A bear hug four years in the making represented a lot more than just the Nuggets' Northwest Division title

The hug lasted only four seconds, but it represented the ups, downs, triumphs and tragedies of the last four years.

After speaking with the media for six and a half minutes following the Nuggets’ Northwest Division clinching 119-110 win over the Trail Blazers, Michael Malone made his way out of the main hallway on the ground level of Pepsi Center and back towards the Nuggets’ locker room and his coach’s office. Denver’s president of basketball operations cut him off as he rounded the corner.

“That was amazing, man,” Tim Connelly exclaimed as the two embraced.

“The fourth quarter was amazing,” Malone responded.

It was a bear hug that was four long seasons in the making. The Nuggets experienced their fair share of pain, agony and heartbreak over Malone’s first three years on the job. The last two, each of which had ended with the Nuggets missing out on the playoffs by just one game, came with grief. But Friday, and most of Denver’s dream season that continued with the Nuggets’ league-leading 33rd home win of the year, was yet another reminder of the extended, resourceful and creative rebuild that’s led the Nuggets to home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs beginning next week.

“I think you’ve got a lot of excited players in there,” Malone said after the win. “The thing I told them, I said, ‘Our division, in my opinion, is the toughest division in the NBA, and to be 11-2 in the division and to clinch tonight, that is a great achievement for us. More importantly, we’re not satisfied.'”

Malone’s tone was shared by his players. Nikola Jokic, fresh off an ironman-like performance where he played a team-high 37 minutes and finished with 22 points, 13 rebounds, and nine assists, basked in the glow of the Nuggets’ division-clinching win while noting that with the playoffs looming Denver’s season isn’t close to finished yet. Moments after putting on his best Chauncey Billups impression in front of the Nuggets great who was calling the game courtside for ESPN and Denver’s point guard the last time it won the division in 2010, Jamal Murray didn’t want to expend too much energy dissecting his spotless 23-point, six-assist, zero-rebound stat line. It was only the second time in the 22-year-old’s career that he’s scored at least 19 points, handed out five or more assists and recorded zero turnovers. Both outings have come in his last five games.

“We’ve got big expectations for ourselves,” said Murray. “And we’d love to go deep in the playoffs.”

To get to to the point where the Nuggets could discuss how much damage they could do in the postseason was once a fairy tale. Malone arrived in Denver in 2015, eager to rebuild an organizational culture that had gone awry and mold the Nuggets into a winner. It would take time and countless crippling defeats but most of all, patience, which Malone and his front office had. After a 33-win season in 2015, the Nuggets stayed the course. A 40-win season a year later sparked excitement and the first glimpse of a logical path forward around Jokic. In 2017, Denver missed the postseason again by one game but rolled back the same roster and coach with an organizational-wide belief that this group would eventually break through.

Along the way, the Nuggets could have diverted course and pivoted another direction. Denver had one opportunity after another to cash in its pool of talented assets for more proven players. It ended up passing on most of those offers, some of which could have brought in All-Stars that would have surely put butts in the seats in 2016 and even parts of the 2017 season when you could still occasionally hear Malone’s calls for his team to get back on defense reverberate around the lower bowl.

The Nuggets chose continuity with their players and coaches even when the choice wasn’t a popular one.

“I think the continuity has created our chemistry,” Connelly told BSN Denver following February’s All-Star break just as the Nuggets were beginning to erase some doubts about their early-season success.

Over the final two months of the regular season, Denver has gone through its fair share of bumps and bruises but the Nuggets emerged to lock in a top-3 seed once the playoffs tip off next weekend. They boast a top-10 offense and defense and have an All-Star center who could very well wind up on the All-NBA first team at the conclusion of this season. His name will also appear on many voters’ MVP ballots that are to submitted soon.

The Nuggets entered the season with the second-youngest roster in the league as well with as many as five first, second or third-year players logging significant minutes in their rotation. Many of Denver’s inexperienced role players who have risen to the occasion this season, like Monte Morris, Malik Beasley and Torrey Craig who have shared a locker room for their entire careers, and did so again Friday. Morris had eight important points on 4-5 shooting off Denver’s bench. Beasley tallied nine points in 17 minutes and was on the floor during a key early fourth-quarter run that allowed the Nuggets to retake control of the game. Craig played one of his best games as a pro, finishing with 18 points and seven rebounds.

“It took a lot of learning and we’ve got a lot more learning to go,” Murray said reflecting back on his three seasons in Denver and going to battle with largely the same group for most of his career. We’re a young team right now but on a great path.”

“It was a blessing to be drafted to this team. A lot of the guys I first came with are still here. It’s great to have them, go with them and learn with them and go through the journey with them.”

The Nuggets’ continuity could be tested this summer. The Washington Wizards have made it clear that Connelly is their top target to replace former president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld who was relieved of his duties earlier this week. Losing Connelly, the chief architect of Denver’s rebuild, would be a significant blow.

The Wizards’ zeroing in on Connelly isn’t a surprise. Connelly took over an organization in Denver in 2013 without a clear direction and eventually put the Nuggets on a path back to contention by building through the draft. The Wizards, who’ve been treading water in the middle of the Eastern Conference for much of the last decade, are in a similar position to where the Nuggets were when Connelly was hired and are in dire need of a new and fresh direction. Washington is in salary cap hell with over $170 million owed to John Wall, who’s likely to miss next season after rupturing his Achilles, over the next four years. Of course they’d be attracted to a hot name like Connelly who’s built the Nuggets from scratch.

Connelly, a Baltimore native, also got his start in the NBA with the Wizards as an intern in the mid-1990’s before eventually working his way up to director of player personnel. He took an assistant general manager job with the Pelicans in 2010 and arrived in Denver three years later. He and his wife, who’s also from the area, still have family back East. Connelly and his front office, including general manager Arturas Karnisovas, signed contract extensions with the Nuggets earlier this season, but it’s hard envisioning Denver standing in Connelly’s way if he wants to return home.

Connelly is in a unique position in Denver where he’s constructed a roster that’s set up to contend for years to come. That would be a difficult scenario for any front office executive to walk away from no matter how lucrative an offer is made. One league source close to Connelly described the prospects of the Nuggets president of basketball operations taking the Wizards job as “highly unlikely.”

Continuity within a stable front office, and also a coaching staff, has helped the Nuggets build their organization-wide chemistry as well. It starts at the top in the NBA, and the presence provided by Denver’s front office has trickled down to a locker room which many around the organization describe as college-like with teammates congregating at one another’s houses to watch sporting events on the weekends. The Nuggets’ division-clinching celebration began in their locker room late-Friday night but many players filtered over to STK, a sleek steakhouse in downtown Denver once they finished their postgame media obligations.

For Gary Harris, who’s one of the few players along with Jokic and Will Barton who were in Denver for the Nuggets’ 33-win season in 2015, the Northwest Division title is long overdue.

“We knew we had something special a few years ago,” Harris said from in front of his locker where a brand new dark gray t-shirt with the word “Clinched” stitched across the chest hung. “It was just about us putting it all together.”

The Nuggets’ continuity is precious and rare in a league where player movement is at an all-time high, although it’s yet to result in a playoff series win. It hasn’t even led to one postseason victory. But when it does, how the Nuggets got to this point will make their success extra special.