The injury bug has once again come for the Denver Nuggets, this time taking down its centerpiece. Nikola Jokic went down against Denver\u2019s loss to the Miami Heat one night ago. The good news is that The Joker only suffered a left knee hyperextension and will be re-evaluated in four weeks, leaving Denver fans to breathe a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n
The bad news is that it\u2019s still four weeks without the current MVP frontrunner out of the league. Denver, who was already missing Aaron Gordon, Cameron Johnson, and Christian Braun, will now have to find a way to rally without the man who has carried the franchise on his back.<\/p>\n
And unfortunately, the West has never been more competitive, and teams like Houston, the Lakers, and the Timberwolves already smell blood in the water. One person who is incredibly bummed out by Jokic\u2019s injury is Tracy McGrady. The Hall of Famer spoke on the latest edition of NBA on NBC how big of a hit this will be for not just Denver, but the league as a whole.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my favorite player to watch. If I paid money to watch a player, I\u2019m paying money to watch Jokic. He\u2019s that phenomenal as a basketball player,\u201d began T-Mac. That statement is indeed seconded. Jokic has been lights out this year, particularly in his Christmas Day carry job, when he dropped 50+ points in a triple-double dazzler to lead his team over Minnesota.<\/p>\n
It was here that McGrady dropped the hammer on what this means for the Nuggs, and how the mantle falls to Jamal Murray. \u201cThis is a devastating blow to their team because you\u2019re talking about the frontrunner for MVP without three of their starters already and you missing him, now it\u2019s going to put the onus on Jamal Murray to do a little bit more to keep them afloat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murray is very capable of providing some magic in the Joker\u2019s absence, but whether he can translate his excellent play to wins remains to be seen. T-Mac agrees. \u201cI could see this team dropping about 4 or 5 slots because of where they at in the standings and the teams that are behind them will gain some ground,\u201d he stated. Right now they are 3rd only behind the Thunder and the Spurs. Problem is that Houston and LA have the same number of losses with less games played.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not all pessimism though. McGrady thinks that along with Murray, other guys will step up and take on bigger roles for the team. \u201cThis gives these guys an opportunity to gain some confidence. To build up who they are as basketball players and try to do more. You\u2019re going to have a bigger role, let\u2019s see if they can handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denver\u2019s first Jokic-less test will occur in 24 hours when they travel to Toronto to battle the Raptors, who are chasing 3rd place in the East. It won\u2019t be easy, especially with how rowdy the Canadian b-ball fanbase has become since the Raptors started looking competitive.<\/p>\n
Life without Jokic is uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and unforgiving, especially in a Western Conference where every night feels like a playoff game. This stretch will test Denver\u2019s system, Jamal Murray\u2019s leadership, and the Nuggets\u2019 depth in a way they haven\u2019t faced in years.<\/p>\n
If they can just stay afloat until The Joker returns, this injury will be remembered as a scare, not a turning point. If not, the standings won\u2019t wait, and Denver could find itself clawing just to get back to where it once felt secure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The injury bug has once again come for the Denver Nuggets, this time taking down its centerpiece. Nikola…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,301,187,3943,6,253,302,8079],"class_list":{"0":"post-507259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-denver","10":"tag-denver-nuggets","11":"tag-denvernuggets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nikola-jokic","14":"tag-nuggets","15":"tag-tracy-mcgrady"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115813381802687467","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507259","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=507259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}