Jokic knows that changes may be coming.
The Denver Nuggets' season ended Thursday night in Minneapolis, and Nikola Jokic did not sugarcoat what happened.
Minnesota's Timberwolves closed out the series with a 110-98 win in Game 6, sending Denver home with a first-round exit for the first time since 2022, a result that nobody in the Nuggets' locker room expected heading into a postseason that was supposed to look very different.
Jokic Doesn't Hold Back
"We just lost in the first round. I think we are far away," Jokic said following the loss, referring to Denver's championship aspirations.
The three-time MVP finished with 28 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists on the night, putting together a stat line that should have been enough to force a Game 7, but it was not.
When asked whether the team needed to make changes this offseason, Jokic did not need much time to think about it.
"That's not my decision," he said. "Definitely, if we were in Serbia, we would all be fired."
Beyond the joke though, Jokic was honest about where the blame belonged, and it was not on head coach David Adelman.
"It's not his fault that we could not rebound," Jokic said. "It's not his fault that we could not catch the ball very well. So there is nothing to blame to David Adelman. It was all us."
Despite calls from fans to move on from Adelman after the loss, Jokic and Jamal Murray both stood behind their first-year head coach.
A Season That Ended Way Too Soon
The Nuggets finished the regular season at 54-28 and closed things out on a 12-game winning streak, which gave them the third seed in the Western Conference and real momentum heading into the playoffs.
Jokic averaged 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds and 10.7 assists during the regular season, leading the league in both rebounds and assists while once again finishing as an MVP finalist.
Murray had the best year of his career too, averaging 25.4 points and 7.1 assists across 75 games and earning his first All-Star selection in February.
But the regular season numbers did not translate to the playoff stage, particularly for Murray.
Game 6 was his lowest point in the series as he shot just 4-for-17 from the field, finishing with 12 points and a game-worst minus-18 rating while Jaden McDaniels made his life difficult on both ends of the floor.
Minnesota's Shorthanded Stunner
What makes this elimination sting even more is who did it to them.
The Timberwolves were missing Anthony Edwards, Donte DiVincenzo and Ayo Dosunmu for Game 6, yet they still controlled the game from the second quarter on.
McDaniels, who had been getting under Denver's skin all series, led Minnesota with 32 points while Terrence Shannon Jr. added 24 in his first career playoff start.
The Wolves outrebounded Denver 50-33 and played with an energy that the Nuggets could not match.
Three years removed from their championship, Denver heads into the offseason with more questions than answers.
The gap between where this team is and where Jokic wants them to be has never looked wider.