The Denver Nuggets were predicted to part ways with a former champion and longtime teammate of superstar Nikola Jokic.

Now throw that context into the career of a 17-year veteran like the Denver Nuggets' Russell Westbrook. The explosive, still useful, and still volatile guard is a no-doubt future Basketball Hall of Famer. However, he has yet to win an NBA championship at 36 years old, and you have to imagine that's quite frustrating in itself.

Despite Gordon's uncertainty, Chet Holmgren says the Thunder are focused on themselves. They won't make contingency plans ahead of an important Game 7 depending on his availability. They didn't do it with Jamal Murray's illness in Game 6.

The Nuggets let Jokic down. Again. The final 200 seconds incorporated all the themes of this season. The principal one: Denver was once again painfully short one more legitimate player.

Denver Nuggets most important players to watch Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, guard, Thunder: In line to win his first MVP, Gilgeous-Alexander is a star today and for the next several seasons.

The Nuggets themselves don't know how this experiment will end. But their hopes that it doesn't might hinge on the most high-variance, volatile player in the game. After Chet Holmgren falters at ...

"Outside the locker room, one player relayed why Gordon might've done so. 'He's so immature,' he said of Westbrook." The good news is that the Nuggets managed to overcome this issue and eliminate ...