The chants of “M-V-P, M-V-P!” bounced off the Pepsi Center walls from the first time Nuggets center Nikola Jokic stepped to the foul line, less than two minutes into the first quarter of the home-opener in the most anticipated season in franchise history.

“I’d much rather clean up and teach after a win than a loss,” said Denver coach Michael Malone, after a 108-107 overtime victory against Phoenix on an unnecessarily tense Friday night the Nuggets would not have survived without Jokic’s 23 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists.

It was the 29th time Jokic recorded a triple double in the regular season, one more triple than was achieved by Michael Jordan during the regular season in his long, storied career.

Now that’s impressive. But impressed? Jokic wasn’t.

“I mean, hopefully I’m going to pass him in the rings. That would be nice,” Joker joked. “Triple doubles? It’s nice, of course. But it doesn’t mean nothing to be honest.”

Jordan earned six NBA championship rings. The Nuggets better get busy if Jokic is going to catch him in that department.

Since joining the NBA in 1976, Denver has never been blessed with a roster this deep or more talented.

But is it too soon to ask: Is Malone starting his best five players?

When Jerami Grant collected an errant shot in mid-air and slammed the follow shot home so hard his elbow threatened to rip the rim from the backboard during the fourth quarter, he looked like a young Paul Millsap. At this point in their respective careers, might the 25-year-old Grant be a stronger choice to start at power forward than Millsap at age 34?

Gary Harris is a guard with valuable skills at both ends of the court. But might Malik Beasley have more upside?

While Will Barton gives a too-polite team a dose of much-needed ornery, if Michael Porter Jr. really is all that, all he needs is a chance to play to prove he’s a better choice at small forward for a team that has a nagging habit of misplacing its shooting eye in pressure situations.

It’s no longer a question of if the Nuggets will make the NBA playoffs, but how deep a run they can make.

As sublime and sweet as Big Honey is with a basketball in his big hands, Denver will not win a championship if the team is as dependent on Jokic as it was last spring. He ran out of gas against Portland in the second round, clanking shots late, misses that made him cry after losing Game 7.

“They look at me as a leader, they look at me as their best player,” said Jokic, unable to mask his disappointment when Denver came up four points short in the final game of an otherwise magical season. “I feel responsible.”

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To beat lowly Phoenix, Denver needed clutch crunch-time performances from Grant (13 points) and Beasley (17 points), on the floor for Millsap and Barton at winning time.

It requires 16 victories and at least twice as many gut checks to survive the playoff grind and win a championship. Tied at 98 as the fourth quarter gets tense in May, the Nuggets are going to need somebody besides Jokic to step up and score.

I believe Grant, Beasley and Porter can be better choices to deliver under pressure than three of the five players currently starting for Denver.

In the NBA, nothing is given, everything is earned. But you heard it here first: How much the roles of Grant, Beasley and Porter grow will determine how far the Nuggets go in the playoffs.

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