The Nuggets became the latest NBA team to be eliminated from the postseason, as the Suns completed a four-game sweep on Sunday night in Denver. This season’s Most Valuable Player, Nikola Jokic, wasn’t on the court for the last quarter of his team’s season, having been ejected after being assessed with a flagrant two for a hard foul on Suns guard Cameron Payne. Head coach Michael Malone wasn’t thrilled with the decision, as ESPN’s Royce Young writes.
“I just didn’t feel like it warranted a flagrant two ejection because he’s making a play on the ball,” Malone said. “There’s marginal contact to Cameron Payne’s nose, I believe. So I was shocked. I’m still a little bit shocked that they called a flagrant two and ejected the MVP on such a play.”
Suns head coach Monty Williams said that he didn’t believe there was any “malicious” intent on Jokic’s part. But whether or not the star center had been ejected, the Nuggets were on the ropes and were unlikely to climb out of a deep hole in the series against Phoenix.
While Denver would’ve liked to advance further in the playoffs, the club was pleased with what it accomplished this season, including a first-round victory without standout guard Jamal Murray.
“The whole season was great, I think,” Jokic said. “Until the last four games.”
Here’s more out of Denver:
- Nuggets guard Will Barton has battled toe, adductor, knee, and hamstring injuries since the 2019/20 season began and has had to mourn the death of his cousin, who was shot and killed in December 2019, writes Sean Keeler of The Denver Post. Barton admitted after Sunday’s loss that the last 18 months have been “tough for me, physically and mentally,” but vowed to “keep fighting.”
- Barton will have to decide in the coming weeks whether to pick up his $14.7MM option for 2021/22 or decline it to seek a new contract. According to Keeler, Barton said on Sunday that if he opts out, he’ll want to end up somewhere where he can “play my game” and be in a “winning environment.” A new contract with the Nuggets is a possibility, since it sounds like he views Denver as a place that meets those criteria. “I definitely believe we’ve got the pieces,” Barton said. “And if we’re healthy, I feel like we can win it. And that’s all I’ll say about that.”
- Barton’s potential free agency will be one of the biggest decisions facing the Nuggets this summer, but there will be plenty of others, according to Nick Kosmider of The Athletic, who points to JaMychal Green‘s contract situation, a possible extension for Aaron Gordon, and Paul Millsap‘s free agency as some other issues the organization will have to address.
- ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Insider link) also previews the Nuggets’ offseason, with a focus on how the team will handle a potential rookie scale extension for rising star Michael Porter Jr.
As a Denver fan I was relieved to see them knocked out. It was admirable to see the fight and spirit but they were just missing too much.
Porter needs to get a lot better this off-season to be considered a core player. His on-ball defense has improved marginally but his team defense is atrocious.
Gordon, the supposed defensive ace was also underwhelming and has almost zero individual offensive capability. His best chance is as a cutter but seemed happy to sit on the perimeter.
Still, with health they could make some noise next season.
I think Millsap or Green go to open up space for Najji who has looked good in small sample size.
Bol Bol should be let go. He looks completely lost on the court and seems disinterested in earning minutes when put into the game in garbage time. He just jogs around in no man’s land and is often not in the team huddle.
I don’t see Rivers or Harrison sticking if Barton and Dozier return.
Jokic was super human in each of the Phoenix games but was essentially doing it alone.
Good run down jbl. Pretty good season considering all the adversity. Also, watching Aaron Gordon out there I’m sure glad the Warriors didn’t make a big splash for him as they were rumored. He is not a go-to guy on either end of the floor so he doesn’t move the needle for me. Good post !!
Gordon looked very much like a bench player. What I did not understand about Nuggets is their very poor defense. Suns could score at will by driving down the middle. They need some defense on the ball. Jokic is just a average defensive player. You can’t win just by outscoring teams because a defensive team will beat you.
Nuggets were beat. Their legs were gone. They’re normally a lot better defensively than that.
I’d prefer Green over Millsap – Millsap has been great but looked a step or two slow this year.
Rivers isn’t the shooter or finisher he needs to be in the Nuggets’ system. He was ok in a pinch at breaking his man down.
Depth for next season:
Murray/Morris/Campazzo
Barton/Howard
Porter Jr/Dozier
Gordon/Green
Jokic/Nnaji
They need another cheap one year big – a la McGee and probably another 6’6″ shooter.
jbl list: I would add Cancar who looks like a player and can do work inside (I’ll trust you on Naji). This leaves Millsap and Mcgee. I suspect both will play for less and be willing to stay and would probably be better than outside FAs and should be kept if possible. With a rookie, it’s at the tax line.
