Nikola Jokić & Jimmy Butler Who Can Take Away 2023 NBA Finals
There are many people on the line, including Jimmy, Udonis Haslem, the coaches, and Jokić. Before tipoff for Game 1 of the 2023 NBA Finals on Thursday night, let’s take a closer look at what this championship series will mean for the legacies of so many members of the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets.
Nikola Jokić & Jimmy Butler Who Can Take Away 2023 NBA Finals
There are many people on the line, including Jimmy, Udonis Haslem, the coaches, and Jokić. Before tipoff for Game 1 of the 2023 NBA Finals on Thursday night, let’s take a closer look at what this championship series will mean for the legacies of so many members of the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets.
Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić
If he wins a championship, the 7-foot Serbian who enjoys Coca-Cola and horses will always be remembered in the NBA’s pantheon. The entire MVP debate focused on whether Jokić should have received a third consecutive award given that his playoff success did not match that of previous three-peat winners Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, and Bill Russell.
This was a ridiculous premise, as the electorate actually chose an even worse playoff performer to receive the award.
The MVP without a championship was an unheard-of concept until Charles Barkley, who retired in 2000, started the club. Since then, Steve Nash, Allen Iverson, and Karl Malone have received this honor. There’s a chance that Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, and Joel Embiid will follow them.
Jokić would cross that boundary and join this group of athletes—Bob Pettit, Russell, Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Giannis Antetokounmpo—who had all won multiple MVP awards and a championship.
While Antetokounmpo is still forging his reputation and Pettit’s credentials as the league’s inaugural MVP in 1956 have been largely lost to time, the other members of the group may well be among the top ten players in history.
Since Joki turned 28 on February 19, this is regarded as his age-27 season. He has been selected for All-NBA five times and was the MVP twice. He would be on par with those other all-time greats if he won the championship this year.
Only Pettit and Moses Malone failed to capture another championship among the athletes who achieved such milestones at that age.
Shaquille O’Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon are two centers who aren’t represented by those dignitaries, thus Joki would rank alongside Russell, Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, and Moses Malone as the five greatest centers of all time.
The NBA 75’s voters are undoubtedly already regretting not include Jokić.
If the Heat lose, Joki will be placed back with Rose, Westbrook, Harden, and Embiid.
Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler
It would be quite unheard of for the Heat to win a championship with a player of Butler’s caliber serving as their spokesperson.
After four third-team selections from 2017 to 21, Butler was named to the All-NBA second team for the first time this season. Only the 1948 Baltimore Bullets, 1979 Seattle SuperSonics, and 2004 Detroit Pistons are on the list of teams who have won a championship without ever having a player make the All-NBA first team.
When there were just eight teams and best-of-three series were required to advance, the Bullets won before the league was even known as the NBA. Long before the 3-point arc was ever created, Baltimore defeated a Philadelphia Warriors squad that made 25% of its shots by shooting 26% from the field for the series.
The names on the rosters appear to be random. Basketball was a completely separate sport from other games.
Between the demise of the ABA and the advent of Magic and Bird, the 1979 Sonics triumphed amid the height of the NBA’s cocaine period. The league was on the verge of going out of business.
Seven players in Seattle’s playoff rotation from the 1970s made All-Star appearances, including Gus Williams, who three years later would be named to the NBA first team, and Hall of Famers Dennis Johnson and Jack Sikma.
The Sonics secured a first-round bye after winning 52 games, four more than any other team in the Western Conference.
In a similar vein, the 2004 Pistons began four players who had appeared in multiple All-Star games in their prime, including Hall of Fame center Ben Wallace, future Hall of Fame point guard Chauncey Billups, and Olympic gold medalist Tayshaun Prince.
They were in the second season of a run of six consecutive appearances in the conference finals, won 54 games, and topped the Eastern Conference in net rating (+6.5).
Butler’s Heat won 44 games this season, had a negative net rating (-0.5), and needed a comeback in the last minutes of a second play-in tournament game to secure the eighth seed. Despite these accomplishments, Butler’s Heat only reached the 2020 Finals and Game 7 of the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals.
