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis team has plateaued a little bit,\u201d Karl said. \u201cMaybe going the wrong way. And they\u2019re competing in the Western Conference, which is incredibly competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

And unforgiving. In being eliminated by the Timberwolves last spring and the Thunder this year, it feels as if the Nuggets might\u2019ve hit a wall. Can they somehow keep a window open at the same time?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a line of talent you have to go to in the NBA,\u201d Karl continued. \u201cAnd then it comes down to making the puzzle and the chemistry work and fit. And I\u2019ve always sided with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh (Kroenke) and whoever the leaders for the team become, they\u2019ve got to figure out what fits with Jokic. It\u2019s not talent. You (don\u2019t) go get talent and say it\u2019s going to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have the most talented player in the game of basketball today (in Jokic). He makes players play the right way and makes them better. Go get guys that fit around him and make him a little better. And make his job a little bit easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA\u2019s Mount Olympus comes with a two-trophy cover charge. Bill Russell notched 11 titles. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar got…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[877,7,6850,4187,301,187,3943,6507,5245,292,113,762,10569,615,865,165,764,307,252,6,1220,253,302,4097,310,47,4098,1302,66,198,3994,1674,574,4714],"class_list":{"0":"post-46582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-bruce-brown","11":"tag-calvin-booth","12":"tag-denver","13":"tag-denver-nuggets","14":"tag-denvernuggets","15":"tag-george-karl","16":"tag-hall-of-fame","17":"tag-houston","18":"tag-indiana","19":"tag-jamal-murray","20":"tag-jeff-green","21":"tag-kareem-abdul-jabbar","22":"tag-kentavious-caldwell-pope","23":"tag-latest-headlines","24":"tag-michael-porter","25":"tag-minnesota","26":"tag-more-nuggets-news","27":"tag-nba","28":"tag-nba-finals","29":"tag-nikola-jokic","30":"tag-nuggets","31":"tag-nuggets-takes","32":"tag-oklahoma","33":"tag-orlando","34":"tag-sean-keeler","35":"tag-shaquille-oneal","36":"tag-sports","37":"tag-sports-columnists","38":"tag-tim-connelly","39":"tag-tim-duncan","40":"tag-western-conference","41":"tag-zeke-nnaji"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}