New Report on Nikola Jokic’s Emotions After Nuggets Fired Head Coach

The Denver Nuggets took a major chance firing their head coach right before the playoffs began.

With just a week left in the NBA’s regular season, the Nuggets decided to part ways with longtime head coach and 2023 NBA champion, Michael Malone.

Despite the Nuggets firmly locked into the playoff picture and less than two seasons removed from hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy, Malone’s dismissal came with quite a bit of criticism.

Ahead of the Nuggets and Clippers Game 6 on Thursday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the organization deciding to let Malone go in the days leading up to the playoffs allowed their star and three-time NBA’s Most Valuable Player, Nikola Jokic to feel more empowered and take more of a leadership role with Malone’s vocal presence no longer in the locker room.

“The moment that, that firing happened, he’s [Jokic] been unleashed,” Charania said while appearing on ‘The Pat McAfee Show.’ “When I talked to people around Denver, they’ve told me that Nikola Jokic is finally comfortable with the power, with the influence, and with who he is as a player. Before, we hadn’t seen him as vocal but now he’s showing it.”

Charania would note that while Jokic feels more empowered as the star of the Nuggets, he doesn’t believe the three-time league MVP wants to abuse the power he now feels that he has.

“I don’t think he wants to fire coaches or trade players, but he thinks ‘how can I influence my teammates,’ and it’s the first time I think that we’ve seen in Nikola Jokic’s career, where he’s going about it every night and he’s trying to influence how his teammates are behaving and how they’re playing.”

Jokic has been his normal dominant self on the court despite the recent coaching change. The 30-year-old big man is averaging 25.4 points per game to go along with 12.8 rebounds and 11.0 assists per contest throughout the first five games of the series against the Clippers.

Jokic and company will look to put the Clippers away in Game 6, which tips off tonight at 10:00 p.m. EST in Los Angeles.