On October 28, 2015, the Nuggets made room on their bench for their new rookie: Nikola Jokic. That night, Denver lined up in his racket Kenneth Faried and… Joffrey Lauvergne. After about thirty matches, the Serbian will definitely supplant the French for the starting place.
Mike Malone, however, remains tempted to associate the newcomer with another young prospect from the Balkans, Jusuf Nurkic, who has a year of experience in the league. The two men are entitled to several joint starts at the end of the 2015/16 season and then at the start of the following year.
But as Yahoo! Sports, the combination does not work. Over the twelve matches and 108 minutes in common during the 2016/17 season, they posted a terrible negative “Net Rating” of -13.8 points.
Something is wrong and it seems more and more obvious that one of the two is too much. And it is Nikola Jokic in person who will touch two words on his coach.
« What came out of the conversation was that he was frustrated, basicallyMike Malone still remembers. “He did not find that his association with Nurkic was working and especially that it was not helping the team. It wasn’t just about Nikola and Nurk. It was more compared to the fact that it wasn’t helping the team and that’s what we love about Nikola. It’s never about him. »
Mike Malone saw in Nikola Jokic’s speech a foretaste of “ selfless superstar He was to become. According to the coach, the Serbian was even ready to sacrifice himself: “ He was in a good position to say, ‘Dude, get me out of the five. Put someone else on. Let me get off the bench and play my game. ‘ »
“We haven’t looked back since”
Shortly after, the Nuggets decide to give full powers to Nikola Jokic in their racquet. “We haven’t looked back since”, recalls Mike Malone. All that remains is to find a base for Jusuf Nurkic who, relegated to the bench, no longer hides his frustration and simply asks to leave.
The relief will come for him in February 2017, when he is traded to Portland for Mason Plumlee. ” Problems were revealed to the public when Nikola began to explode. Jusuf, who is a good guy, couldn’t do it with his new role “, Explains at the time the GM, Tim Connelly.
In Portland, the Bosnian will regain a starting place and resume his march forward. ” I think we can develop two full-backs together. But two pivots? No chance », He formulated after his transfer.
Each party seems to have found its account since the separation. ” From there, our team took off with Nikola Jokic on the way to becoming MVP ”, ends today Mike Malone. “We’re the only team in the West to have the home court advantage three years in a row and we played the first round two years in a row, which hasn’t happened for a long time in Denver. The consequences speak for themselves.«
