Last year’s Denver Nuggets may not have made it to the Conference Finals, but everyone in the world, including the Oklahoma City Thunder team, knew that they posed one of the biggest threats to their title run. Coach Lu Dort admitted as much when he appeared on ESPN after the Finals. Peyton Watson knows firsthand how close the Nuggets got to getting there, as the two-man combo of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray took them to a Game 7 against the Thunder.
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Speaking about what it feels like to watch the two perform their magic on the court, Watson was full of praise. While on The Young Man and the Three, he revealed that at first, he would simply observe the duo’s habits from a distance, trying to understand how they became so good at their craft.
The secret? They are consistent in everything they do. “From day 1, I’ve always kind of just looked at what they’d done, and spectated from afar when I really wasn’t playing, and I was just always watching what they’d do,” Watson began.
“They’re just two super, you know, consistent dudes. They’re consistent with their work, they’re consistent in their approach to the game, their demeanors,” he continued.
Watson also decided to set the record straight about Jokic’s stoic nature. NBA Twitter has convinced itself that the Serbian is some emotionless robot, but Watson debunked that straight away, claiming he’s one of the biggest jokers on the squad.
“It seems at times that Jok can be emotionless and things like that, but when you’re really around him on a day-to-day basis, he’s the biggest jokester bro,” he said. “He’s the most animated person sometimes. I just feel like when both of those two get on the court, they’re killers.”
Jokic may be perceived as laid back and easy going, but the last season was as tough on him as anyone else. Apart from being embroiled in a highly contested MVP battle, he also found himself leading the Nuggets team after coach Mike Malone was unceremoniously fired.
Videos from the playoffs showed Jokic coaching the Nuggets on the sidelines, yelling instructions while letting his body rest for half a minute. Watson praised his actions, claiming that seeing the team’s leader step into a vocal role like that rallied the troops in ways they never would’ve imagined.
“It helps a lot,” said Watson. “And, you know, when somebody is quiet like that, when they do speak, everybody stops what they’re doing and listens. Jokic is a huge voice for our team. I think a lot of us lean on him more than he knows to kind of be a leader, not only by example, but also verbally as well. So to see him more animated, like you said, is big time. And I think it shows that we’re headed in the right direction as a locker room and as a team.”
Help, it did. The Nuggets may not have gone on to lift the Larry O’Brien, but OKC and the rest of the league knew that if Game 7 had gone the Nuggets’ way, things could’ve ended very differently come June.
