The Denver Nuggets’ first-round exit at the hands of a shorthanded Minnesota Timberwolves team on Thursday night has reopened one of the most heated debates in basketball, and Kendrick Perkins is not holding anything back.The 2008 NBA champion joined Friday morning and unloaded on Nikola Jokić in a way that is going to be replayed for a long time.
Denver finished with 54 regular-season wins, entered the playoffs as the No. 3 seed, and still got sent home in six games by a Timberwolves team playing without Anthony Edwards, Donte DiVincenzo, and Ayo Dosunmu.
Kendrick Perkins Blasts Nikola Jokić After Nuggets’ Elimination
“We’re not in Serbia, we’re in America and he got punked yesterday. We have to hold him accountable like we do every ‘all-time great,’ I jumped the gun just like everybody else when it comes to disrespecting all-time greats. We were so ready to put this man above all time greats because of certain numbers he was putting up in regular-season.”
Kendrick Perkins GOES OFF on Nikola Jokic 👀
“We’re not in Serbia, we’re in America and he got punked yesterday. We have to hold him accountable like we do every ‘all time great’ — I jumped the gun just like everybody else when it comes to disrespecting all time greats. We were… pic.twitter.com/36WAQ3v2PC
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) May 1, 2026
“He has one NBA championship. Matter of fact, I don’t think Jokić is going to win another NBA championship. He got exposed…. Jokić has never sniffed an All-Defensive Team as a center… Rudy Gobert outplayed him!” Perkins said.
The numbers from the series make it harder to dismiss Perkins’ point. Jokić averaged 25.8 points, 13.2 rebounds, and 9.5 assists across the six games, so he did not go missing statistically.
But he averaged just 19.4% from beyond the 3-point line, and got into a shove altercation with Jaylen Clark in Game 6 that resulted in a double technical.
This is now Denver’s third consecutive early exit since winning the 2023 title. They were knocked out in the second round in 2024 by this same Timberwolves team, then eliminated in 2025 by the eventual champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
A stat circulated after the loss showing that Jokić has never defeated a playoff team with more than 50 wins. That detail is going to follow him all summer.
The regular-season brilliance is undeniable. Jokić finished with a triple-double average for the second straight season at 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 10.7 assists, becoming the first player in NBA history to lead the league in both rebounds and assists in the same season. None of that is changing.
But in the all-time debate, championships and postseason performance are the final currency, and right now, Jokić has one of each.
