Denver Nuggets

Two years ago, Jamal Murray suffered a torn ACL that derailed his rise among the game's great guards and ended any chance the Denver Nuggets had of making a deep playoff run in 2021 or 2022.

Now fully healthy and an NBA champion, Murray reflected on his journey after Monday's Game 5 win over the Miami Heat.

"It's an amazing feeling," Murray told reporters. "It's been a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get back to this point. Everyone on my team believed in me, believed I could get back to myself and we proved a lot of doubters wrong."

Murray averaged 21.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 10.0 assists per game during the Finals, taking on more of a ball-distributor role as the Heat attempted to force Nikola Jokić into being a scorer. Nothing Miami tried worked, however, as Murray embraced the traditional point guard spot and had double-digit assists in four of the five games.

For the entire playoff run, Murray may have finally blossomed into a true co-star. He averaged 26.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game while knocking down 39.4 percent of his threes, lessening the pressure on Jokić as he nearly became the first player in NBA history to average a playoff triple-double and win the championship.

The next step for Murray will be sustaining his playoff growth and stretching it over the course of an 82-game season. While the Kentucky product has averaged 25.0 points per game in his playoff career, he's never topped 21.2 in the regular season and averages 16.9 overall.

If the Nuggets want a chance at repeating, Murray has to continue playing at a star level.

Nikola Jokić's desire to win an NBA title was evident in his playoff performance, but the two-time MVP "wanted the title just as badly" for Denver Nuggets teammate Jamal Murray, according to ESPN's Zach Lowe.

"He watched up close as Murray worked and worked to get healthy in time for last season's playoffs, only for everyone involved to end up agreeing it would be best to put off his return until this season," Lowe reported.

Jokić joined the Nuggets one year before they selected Murray with the No. 7 pick in the 2016 draft, so their careers have been closely intertwined. They have been together as the franchise grew into a contender.

Jokic throws Jamal Murray into the pool 😭 pic.twitter.com/h75zpzEgHm

— NBA (@NBA) June 13, 2023

Not only did the Nuggets reach the Western Conference Finals in 2020, but that postseason run also showcased Murray's massive potential. He averaged 26.5 points and shot 45.3 percent from beyond the arc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW5HA9M-XzA

Denver was poised for another deep run in 2020-21 until Murray tore his ACL. Without him in the lineup, the team got swept by the Phoenix Suns in the conference semifinals that year and then lost to the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the 2022 playoffs.

Now, it's abundantly clear what the Nuggets can achieve when Murray and Jokić are both healthy. They combined to average 51.6 points per game in the 2023 NBA Finals, as the Miami Heat simply had no counter.

Jokić and Murray have arguably become the NBA's top tandem, and they're poised to remain in the Mile High City for at least the next two seasons. This may not be the only time they're lifting the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy.

Before the Cleveland Cavaliers traded Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics in 2017, they reportedly approached the Denver Nuggets about a deal that would have included Jamal Murray.

ESPN's Zach Lowe reported teams approached Denver in 2017 and 2018 offering "certain marquee veteran or veterans" for Murray, with Irving being among the notable names. The Nuggets front office was reportedly "adamantly against" making the trade and decided to stick with Murray, believing he could blossom into a co-star next to Nikola Jokić.

Denver's willingness to stick things out is a testament to organizational stability. At the time Irving requested a trade, Murray was coming off a rookie season in which he averaged 9.9 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game while shooting 33.4 percent from three. Jokić was two full years away from his first All-Star selection.

Most front offices would have jumped at the chance to land a player like Irving and accelerate the building process—and understandably so. At the time, Irving was a 25-year-old All-Star a year removed from hitting one of the most clutch shots in NBA history in Game 7 of the Finals. He was also yet to develop a reputation as a malcontent who would later burn bridges in Boston and Brooklyn.

Even if the Nuggets wanted to take a longer view toward the future, Irving fit any timeline and to this day remains a better individual player than Murray.

However, it's fair to wonder if Jokić ever comes into his own as the greatest passing center in NBA history if he were playing alongside the more ball-dominant Irving. Murray has willingly ceded the traditional "point guard" role to Jokić in the Denver offense, regularly playing off the ball as the plan of attack funnels through the big man.

While Irving showed a willingness to play more as the 2 in Brooklyn when the Nets acquired James Harden, it's unclear if the 25-year-old version—eager to cast himself out of the shadow of LeBron James—would have been as willing.

As it stands, it may have taken six full years, but the Nuggets' patience was rewarded Monday night.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope accurately forecast the Denver Nuggets' 2023 championship shortly after his trade to the team last summer, according to ESPN's Zach Lowe.

