The Denver Nuggets are betting big on Nikola Jokic.
On Monday, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports reported that Denver is declining Jokic’s team option next season and plan to reach an agreement on a five-year, $146.5 million maximum contract, which is consistent with what Nuggets president of basketball operation Tim Connelly has said all along this offseason. A league source confirmed to BSN Denver Monday that the Nuggets have declined Jokic’s team option for the 2018-19 season.
“Whatever keeps him here the longest is best for us and best for the team,” Connelly said the morning after Jokic’s 35-point, 10-rebound performance in Denver’s do-or-die game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on the final day of the regular season.
“Nikola is going to be here for a very long time,” Connelly added. “The sooner the better. He’s a guy who’s been tremendous in how quickly he’s developed and a guy we love, and he loves Denver. The sooner we can get his signature on a long-term contract, the better.”
Denver took Jokic 41st overall in the 2014 NBA Draft — the same draft it nabbed Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkic in. Jokic showed flashes of brilliance as a rookie during the 2015-16 season. He broke out as a star on the rise in 2016-17 when the Nuggets scrapped their Balkan Buddy Ball experiment, which paired Jokic and Nurkic together in the starting lineup, and made Jokic the full-time starting center. Jokic became the focal point of one of the NBA’s most high-powered offenses. The Nuggets have finished towards the top of the league in offensive efficiency in each of the last two seasons, a result of handing the keys to the 6-foot-10 Serbian.
Jokic is coming off a season where he averaged 18.5 points, 10.7 rebounds and 6.1 assists, numbers that put him in the same company as Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Kevin Garnett, Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook. In April, ESPN’s Zach Lowe wrote that “Jokic is wrapping perhaps the best passing season of all time for a big man.”
The 23-year-old big man is a talented scorer and rebounder, but his greatest gift is indeed his playmaking ability. He has a preternatural ability to anticipate what’s going to happen.
“Passing makes two people happy,” Jokic said in February 2017. “Scoring only makes one person happy.”
Jokic is not particularly fast, strong or much of a leaper, but he still finds a way to dominate the game. He finished the 2017-18 season with more two more triple-doubles (10) than dunks (eight). In February, he recorded the fastest triple-double in NBA history in a win over the Milwaukee Bucks. It took him only 14 minutes and 33 seconds to reach the 10-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist benchmark. He’d go on to score 30 points on 14 shots, pull down 15 boards and distribute 17 assists.
“He’s the guy that’s always going to make the right play,” Jamal Murray said about his teammate that night. “It’s just easy to play through him. Very unselfish. You hit him, you know you can get it back. You know you can cut, and he might pass it. There’s always a chance when Jok’s in the game.”
Jokic was masterful down the stretch of the 2017-18 regular season. He averaged 24.0 points on 53.8 percent shooting, 11.5 rebounds and 6.4 assists in Denver’s final 18 games. The Nuggets went 11-7 in those contents, but it was still not enough to get into the postseason.
The Nuggets desperately want to end their five-season playoff drought in 2018-19. They’re well positioned to do so with a young core of Jokic, Murray and Harris, and a steady veteran presence in four-time All-Star Paul Millsap. Jokic’s brilliance more than anything else put the Nuggets on the doorstep of postseason appearances the previous two seasons. Now they’ll try to finally break through with their franchise player about to ink a long-term deal.
BSN Denver’s Harrison Wind contributed to this report.
