Renck: Next year’s Nuggets could look a lot like this year’s. And that’s wasting Nikola Jokic’s prime

Josh Kroenke said all the right things. And his message was completely wrong.

He hears the clock ticking on Nikola Jokic’s prime. But his plan to maximize his brilliance came across as tone deaf.

Kroenke is prepared to run it back. He did not say those words exactly. But make no mistake, next year’s Nuggets could look a lot like last year’s.

They will never win another championship doing this. Keeping this current roster together is the equivalent of working out on a stationary bike. It feels good. But you go nowhere.

The Nuggets received one of the greatest seasons ever from their three-time MVP — Jokic averaged a triple-double and became a 3-point ace — and they failed to unseat the annoying Oklahoma City Thunder.

Jokic wasn’t buying that his team was close, dismissing hollow praise for reaching a Game 7, while admitting the Nuggets need more depth to compete with OKC and the Timberwolves.

Kroenke understands this, calling the finish “unacceptable.” But his answers Thursday painted the picture of an organization willing to trust internal answers over trading Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon or Michael Porter Jr.

That is either delusional, naive, or both.

As it happened with former coach Michael Malone, the hope of another title rests on a now aging starting five and the ability of new coach David Adelman — the interim tag is officially gone — to form a reliable bench with Peyton Watson, Julian Strawther, Jalen Pickett and DaRon Holmes II and a random veteran or two. That’s if, fingers crossed, Russell Westbrook and Dario Saric decline their player options.

It’s repetitive, boring and the truth. Or more specifically, the Booth. As in Calvin.

We heard this same nonsense from the former GM about winning multiple titles in five-year windows. And how the kids were so important to roster construction and cementing the culture.