"When Caldwell-Pope met one front office executive for the first time, he boldly but calmly declared the team would win the title this season, sources say," Lowe reported Tuesday.

The 30-year-old wing understood what it took to earn a title after he helped the Los Angeles Lakers win the 2020 NBA Finals. That postseason also gave him a first-hand glimpse of the Nuggets' potential since Los Angeles played Denver in the conference finals.

It's not as if the franchise's success came from out of nowhere.

Nikola Jokić was coming off his second straight MVP. More importantly, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. were healthy after the former missed the entire 2021-22 campaign and the latter made just nine appearances. The additions of Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown provided some necessary depth.

Bleacher Report's Andy Bailey listed the Nuggets at No. 4 in his power rankings ahead of the regular season and wrote they "should be in the title contenders tier" as long as their key players remained healthy.

Still, a broad level of skepticism about a team's credentials often lingers until it finally gets over the top. Neither the Toronto Raptors nor the Milwaukee Bucks were the betting favorites in the seasons when they lifted the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy.

In the case of the Nuggets, nobody will be discounting their chances anymore.

After playing a key role in the Denver Nuggets' run to the NBA championship this season, Bruce Brown is hoping to remain with the team on a new contract.

Speaking to Mike Singer of the Denver Post after Monday's 94-89 win over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, Brown said "it's a perfect fit" in reference to his role for the Nuggets.

"I want to stay," he also said. "Look at us. Celebrating the Finals, winning the Finals. This is what you come to the NBA for, to win at the highest level."

During the postgame press conference after Game 5, Brown said his summer plans include playing golf and being with his dog before Aaron Gordon chimed in to say he's "gonna get paid, is what he's gonna do."

Bruce Brown on his plans for the summer with Aaron Gordon chiming in pic.twitter.com/esjPuY3tFW

— Brandon Ewing (@B_Skip1717) June 13, 2023

Brown was arguably the best free-agent bargain last offseason when he signed a two-year, $13.3 million deal with Denver after spending the previous two years with the Brooklyn Nets. He has a $6.8 million player option for 2023-24, with Singer noting the maximum Denver can offer him is $7.7 million if he declines the option.

One thing that might help the Nuggets' chances of retaining the 26-year-old is he doesn't seem to be motivated entirely by maximizing his earnings next season.

"And money is not everything," he told Singer. "The money will come. So I'm not worried about that right now."

Brown is the only member of Denver's core group that could become a free agent this summer. Gordon, Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. are all under contract for at least two more seasons.

ESPN's Bobby Marks noted Brown's ability to "receive a greater payday" would be to play at a discounted price next season and become a free agent in the summer of 2024 that would allow him to sign for a starting salary of $13.4 million.

Brown carved out a significant role for the Nuggets in his first season with the team. He set career highs in scoring average (11.5 points per game) and minutes (28.5 per game) in 80 appearances during the regular season.

In 20 playoff games, Brown played a crucial role off the bench for head coach Michael Malone. He averaged 12.0 points per game on 51.1 percent shooting and was a valuable asset on defense.

Michael Malone knows the championship window in the NBA can be finite—even with a player as talented as Nikola Jokić—so the Denver Nuggets coach said the team emphasized versatility when building their roster to maximize their potential.

"I remember having a conversation where we said, 'Listen, we have a special, unique player, and that window is only open so long,'" Malone told Sam Amick and Tony Jones of The Athletic.

"So while that window is open, we have to do everything we can to surround Nikola Jokić with the pieces that are going to allow us to be a championship-caliber team. And even then, there's no guarantee you get to this point. Things have to break your way. Luck always comes into play. So we talked about how we've got to get bigger. We have to get some better defensive players. More versatility. We talked about watching last year's NBA Finals (between Boston and Golden State), and how everybody on the floor could shoot the ball and guard multiple positions."

The strategy paid off, with the Nuggets locking down their first title in franchise history Monday night. Jokić was his typically brilliant self, finishing with 28 points, 16 rebounds and four assists in the Nuggets' 94-89 win over the Miami Heat.

The two-time MVP averaged 30.2 points, 14.0 rebounds and 7.2 assists over the course of the series on his way to unanimously being named Finals MVP.

The championship was a culmination of another pivotal decision for Malone: his insertion of Jokić as the team's full-time starting center. Jokić's playing time was inconsistent and he was often forced to play out of position at the 4 early in his career as the Nuggets attempted to make the pairing of Jokić and Jusuf Nurkic work. Malone said the franchise's course changed when he trusted his gut and made Jokić a full-time center.

