As they became Monday night, the 5th different NBA champions in five years, the Nuggets want to start a dynasty. Like the Warriors in the mid-2010s, the star nucleus is under 30, and it is under contract until 2025. Enough to dominate the NBA for two, even three or four years.
” I don’t believe anyone is satisfied.” warns GM Calvin Booth in the denver post. “We know that we still have a lot to do. This is not our peak. We have to give ourselves the opportunity to be in the final every year. If we are in the final, we have a chance. I don’t expect us to win every time, but we have to try to achieve it. »
Clearly, it will now be the title, or nothing, for Nikola Jokic and his teammates, and this desire and this ability to play for the title every year is a way of imposing the franchise in the NBA landscape, among the teams the most respected and renowned. Booth actually has a role model, and it’s the Spurs. He explains why: “For the way they treat their players, over time, in long term success and giving themselves many, many opportunities to win the title. »
And that’s good since Nikola Jokic has never hidden that he took Tim Duncan as a model. ” It’s really good to be here. I want to be the Tim Duncan of the Denver Nuggets. But I need some titles to be like him. I love the city, the franchise, the people… I really love being here. I don’t want to change anything he said a year ago, the day after his contract extension.
And then, we must remember that Mike Malone is often considered a “child of Gregg Popovich”. For what ? Because the current Nuggets coach had worked with Coach Pop’ on a “Basketball Without Borders” camp. It was in 2005, and it was after spending time with him and seeing him in action, that Popovich called Mike Brown, then Cavaliers coach, to advise him to hire Malone as an assistant.
We know the rest.
