Despite their first-round series being tied, the Nuggets can’t feel great about the team they’ve put around Nikola Jokic. Jokic has obviously been incredible this series, this season, and far beyond, and has rightfully established himself as the best player in the world.
He has also been a perfect franchise superstar in every sense, never causing any drama or being involved in off-court issues. Relatively speaking, he just shows up to work, goes about his business, and performs his job about as well as humanly possible.
He has never given any indication that he is unhappy or wants to leave Denver. In fact, he has reiterated that he would love to stay with the Nuggets for his entire career. But also, he’s a competitor, and this is a business.
Jokic has appeared visibly frustrated more than ever this season, the team has less talent and depth than ever, and the only head coach he has ever played for in the NBA got fired with a week left in the regular season.
Jokic more involved with Nuggets' team decisions
So what exactly is the Nuggets’ plan to keep Jokic happy in Denver? We’ve seen other superstars get antsy when they don’t see a clear path to winning, and if these next few games go poorly, Jokic may start to feel that way.
Well, lately it appears that Jokic has taken a more active role with the franchise. He said that he was informed by ownership ahead of the moves to fire Michael Malone and GM Calvin Booth. This is pretty standard for franchise players, but this is more involvement in front office matters than we’ve ever seen from the Joker.
Jokic taking on informal coaching role in Denver
Now, things have picked up even more as we’ve seen Jokic essentially involved in coaching the team. He has been very animated on the sidelines and on the floor, directing traffic and instructing his teammates on where to be and what to do. We’ve even seen him leading the huddle and drawing up plays during timeouts.
But in Game 4, we saw this reach a whole new level as Jokic appeared to actually make substitutions while on the court. Bill Simmons referenced it in his most recent podcast, comparing Jokic to Bill Russell during his player/coach era, and described a play where Jokic actually instructed DeAndre Jordan to check in to defend the basket with 0.2 seconds left in the quarter.
Will increased input convince Jokic to stay with Nuggets?
It’s hard to tell how much of this recent push to be involved is just a matter of Jokic being competitive, sensing the urgency of the moment, and doing everything he can to help his team win, or if this is some kind of directive from ownership.
Either way, it’s clear how involved he is with the franchise and how much weight his voice holds. You’d have to imagine he’ll have one of the loudest voices when it comes to determining the next coach and GM of this team, as well as making roster moves. Ultimately, does this stuff matter to Jokic? It’s hard to tell.
What does matter to him is winning. If the Nuggets continue to empower Jokic to take on an even bigger role with the team, you’d have to figure that would help convince him of the organization’s commitment to winning while he is on the team.