Editor’s Note: Have a question that you’d like our writers to answer? Leave any Nuggets questions, takes, proclamations and affirmations in the comments section below and Harrison, Adam and Brendan will address them on an upcoming episode of the DNVR Nuggets Podcast.

Brendan Vogt

I think the Nuggets are in the process of learning this lesson now, the lesson being the difference in the mentality of a good team, and a great team, as it pertains to finishing games and series. The Nuggets have a lot of dog in them — they’ve shown us time and time again they can fight back when up against the ropes, but we’re still waiting to see them strike fear in the hearts of their opponents. We’re still waiting for them to put other teams in the corner, and then down on the mat. Denver can run with just about everyone, but I don’t think they scare anyone. 

Some of the best teams in recent history have built an identity around relentlessness, and an ability to put their feet on their opponent’s necks. As any basketball fan knows, thanks to the unfathomable commitment of Chris Webber, the teams that comprise Golden State’s dynasty made a habit of putting the final nail in the proverbial coffin during the third, not the fourth and final quarter. Putting the obvious talent-gap aside, The Nuggets don’t have those predatory instincts. When they smell blood, they assume they’ve made the kill, and that’s enough to satiate them. Those Warriors? It triggered a feeding frenzy, and they left no meat on the bone.

Denver should never have lost the Portland series, and sometimes I wonder if they were the last ones to know that. Yes, they struggled to guard Rodney Hood, but they also played a little scared. They seemed a little tentative. Up for the challenge, but not eager. There’s a world in which the Nuggets entered that series licking their chops. Maybe, in that world, they win the series convincingly. 

I think the Nuggets can be great. My read is the Nuggets believe that too. But they need to know it, and we need to see that they do.

Adam Mares

I agree with Brendan that the Nuggets are in the process of learning these lessons and that the main lessons are about mental toughness, drive, and determination. That isn’t to say that the players on the roster don’t already possess these traits to some degree. In fact, I think all of the key players on the roster are tough, driven, and determined much more than the average person. But young players often have to learn the level of sacrifice and motivation that is required at the NBA level to become a champion.

Michael Malone has often referenced the team’s need to be mentally tougher, to be willing to have “uncomfortable conversations” and to hold each other accountable. To me, that is the biggest thing holding them back. Great teams seem to find a way to stay focused and motivated every second of every day.

I believe that the Nuggets are learning these lessons, especially individually. Guys like Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic are learning just how much it takes to push yourself to be the best that you can be. Perhaps the individual leaders of a team must learn these lessons alone before being able to teach those lessons collectively. This era of Nuggets basketball has been a slow building process. They aren’t that young anymore, but they are still somewhere in the middle of that growing process.

Harrison Wind

This is a difficult question to pose when we don’t know if the NBA finishes this season, but if we’re addressing this question while looking back on what the Nuggets were this year, here’s my take. I’d say that to take the next step, the Nuggets have to suffer a defeat that forces Denver to look itself look in the mirror and reevaluate their entire approach and mindset. They had that already in Game 82 from two seasons ago. I’d say that the Nuggets have to lose a hard-fought Game 7 and be forced to spend the entire summer wondering what could have been in order to take another step. They had that already in last year’s Western Conference semifinals against the Trail Blazers.

This Nuggets roster has learned the lessons that most teams in similar positions — as upstart franchises who are trying to climb the Western Conference ranks — typically must endure to take the metaphorical next step. They’ve reevaluated and rededicated themselves after missing out on the playoffs in 2018. They spent last summer thinking about how close they were to beating Portland at home in Game 7. You can make the argument that the Nuggets need to upgrade or reshuffle their personnel, which is a valid take, in order to get to the next tier. But in terms of learning more lessons? The Nuggets have been in school long enough.