"I'm talking to myself," Malone told ESPN. "This kid was All-Rookie as a center and here I am bringing him off the bench and playing him as a 4 and a 5. And I said, 'Screw everything.' Nikola's a center. He's our center. And the next game, I started him at center. From that point in time, our offense, our team, our winning, everything just went straight up.

"I made a decision that he would become the focal point of everything we do, every decision we make, every player we bring in has to be somebody that can play with and complement Nikola."

"Now knowing what this means, it was just a really truly defining moment in this franchise's history because I think everything at that point in time changed and changed for the better. ... It was the best decision I ever made."

Denver's Game 5 victory featured five players scoring in double figures, including offseason acquisitions Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown, who brought the exact type of positional diversity Malone desired. Brown will likely decline his $6.8 million player option for next season and almost certainly priced himself out of Denver, which will give the Nuggets front office a rotational challenge as they look for a repeat.

That said, that's a challenge for next month. For now, Malone and the rest of the Denver brain trust can celebrate a job well done.

Nikola Jokić had to overcome a lot of obstacles and disappointments en route to becoming an NBA champion.

From famously being drafted during a Taco Bell commercial, to coming off the bench in the first two months of his rookie season and struggling to make it over the championship hump once he became a full-fledged superstar, it's been a challenging road for the two-time MVP.

But that's what made Monday night so sweet, and he wouldn't want it any other way.

The Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat for their first NBA title in franchise history, and their star found a beautiful and eloquent way to sum the team's entire journey, from the very beginning.

"If you want to be successful, you need a couple years," Jokić said in his postgame press conference. "You need to be bad, then you need to be good. Then when you're good, you need to fail. And then when you fail, you're going to figure it out. I think experience is not what happened to you, it's what you're going to do with what happened to you. Yes, Jamal was injured. Yes, we lose the first round or second round. ... There is no shortcuts. It's a journey. And I'm glad that I'm part of this journey."

The moment comes at the 15:42 mark of the press conference.

The Nuggets looked like a team built for this stage since 2020 when they made the Western Conference Finals in the bubble. But an injury to Jamal Murray in 2021 delayed their schedule to arrive a bit.

It ended up working out in the end.

Jokić and Murray were unquestionably the best duo in the entire postseason, having defenses at their mercy in every series, especially in the Finals. In their pivotal Game 3 win in Miami, they became the first pair of teammates to each have a triple-double in an NBA Finals game.

Just absolutely dominant stuff.

Jokić was particularly spectacular in the series, averaging 30.2 points, 14.0 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 1.4 blocks, ultimately winning the Bill Russell Finals MVP Trophy.

DENVER — Nikola Jokić checked the last box.

Following a grueling, 94-89 victory in Game 5 over the Miami Heat, the onslaught of legacy-related questions, hot takes and pot shots aimed at him for much of the last three years has been shut off.

Jokić is an NBA champion and Finals MVP.

He's now on an exclusive list of players who've secured two regular-season MVPs and at least one in the Finals:

Jokić, Tim Duncan, Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Moses Malone, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, LeBron James, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

If you weren't counting, that's 11 names. Eleven of the greatest players in the history of basketball. And yes, it's time to include Jokić among those luminaries.

Jokić just capped off, without question, one of the greatest individual postseason runs in league history.

In 20 games, Denver went 16-4 and Jokić tallied 600 points, 269 rebounds and 190 assists. Jokić led the postseason in all three categories. No one has ever done that before. If you count the BAA years, this league has been around since 1946. Wilt had 13 playoff runs. MJ and LeBron had 13 and 16, respectively.

They never did what Jokić just did. No one has.

For a couple years, the saying around Denver when Jokić posted some ludicrous stat line (or series of stat lines) was "Not Since Wilt."

Lately, that's morphed into "Not Even Wilt."

First 30-20-10 game in NBA Finals History. Not even Wilt. pic.twitter.com/37ZSKvmZzq

— Kalle📸 (@KalleSorbo) June 8, 2023

In that way, the playoffs (and really this entire three-year run) is more of a legacy-maker than a legacy-saver.

"I don't think you can put it into context," Michael Porter Jr. said when asked about this postseason from Jokić. "He does so many things for our team. I don't think people understand how good of a basketball player he is."

They do now. Or at least they should.

For most of the two seasons in which Jokić won his regular season MVPs, the default answer for the "best player in the world" conversation seemed to be Giannis Antetokounmpo. There were a few Kevin Durant or LeBron James holdouts. Some vocal fans and analysts even pushed 2022-23 MVP Joel Embiid there. The Jokić contingent was small.

