The smartest man in the room is the last to say so.

Calvin Booth’s 6-foot-11 frame stretches out from a folding chair at Ball Arena. His son, Carey, a 6-foot-10 teenager headed to the University of Illinois in the fall, does the Mikan drill on the court a few steps away.

"Cal," the permanently chill general manager of the Nuggets, reflects on how life has changed in the 11 months since he became an NBA champ.

“To be honest, I haven’t really thought about it,” the 47-year-old Booth says.

Then it dawns on him: The first title laid the groundwork for more.

“But there is a sense of satisfaction,” he says. “The satisfaction is that a guy like Joker and Jamal — and Joker, in particular — he knows he doesn’t have to look elsewhere to win. He’s seen that can do it here. He knows he can do it here now. That’s where the satisfaction is.”

This is where the road to “more” hardens: Denver hosts Minnesota Saturday night in Game 1 of the kind of 50-50 series that determines if the Nuggets were a one-hit wonder or built for more. It's the kind of series a dynasty wins.

It’s also a family feud and passing the torch in the Western Conference.

The family feud would be more of a jab-filled roast between Booth and Tim Connelly, the president of basketball operations for the Timberwolves, whose lot is forever linked to the Nuggets’ first championship and basketball sea change that came with it.

“Cal’s a superstar,” Connelly said in 2017 on the day he hired Booth into Denver’s front office.

And the passing of the torch?

The NBA superteam is dead. RIP. The Nuggets and Timberwolves helped end it. For the first time in 19 years, LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant were bounced from the playoffs before May. Barging into their place are Nikola Jokic, Anthony Edwards and Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, among others.

And doesn’t it seem this next wave of hoopers would rather sweep you out of the postseason than persuade you to join their team?

The Nuggets remain close with Connelly, who helped set the table for what Booth finished.

“I don’t like that guy (Connelly),” Jamal Murray tells me, adding with a smile, “Great guy, great dude. Always puts a smile on my face — all of our faces. He’s a guy that we built a relationship with off the court. But for right now I don’t like him. I don’t like him at all.”

Jokic praised Minnesota’s acquisition of center Rudy Gobert, a move derided at the time.

“When Tim Connelly made that trade everybody was laughing at him and what he was doing,” Jokic said Friday. “But he made a great team. I think he deserves credit for doing that.”

Booth and Connelly — the men running two powerhouses with no semblance of ego — still talk and text weekly. They bonded as “basketball junkies,” Booth says, who first met in 1999.

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Booth was a rookie with the Washington Wizards. Connelly was the assistant video coordinator with the Wizards.

“I remember Tim was always buried way in the back of the video room,” Booth laughs.

Maybe Booth and Connelly would’ve risen to this point without the other. Maybe not.

“Tim was a mentor, somebody that helped me get to where I am. Now we’re competing,” Booth says. “Outside of this series, we’re guys that have been lifelong friends, at least as adults in basketball. I’ll always have a great appreciation for all the stuff he did for me.”

NBA things change, but this series looks like a playoff preview for the next half-dozen years.

For the Nuggets, Booth’s brain can make it so.

With Jokic, Murray and Michael Porter Jr. due for a combined $123.3 million next season alone, Booth’s post-championship challenge was getting younger — and cheaper.

“I think we’ve accepted the fact that if you’re going to be that top-heavy there’s going to be some concessions elsewhere,” Booth says. “I think we have one of the best and most expensive starting lineups. But they still play above their value even though their monetary number is way up there. That allows us to have a younger bench and bring guys along.”

Denver’s model with Jokic is San Antonio with Tim Duncan.

“When I was with Seattle,” Booth says, his Sonics faced the Spurs in a playoff series. Spurs icon Tony Parker, the No. 28 overall draft pick, was the starting point guard as a rookie.

“San Antonio, they always took chances with getting young guys out there and getting them experience. After a while, you benefit from that,” Booth says. “Credit to Coach (Michael) Malone and Josh (Kroenke) and Tim, (because) they did that with Joker and Jamal early on. They gave them that runway and allowed them to play through some hard times.”

He adds, “You had to go through those difficult periods of time to get where we are right now.”

With full knowledge of 50 years of Nuggets heartbreak, I still argue winning Denver’s first title was the easy part. The hard part will be doing it a second time — with the likes of Minnesota and Oklahoma City having witnessed Denver do it where it’s not supposed to be done.

All the sudden, the Nuggets are not the youthful up-and-comers. Edwards, the Minnesota star, is 22. Gilgeous-Alexander, the Oklahoma City star, is 25. Luka Doncic, the Dallas star, is 25.

Jokic (29), Murray (27), Porter (25) and Aaron Gordon (28) wear the target.

Colorado prays Jokic follows Denver greats John Elway and Joe Sakic as a one-team man.

“I think he (Jokic) is comfortable here. He enjoys his teammates. He enjoys the city,” Booth says. “I think as long as he’s having fun playing the game, because he plays with such passion and enjoyment, I feel pretty good about him being in a Nuggets jersey.”

Nuggets fans should feel splendid with Booth in charge, even if he’ll be the last to say so.

Contact Gazette sports columnist Paul Klee at or on Twitter at @bypaulklee.