The NBA champs are not only gold, but solid

Jokic, Murray and Co. only lost four games on the way to a title they think they can defend.

It is the seaweed of championship meal plans, not effective for everybody, not particularly safe for work.

Take a second-round pick from Serbia who could barely get through four quarters without suffering the bends. Add a former high school superstar who played only three collegiate games and 53 minutes, thanks to an injured back, and then had two more back operations in his NBA years, one of which happened after he signed a $172 million extension.

Take a guard from Canada who became a sensation and then just another recovering torn-ACL patient. Then pick up a unfulfilled fourth-overall pick from Orlando, and a capable swingman who was nevertheless unemployed last summer.

Shake well, but don’t pour it out, and when your coach hasn’t gotten to the NBA finals in his first seven years, keep him around for an eighth.

The Denver Nuggets parlayed all that into their first NBA Final appearance, and then turned it into their first NBA championship Monday night, as they finished off the Miami Heat in five games.

Instead of bypassing the frustration and sorrow that generally mark such a journey, they absorbed everything and got better. The large, ground-bound Serbian, Nikola Jokic, became a two-time regular-season MVP and a playoff MVP, the only player in NBA history to compile the most points, rebounds and assists during a postseason. The hobbled forward became Michael Porter Jr., who scored 16 points with 13 rebounds in Game 5. The Canuck, Jamal Murray, returned to his 2020 form, averaging 26.1 points in the playoffs and hitting 39.6 percent of his threes.

The Orlando refugee, Aaron Gordon, became the explosive power forward he was always supposed to be, with 27 points in Game 4 of the Finals and a defensive masterpiece in Game 5. The ignored swingman, Bruce Brown, was generally Denver’s best player off the bench, compensated when Porter’s shot went awry, and, in 20 playoff games, got to double figures 15 times.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope came over as a free agent, and was the only player on the roster who had won an NBA championship (2020 Lakers). His contributions were up and down, but he got the big steal at the end of Game 5, when Miami’s Jimmy Butler was thwarted in the lane by Jokic and Murray and tried to pass to the corner.

All of which made Michael Malone the latest coach to win his first NBA championship. He is probably aware that the previous four – Tyronn Lue, Nick Nurse, Frank Vogel and Mike Budenholzer – were all invited to leave their jobs.

This is a high-risk business, and last year’s parade can turn into next year’s death march. But Denver is, at the very least, well-positioned. Caldwell-Pope turns 30 and Christian Braun will be a second-year player and Jeff Green broke into the league with Sihugo Green and Ray Felix, but the other players in Malone’s rotation are in the gerontological sweet spot, between 25 and 29. The summer might not be long enough for the rest of the league to figure out Jokic and Murray.

The Nuggets actually might become a destination, since Jokic’s eerie vision can increase anyone’s scoring average. They also were a better defensive team the longer the playoffs lasted. They went 16-4 in the postseason, which is impressive enough, but they never lost a game in which they gave up 110 or fewer points. In the Finals they held Miami under 100 in four of the five games.

As in the Stanley Cup playoffs, which might conclude Tuesday night if Vegas protects The Fortress and eliminates the Florida Panthers, the Eastern teams seem to have devoured themselves. Like the Florida Panthers, the Heat was the eighth seed in the East.

It cleared out Milwaukee as Boston was eliminating Philadelphia and league MVP Joel Embiid. Then the Heat, without Tyler Herro, romped to a 3-0 lead over the Celtics. Had the Heat gone ahead and ended the Boston series in Game 4, the Finals might have been longer and more compelling. But Miami didn’t. It had to go to Boston to win Game 7, with all the stress that connotes, and had to open the Finals in Denver and at altitude two nights later, and never did play on familiar-feeling legs. Miami shot 40.7 percent for the series, and Butler shot 41.3.

The Heat’s renowned tenacity was the only part of its game that held up through five games. There was no smidgen of Cancun in this group, no premature evacuation, especially as it took Game 5 into the final few possessions. But The Undrafteds who had been so steadfast in the Boston series fell by the wayside. Max Strus shot 6 for 23 in Games 3 through 5, and Gabe Vincent shot 6 for 29.

Despite the Nuggets’ idiosyncrasies, they do leave a few lessons for everyone else.

