COLUMN, KOVAČEVIĆ: How Jokić was systematically destroyed by idiots and lost another NBA title!

Alright, what was long foreseen has happened – the Denver Nuggets basketball players will be watching the NBA Finals from their couches and beaches this year, and Nikola Jokić will lose yet another title that by all laws of sport and logic he should have won.

And this story needs to start precisely with that question: How is it possible that the hands of the world’s best basketball player, a man who has dominated this sport for years in a way not seen since Jordan’s time, are adorned with only one ring?

To explain why this is so, and why Denver, instead of becoming a championship dynasty, is well on its way (if something doesn’t change urgently) to becoming an average team next season that will desperately fight for a playoff spot, I think it’s necessary to go back two years, to the time of euphoria after the first championship won by a, by all accounts, provincial and unassuming team.

Which in itself isn’t a problem, as we’ve seen other towns in the past, like San Antonio, turn from basketball backwaters into centers and metropolises. And that always depends on the people, not the number of skyscrapers in the city center.

What Denver lacked at that moment of triumph and celebration to bridge the gap between mediocrity and eternity, between chance and tradition, were precisely people of character, authority, and vision, and a little bit of money, which the multi-billionaire owners, the Kroenke family, certainly aren’t short on.

But alas… There were no such people in the summer of 2023, at the moment when the Nuggets’ fate was being decided, when the owners needed to be made aware of why it was necessary to loosen the purse strings a bit, pay the luxury tax, and keep the championship team together – which is the first prerequisite for building a long-term system – and then, if possible, strengthen that core and form a team of 10 players always ready to play at least 20 minutes at a high level.

Instead of planning a decade ahead, the Nuggets penny-pinched, and as a result, they got an instant team that danced for just that one summer!

Coaching and Management Missteps

Now then… Who bears greater blame for Bruce Brown and Jeff Green leaving Colorado while champagne was still being poured, and later the golden Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, only two people know: former coach Michael Malone and former general manager Calvin Booth, both fired before the start of this year’s playoffs. Deservedly so, but seemingly too late for the team to have any chance of doing anything memorable this season.

What we know from the rumor mill is that Malone and Booth had been at loggerheads for years, and that this affected the team’s composition, atmosphere, and ultimately, the results.

And instead of that shocking loss in last year’s playoffs to Minnesota, after being up 3-2 in the series and +20 in the third quarter of Game 7, serving as a sobering slap in the face, another average season followed, where reaching the Western Conference semifinals was the absolute maximum.

Although, truth be told, an unexpectedly weak Oklahoma practically offered Denver a few games on a silver platter, but what good is that when there was no one on the other side to graciously accept that gift.

And now perhaps someone will say that the owners are to blame for everything, having fired the coach and general manager before the start of the playoffs, thus disrupting the team before the most important games of the season…

Let me say right away – I disagree.

Although we all like and appreciate Malone, primarily as Jokić’s second father and the man who had the eyes to recognize and the nose to choose a basketball gem from the 41st pick in the draft, at a time when the now-famous Taco Bell commercial was playing on TV, we must be honest and admit that Malone had reached his maximum with this team and had nothing more to offer them, nor did he know how to motivate them.

Regardless of whether he or someone else is the key culprit for Denver signing several multi-million dollar All-Star contracts in recent years with players who will never see an All-Star game, and who are chronically prone to injuries (Murray, Porter, and now Gordon), which tied the franchise’s hands for trades and transactions for years to come, Malone, as the most responsible for the team’s results, should have drawn a line long ago and not allowed contracts and numbers to play on the court instead of the best players.

It sounds incredible, but you could set your watch by Malone, because it was exactly known when someone would leave the game or return from the bench, and this often had nothing to do with what was happening on the court.

As predictable as Malone was to opposing coaches, he apparently became as boring to his own players. And a split was inevitable.

But the problem arose that on the eve of the playoffs, there was no time for major cuts and bringing in a new coach with a different vision and plan.

And the forced and hopefully temporary solution on the Nuggets’ bench, in the person of Malone’s assistant and successor David Adelman (whose father Rick failed to win a title with Webber, Stojaković, and Divac in the Kings), only showed how that concept doesn’t work with this group of players.

This was best seen in the decisive game, when Adelman, from the first minute of the match, failed (and realistically didn’t even try) to find a solution for Oklahoma coach Mark Daigneault’s tactical trick, who put his shortest player, Caruso, to play “tight defense” on center Jokić, which ultimately decided the match, along with a gaping hole in perimeter defense, which was and remains a chronic problem for this team.

Adelman did not impose himself with solutions or authority in previous games either, with terrible coaching from the bench, late timeouts, wrong substitutions, not challenging obvious referee mistakes, forcing an injured Porter who was a liability in both directions, offense and defense… which, along with a short and insufficiently utilized bench and criminal refereeing that gave wings to Oklahoma, but was not decisive, ultimately resulted in the premature departure of the “nuggets” on vacation.

Jokić’s Future

This whole situation seems to have caused the most nervousness and suffering for Nikola Jokić, for whom championship titles are realistically the only fuel that ignites and motivates him, after winning his triple MVP crown. And as the chances dwindled, Nikola became increasingly restless, which was felt on the bench and on the court.

Malone’s dismissal certainly hit him the hardest, because the man who helped him become who he is today was gone, and I believe he was further devastated by rumors that he was the one who “drove away” Malone.

In such a situation, where he lost both his basketball father and coach in one day, in a team where he is the undisputed star, with a new coach without experience and authority, an overly heavy burden fell on Jokić’s shoulders.

It was not enough to be the best scorer, rebounder, assist man, and strategist on the court; he also had to start drawing up plays for his teammates on the bench during timeouts (we’ve all seen those videos), which distracted and disoriented him from what he does best and for which he is, after all, paid.

This was best seen in those first few games of the series against Oklahoma, when, obviously lost in all those roles, he simply burned out, and something happened to him that never had in his career: losing 8 balls or shooting 0-for-10 from three-point range!

When you add to that the fact that Jokić is probably the most fouled player in an NBA playoff series ever, and that most of those fouls were not even called, then it is clear why he ultimately had to swallow the bitter pill and, even before he wanted to or planned to, switch to his other love – harness racing horses.

Regardless of the fact that many perceive him as a phlegmatic from Sombor who just goes through the motions in the NBA, I am sure that Jokić has a summer ahead of him during which he will think a lot about his future, and who knows, perhaps even make some big decisions.

I certainly don’t believe that Pešić’s ace will simply pull anchor and leave Denver, a place to which he is bound by memories, a championship title, where he has settled down and started a family. But he certainly expects the Nuggets owners to offer him a serious plan for the years to come, while he drinks beer, harnesses horses on farms, and hopefully wins gold at the European Championship with Serbia. This plan should include team reconstruction, a new coach, and a general manager, in a situation where their hands are quite tied, at least concerning player selection.

If that Nuggets story doesn’t hold water, Jokić will have every right to request a trade and go to an environment that will allow him what he deserves based on his basketball knowledge and skill – to end his career with at least one hand full of championship rings.

Anything else would be a great tragedy, a waste of time and a God-given talent that is born once in many, many years.