Welcome to the latest chapter in Denver Nuggets basketball.
Have we finally hit a home run in Denver sports teams not named the Broncos? I think we’ve arrived, the dynamic of the sports giants may have finally created a dark horse in their championship saga. Super teams dictate the entire NBA, however what team is begging for a chance to play Denver in the playoffs at the Pepsi Center?
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The answer is none the rest of the NBA would ever wish that upon themselves. A recent espn.com article http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24380606/nba-superteam-rankings-warriors-rockets-celtics-teams-most-star-power has Denver behind only Golden State, Houston, and Toronto as potential NBA Super teams. I’ll be tuning in for every game as I think we ARE THAT GOOD, and frankly we played well against the Warriors and Rockets last year so it’s possible.
A look at the division records gives me a glimpse of what will set the Nuggets apart from the playoff hopefuls to true contenders. We have to dominate and drain the confidence from the Northwest Division. Denver held a respectable 9-7 record in the Northwest last year. Only the Wolves were better and Portland was the same 9-7 within the Division. Adversely though the Warriors were 13-3 in the Pacific and the Rockets were 12-4 in the Southwest. So maybe the Nuggets division is just that good or maybe the Nuggets have to become the Alpha Dog in the Northwest.
The Northwest is clearly more balanced then the other two Western divisions boasting all 5 plus .500 teams. The Pacific and Southwest had 2 and 3 respectively. With playoff teams coming 4 from the Northwest and with one and 3 coming from the other two. So the argument can certainly be made that the Nuggets record is a product of tough division play.
However if the Nuggets can turn their division record into something like Golden State or Houston’s then the standings in turn change making Denver the Division champion and the 3 seed. Those two super teams won a staggering 78% against their own divisions. Denver took 56% from theirs. An increase to just 69% (still 9% lower then GS and HOU) gets Denver 11 division wins and 2 losses for division foes in the process.
It changes the entire playoff bracket depending who they beat, but the opportunity for Denver to be the 4-5 seed becomes very real with the six seed being our consolation prize. That all comes from simply having the best division record in the Northwest division. It falls one win short of my 3 seed hopes, but I’ll touch on how they get there in the future.