Nuggets finally reach NBA championship summit. Jokic, Murray, team built to win more

DENVER — For Dan Issel and Alex English. For Fat Lever and Kiki VanDeWeghe. For Dikembo Mutombo and David Thompson. For George Karl and Carmelo Anthony. For Doug Moe and Larry Brown.

For Ralph Simpson and the ABA. For Kenyon Martin, J.R. Smith, Marcus Camby and Andre Miller.

For Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. For Michael Malone and Calvin Booth. For Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. For Bruce Brown and Jeff Green.

For Nuggets players past and present. For Denver and Nuggets fans.

The Denver Nuggets are NBA champions, beating the Miami Heat 94-89 in Game 5 Monday and capturing the franchise’s first NBA championship.

“You know, Pat Riley said something many years ago,” Denver coach Michael Malone said. "I used to have it up on my board when I was a head coach in Sacramento, and it talked about the evolution in this game and how you go from a nobody to an upstart, and you go from an upstart to a winner and a winner to a contender and a contender to a champion, and the last step is after a champion is to be a dynasty.

"So we're not satisfied."

The Nuggets were a rolling train, picking up speed and confidence, and through April and May and then into June, the Nuggets Express was unstoppable as it went through Minnesota, Phoenix, Los Angeles Lakers and Miami before stopping in Denver for a season-ending celebration.

Malone was the conductor, getting his team to play some of its best basketball of the season. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray formed the engine, and a roster built through the draft, free agency and trades provided fuel for a title.

The Nuggets, who were atop the Western Conference from December until the end of the regular season and earned the No. 1 seed, have arrived, a combination of talent, patience, health and vision coming together at the right time.

“Since day one (in training camp) in San Diego, it was something different about this team,” Jokic said. “I felt it. I felt some different energy and every day since then I had the same feeling. I'm not really optimistic guy, but that gave me hope that we can do something.”

The potent Jokic-Murray combo

Jokic, the two-time MVP from Serbia, and Murray, the Canadian who came back from a torn ACL, were the best duo in the playoffs, playing a two-man game that Miami couldn’t contain.

Jokic, the Finals MVP, averaged 30.2 points, 14.0 rebounds and 7.2 assists and shot 58.3% from the field and 42.1% on 3-pointers, and Murray averaged 21.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 10.0 assists and shot 45.1% from the field and 38.7% on 3-pointers.

“It's just a feel and a trust that we're going to figure it out, and it's a lot of unselfishness,” Murray said.

In Game 3, Jokic and Murray became the first teammates to each record a 30-point triple-double in a regular-season or playoff game.

Malone had an idea of what they could become at the end of the 2017-18 season when the Nuggets lost to Minnesota in overtime in a game that cost Denver a playoff spot. But Jokic had 35 points and 10 rebounds, and Murray had 20 points, six rebounds and six assists.

"Nikola and Jamal, a third-year player, a second-year player, they were out there playing at a high level,” Malone said. “That showed me and that showed our front office and, more importantly, I can remember (Nuggets owner) Josh Kroenke coming up to me after that game and being excited about what the future held because of how well those guys played with the stakes that were obviously going on during that game."

The Nuggets reached the conference finals in the 2020 Orlando bubble and looked like a team ready to make deep runs into late May and June.

Return from injuries

That trajectory was delayed, however, by injuries to Murray and Michael Porter Jr. Murray tore his ACL late in the 2020-21 season and he missed all of 2021-22. Porter needed a third back surgery in six years and played in just nine games last season.

"After everything I've been through, I'm not really supposed to be a world champion," Porter said. "But to do it with this group of dudes after everything that … I can't describe it. I look back on everything, how hard I worked, and it just feels surreal.”

When Murray sustained his knee injury, he asked Malone if the Nuggets were going to trade him. He had tears during the championship celebration.

"I couldn't hold it in," Murray said. "It was just something I've been working for my whole life. Every real hooper wants to be on this stage and play in the game and be in this moment. To see it full circle, going from my rehab, not being able to walk, go up the stairs, not just for a month or two. It was for a long time. A lot of different things going through my head. A lot of tears. A lot of blood, sweat and tears, and real ones."

With both healthy alongside Jokic in 2022-23, the Nuggets knew this could be their season.

“I had a belief of being in the playoffs before, having the experience, seeing the team and the chemistry grow, having the same core my whole career, that's when I saw it. That's when I believed it,” Murray said.

An exercise in team building

Former GM Tim Connelly tinkered with the roster until he found better players at good values to fit around Murray and Jokic. He traded for Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who was the only player in Denver’s locker room to win a title before this season.

Both played pivotal roles in the season and playoffs, including the Finals. Gordon had a playoff-career high 27 points in Game 4, and Caldwell-Pope was a strong defensive presence who also made timely shots. After Connelly left for a front-office job with Minnesota, Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth drafted Christian Braun and signed Bruce Brown in free agency. Their production was necessary − Brown had 21 points in Game 4 and Braun had 15 in Game 3.

The Nuggets were shrewd in the draft, free agency and trade market, putting together the right combination of offense and defense.

Borrowing a sentiment from Langston Hughes, Malone said, "Sometimes a dream is deferred, and our dream was deferred for a few years, but we stuck with it, and we added the right pieces."

Ownership stuck to plan

Nuggets owners Stan and Josh Kroenke didn’t rush the process. When a season ended early or a player got injured, they didn’t panic, didn’t fire a coach and didn’t make a massive trade to shake up the roster.

“I am the beneficiary of that patience, and I'm very, very thankful for that,” Malone said. “You know, Tim Connelly hired me and brought me to the table here, and my countless conversations in my seven years with Tim, we would always talk about how we had the luxury of working for a group with Stan and Josh and the Kroenke family that is not going to be just a quick trigger. 'We have to make a move. We have to make a move.' They were willing to take a step back and see this thing through."

Now, the Nuggets have their starting five under contract for at least next season and possibly longer. They will be among the favorites next season.

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

Follow NBA columnist Jeff Zillgitt on Twitter @JeffZillgitt

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jokic, Nuggets built for more NBA titles, so don't tire of them yet