{"id":1315156,"date":"2019-09-30T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/nuggets-want-more-less-out-of-nikola-jokic\/"},"modified":"2019-09-30T23:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-01T05:00:00","slug":"nuggets-want-more-less-out-of-nikola-jokic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/nuggets-want-more-less-out-of-nikola-jokic\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets want more, less out of Nikola Jokic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic poses for a photograph during the NBA basketball team’s media day Monday, Sept. 30, 2019, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

DENVER \u2014 Four months later and Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone is still blown away by Nikola Jokic\u2019s playoff performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Nikola did in the postseason was remarkable,\u201d Malone said Monday as the team reconvened amid heightened expectations in an elevated Western Conference.<\/p>\n

In 14 playoff games, the Nuggets\u2019 24-year-old All-Star center averaged 25.1 points, 13 rebounds and 8.4 assists, putting him in some pretty elite company.<\/p>\n

The only other players to post averages of at least 20 points, 10 boards and eight assists while playing at least 10 games in the postseason are Oscar Robertson in 1963, Wilt Chamberlin in 1967 and LeBron James in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing into the year I don\u2019t know how you can even have an MVP discussion without mentioning his name because of what he did last year, for a guy that is supposedly un-athletic and out of shape,\u201d Malone said. \u201cI think he proved a lot of people wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe became so reliant upon Nikola in the postseason,\u201d Malone said. \u201cI go back to Game 7, when we lost to Portland and he came to my office he\u2019s crying and apologizing for missing a big free throw. He missed the free throw because he was dead tired. The guy was playing 40 minutes a night.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully this year in the playoffs \u2014 if we get back to the playoffs \u2014 we don\u2019t have to be so reliant on him,\u201d Malone said. \u201cI\u2019m looking for an improvement in all of our other players this postseason. Our bench unit was so impactful in the regular season and this coming year they\u2019ll be much more impactful in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that\u2019s the case I don\u2019t have to play Nikola so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where he does want Jokic to improve is by keeping his emotions in check.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Nikola to have a great year for us, it\u2019s going to be: does he embrace being a leader of this team and can he handle his emotions?\u201d Malone said. \u201cNikola Jokic, as we all know, is emotional. And I love it. I don\u2019t want him to change who he is, I want the best version of Nikola Jokic. We can\u2019t afford to have him thrown out of games arguing with the referees. Leave that to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he does those things, be a better leader and handle adversity, that\u2019s going to allow him to have an even better season.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the Nuggets, too.<\/p>\n

After ending a six-year playoff drought and winning a series for the first time since 2009, the Nuggets need to guard against letting up.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you keep these guys motivated and not relax? That\u2019s going to be our greatest challenge,\u201d Malone said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the Lakers, the Clippers, the Warriors, the Jazz or Rockets. It\u2019s us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nuggets didn\u2019t land the big free agents like their Western Conference rivals, but they like the additions they did make.<\/p>\n

Denver bolstered its front court by acquiring 25-year-old power forward Jerami Grant from the Thunder for a 2020 first-round pick. The 6-foot-9, 220-pound Grant is coming off a breakout season that saw him set career highs in points (13.6) and rebounds (5.2). He shot 49.7% from the field and 39.2% from 3-point range. On the defensive end, he displayed his versatility by blocking 100 shots and recording 61 steals.<\/p>\n

Grant was thrilled to land in Denver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to get off a sinking ship,\u201d said Grant, the son of longtime NBA player Harvey Grant.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets are coming off a 54-28 season that earned them the No. 2 seed in the West. They didn\u2019t make any splashy moves in the offseason although they did bring back forward Paul Millsap, picking up his $30 million option and agreed on a $170 million extension for point guard Jamal Murray.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s their team,\u201d Malone said of Jokic and Murray. \u201cStep up and embrace being a leader. We need that desperately. I know Isaiah Thomas only played nine games last year but he was so impactful for our group. That voice and that presence is gone. Who\u2019s going to fill that void? I really hope it\u2019s going to be Nikola and Jamal who take that leadership mantel because it\u2019s going to be a big part of our locker room and our team this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Porter Jr., the No. 14 selection in 2018 who sat out last season as he recovered from another back surgery, is finally ready to give it a go after a knee injury scuttled his Summer League plans in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Follow Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http:\/\/twitter.com\/arniestapleton<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

More AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA<\/a> and https:\/\/twitter.com\/AP\u2014Sports<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic poses for a photograph during the NBA basketball team’s media day Monday, Sept. 30, 2019, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)AP | AP DENVER \u2014 Four months later and Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone is still blown away by Nikola Jokic\u2019s playoff performance. \u201cWhat Nikola did in the postseason was remarkable,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 21:34:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}