He traded for Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who was the only player in Denver’s locker room to win a title before this season.īoth played pivotal roles in the season and playoffs, including the Finals. An exercise in team buildingįormer GM Tim Connelly tinkered with the roster until he found better players at good values to fit around Murray and Jokic. “I had a belief of being in the playoffs before, having the experience, seeing the team and the chemistry grow, having the same core my whole career, that's when I saw it. With both healthy alongside Jokic in 2022-23, the Nuggets knew this could be their season. A lot of blood, sweat and tears, and real ones." A lot of different things going through my head. To see it full circle, going from my rehab, not being able to walk, go up the stairs, not just for a month or two. Every real hooper wants to be on this stage and play in the game and be in this moment. "It was just something I've been working for my whole life. He had tears during the championship celebration. When Murray sustained his knee injury, he asked Malone if the Nuggets were going to trade him. I look back on everything, how hard I worked, and it just feels surreal.” "But to do it with this group of dudes after everything that … I can't describe it. "After everything I've been through, I'm not really supposed to be a world champion," Porter said. Porter needed a third back surgery in six years and played in just nine games last season. Murray tore his ACL late in the 2020-21 season and he missed all of 2021-22. That trajectory was delayed, however, by injuries to Murray and Michael Porter Jr. The Nuggets reached the conference finals in the 2020 Orlando bubble and looked like a team ready to make deep runs into late May and June. “That showed me and that showed our front office and, more importantly, I can remember (Nuggets owner) Josh Kroenke coming up to me after that game and being excited about what the future held because of how well those guys played with the stakes that were obviously going on during that game." "Nikola and Jamal, a third-year player, a second-year player, they were out there playing at a high level,” Malone said. But Jokic had 35 points and 10 rebounds, and Murray had 20 points, six rebounds and six assists. Malone had an idea of what they could become at the end of the 2017-18 season when the Nuggets lost to Minnesota in overtime in a game that cost Denver a playoff spot. In Game 3, Jokic and Murray became the first teammates to each record a 30-point triple-double in a regular-season or playoff game. “It's just a feel and a trust that we're going to figure it out, and it's a lot of unselfishness,” Murray said. Jokic, the Finals MVP, averaged 30.2 points, 14.0 rebounds and 7.2 assists and shot 58.3% from the field and 42.1% on 3-pointers, and Murray averaged 21.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 10.0 assists and shot 45.1% from the field and 38.7% on 3-pointers. Jokic, the two-time MVP from Serbia, and Murray, the Canadian who came back from a torn ACL, were the best duo in the playoffs, playing a two-man game that Miami couldn’t contain. I'm not really optimistic guy, but that gave me hope that we can do something.” The potent Jokic-Murray combo I felt some different energy and every day since then I had the same feeling. “Since day one (in training camp) in San Diego, it was something different about this team,” Jokic said. 1 seed, have arrived, a combination of talent, patience, health and vision coming together at the right time. The Nuggets, who were atop the Western Conference from December until the end of the regular season and earned the No. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray formed the engine, and a roster built through the draft, free agency and trades provided fuel for a title. Malone was the conductor, getting his team to play some of its best basketball of the season. The Nuggets were a rolling train, picking up speed and confidence, and through April and May and then into June, the Nuggets Express was unstoppable as it went through Minnesota, Phoenix, Los Angeles Lakers and Miami before stopping in Denver for a season-ending celebration. "I used to have it up on my board when I was a head coach in Sacramento, and it talked about the evolution in this game and how you go from a nobody to an upstart, and you go from an upstart to a winner and a winner to a contender and a contender to a champion, and the last step is after a champion is to be a dynasty. “You know, Pat Riley said something many years ago,” Denver coach Michael Malone said. The Denver Nuggets are NBA champions, beating the Miami Heat 94-89 in Game 5 Monday and capturing the franchise’s first NBA championship. For Bruce Brown and Jeff Green.įor Nuggets players past and present. For Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Smith, Marcus Camby and Andre Miller.įor Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. For Doug Moe and Larry Brown.įor Ralph Simpson and the ABA.
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