Nikola Jokic publicly urged the Denver Nuggets so as to add depth to their roster this offseason and have responded by turning Michael Porter Jr., Russell Westbrook and Dario Saric into Cam Johnson, Bruce Brown Jr., Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valanciunas.
“The Nuggets have their new backcourt, and I used to be advised that—and Mr. Jokic has not spoken on the document, a minimum of in English, about this that I’ve seen—however I used to be advised by means of secondhand that Jokic was very happy with the Nuggets’ strikes,” stated ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
Whereas Valanciunas would doubtless solely play restricted minutes within the playoffs, his presence would enable the Nuggets to scale back Jokic’s minutes in the course of the common season. Final season, Jokic averaged a profession excessive 36.7 minutes because the Nuggets wanted him to play at an MVP degree with heavy minutes to even qualify for a non-Play-In spot. Jokic performed in solely 34.6 minutes per recreation in 2023-24, which was up from the earlier two seasons.
The Nuggets plan to supply Jokic a contract extension this offseason price $206 million over three seasons.
