Former Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly always liked to say that he got lucky when drafting Nikola Jokic in 2014.
And he’s mostly right.
But what if it wasn’t entirely luck? What if there was a little bit of instinct, a lot of intuition, and a regrettable draft-day decision from 2007 that eat at Connelly for years and partly drove him to take a chance on Jokic in 2014?
Back in 2007, Connelly was working for the Washington Wizards, who held the 48th overall pick in the draft that year. When the draft shifted to the second round and the Wizards went on the clock, an unorthodox center who had obvious talent but also came with countless question marks was still available.
The player had some clear parallels to Jokic. He was an international big man who wasn’t quick laterally and needed to get in better shape. He had a ton of talent but wasn’t good defensively. He possessed world-class fundamentals and hands and projected as a quality shooter and scorer on the block. His basketball IQ was elite and he just knew how to play the game. He wasn’t a great athlete, but the potential was there.
The player was Marc Gasol.
The Wizards passed on Gasol and instead drafted Dominic McGuire, who at 6-foot-9 looked the part as an NBA small forward. He was definitely a safer pick than Gasol would have been. McGuire averaged 13.5 points and almost 10 rebounds per game at Fresno State and went on to play six NBA seasons. Not bad for a second-round pick.
Gasol, of course, went on to win Defensive Player of the Year, make three All-Star teams, and was the starting center on the 2019 NBA Champion Toronto Raptors. With his international accomplishments, Gasol could eventually go into the Hall of Fame.
At No. 48 overall, one selection after Washington, Gasol was picked.
Connelly regretted not pounding the table harder for Gasol in the draft that year. Privately, he wished he had pushed harder to select him. So when Jokic, another unorthodox big man with obvious holes in his game but palpable potential, was available at 41st overall in 2014 and with the rest of Denver’s front office on board, Connelly greenlit the selection.
The rest is history.
History was made Monday night at Ball Arena when the Nuggets clinched their first NBA Championship in franchise history with a 94-89 win over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Jokic, the former second-round pick who was drafted during a Taco Bell commercial and over the last three years has ascended to the best basketball player in the world, was named Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player.
In Game 5, Jokic finished with 28 points (12-16 FG’s), 16 rebounds, and 4 assists. His 10 fourth-quarter points served as one final tour de force to end a season where Jokic played some of the most dominant basketball that the NBA has seen in years.
Jokic’s Finals performance will go down as a convincing and undeniable run. His averages across five games against the Heat look like video game numbers: 30.2 points (58.3 FG%, 42.1 3P%), 14 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game.
Jokic tallied a 27-point, 10-rebound, 14-assist triple-double in Game 1. He went for 41 points in Game 2. In Game 3, Jokic recorded the first 30-point, 20-rebound, 10-assist game in NBA Finals history. Foul trouble kept Jokic to a 23-12-4 line in Game 4, but in a closeout Game 5, Jokic was the only one who Denver could count on for consistent offense. He scored 19 of his game-high 28 points in the second half.
This postseason, Jokic became the first player in NBA history to lead the playoffs in total points, rebounds, and assists.
“I seen a picture of Jok and Embiid running for MVP, and Jok keeps running,” said Jamal Murray, referring to this, after the Nuggets clinched the championship. “I think that just speaks so much to what his mindset is. I got mad at him today in the game because he kept passing the ball. I hit him in the pocket, he has a floater and he’d pass it. Out of bound, turnover. I’m like, bro, just shoot it.”
“Jok is the Finals MVP and rightfully so and deserving, and he makes everybody connect and everybody want to win being so unselfish.”
With a championship and a Finals MVP to his name, Jokic is automatically an all-time great. Now, we find out how high he can climb. He’s unlike anything we’ve witnessed or probably will witness again in the NBA. He’s arguably the greatest passer in league history. He’s a force of nature on the offensive end of the floor and one of the most dominant individual hubs of offense ever. He outsmarts his competition nightly. He’s completely selfless and just wants to win. And that’s what he made sure happened Monday in Game 5.
Denver is lucky to have him. And Connelly was somewhat lucky to draft him.
“We are not winning for ourselves,” Jokic said after he was handed the Finals MVP. “We are winning for the guy next to us.”
Jokic is the Denver Nuggets. He’s the face of this city and this franchise. He’s the central reason why the Nuggets captured their first NBA Championship.
And he’s why Denver could rack up a few more Larry O’Brien trophies over the next several years.
