Nikola Jokic and Michael Malone have to be better for the Nuggets

Nikola Jokic had one of the best individual seasons in basketball history and will be awarded his second consecutive NBA MVP award in the coming weeks. He can still improve.

Michael Malone led the Nuggets to 48 wins on the back of Jokic and some spare parts and earned a contract extension. He too still has a lot of room to grow.

As The Fan’s Zach Bye likes to say, two things can be true at once. Nuggets fans should celebrate what Jokic and Malone have accomplished together, but also understand the duo needs to improve to carry the franchise to new heights or ever truly compete for an NBA title.

Let’s start with The Joker. He’s the best player in Nuggets history and just created an exclusive 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, and 500 assists in which he’s the only member. He’s incredible and Denver is lucky to have him.

But in the last two playoff series, Jokic has been challenged in new ways and has yet to come up with an answer for what Phoenix did last year and what Golden State is currently doing to his team.

Denver’s only path to title contention is through Jokic, so he must be the centerpiece of everything they do on both ends of the court. In the regular season, no one seems able to solve Jokic. He plays at his pace, picks apart defenses, and gives Denver a chance to win almost every night. No team in the league regardless of their roster or head coach can speed up the Joker and force him into mistakes. It’s the biggest reason he’ll be a two-time MVP.

But against both the Suns and Warriors athleticism and ball movement have destroyed the Denver perimeter defense and helped to take Jokic out of his game. They’ve used length and quickness to attack on defense instead of sitting back and being terrified of how Jokic will dissect them with pinpoint passes or Sombor Shuffles. They’ve forced quicker decisions for not only Jokic but his teammates and Denver hasn’t been able to solve that puzzle.

Yes, a large part of that is not having Jamal Murray or Michael Porter Jr. to make the defense pay. They would certainly make a difference in creating flow and momentum in playoff games, but I’m still not sure the final scores would end up in Denver’s favor.

Phoenix and Golden State have successfully sped up the game and created enough defensive chaos that they’ve taken control of the game out of Jokic’s hands. When TNT’s Charles Barkley says that Joker has to punish the much smaller Draymond Green, this is what he’s talking about. Jokic is a master at breaking down the opponent and exposing a weakness, but he’s not been able to do that versus Green or against Phoenix last year when they were the aggressor and forced the Nuggets to play faster. Jokic has to find a way to still dominate when the opponent isn’t letting him dictate the pace of the offense.

When he hasn’t had control of the flow, the other area of concern becomes Jokic’s temper. Just as he did in Game 4 against Phoenix last year, the Joker was ejected in Game 2 against Golden State when his frustration over the lack of foul calls boiled over. There have been plenty of hotheaded stars in NBA history, but do you recall any superstar that led his team to The Finals that had the reputation for all-out meltdowns that Jokic has developed?

Everyone in the building or watching on TV can see when things are unraveling for the Nuggets in any given game, but the face of the franchise superstar cannot just let go of the rope. Heck, it’s even relatable for fans that want the Nuggets to win so bad but can see it slipping away in real-time. We know how you feel Joker, but he’s got to mature. His temper tantrums are bad for the team, bad for the franchise, and fuel for the opponent when they know they can push him past the brink.

Michael Malone needs to help his superstar in both regards. Denver’s lost six straight playoff games and has trailed by 20 or more points in five of them. Does that sound like a team that has adjusted anything they’re doing? How long will the Murray/Porter injuries be used as an excuse? (I’ll dive into the roster make-up once the season ends, but this is not the time or place for that. Stay tuned.)

Noting the injuries to two star players is certainly a legitimate reason why the Nuggets are losing. But it has nothing to do with why they’re not adjusting or competing. The cavalry isn’t coming. It’s the coaching staff’s job to win with the players they have. And Malone hasn’t changed anything about his approach.

When you have an MVP centerpiece that has elevated everyone around him, understandably, you want to stick to that plan and ride it as far as it will take you. But you’ve now seen the evidence against Phoenix and Golden State that it’s not far enough. Both of those opponents have dictated how the game would be played, and the Nuggets have been bullied.

For fans, there’s nothing more frustrating than hearing your head coach always talk about what the other team is doing and why they can’t find an answer. Has Steve Kerr said one word about worrying about Jokic? The answer is no because the Nuggets haven’t made him worry.

There hasn’t been any indication against the Suns or Warriors that Denver was going to attack with a plan and dictate how the game would be played. They’ve been reactive instead of proactive, and that’s on the coaching staff. It’s time for this team to force-feed Jokic, and to a lesser extent the other bigs on the team, and punish smaller line-ups at the rim. It’s their best chance to succeed, and they need to go down swinging.

Malone said he needed to find guys that will compete for 48 minutes, not just 24. If their current rotation can’t figure out how to do that, then play different players. Loyalty goes out the window when you’re being embarrassed every time out.

Malone and Jokic are tied together, and they’ll be here for the foreseeable future. They’ve had a lot of success. But if the Nuggets fancy themselves a title contender during that time, both still have a lot of room for improvement.

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