"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, he showed why he's MVP," Michael Malone said Tuesday during an appearance on ESPN's postgame coverage when discussing the Oklahoma City Thunder's 114-88 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.

Former Nuggets coach Michael Malone shifts stance in MVP debate after Thunder blowout win in Game 1 of the West Finals

They weren't that thin for the Denver Nuggets. They were as thick as Nikola Jokić. The best player in the world had the 68-win Thunder on the ropes multiple times. Jokić outplayed presumptive MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in a second-round series that went seven games but ended in an OKC blowout.

The Nuggets did their best to push the Thunder in Game 7, but their loss highlights issues around Nikola Jokić

Even after the Nuggets' season came to an end in the second round of the playoffs, Denver doesn't currently have the ability to add depth through the draft.

Nikola Jokić remains one of the game's most dominant forces, but the lack of depth on the Nuggets roster remains an issue and appears at this point to be an untenable situation w

Three games before the end of the regular season, the Denver Nuggets did something unprecedented. They fired both their head coach Mike Malone and the team’s general manager Calvin Booth, in the kind of housecleaning usually saved for the offseason – and usually only done by those teams in the lottery.

After a nervy first quarter, the Thunder dominated the second quarter and never looked back in a 125-93 win over the Nuggets on Sunday afternoon at Paycom Center.