Nuggets source on Nikola Jokic: ‘He’s really good at letting you know how he feels without saying anything’

According to NBA insiders Tim MacMahon and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic wasn’t happy about all the dysfunction he was seeing in Denver. 

The Nuggets fired general manager Calvin Booth and head coach Michael Malone on Tuesday. Booth and Malone didn’t have a good relationship and disagreed on several things. 

“Jokic may not have sounded off publicly at any of this dysfunction,” MacMahon and Shelburne wrote. “But he bore witness to it all season and wasn’t happy about it, sources said.”

“Joker is really good at letting you know how he feels,” a Nuggets source said, “without saying anything.”

Denver is in fourth place in the Western Conference standings. The team has two games left in the regular season against the Memphis Grizzlies and Houston Rockets. 

One of the best players in the NBA, Jokic is having another stellar season despite all the turmoil in Denver. He’s averaging 29.8 points, 12.8 rebounds and 10.2 assists while shooting 57.5% from the field, 41.4% from beyond the arc and 80.8% from the free-throw line. 

After the Nuggets beat the Sacramento Kings in their first game without Malone, Jokic said Denver president Josh Kroenke “got the response that he wanted.”

“Josh got the response that he wanted,” Jokic said. “People say that we are vulnerable. But the beast is always the strongest, or the most dangerous, when they’re vulnerable. So maybe he woke up the beast.”

Jokic is eligible to sign a three-year, $212 million extension this offseason. The assumption around the NBA is that he will sign the extension. 

But if there’s even a slight pause in his decision-making, it will be devastating for the Nuggets, who won the 2023 title against the Miami Heat. 

Jokic has spent his entire career in Denver. He has career averages of 21.8 points, 10.9 rebounds and 7.2 assists. The future Hall of Famer has won three MVPs and one Finals MVP.