Nikola Jokic has done it all for the Nuggets and given everything to the franchise. He has been like an eternal gift from a greater being, rising from a 2nd-round draft pick to become the best player on earth, winning three MVPs, and leading the team to its first championship in the history of the organization.
And he has done it all without the tiniest shred of controversy or drama. He has famously stayed out of any team-building affairs, and at every turn, he has done nothing but praise Denver and insist he wants to stay for his entire career. It’s truly everything fans could ever want from a franchise player, and for a long-suffering franchise, at times, it feels almost too good to be true.
For the most part, it is. But weirdly, the flatline, loyal-to-a-fault Jokic, may actually be somewhat of a detriment to the Nuggets with this current ownership group, and in this current version of the league.
Lack of pressure from Jokic letting Nuggets off the hook
And therein lies the problem. Ironically, the Nuggets have used Jokic’s loyalty against him. In today’s NBA, with a superstar like Jokic, it’s easy for ownership to get complacent, cutting costs and pinching pennies while giving the illusion of contending, thanks to a generational talent.
While nobody would ever want to see Jokic leave Denver, the lack of that threat has let the Kroenkes off the hook. They’ve never truly felt pressure to appease the Joker, so they never really have - certainly not since winning a title in 2023.
Other superstars put pressure on their teams, sometimes in a way that’s obnoxious and uncomfortable. But it’s hard to say it’s not effective. When teams are actually scared of losing their superstar player, they act with some urgency. They spend into the tax and above the aprons. They take big swings to acquire talent. They do whatever it takes to contend, because they know that if they don’t, they risk losing their biggest star.
Nuggets have never had to convince Jokic to stay
Jokic’s contented good nature is a gift and a curse. He has never made the front office, and owners feel like they have to convince him to stay, and so they never have. If he ramped up the pressure and told them he wants to see some changes before extending, I imagine we’d see a change of course pretty quickly.Â
If he had gone on record the past two offseasons, insisting the roster wasn’t good enough and that he needed to see some upgrades and a commitment to spending, I get the feeling we would have seen that.
The Kroenkes are far from cheap, but they’re happy to sit back and take advantage of the system, collecting checks without going all in. And if Jokic is okay with that, then they certainly will be too. But he has now had just one All-Star teammate in his career (Jamal Murray this season), he just went through a prime year with a rookie head coach and front office leaders, and the team ducked the luxury tax, which is something they may do again this year.
They’re almost certainly about to lose some key players to free agency or salary dumps, and the paths to any serious upgrades feel unrealistic. Years of poor asset management and decision-making have led to this point. It’s not like any of that is Jokic’s fault, but if he doesn’t apply any real pressure, I wouldn’t expect to see anything change any time soon either.
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