Bam Adebayo, a two-time All-Star center, is their finest player, and Caleb Martin, a 15-month-old two-way player, is probably third at this stage. Kyle Lowry and Kevin Love, two studs who are past their prime, have been relegated to the rotation’s periphery.
Butler has earned five All-NBA selections and six All-Star nods, which has been enough to get everyone except Amar’e Stoudemire into the Hall of Fame. Stoudemire’s impactful career was ended at age 30 by knee problems.
A championship should guarantee him a spot on the first ballot, but more beyond that, it would compel his inclusion in any debate about the top forwards of this era of predatory wings, which now includes James, Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, and no other comparable player.
Miami Heat’s Kyle Lowry and Kevin Love
The 34-year-old Love is a five-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA second-team selection, while the 37-year-old Lowry was chosen for the 2016 All-NBA third team and is a six-time All-Star. As s
econdary stars on teams led by Leonard and James, respectively, both of them already have rings, which is enough to put them on the verge of the Hall of Fame. The résumé will likely be sufficiently padded by a second ring to ensure that the door is unlocked.
Their respective tales are both fascinating.
For the first seven years of his career, Lowry was a journeyman before developing into a dependable All-Star with DeMar DeRozan on the Toronto Raptors. He was the kind of wrestler that every other wrestler desired, but when he was 32 years old, no one thought he was ready for the ring.
That is, until Leonard offered him a Finals stage. In the previous season’s playoffs, his deteriorating hamstrings made it impossible for him to stay on the court. However, here he is, 17 years into his career, with another opportunity to have an impact on an NBA Finals.
On a Minnesota Timberwolves club that missed the playoffs for the first six years of his career, Love was a top-tier big man. Love evolved into a stretch forward, and James wanted him on the Cavaliers for his return to Cleveland.
Love went back to working for lottery teams after James left after four consecutive trips to the Finals until the Cavaliers released him in February, when they were prepared to make their postseason comeback. Love received another title shot once Miami signed him.
If you remain useful in the NBA long enough, your chance to rise to the top may come up again.
Denver Nuggets’ Jeff Green and DeAndre Jordan
And speaking of teams with championship hopes, Green and Jordan were previously key players on such teams. Months before their run to the Finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder moved Green at the deadline in 2012, and the Los Angeles Clippers traded Jordan soon after Chris Paul’s departure in 2017 ended their title chances.
Both Green and Jordan have spent their 30s pursuing the championship rings that have eluded them throughout their long careers since signing their last significant contracts. James reached his fourth Finals in Cleveland thanks to Green’s Game 7 heroics in the Eastern Conference finals of 2018, but the Cleveland Cavaliers were swept by the Golden State Warriors.
In the 2021 conference semifinals, the Brooklyn Nets forced the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks to a Game 7 by teaming up with Green and Jordan.
They have rejoined with the Nuggets, a club that entered this season tied for the ninth-highest championship odds, and Joki gives them each their greatest opportunity at a championship at ages 36 and 34, respectively.
They might eventually succeed in their never-ending quest, which would be good news for all veterans whose jobs are continuously in jeopardy due to the next component of a championship.
Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo and the Denver Nuggets’ Jamal Murray
At age 25, Adebayo is a two-time All-Star but has yet to be named to an NBA All-Star squad. He has been a center behind recent third-team picks Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Domantas Sabonis.
The best active player who didn’t make an All-Star squad may be 26-year-old Murray. He competes in the Western Conference, whose go-to backcourt players have changed throughout the years from Damian Lillard, Luka Doni, Ja Morant, Devin Booker, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and… Curry.
A title should likely be a tiebreaker against someone like Sabonis or Anthony Edwards the next year since it is the kind of accomplishment that makes voters think twice before excluding a player from the ballot.
Start piling All-Star nods and/or All-NBA selections on top of a championship during their primes, and all of a sudden, Adebayo and Murray might be considered with Love and Lowry for the Hall of Fame.
Udonis Haslem, a Miami Heat star, was competing in France while weighing 300 pounds. After losing weight, he signed a partially guaranteed contract with the Miami Heat in 2003.
