How the Never-Say-Die Denver Nuggets found their identity

Moments after the Denver Nuggets were officially eliminated from the playoffs, a teary-eyed Michael Malone addressed his team one last time inside the Disney World bubble that they called home for the last 82 days. He told them he was proud of how they stared adversity square in the face and kept on going.

Little went right for the Nuggets after the league shut down way back in March. Coronavirus tore through Denver’s roster. The Nuggets had to shut down their practice facility in June as the league was ramping back up for a return to play. When the Nuggets departed for the NBA bubble on July 7, only around half of Denver’s roster was on the team’s initial flight bound for Orlando.

The Nuggets only had eight players — seven forwards and centers and one guard — available for their first scrimmage back on July 22. Nikola Jokic started at point guard. Bol Bol started at small forward.

“The adversity that we’ve faced,” Malone said. “Never ran from it. Embraced it. Owned it.”

Their playoff run should have ended one month before it finally did. The Nuggets trailed the Jazz 71-56 with 9:44 remaining in the third quarter of Game 5 of their first-round series. But Jamal Murray wasn’t ready to go home. Murray scored 33 of his 42 points in the second half as Denver staved off elimination and forced a Game 6.

The Nuggets’ should have been on a plane back to Denver after Game 5 against the Clippers too. But instead of Marcus Morris’ elbow knocking Paul Millsap and the Nuggets to the mat for good, it gave them a second wind. Two games later, Denver became the first team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit twice.

“What more could you ask from a group?” Malone said while reflecting back on the unforgettable playoff run.

“I couldn’t be more proud.”

Just as Malone was proud of the Nuggets, we as fans should be proud of this team too. We should be proud of how Jokic once again shifted into another gear in the playoffs. We should be proud of how he took matters into his own hands against two-time defensive player of the year Rudy Gobert in Game 7 against the Jazz and scored 30 of the Nuggets’ 80 points.

We should be proud of how Jamal Murray reached superstar status in these playoffs, not just on the court but off of it as well. The emotional vulnerability Murray showed in the aftermath of the Jacob Blake shooting is one of the more incredible things I’ve seen from an athlete in recent memory. The fact that he channeled that grief into a second 50-point performance in Game 6 against the Jazz should place Murray in Nuggets’ royalty forever. Two weeks later, his 40 points in Game 7 against the Clippers catapulted Denver into the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2009.

We should be proud of how the Nuggets represented the city of Denver while in Orlando. Jerami Grant continually used his platform to bring attention to Breonna Taylor’s murder and the issue of police brutality. For most of the Nuggets’ playoff run, Malone wore a t-shirt with the message “Justice for Elijah McClain” across the front. The shirt was in reference to the 23-year-old Black man from Aurora, Colorado who died in the hospital days after he was taken into police custody and being placed in a now-banned carotid hold and injected with ketamine by first responders.

“This is in our backyard, and I feel a responsibility to bring light to it because I don’t think Elijah McClain’s name is mentioned enough,” Malone said. “I don’t think enough people are talking about it.”

In the Nuggets’ makeshift locker room following the Game 5 loss, Malone had another parting message for his team.

“Remember this feeling,” he said.

It’s a similar message to the one Malone conveyed over a year ago. On the night of their Game 7 loss to the Blazers that ended the Nuggets’ 2019 playoff run, Malone told his players to use that defeat as motivation. Jokic, Murray and the Nuggets chewed on that loss throughout the offseason, came back as more complete players, and as a result, Denver came within three wins of its first ever NBA Finals appearance.

“All great teams and champions have to go through the pains of losing,” Malone said.

Will this loss to the Lakers have a similar effect? Time will tell. But what this playoff run will do is reaffirm to the Nuggets that they have the key pieces in place to go all the way. Denver has its two stars and may eventually have another one in Michael Porter Jr. In Jerami Grant, who is expected to decline his player option and enter free agency this offseason, the Nuggets have the perfect complimentary role player and versatile defender to pair with those three pieces, if they can re-sign him.

“I think we learned a lot about ourself coming back from 3-1 two times,” said Monte Morris. “That’s going to push us to that next level next season.”

“I think we’ve got the team to do it.”

It takes a unique group to come back from a 3-1 deficit two separate times but if any team was going to pull off the impossible it was going to be these Nuggets. Murray was the only member of Denver’s playoff rotation who was a top-10 draft pick. Porter was drafted 14th overall but came into the NBA with plenty of doubters. The Nuggets’ starting frontcourt was drafted 47th and 41st overall respectively. Grant and Morris were also second-round draft picks. Torrey Craig and PJ Dozier went undrafted. This was a team of underdogs who teamed together to produced one of the more memorable underdog stories in recent memory.

“Maybe that’s why we didn’t quit the Utah series. Maybe that’s why we didn’t quit in the Clippers series,” Jokic said. “Because we are nobody. We are just someone who worked to be here. Some of us didn’t play our first season or two so we know what is the feeling of working hard for something.”

We can learn something from these Nuggets, especially in a year like 2020. In moments of distress, the Nuggets leaned on one another. When the odds were stacked against them, the Nuggets kept fighting. They kept putting one foot in front of the other. They kept their heads up and didn’t make excuses.

The roster continuity that the Nuggets have prided themselves on over the last several years paid off in a big way inside the bubble. While teams that were built overnight split at the seams in moments of distress, the Nuggets became the best version of themselves.

“Denver’s a team that’s been playing together for a long time,” Paul George said. “When things got rough, when they needed this or needed that they just know each other.”

The never-say-die Nuggets are a special group. They may not be the most talented team that Denver ever fields, but it will be tough for Tim Connelly to construct a future roster with more heart, more passion and more fight.

That’s what I’ll remember most about this team.

They made us all proud.