Heads down and shoulders slumped, the Nuggets trudged back to the the locker room after an eighth-straight loss to the Houston Rockets.
It was just two months into the 2018-19 season and the honeymoon stage of the team’s hot start was still in full effect, yet the Nuggets’ spirits were low after dropping their fourth-straight after a promising 9-1 start.
On that Tuesday night, Isaiah Thomas waited for the rest of the his teammates in the locker room. He was still three months away from playing his first game in a Nuggets’ uniform but had already established himself as Denver’s voice early on in the year. That night with team psyche at a season-low he delivered a succinct message which hit home with his teammates: the NBA season is long. There will be ups and there will be downs and adversity throughout the season, whether in the form of injuries, shooting slumps, or fatigue. The teams who come out on top are the ones who never get too high or too low.
It was a simple message but one the Nuggets needed to hear at the time. The Nuggets won eight of their next 10 games. Their mojo was back.
Adversity will undoubtedly hit Denver this season, and it could come faster than in year’s past. Expectations for the Nuggets are at an all-time high, nationally, locally, and most important of all, internally. Nikola Jokic is coming off of an All-NBA season and his first All-Star game. Jamal Murray is on a maximum contract. There’s expected to be growth from Monte Morris, Malik Beasley, and the rest of Denver’s young rotation as well.
The Nuggets won’t have Thomas’ voice to fall back on this season when the going gets hard. Denver’s de-facto leader from last year’s 54-win campaign is over 1,600 miles away in Washington D.C. attempting to revive a once mighty career that’s been derailed due to injuries.
The Nuggets expect two players to step into the role Thomas occupied last season.
“That voice and that presence is gone,” Malone said. “Who is going to fill that void? I really hope it’s going to be Nikola and Jamal who take that leadership mantel.”
On paper, it makes sense for Jokic and Murray to carry the leadership torch this season. They’ve emerged as the Nuggets’ top two players, and while depth and overall talent are at the core of why Denver is looked at as a legitimate threat to win the West this season, just how far the Nuggets advance in the playoffs will likely come down to what level Jokic and Murray can elevate their games to.
But moving into a leadership role is easier said than done. Jokic (24-years-old) and Murray (22-years-old) are still young by NBA standards. There’s always locker room politics in play too, and money, clout, and professional egos don’t make that transition easy. It’s also especially rare that you see leaders at Jokic and Murray’s ages rise to power on such talent-rich teams.
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George (ages 28 and 29 respectively) are captaining the Clippers’ ship. LeBron James and Anthony Davis have a combined 24 years of NBA service time. James Harden and Russell Westbrook both just turned 30.
However, if there’s one place for a peaceful transfer of power to occur to two players as young as Jokic and Murray it’s in Denver where players openly boast has no egos. There’s also an organization-wide belief that both Jokic and Murray are accepting that it’s their time to take the leadership mantel.
Murray is more brash about his wishes to lead the Nuggets with his voice. Ever since arriving in Denver he’s let his play do the talking. But now the fourth-year pro is accepting that a leadership role is one he’s supposed to fill.
“It’s my job. I’m supposed to be a leader,” Murray said. “Everyone looks to me.”
He’s backing up his talk with his play too. After a blowout loss in New Orleans, Murray ripped into a somber locker room after Malone had said his postgame piece feeling a need to speak up and address the team because he wasn’t satisfied with his below par play and presence on the floor that night which he felt rubbed off on his teammates. He was a “vocal presence” at shootaround two days later in Orlando prior to the Nuggets’ matchup with the Magic and carried that mentality over to the game later that night, leading huddles during timeouts and directing teammates like Monte Morris to pick up opposing point guard D.J. Augustin full-court.
As Jokic failed to make a substantial impact in the first half, Murray tallied 12 points over the first and second quarters and ended the night with a game-high 22 as the Nuggets scored an ugly but necessary win.
“I give him a lot of credit, because he’s embracing being a leader,” Malone said. “He stepped up after the New Orleans game and spoke what was on his mind and on his heart. More importantly he followed it up with his actions.”
When the Nuggets acquired Paul Millsap in free agency two summers ago, Denver got not only one of the most consistent power forwards in the game to play alongside Jokic but also a true culture-setter.