Throughout this postseason, you could sort of feel that tide turning.

Jokić's spot atop the mountain is borderline indisputable now.

Not only is he the Finals MVP, he's the leader (in a landslide) in box plus/minus since the start of the 2020-21 season (playoffs included).

(BPM "is a basketball box score-based metric that estimates a basketball player's contribution to the team when that player is on the court.")

During that stretch, he's third among all players in points scored, first in rebounds, third in assists and first in raw plus-minus.

He's hit 63.0 percent of his two-pointers, 37.3 percent of his threes and 83.0 percent of his free throws.

In statistical terms, no one's close. And now the argument goes far beyond the numbers.

"This was a historic run," MPJ said after Game 5. "I don't know how you can say he's not the best big man ever."

"We've seen a point power forward," Aaron Gordon added. "We've never seen a point center before. So he's the first."

"He's the Finals MVP, and deservedly so," Jamal Murray said. "He makes everybody connect."

This is a genuinely unique player we're witnessing, who's clearly demonstrated that he puts team in front of individual accomplishments. His teammates have fed off that energy and approach, to the point they've won a championship together.

When asked which teammates he was happy to see win it all, he rattled off almost every name from the roster.

"All of them," Jokić said. "Literally every player."

You can be sure that same attitude will permeate the Nuggets next season, because Jokić will be on the roster. He hasn't given any indication that he wants to (or will) play any other way.

And that should keep Denver in the title contenders' tier for the foreseeable future. On the podium, Michael Malone said they weren't satisfied with one championship. He wants more.

Whether he wins more championships or not, Jokić did something on Monday that made his legacy ironclad. In a Game 5 in which his teammates shot 26-of-68 (38.2 percent) from the field, Jokić was 12-of-16 for 28 points, with 16 rebounds and four assists. He was a team-high plus-12.

And he validated three years of NBA domination, proving on the basketball world's biggest stage that you can win it all in his uniquely unselfish way.

The Denver Nuggets are NBA champions for the first time in franchise history after defeating the Miami Heat 94-89 in Game 5 of the Finals on Monday.

It was a great victory for a franchise that made the playoffs each of the previous four seasons before breaking through for the championship.

Head coach Michael Malone isn't happy with just one title, however, per postgame comments to reporters (26-second mark).

"Last step after a champion is to be a dynasty."

Coach Malone says the Nuggets are not satisfied with winning one NBA Championship.#NBAFinals presented by @YouTubeTV pic.twitter.com/ypxhZqN7Ud

— NBA (@NBA) June 13, 2023

"We're not satisfied," Malone said.

"We accomplished something this franchise has never done before, but we have a lot of young, talented players in that locker room. And I think we just showed through 16 playoff wins what we're capable of on the biggest stage in the world."

A dynasty is certainly possible with two-time NBA MVP and Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokić locked up long-term. The big man just averaged 30.2 points, 14.0 rebounds and 7.2 assists in the NBA Finals, and he's on board for at least four more seasons.

The rest of Denver's core four of Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon is also back for at least two more seasons.

Murray in particular developed into a superstar this postseason, averaging 26.1 points per game. Gordon dropped a game-high 27 points en route to a Game 4 win, and Porter posted double-doubles in seven of his last 13 playoff games.

Malone has done exceptional work with this group, too, and he should have the team well-positioned to compete for back-to-back titles.

It's a parade 47 years in the making.

With their victory over the Miami Heat on Monday night, the Denver Nuggets won their first NBA title in franchise history. And that means there is set to be a party through downtown Denver later this week.

The team's championship parade is set to take place Thursday beginning at 10 a.m. MT, according to FOX 31.

The festivities will begin at 9 a.m. with a pre-parade rally before it takes off from Union Station an hour later. It''ll then travel 17th Street to Broadway and ends at Civic Center Park, where there will be a big rally to welcome home the new kings of the NBA.

Four of the trophies that the team has won this season will be on display during the parade, including the Oscar Robertson Trophy (Western Conference Finals), the Magic Johnson Trophy (WCF MVP), Bill Russell Trophy (Finals MVP) and of course the Larry O'Brien.

If past parades in Denver are any indication, this is going to be one huge celebration, especially considering the magnitude of the achievement.

Following the Colorado Avalanche's win in the Stanley Cup Final last year, 500,000 fans showed up to the championship parade. More than 1 million attended the parade after the Broncos won the Super Bowl in 2016.

And given the extraordinary performance the Nuggets put on all season, the party is more than deserved.

FOX 31 will carry the broadcast of the parade throughout its entirety.