Mostly, I would trade MPJ for a current star with heart. At some point the future is now.
Welcome to my last 5 years of watching Orlando since I moved to the Bay (Florida’s) area. From afar you hear and know about Gordon, but actually getting to watch him on a frequent basis and yea..bench guy.
Thanks for writing Florida in there, but please, never call anywhere but the SF Bay Area “the Bay” moving forward, thank you.
Super human??? He looked pretty average to me D.A. kept him in check most of the time just because he was the only one attempting to play on the Nuggets side does not make him super human. He looked above average at best!!!
30 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists. Ok
If Gordon was the only one attempting to play, people would not be so down on him!
Gordon was not in sync with Jokic but he is a newcomer and the PG was out. He never adjusted but did stay in motion.
Next year should see improvement with integration.
If you expected an operator who could walk right in, no. His earliest test was getting along with MPorter, wnich he did, but MPJ was the bigger disappointment. Once he was told he was to replace Murray for scoring in the playoffs, he ignored Gordon as he does much of the sport in general.
This league is so soft. If you’re not going to play with emotion during the payoffs, don’t even have them.
Would you trade Jockich for the Warriors two first round picks this year?
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Uh, no!!!
A) the Warriors have no way of absorbing his salary.
B) dude was just the MVP of the league, why would you deal him.
C) with a healthy Murray, post season improvement from Porter and tweaks, the Nuggets have a shot at winning a title.
Really? Your first thought is GSW financials? LOL this is maybe even a dumber answer than the original extremely stupid question by a poster who can’t even spell the man’s name.
“KD has no chance of joining GSW, there’s no way they can take on his salary” – you, probably.
Of course the only way for Golden State to take on Jokic’s salary would be to send out either Wiggins or Thompson.
But that’s a completely different situation from five years ago when KD signed there. Steph, Klay, and Dray make a combined $108M now and if you add in Wiggins it’s $140M. When they got Durant the Big 3 were making a combined $44M (peanuts by comparison), which is also less than what Curry is making next season alone.
Can you hear me shaking my head?
SMH come on people no more stupid trades on here. Jokic cost is way more than 2 first round picks. Jokic will not be traded for any thing.
Wiseman, Klay, Poole, both 1st round picks and more futures is probably what gets it done, but GSW isn’t doing that move, at all.
Nor would Denver. Don’t get it twisted. Not everyone is dying to play with a torn Achilles/ACL player and a declining Draymond who will be the worst NBA contract in a few years. Curry? Yes, but I’m looking to see which pieces does Myers ass to help Steph next year and beyond.
Golden State should do that 100%, IMO.
Losing PJ Dozier hurt. I thought Phoenix edged out Denver regardless, but I do have to question why they didnt try to use their advantages in the matchup, as I referred to a few days ago, and make it closer. I’ll be curious to see what happens with Paul Milsap, JaMychal Green, and Shaq Harrison
Nikola has said he wants to play with Green for the rest of his career. I’d expect the organisation to at least try and honour that.
Shaq is great defensively but brings little on the other end other than cuts.
I haven’t looked at the financial side of things so not sure who they can keep.
I like Jokic with a defensive 4 and three guards. Shaq has a place in that kind of lineup.
I’ve been a fan of Jamychal Green since he first got a look with the Spurs. I’ve been surprised by the low amount on his recent contracts, so we’ll see.
I think you need to pair Porter with either a Gordon or Green, or Milsap type, and you need someone besides Monte Morris or PJ Dozier that can guard the guard spot, and preferably play with Murray. Shaq Harrison does those things, and helps on the wing as well, which is also pretty much just Dozier, and Gordon when he plays out of position. I would also say you probably need another piece
I dont know if Barton and Porter can play together in a lot of their lineups, once Murray is healthy, so that should be something to watch for
Porter Jr needs to learn to run off screens with purpose and tight angles and to stop trying to take guards off the dribble. His back problems make him a particularly high dribbler and it seemed he got picked every time this series.
If he can learn to do his work early, and catch the ball closer to the rim in the halfcourt, especially in lineups without Jokic, that will be really helpful for him. Needs to improve his passing as well, and those catches might help with that. Needs to operate around the elbow more. Defensively, his awareness needs to improve
They should trade Porter while his value is this high. Attitude, lack of defensive awareness and injury risk, all can really derail his stock. I would be terrified to give him an extension.
