There are a lot of good stories going on around the NBA, but right now, nothing comes close to watching the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokic. On the most recent episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast, Bill and Zach Lowe updated their League Pass Rankings, with Lowe taking the Nuggets first overall, and Simmons confirming he would have done the same.
The two briefly discussed how fun it has been to watch the Nuggets before essentially conceding that there’s nothing left to even say about how incredible Jokic is. But beyond his dominance, it’s how aesthetically pleasing it is to watch.
When Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon are all cooking like they have been, and with the new and improved bench making an impact, the Nuggets are a great watch for 48 minutes a night. And if you miss watching Jokic play, there’s a very reasonable chance you could be missing a historic event on any given night.
For those not familiar, the League Pass Rankings are a metric to rank each team in the NBA based on the assumption that they’re all playing at once. All else being equal, which team would you choose to watch? In this installment, both Bill and Zach had Denver first, the Rockets second, and the Spurs third before deviating.
Nuggets have room to become even more watchable
The scary part is, a lot of this is still pretty new and raw for the Nuggets. David Adelman has been around forever, but he’s still a brand-new head coach with a new staff. They’re still learning on the fly and figuring out the best ways to maximize this roster.
Cam Johnson has struggled mightily in adapting to his new role in the Nuggets’ starting lineup, and one would have to imagine he’s going to turn it around and play a lot better. The bench is almost entirely made up of new acquisitions, led by Tim Hardaway Jr., Bruce Brown, and Jonas Valanciunas.
Those players are still figuring out their roles and gaining chemistry with their new teammates. These are all things that take time and that should only get better as the season goes along. IT has been impressive to watch how quickly it has all seemed to click together, but there’s a real chance that they’re still just scratching the surface.
Whether or not the Nuggets can climb to OKC’s level and challenge the Thunder remains to be seen, but it’s going to be extremely fun to watch them try to get there. The Nuggets are appointment television, every single night.