Millsap isn’t the rah-rah leader that Thomas was for the Nuggets last season or that Murray is trying to be, but his lead-by-example approach has rubbed off on the Nuggets’ point guard who’s spent the last two seasons studying the veteran’s every move, from how he goes about his day and prepares for a game, to how he commands Denver’s locker room.
The 34-year-old is a quiet but succinct leader who will take players aside 1-on-1 during the season and preach his words of wisdom. His March heart-to-heart with Jokic during the 2017-18 season is the most notable example, when Millsap explained to the big man that he didn’t need to worry about adjusting his game to reincorporate the 14-year-veteran back into the Nuggets’ offense after he missed several months due to a wrist injury. Jokic responded with a dominant stretch of basketball to close the season.
“I didn’t realize guys really look to me on and off the court, how I act, the way I talk, what I do, what I say,” Murray said. “Just like when I watch ‘Sap. I watch him all the time. I just kind of study him, his routine, just little stuff. I’ve got to be mindful of that these guys are looking up to me even though they’re a little older. P.J (Dozier) is about to turn 23, and I’m looking at ‘Sap who’s 10 years older than me. I’ve just got to be mindful that guys look up to me too.”
It would be hard for Jokic to not have taken some cues from Millsap’s lead-by-example approach from across the locker room over the last few years as well. Unlike his pick-and-roll partner, Jokic shrugs off most of the talk around him stepping into more of a leadership role this season.
“I think it’s not a really big thing,” Jokic said earlier this season when broached on the topic.
“We are all grown me. We know what we need to do. This is our job. If you’re not playing good you’re going to be out, you’re going to play on the bench. It’s simple.”
But privately and behind-the-scenes he’s finding his voice. Throughout training camp last month, Jokic gave Michael Porter Jr. a crash course in the Nuggets’ egalitarian offense and the ins and outs of Denver’s attack which has been one of the most consistent in the league over the last couple of seasons. Jokic was in Porter’s ear throughout the week that the team spent in Colorado Springs, hammering home the intricacies of Denver’s read-and-react scheme into the rookie’s basketball brain and the golden rule of the Nuggets’ offense: keep moving.
In the Nuggets’ preseason opener, Jokic grabbed Porter during fourth-quarter timeout and reminded him to be mindful of the defense collapsing when he has the ball around the basket.
“I’m going to be such a better player playing with Nikola because not only is he going to find me, but he’s going to teach me, when I attract a crowd, to find people,” Porter said.
Jokic has been in the ear of the other Nuggets newcomers as well. In Denver’s preseason matchup against the Phoenix Suns, Jokic took Jerami Grant aside on more than one occasions and continued to preach to the forward the values of the Nuggets’ democratic offense.
“Nikola has been more vocal, and showing it on the court also,” Monte Morris said regarding Jokic’s growing voice.
Just like the practice court is the Nuggets’ training ground for the 82-game season which Denver hopes extends long into the playoffs, it’s also where both Murray and Jokic are working to mold their leadership techniques.
This season, Malone has given both Jokic and Murray the authority to stop practice at any point if they don’t think the team is playing up to their standards and demonstrating the “championship mindset” that Denver’s coach challenged his team to carry with them every day.
Having the desire to speak up in those situations is another step in both of their journey’s towards finding their voice in a league where leaders aren’t established overnight. You need to gradually gain respect of your teammates. You have to be able to back up your talk off the floor with your play on it. Jokic and Murray’s max-level contracts don’t have the word ‘leadership’ written into them, but it goes unsaid that being among the highest paid players on an NBA team comes with a responsibility to take on that role.
“You gotta try, that’s one,” Millsap said speaking about leadership in today’s NBA. “And you’ve just to to be yourself, let it come naturally. When you speak make sure it’s not something that’s bettering yourself but helping the entire group, that’s one of the main important things. Those two guys are good team players and when they say something it’s definitely for the betterment of the team.”
Thomas’ voice is long gone, but the Nuggets’ locker room is still flush with capable leaders, like Millsap, Will Barton and Mason Plumlee. And when adversity strikes this season, the Nuggets will look to those players but also to Jokic and Murray — their two franchise cornerstones — to get them through the season in one piece.
They both seem ready and willing to shoulder that responsibility.
“They’re finding their way. They’re not there yet. I don’t expect them to be there right now,” Malone said. “But as long as they’re embracing that challenge that’s all you can ask for, and I think they both are.”
