In the fall of 2017, that time was still relatively vague Nuggets Kindly open their doors to Sports Illustrated For a magazine feature based on a simple premise: How does a team go from an interesting story to a title contender?
Over the course of a few days, SI asked as many people within the organization as possible—from then-president Tim Connelly to newly signed All-Star Paul Millsap—to answer this question.
It took five more seasons — filled with ups, downs, walkouts, MVP debates, and more — for Denver to fully realize the potential that first emerged when the team was just a respite for late-night NBA viewers. The Nuggets still hold firm faith in 2017, when Nikola Jokic He was only in his third year Jamal Murray He was only 20 years old, so they could reach the top of the mountain, a mile above the rest of the NBA.
Here’s what the Nuggets said nearly six years ago, what got them right and how Denver ended up as champions. Let’s take a trip down memory lane.
Perhaps the funniest and most ironic thing said during SI’s stay in Denver comes from Joki. At the start of 2017, the Jokers have been the Nuggets’ starting center for just over half a season. Michael Malone made the decision to start Joki on his own in December 2016, after being part of a senior pair with Jusuf Nurkić. Immediately, the Joker became a cult hero, especially for his worldwide passing. Malone has compared his ability to field his teammates to LeBron James. On the other hand, Joki had a self-deprecating answer when asked how he became such an amazing bystander.
“If I can score 40 in every game, I’ll score 40 in every game,” Jokic said in 2017. “I can’t, so I need to pass the ball and get everyone involved.”
Well, if you need any proof that his nickname is Joker, just take a look at what Joki did during the MVP Finals. He averaged 30.0 points per night on approximately 55% shooting from the field. He scored two 40-point games, including one in the Finals. He also downed 53 for the Suns in Round 2. His scoring didn’t come at the expense of fielding others, as he still averaged 9.5 catches during the postseason. In fact, he remained so good at passing that opponents were even accused of trying to let him score so that he wouldn’t let Jokic hit them with assists. Obviously, there were no good options.
If anyone an act Seeing this Joki run coming, Malone was. The Nuggets coach has been unwavering in his support for his young players in 2017, and he even dropped this gem.
“I coached Steve. I coached Clay. I coached Draymond,” Malone, a former Warriors assistant, said. [the Warriors] They didn’t have stars. Steph Curry is a star now. Guys like Nicola, guys like Gary Harris, guys like Jamal Murray, they have to go through the pains of growing up.”
While Harris was eventually traded – in a momentous move that brought back Aaron Gordon – Malone couldn’t be more right about Jokic and Murray. They went through the shooting and literal pains of growing up and emerged as superstars on their way to the 2023 title.
Both suffered escalatory defeats. In 2018, Denver was eliminated from the playoffs on the final day of the regular season in a game-and-game win against the Timberwolves—a team led by, of all people, Jimmy Butler. On the 19th, the Nuggets dropped a Game 7 home run in the second inning to the Trail Blazers. And in the bubble twenty, they fell to LeBron and Anthony Davis in the Conference Finals.
In the next two years, Jokić won the MVP award twice, but did not have fellow competitor Murray in either playoff run due to an ACL tear he suffered in 2021. Denver fell to the Suns in the second round in ’21, losing in five to the Warriors in General 22.
During their title run, the Nuggets got revenge on just about everyone else, defeating Minnesota in the first round, the Suns in the second round, LeBron and A.D. in the Conference Finals, and Butler in the Finals.
Losses weren’t exactly part of the plan, but the Nuggets’ brass knew that even in ’17 there would be steps to success.
“We’re under no illusions. We don’t think we’re a championship team tomorrow,” Connelly said. The majority of teams that enjoy some level of sustained success have done it the hard way.”
Denver has certainly reached a level of sustainable success the hard way. And that wasn’t the only thing Connelly was prescient about. He notes two things for SI that have particularly stood the test of time.
1.”Development [Jokić] He was so fast that it forced us to adjust how we build our team.”
How the Nuggets built the roster during Jokić’s personal rise is a master class in how to build around an MVP. Although Harris and Millsap ultimately didn’t make it to a championship team, they played complementary roles during their tenures, helping Denver to two 3-1 comebacks in the 2020 bubble.
Connelly Harris replaced Vs Gordon At the 2021 deadline, AG is proving to be a vital piece alongside Jokić and Murray. When Miami carried the Nuggets’ Stars, for example, it was more often than not Gordon who made the defense pay the price for his moves off the ball. Meanwhile, the front office has drafted role players Michael Porter Jr. and Christian Brown at 18 and 22. Calvin Booth, 17’s assistant manager, replaced Connelly as president of basketball operations last summer. He traded longtime Nugs Monte Morris and Will Barton for a Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. He also signed free agency steal Bruce Brown.
All moves centered on maximizing Joki. And they worked perfectly.
2. “These guys can’t develop unless we have trained staff who are willing to be patient.”
If there’s a lesson from this Nuggets run—out luck on your way to league MVP—it’s patience. Malone himself is grateful for the leeway the organization has given him. He told SI in March 2022 that several coaches were going to be fired after losing a hypothetical playoff game against Minnesota on the 18th. Instead, he was given the opportunity to stay, and the decision paid off.
But Malone’s patience did not come.
He particularly let Murray play through mistakes. The decision to make Murray a starter in 2017 was controversial, as he cut Denver veteran Jamir Nelson just before the start of the season. Nelson was seen as the steady hand who could help a team that seemed poised to win. Malone and the team stuck with Murray, even at the cost of short-term success.
This patience will be tested many times. And Malone always rode with his young guard.
In 2019, in his second playoff game, Murray started 0-of-8 as Denver was in danger of going down 0-2 to the Spurs. Malone did not sit off the bench, and responded with 21 points in the fourth to lead the winning comeback.
When Murray was worried about being traded after tearing up his ACL, it was Malone who assured him the team would stick with him, even as Jokic picked up individual accolades while failing to make the playoffs.
During the Final Round, no one batted an eye when Murray unleashed a 23 in the fourth against the Lakers in the Conference Finals after a slow start, or when he bounced back from a bad Game 2 to drop 34 on the Heat in Game 3.
The Nuggets couldn’t predict the exact path they would take in the tournament. Some of the pieces that seemed so important in 2017 — Harris, Millsap and Connelly in particular — couldn’t (or in Connelly’s case, chose not to) make the main race. For many people who were in the organization at the time, though, what happened in ’23 isn’t something they dreamed of after capitalizing on Denver’s legalization efforts, but instead a culmination of what the team saw and believed in its young core, specifically. Select Joki.
An SI article featured in December 2017 was titled “Internet’s Favorite Team Still Loading”. Well, Nuggets are no longer some of the League Pass playgrounds reserved for the most knowledgeable of tape-slicers. Now they’re a fully realized juggernaut, with the best player in the world and arguably the best duo in the sport, they’ve captured the attention of both fans and the league.
If you are paying close attention, you know that some people have known this day to come for many years.