There's an old saying about "everyone having a plan until they get punched in the mouth."
The implication is obvious. We don't know people's true mettle until they're challenged. Anyone can be happy and successful in times of harmony and peace. Only a few rise to the occasion when faced with genuine adversity they didn't expect. If it were easy, everyone would do it.
When it comes to the Denver Nuggets, we're learning a lot about Nikola Jokić and friends amid a possible short-lived playoff run. The Minnesota Timberwolves and Jaden McDaniels have "punched" them, so to speak. And they haven't stopped punching them. Rather than stand up, dust themselves off, and throw some hooks back in return, the Nuggets have responded by ... rolling over and curling into a fetal position.
As a result, we are reaching a point where the Nuggets' current core seems to have an imminent expiration date, like a turning-sour carton of milk.
It'd be one thing if the Nuggets had looked competitive up until this point. You could more readily excuse losing a hard-fought series to your biggest rival, with the tired "make or miss league" cliché holding up as it should.
But the Nuggets didn't fall down 3-1 to the Timberwolves because of bad luck in contested games. On both ends of the floor, they're getting flat-out punked in a manner that feels like a five-alarm fire. So far, this is the worst playoff series Jokić has ever played, and he's not getting any help. The Nuggets look old, slow, lifeless, and quite frankly, a little scared, even if head coach David Adelman takes great exception to that line of thinking.
Denver has never lost in the first round of the playoffs in a season with both a healthy Jokić and Jamal Murray. If the Nuggets don't come back and win this series in a decisive fashion against a Timberwolves team that will likely be without its starting backcourt for the rest of the way, that will have said everything without having needed to say anything at all.
Barring an NBA Finals run that feels miraculous in this very moment, change at the near base of the Rocky Mountains would be inevitable. You could talk me into any outcome this summer. Well, outside of trading Jokić, who reportedly appears content to remain in Denver for the rest of his career. If I know one thing about the Kroenke ownership family, they're not going to throw away a Serbian cash cow that makes them so much money unless he wants them to. However, they also won't let him waste away for the rest of his NBA playing days.
That's why every other seat on this rapidly sinking Nuggets ship could be shuffled around.
Fire Adelman? Sure. Jettison Murray for peak trade value after a career, potential All-NBA campaign? Yes. Finding ways to offload the now oft-injured Aaron Gordon, a disappointing Christian Braun and Cam Johnson, and or letting the promising Peyton Watson walk in free agency? Absolutely.
When NBA franchises peter out of the playoffs, as it sure seems the Nuggets might, everything is on the table.
On the one hand, I am shocked the Nuggets have reached this point. Denver entered the season as one of the league's supposed top championship contenders. This, after they had sprinted into the postseason on an impressive 12-game winning streak, the longest of the Jokić era.
For them to look so flat and hopeless now is galling.
On the other hand, most championship-caliber cores in the NBA don't get to control their fate. Title windows open and slam shut in this league without warning almost every single time. Not knowing you're in the so-called good old days when they're happening to you in real time is the very nature of the business. Appreciate those days while you can because they don't last forever.
A tumultuous summer looks like it's on the horizon for the Nuggets, but Jokić is still only 31. Outside of a freak bone bruise injury suffered earlier this season, he's proven to be pretty durable throughout his career. So, with the right moves, they might not yet be done competing for championships with him.
But right now, it's hard to argue that anyone in close proximity to the legendary point center will be along for that ride.
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