The frustration has been obvious for most of the season. Nikola Jokic is getting tired of carrying a team that is inconsistent and lacks depth. The numbers don't lie. When Joker is on the court, the Denver Nuggets are one of the best teams in the league. When he's on the bench, they're one of the worst in virtually every possible category.
Even Michael Jordan needed good teams around him to go six for six in the NBA Finals. This is a team sport, and Jokic needs a crew he can count on. The Nuggets' front office doesn't seem to be taking that seriously, which was likely a factor in the late, late, late season firings of head coach Mike Malone and general manager Calvin Booth. Dysfunction at all levels and no clear path forward is a bad combination.
For both the Nuggets and Jokic to move forward, a parting of the ways may be necessary. Joker looks more and more tired of carrying a franchise that is wasting the prime years of the greatest player in the game right now. The Nuggets need to take a long, hard look at what they want their future to look like, hopefully one with championships and maybe without Jokic.
Winning the title
The NBA is definitely a "what have you done lately" league. The Nuggets won their first and only NBA Championship in 2023, which feels like an eternity ago at this point. While they keep making the playoffs, they haven't felt like legitimate title contenders since. It's enough to make fans wonder how they pulled that title off in the first place.
An untimely injury to Jayson Tatum in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals probably helped the Miami Heat, who needed two play-in games to even make the playoffs, barely slide into the NBA Finals. If Tatum didn't get injured, the Nuggets would likely have faced a far more dominant Celtics team for the championship. While no one will ever know for sure how that matchup would have played out, a victory for the Nuggets would have been far more difficult.
Do not take anything away from the Nuggets that season. Jokic was playing elite, almost untouchable basketball all season. Jamal Murray was bringing it. The rest of the starters were also killing it. Yet, the Nuggets have not really come close to replicating that level of success since. Losing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown certainly did not help, but the core is largely the same. Still, finals success eludes the Nuggets.
Facing hard truths
Joker seems to have lost his patience with his team, regularly getting in their faces on the bench and during timeouts. During a post-game press scrum after the Nuggets were knocked out of the 2024-25 playoffs, Jokic was asked about the team's chances of winning another title. His response was candid, to say the least, and very telling of his current mental state.
"We didn’t, so obviously we can’t. If we could, we would win it. I don’t believe in that stuff. We had opportunities. We didn’t win it, so I think we can’t."Nikola Jokic
For the new head coach and the new general manager of the Nuggets, that probably wasn't what they wanted to hear from their star. Yes, he was probably a little down after missing out on the finals for the second year in a row. At the same time, there was likely plenty of truth behind his statement. This is how Jokic feels about this team's potential.
This leaves them with a choice between rebuilding around Jokic or rebuilding without Jokic. Running it back again and again is getting them nowhere. To date, there have been no substantial rumors of a trade. Given what happened with Luka Doncic, anything is possible at this point. It's worth noting that Jokic only has two years left on his current contract, with a player option coming up in the summer of 2027. Time is not on the Nuggets' side, and the Joker really seems to want another championship.
What to do, what to do...
Regardless of contracts, the Nuggets may have reached the end of the Jokic era. Unless they do something massive this offseason, like getting Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Bucks, it's hard to see anything changing. The problem for the Nuggets is that the only trade big enough to get Giannis would be Jokic himself.
The Nuggets have painted themselves into a corner with the rest of their team by handing out big money contracts to mid players after the chip. It's going to be hard to re-home inconsistent players who are also expensive. The franchise would be better served trading off Jokic to a team with deep pockets, young talent worth bringing on board, and some good draft picks lying around.
Otherwise, the most likely scenario is the Nuggets keep going as is for the next two years until Jokic gets so frustrated he moves on while he's still in his prime. That leaves the team with nothing to show for it other than dreams of past glory. The smart move now is to begin a real rebuild under the new coach and GM by getting the much as possible for literally the most valuable player in the league.