Much was made of the Nuggets’ “decision” to win on the final day of the regular season, setting up a matchup with the Timberwolves in round one. Denver could have taken the L vs. the Spurs in game 82, and fallen to the 4-seed, which would have meant a first-round matchup with the Rockets.
We can argue about semantics, as David Adelman claimed the Nuggets weren’t “ducking” anyone, followed by Chris Finch claiming that the Nuggets had chosen to play the Wolves, which his team used as extra motivation, before Cam Johnson acted perplexed by the whole concept.
But one thing that seems hard to argue is the fact that, whether a decision or not, the result was a bad one. The Nuggets got beaten down by a depleted Timberwolves team, while the Rockets lost in six games to a Lakers team that was missing Luka Doncic. If the Nuggets had a different fate on the final day of the regular season, there’s a good chance they’d be getting ready for a round two showdown with the Thunder as we speak.
Nuggets' early exit ensures needed changes are coming
The thing is, are we sure that would have actually been a good thing? The one good thing about this loss is there’s no way to come out of this series and think this Nuggets team is close to winning a title. They need to look in the mirror this offseason and make some serious changes to rebuild around Nikola Jokic and make another run at it.
But this iteration of Nuggets basketball has sadly come to an end. The front office and ownership group needed to realize that, and with this result, there’s no way they haven’t, as indicated by the most recent report from Shams Charania, stating that there will be “real roster changes”.
Without this embarrassing loss to the Wolves, this realization may not have occurred. There’s another scenario out there where the Nuggets get the 4-seed, cruise to an easy first-round victory over a sorry Houston squad, and then bow out in a respectable five or six games to the Thunder.
A loss in the second round to a potentially dynastic OKC team wouldn’t have been anything to be ashamed of, and there’s a world where it would have been enough for those in charge to convince themselves that this Denver team is right there and that they should run it back one more time.
That would be a mistake, and at least now we don’t have to worry about it. The message has been sent loud and clear, and the one good thing that came out of the foolish decision to face the Wolves is that the team was exposed for what they are, and there’s still time to make amends going forward.
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