Josh Kroenke reflects on Nuggets, Avalanche championship similarities
What ordinary fans considered alarming, Josh Kroenke recognized as the opposite.
The reward for patience was a cloud of cigar smoke fogging Kroenke’s view across the Nuggets locker room just enough to make the scene in front of him feel like a hazy dream.
“Look at them,” the former college hooper beamed, pointing to the epicenter of champagne spray Monday night after the Nuggets won their first NBA championship. “They’re all unique characters.”
Kroenke’s pride derives from a template of patience — one that applies to both of his recent local champions. When the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets were losing in the second round of their respective playoffs in recent years, the president and governor of both teams felt encouraged.
“A couple years ago, probably 2017, 2018, ’19, I started to see flashes,” Kroenke told The Post. “Because not only were both teams making the playoffs; they were making the second round. And they were young. So it was like, ‘OK, if we can hold this core together and keep working, special things can happen.'”
That philosophy might have been provocative to the Denver general public two years ago. The Nuggets and Avs both got knocked out in the second round in 2019. The Avs repeated in 2020, while the Nuggets went one series deeper. But then the Nuggets seemingly regressed, accompanying the Avalanche to the 2021 offseason with matching second-round exits for the second time in three years.
In total: two teams, three seasons, six playoff appearances, five second-round endings.
Flash forward to 2023, and the Kroenkes have photo ops hoisting the Stanley Cup and the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
“The similarities between the Avs and the Nuggets are uncanny,” Josh Kroenke told The Post.
Start with the patience. “We built these teams very similarly through the draft,” as Kroenke pointed out. Both KSE-owned teams used a draft-and-develop strategy to construct their cores, with trades and free agent signings filling in the fringes.
The Nuggets’ “Big Three,” their highest-paid players and best scorers, were each draft picks staggered every other year over a five-year stretch. Nikola Jokic, Taco Bell famous, went No. 41 in 2014. Jamal Murray was No. 7 in 2016. Michael Porter Jr. was 14th in 2018.
The Avalanche’s Big Three, their highest-paid players and best scorers, were each draft picks staggered every other year over a five-year stretch. Nathan MacKinnon: No. 1 in 2013. Mikko Rantanen: 10th in 2015. Cale Makar: fourth in 2017.
The Nuggets had dibs on the odd years. The Avs claimed the even years.
Both championship rosters were supplemented by new role players the year of the title. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Artturi Lehkonen. Bruce Brown. Josh Manson. DeAndre Jordan and Ish Smith. Andrew Cogliano and Darren Helm.
Perhaps most importantly, both showed faith in their coaches when most American pro sports organizations might not. Avalanche coach Jared Bednar worried at one point (or more) that the team had fair reason to fire him. The opportunities to ax Malone have come and gone as well. Now Bednar is the third longest-tenured active coach in the NHL, and Malone is fourth place in the NBA behind a trio of all-time greats.
“Last year I was wondering if the Avs were ready for that next step,” Kroenke said, “and I saw it very quickly: They were. These guys (the Nuggets), I was curious. Because Jamal hasn’t been healthy. And we didn’t know. And when we traded for Aaron Gordon a couple years ago, we had about a 10-game stretch where we kind of saw some flashes of a very, very, very good team. And then Jamal got hurt.
“So it kind of felt like we were taking crazy pills, because we didn’t know how good we were. Not to discredit any of the other players, but you can see the two-man game between Jamal and Nikola is very unique. And we’ve known that for quite some time. So to hit the level we wanted to hit …”
Well, it was proof the Kroenkes weren’t on crazy pills.
The Nuggets’ 2023 playoff run achieved a rare standard of dominance. They went 16-4, a feat rivaled only by two other champions in the 20 years since the NBA expanded to four best-of-seven rounds. Who else went 16-4 in the playoffs? The 2021-22 Avalanche. Only one NHL champ has ever lost fewer postseason games en route to the Cup.
The Nuggets and Avs both endured their greatest adversity in the second round (fittingly) but prevailed in six games. Both teams swept all-time great players (LeBron James and Connor McDavid) in the Western Conference Finals. And both made fairly convincing work of a championship challenger from Florida.
“Uncanny,” Kroenke repeated, watching Denver’s elder ring-chasers embrace on the other side of the room. “They all play for each other. That’s something I think Denver loves.”
Source: The Denver Post
