The Nuggets currently have the third-best odds to win the title, behind only the Thunder and Rockets, but that actually may not be good enough. Denver’s depth was a disaster last season, and half of their useful players were badly hurt in the playoffs, yet the Thunder still needed everything they had to sneak by them in seven games.
Fast forward to this season, the Nuggets have upgraded Michael Porter Jr. to Cam Johnson, upgraded Dario Saric to Jonas Valanciunas, added Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr. in free agency, and have a fully healthy DaRon Holmes back and ready to make an impact.
This team is loaded top to bottom. They already had the best starting lineup in the league, and now they are going to boast one of the best and deepest benches as well. Last year, they had only one answer, and it was almost good enough.
This season, they have many answers and come playoff time, they’ll be able to win in a variety of ways. They can play multiple bigs at all times, they can load up on defense, they can flood the court with shooting, the possibilities are endless for David Adelman and his staff.
Almost impossible to repeat in current NBA
On top of all the improvements by the Nuggets, it’s likely that the Thunder take a step back. Sure, everyone knows they are set up for longterm success, but there are no guarantees. We’ve seen similar situations, but recently the war of attrition has taken a toll, and no team has been able to go back-to-back since the Warriors in 2018.
On paper, there’s no reason for OKC to take a step back, but the same could have been said about the Celtics last year, the Nuggets before that, and so on and so on. The fact is, stuff happens. The Thunder needed so many things to work in their favor in order to win, and the chances of everything going right again are slim.
Beyond that, it’s ridiculous that the Rockets are seen as bigger favorites than Denver. They had a better regular-season team, sure, but they lost in round one of the playoffs and now must reconfigure their offense around Kevin Durant.
Don’t get me wrong, they should be very good, but they can’t match the continuity and experience of the Nuggets. Denver already has a championship, and they’ve been close again the past two years. They know what it takes, and they’re coming back with a vengeance. For my money, they have the best chance of any team in the league to raise a banner this season.