Are the Nuggets on a serious championship quest or a sentimental journey to nowhere?<\/p>\n
They ran it back with a team that got run out of the NBA playoffs.<\/p>\n
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And that might be the worst indictment of the overrated talent surrounding the best player in the world.<\/p>\n
While the Celtics graciously bestowed Jaylen Brown to LeBron James as a farewell gift that will give the King a shot at his fifth championship ring, could it be Denver kept its core together because the rest of the league isn\u2019t as hopelessly smitten with Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun as the Nuggets seem to be?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s optimism that makes the lights burn bright on opening night of each NBA team\u2019s season. Or is that glass of Colorado Kool-Aid already half empty before the opening tip?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t have (championship) expectations, this league is daunting,\u201d Nuggets coach David Adelman said earlier this week. \u201cBut I would say our expectation is trying to get in the top six. If you\u2019re in the top six in the West, you can win the West.\u201d<\/p>\n
Say what?<\/p>\n
I hate to break it to Adelman, but if the Nuggets finish the regular season as the No. 6 seed in the West, I\u2019d say there\u2019s at least a 60% chance they again get dumped from the playoffs in the opening round.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m not sure how that would be good for anyone\u2019s job security, including the future of Mr. Adelman in Denver.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Nuggets just want to land an invitation to the dance?<\/p>\n
How did we get here, in a little more than three years since Nikola Jokic was hugging his young daughter and the Larry O\u2019Brien Trophy on a fire truck during a victory parade through downtown?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no way a team with Jokic as its centerpiece should be satisfied with a regular season where the Nuggets are happy if they avoid play-in games to the 16-team tournament bracket.<\/p>\n
So let me get this straight:<\/p>\n
From now until April, the Nuggets will pace their cell in luxury-tax jail, then hope good luck will spring eternal on them in the playoffs?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a great plan, provided Victor Wembanyama quits his job with the Spurs for the bohemian life of a starving artist on the Left Bank of Paris and NBA referees start whistling offensive fouls on Oklahoma City free-throw merchant Shai Gilgeous Alexander.<\/p>\n
Ain\u2019t. Gonna. Happen.<\/p>\n
Straining for anything good to say about the touch-up paint slapped on an aging Denver roster with a recent history of breakdowns, it was left to none other than Jokic \u2014 who else? \u2014 to brighten the mood.<\/p>\n
Allowing Nuggets Nation a sign of relief as strong as the cold winter winds atop Longs Peak, Jokic vowed on the eve of training camp that he will sign a new long-term contract with Denver during the summer of 2027.<\/p>\n
I wholeheartedly believe we can take Jokic at his word, because he really is Big Honey, too sweet to seek that baller\u2019s life in Los Angeles or any other big NBA market where he would be burdened with great expectations.<\/p>\n
Jokic isn\u2019t leaving Denver for one very good reason.<\/p>\n
He can become the highest-paid player in league history and have a cushy job in a city where nobody ever utters a discouraging word about him.<\/p>\n
It has long been my contention Jokic\u2019s greatest gift has also become a significant hindrance for an honest evaluation of a Denver core that got hot at the right time in a down year for the league and won a championship in 2023.<\/p>\n
The magic of Jokic is he makes basketball so much easier for teammates that he makes everything and everyone, from the All-Star shine on Murray to a revitalized bounce in the step of a fading veteran, better in the reflected glory of the three-time MVP.<\/p>\n
Yes, DeMar DeRozan has enough scoring punch left in his shot to be a contender for Sixth Man of the Year and maybe additional support from the training staff can keep Gordon on the court instead of in street clothes when the Nuggets need their most versatile player most.<\/p>\n
But with relatively little fanfare, the team did make one addition that bears monitoring. The Nuggets couldn\u2019t bring back feisty former coach Michael Malone, but did hire his tough-as-nails spirit animal in Dave Joerger to serve as the top assistant on Adelman\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n
Joerger, known for instilling defensive orneriness, has nearly 500 games of experience as a head coach in Memphis and Sacramento on his resume.<\/p>\n
If the Nuggets are languishing as the sixth seed in the West after the All-Star break, Joerger will be a possible answer only an arm\u2019s length away if Stan Kroenke gets cranky and wants to break the glass in case of a looming playoff emergency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Are the Nuggets on a serious championship quest or a sentimental journey to nowhere? They ran it back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[877,7,765,4188,250,301,187,3943,762,48222,6,67,253,302,66],"class_list":["post-864569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-nuggets","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-basketball","tag-colorado","tag-dave-joerger","tag-david-adelman","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-denvernuggets","tag-jamal-murray","tag-mark-kiszla","tag-nba","tag-news","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nuggets","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117481848377158057","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864569","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=864569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}