Haslem, who will turn 43 on June 9, is taking in the view from another championship window after 20 seasons, about 70 pounds, and a few rebuilds. In 2006, he won alongside Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal. In 2012 and 2013, he did so with Wade, James, and Chris Bosh.
A fourth championship would be a fantastic retiring present for Haslem, who leads the team to a seventh participation in the Finals after reaching his ninth conference finals.
What a run for a power forward who never sniffed an All-Star selection, who hasn’t been a full-time starter since 2009, and who never developed a 3-pointer. He will coach the next rebuild and possibly another championship opportunity.
Riley, Pat, Miami Heat
This is Riley’s 19th Finals participation overall, whether as a player, coach, or executive. Of all championship series in history, that represents 25%. His nine championships include his first six with the Los Angeles Lakers (1972 as a player, 1980 as an assistant coach, 1982, 1985, 1987, and 1988 as head coach), and his final three with the Miami Heat (2006, 2012, and 2013; he also coached the 2006 squad).
Riley would join K.C. Jones and Tommy Heinsohn, who each won eight championships as players and two more as head coaches, all with the Boston Celtics, if he were to win a tenth ring. In their roles as players, coaches, or executives, only Bill Russell (11), Phil Jackson (13), and Red Auerbach (16) have more titles to their names.
Along with Auerbach, Jackson, and Gregg Popovich, Riley is already one of the four greatest NBA coaches, and in 2017, NBA.com executive David Aldridge placed Riley fifth overall.
Simply put, winning a fourth championship should put him ahead of Popovich and R.C. Buford’s San Antonio Spurs and Jerry Krause’s 1990s Chicago Bulls because rebuilding three almost entirely different championship rosters is a much more difficult task than maintaining the brilliance of Jordan and Duncan.
Miami Heat’s Erik Spoelstra
If the 52-year-old Spoelstra wins another championship with Butler as his best player, he will solidify his position as the top coach in the league right now. The greatest coaching job in a single season in the history of the sport would likely be to guide this eighth seed to a championship while defeating two No. 1 seeds and a No. 2 seed along the way.
A third title would move Spoelstra into sole possession of seventh place on that history, behind only Jackson (11), Auerbach (9), Riley (5), Popovich (5), John Kundla (5), and Steve Kerr (4). Spoelstra is already one of only 14 head coaches to have won two championships.
Without Butler, none of those other six would have achieved such a victory. MJ, Russell, Shaq, Magic, Duncan, Curry, George Mikan, and Kobe Bryant are the names that appear behind their titles. (Not that having LeBron and Wade on his first two championship lineups didn’t help Spoelstra.)
Spoelstra is enhancing his reputation as one of the best coaches in the league. In his 15 years as coach, he has earned 704 regular-season victories. Depending on how soon he decides to retire as a golden god on South Beach, he may coach for another 15 years. Until then, he is doing the job.
1000 games have been won by ten coaches. The only players to do it and earn multiple rings are Jackson, Riley, and Popovich. And the benchmark is Popovich’s 1,366 career victories. Spoelstra might not make it, but the first portion of the trail has already been carved.
With 108 playoff victories overall, Spoelstra is currently fifth all-time, and four more victories would move him beyond of Doc Rivers (111) and into fourth place, trailing only Jackson (229), Riley (171), and Popovich (170). Riley named Spoelstra head coach when he was 37 years old, which is a good example of giving a young coach some time to develop.
Denver Nuggets’ Michael Malone
Malone would become the first son of a former head coach to coach his team to an NBA championship in addition to perhaps winning Denver’s first championship. His father, Brendan Malone, was the head coach of the Cavaliers in 2005 and the Raptors in 1995–96. With the Pistons in 1989 and 1990, the longtime assistant won championships under Chuck Daly.
The Malones would be the first father-son team to do either as an assistant or head coach, as far as I’m aware. (Contact me if you know of another.) Two further sons of former head coaches are on Michael Malone’s staff: David Adelman (son of Rick Adelman) and Ryan Saunders (son of Flip Saunders).