The 3-point line does not necessarily lead to the kingdom. Denver shot 30 per game, 15th among the 16 playoff teams. The 16th was Phoenix. Instructively, the Denver-Phoenix series, in the second round, might have been the most watchable.

The Nuggets’ offense was more rooted in fast pace and constant attack. Denver also had the fewest turnovers per game of any playoff team, with Miami second, and had the best 2-point percentage of any team, with Boston first.

The Nuggets were 3-1 in elimination games, having let Minnesota off a 3-0 hook in the first round, but only briefly. And even though they weren’t threatening at the rim defensively, they had excellent size on the wings. Braun might not look like it on TV, but he’s 6-foot-7 and physical – and, as the Field of 68 Newsletter points out, he has won championships in five of his past seven seasons, including 2022 in Kansas, and three in high school.

Porter is 6-10, Gordon and Green 6–8, Caldwell-Pope 6-5 and Brown 6-4. Denver’s defensive versatility was critical. It had enough different types of defenders to bother Butler, although Butler’s ankle injury earlier in the playoffs was a problem, too. And, really, how much Michelob Ultra can one man stomach?

The Nuggets have shown they can develop players, as Miami is famous for doing, and there is some raw material that no one got to see this spring. Peyton Watson, coming off a wasted freshman season at UCLA, is 6-8 and long, and one might expect him to get minutes next season. Thomas Bryant, the center who had some nice games for the Lakers before they traded him, only turns 26 at the end of July.

Victory has multiple fathers. Tim Connelly, now the general manager in Minnesota, supervised the drafting of Jokic Murray and Porter, and the trade for Gordon. And Felipe Eichenberger, a Brazilian who went to Northwestern Oklahoma State before he became the Nuggets’ strength coach, earned his playoff share by the work he did with Jokic.

Early in Jokic’s career Eichenberger recognized that the diet had to be changed. As ESPN.com reported, Jokic was a fairly serious Coke addict. No, it’s not what you’re thinking. Jokic would throw down multiple six-packs of Coca-Cola per day before Eichenberger began the weaning process.

Jokic quickly became addicted to workouts and weights, since he began to see a difference. At one point Eichenberger told Jokic that he would be the MVP someday, to which Jokic replied, “No, I won’t. I want to make people better.” Soon he realized that one could lead to the other.

Jokic continued to live up to his anti-NBA persona. He barely smiled when the buzzer went off Monday, and he earnestly shook hands with, and hugged, the Heat players. When he was interviewed he basically seemed relieved. “I’m glad it’s over, it’s time to go home,” he said.

Jokic’s passion was already visible during a late timeout huddle, when the Nuggets were having difficulty getting out of their own way. He berated his teammates on the bench. He also had no trouble popping the champagne afterward. But basically he paraded around his daughter Ognjena and hung out with his wife Natalija, who was his high school sweetheart and played volleyball at Seminole State in Oklahoma, before she moved to be with The Joker in Denver.

His brothers Strahinja and Nemanja were there, too. They’re a little more expressive than The Joker. In fact, they’re a couple of wild and crazy guys. Strahinja is a former basketball player in Europe and Nemanja is an MMA fighter. As Nikola was walking around with Ognjena sitting on his shoulders, the brothers were observing a victory tradition in Eastern Europe and tossing Malone into the air again and again.

Jokic himself seemed more concerned about getting back to Serbia and watching some of his horses race, which might have been a problem if the series had reached a Game 7 on Sunday.

Some fans and media types didn’t know what to make of Jokic’s nonchalance. Truthfully, it’s refreshing, especially after one watches college baseball players pounding their hearts after first-inning singles. But it fits in with his preference for simplicity. This task ended. Now, on to the next one. When his career ends, he says, the family will move back home to the northern Serbian town of Sombor. “I want to be able to find my way around without GPS,” he said. 

As for Eichenberger, he also told everyone who would listen that the Nuggets would be an NBA champion, maybe a dynastic one. Malone hadn’t even left the Ball Arena floor Monday when he said he was already thinking about the 2024 trophy.

Maybe it’ll happen and maybe it won’t, but the Nuggets do have advantages. They have no secrets that anyone wants to steal. Their great player also knows how to act like he’s been there before. And now he has.