Maybe they can get Beal.
Teams actually used to do things like this (trade high end players not to rebuild, but to get better). Today, teams rarely (if ever) trade high end players unless it’s about a contract, player demand or gut rebuild.
YES BUT MPJ was rated as the top trading asset in the NBA by Bobby Marks… Before the back-talk (had to). Sell!!!
Repeating myself, but the Nuggets are killing themselves by coddling MPJ from the top down. Grant bailed— to last-place DET looking for that treatment. MPJ does nothing but shoot long & rebound. His defense is comical— watch him sometime. He can be defensed, or at least PHX did it.
DEN could have filled their gap at guard with a trade benefit and lost nothing for the playoffs! IDK Beal, but even Serbian Bogdan could put DEN equal to PHX.
I have never seen refs end a playoff series by ejecting a key player like this before. I mean it’s a flagrant 1 at MOST, but especially in this game. Pathetic showing by refs, once again. As a fan with no team in the hunt, it made an enjoyable game immediately unwatchable – whoever made that decision in NY should be fired.
First they did give him a break by not giving him a T for the scuffle with Booker. What doomed Jokic was his wind up to hit the ball. Why did he do that when it will be called every time. Immaturity in a situation of frustration. You will never see him do it again. Please you know if it was Draymond Green he would have been a flagrant 2 immediately.
Dray would have hit more squarely to the face. It happens many times in a game, that a player supposedly aiming for the ball, hits a head or face. Now Jokic has done it too— and promptly got ejected. Why don’t all such slapcraps wind up even flagrant 1s?
Funny how players rarely seem to inadvertedly hit a teammate’s face.
It’s the TJ Ford rule: You can’t wind up, hit a guy in the head, and expect to stay on the floor.
I agree that this was kind of an edge case – the head contact seemed pretty incidental – but intentional blows to the head are always going to be an ejection.
And it’s not as if Denver was going to win the series if Jokic hadn’t been ejected. Maybe they win the elimination game, but they were clearly outclassed in every other game.
Jokic looked like a sore loser with that hard foul…
Yeah it was a moment of madness and not a good look hacking the smallest guy on the court but he was frustrated with the refs – he gets battered every time he’s on the block and nothing was called.
I can’t be more clear on this: the ejection of Jokic was the worst call of the NBA postseason. That was the softest, participation trophy type of nonsense I’ve ever seen. Payne acted like he had been stabbed or shot. I would have ejected Payne for flopping.
I turned the game off because of that. It was like watching Keye and Peele – Futbol Flop.
Honestly I it was a pretty clean steal if they let that play. Yea he used some windup and it it was a blocked shot it would have gone into the stands.
I hate flopping soooo much it’s so pervasive and it makes me hate on my own team BC Embiid does it too much too. I wish they had actually legislated this out of the league. Ejection from the game first offense.
You must not have seen the full replays. You can literally see Jokic’s arm slide down Payne’s face. He made contact with his nose pretty good.
I agree Payne *could* have been acting a lot more hurt than he was, but it’s sort of academic. When you try to hit a guy – and you make contact with his head – that’s an ejection. It’s been that way for a while now.
You said it. “Jokic’s arm slide down his face”. It was not a hit TO the face squarely. Also, an eye poke was not there. These things happen regularly and are not even regular fouls! Called “inadvertant”, but they are intended.
@phillyballers… Totally agree, I can’t see after watching many replays any bad intent or even contact from Jokic…
Very poor optics from the league to eject the best player in the world for nothing in a very important game… it really makes you wanna stop watching the playoffs all together when it is sooo clear they favor a team like PHX, SMH!!!
Yup, the league has gone soft on flopping – not that it went that hard after flopping, but the NBA was fining more than a few players years ago, for egregious flopping.
Flopping had only increased the past years, and the fines seems to come fewer and far between.
It’s simple enough …….. ENFORCE the anti-flopping rules, fine away and the 6th instance will merit suspension.
On any given game, Smart, Lowry, Embiid, Lebron, Beverley, CP3, etc easily flops 3 or more times ……… the NBA should fine away and suspend players.
There will be stink and blowback, who doesn’t want to see superstars or key players play – but this is the only way.
How are James Harden and Trae Young not at the top of this list
Trae Young has taken CP3s stop and get run over or stop and jump into a defender move and exaggerated it to the point it doesnt even look like a basketball move. And he is now copied by other guys.
Joker did make a play on the ball.
I’d love to see a lot of these ticky tacky fouls eliminated next season.