By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The Nuggets center Nikola Jokic has become the keystone in Denver and even signed a max contract this summer but he hasn’t been letting that get to his head. He remembers how he got there and will continue on the same path: “I’m going to be the same as I was two years ago, it worked well for me. You know what you did to get here so just keep doing the same thing.”, Jokic said in his Altitude 950 media day interview.
The primary goal in the upcoming season will without the doubt be making the playoffs and it’s the minimum so Jokic could call it a successful season: “I think if we don’t make the playoffs, it won’t be a good season…We need to make the playoffs.”
What do the Nuggets need to make it happen? Jokic believes they should take the 2011 championship Dallas team as a model. They weren’t a ‘superteam’ but made it all the way: “It’s a little bit of everything. Team chemistry in the locker room, practices dinners, lunches, whatever, it’s a little bit of everything. The best team I think we can look up to is the Dallas that won the title. They weren’t a ‘superteam’ but they were a really good team so maybe we need to be a Dallas.”
He also put his words into action during the summer, working out harder than ever in his life and is ready to take on the upcoming challenges: “I’ve been working out really hard, dieting… I’m in the best shape of my life. I worked out harder than ever in my life, I ran thousands of full-court sprints, that’s a lot. I think we did a good job.”
One of the main addition to the team was Isaiah Thomas and Jokic welcomes it. He is thrilled to have the veteran alongside him: “We know what he is capable of when he is healthy. The things he did in Boston…we never saw that before especially from a guy that size. And in the locker room, he is keeping guys together, I’m glad he took that role.”