OKLAHOMA CITY – The truth clobbered the Nuggets over the head like a Michael Porter Jr. brick. The air came out with every airball from Russell Westbrook.
The reality is simple. The Denver Nuggets were not good enough. There is no shame in losing to a 68-win team with home-court advantage. But a troubling question hangs in the air: Can the Nuggets, as constructed, be good enough again to win another NBA championship?
Sifting through the debris of a 125-93 rout at Paycom Center, Nikola Jokic identified a gnawing concern when comparing the Nuggets to the remaining teams in the playoffs.
“We played for so long in such a way, it’s hard for guys to step up against really good teams. We cannot ask for somebody who didn’t play more than 20-30 games to jump in and expect them to be good,” Jokic said. “It definitely seems like the more the rotation and a longer bench, those are the teams who are winning — Indiana, OKC, Minnesota.”
Jokic is reluctant to play general manager — though the Nuggets have a vacancy — but his analysis of the situation is correct. The Thunder is rolling in the deep more than Adele. They play 10 guys at least 10 minutes.
The Nuggets’ counter of Westbrook, who averaged 6.5 points over the final five games; Peyton Watson, a versatile defender with shooting limitations; and Julian Strawther, the Game 6 hero who committed a turnover on his first possession Sunday, was a bug on OKC’s windshield. According to ESPN, the Nuggets’ four starters, sans Porter, ranked as the top four in postseason minutes played.
The Nuggets are tougher. They are older. But they are not better than the Thunder. They require changes, plain and simple.
Game 7 was not a classic. It was a coronation. Oklahoma City, whose average age is one year older than the Auburn Tigers’ Final Four team from this past March, has arrived. The kids are all right.
The Nuggets were not passengers on this ride. They were chaperones. Gordon, on one good leg that would have forced him to miss most or all of the next series, was Denver’s third-best player.
That sums up how poorly things went. Jamal Murray was a long sigh, scoring 13 points with two turnovers and one rebound. Porter was a drag.
So, we are left to make sense of this season, of this ending. No one expected the Nuggets to upset the Thunder, so what played out Sunday was what we feared.
Still, the story of how the Nuggets showed resolve after president Josh Kroenke fired coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth is uplifting.
It means David Adelman deserves to remove the “interim” tag from above the office door.
“I will be talking about that stuff later,” Kroenke said in the locker room. “But I am proud of the guys.”
The Nuggets’ run justified his stunning decision to can Malone and Booth with three games left in the regular season. It kept them out of the play-in, and it won them a series against the Clippers they would have dropped.
Asked if he thought this core could win another title, Murray did not hesitate.
“Absolutely,” he said.
Not buying it. Neither was Jokic.
“We didn’t, so obviously we can’t,” Jokic said. “If we could, we would win it. So I don’t know. I don’t believe in those ‘if, if’ stuff. So we had an opportunity, we didn’t win it, so I think we can’t.”
There is no way to look at the Nuggets, even if healthy, and believe they could have won eight more games, especially against a Minnesota team that has owned them over the past calendar year.
There are two factors at work. The Nuggets need to fortify their bench — Adelman’s trust in young players would accelerate their development — and land Jokic a true backup center. And they must tweak their starting five.
Trading MPJ is the most viable option, if they can find a suitor. He disappeared in the playoffs, averaging 7.2 points per game against the Thunder. He played through a sprained left shoulder that needed a monthlong rest. But he vanished last season against Minnesota when healthy.
His inconsistency has become a liability.
“I am so used to playing basketball and feeling strong, and so many parts of it were frustrating to me. At the end of the day, I didn’t play well in this series and the playoffs,” Porter said. “And I have to figure out a way to get my body into a better place and become a better player.”
The problem is that it is much easier to argue that Porter has reached his ceiling. Can you ship him to a team that wants instant offense with a larger role, while adding two pieces?
No one wants to even think of moving Gordon after he endeared himself to Nuggets Nation this postseason — even if his trade value might be the highest of Denver’s non-Jokic starters.
It is obvious that Jokic, the real MVP, can carry the Nuggets for long stretches, but not for two weeks against a top opponent. He grew frustrated and less effective as the Thunder attached themselves to him like body odor. Which drove home the point of how much losing stinks.
“I was crushed for the guys,” Adelman said.
The Nuggets had every reason to be proud of their resilience. But, it is obvious they will be in this position again next May, the platitudes becoming increasingly hollow, unless they get a deeper roster and trade Porter.
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