Are the Nuggets peaking at the wrong time?

The Denver Nuggets have assembled their roster as well as any team in the NBA. But did they peak too quickly?

The Denver Nuggets have made a name for themselves as one of the better drafting and developing teams across the NBA. For the last six years, they have consistently built up a winning culture by adding effective players and resigning them up long term. They’ve ensured chemistry, continuity, and have a stable, respected head coach who has clearly earned the trust of his players.

But just as the Nuggets were building things all the way up and resigning Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray to gigantic long term extensions, the team was still clearly going to be smacking into the bumper of the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, and when healthy, the Golden State Warriors in their own conference. Teams like the Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans, and to a lesser extent, the Sacramento Kings may be timing things just right as the top teams in the west continue to age.

But Lebron James’s arrival in the Western Conference combined with Kawhi Leonard‘s decision to follow him to Los Angeles made life even harder for the Nuggets, who were already facing an uphill climb against the various super-teams the conference had to offer. For Denver, the team is almost entirely under contract, with the exception of their front court. As has been outlined, both Paul Millsap and Mason Plumlee are free agents at the end of the season, and their futures remain up in the air.

The Warriors are going to be pretty frightening once the NBA returns to normal. Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry will be fully healthy, Draymond Green is fresh off a new extension, and the team will likely have the first overall pick in the draft to play with. In other words, the team is as prepared as ever to return to the NBA finals.

The Nuggets, meanwhile, are still trying to break through into that upper echelon of teams. Their roster is up to snuff, but they will be forced to prove it come playoff time, as more and more of the league’s best teams flow through the Western Conference.