Nuggets playoffs: Mapping easiest and toughest paths to repeating as NBA champions

Round 2: Easiest - Timberwolves, Toughest - Suns

This is a really hard call as these two teams have given the Nuggets about as much trouble as any teams in recent years. The Suns' roster is extremely flawed, but they do have three great offensive players Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal. If those guys get hot they can win games by themselves and prove very tough covers for the Nuggets.

We recently saw them take two games in Denver within the past month or so, and they were the only team to win multiple games against the Nuggets in last year’s playoffs. Big man Jusuf Nurkic also seems to save his best performances for Nikola Jokic.

There’s definitely a world where everything clicks into place for this team and they catch lightning in a bottle for a few weeks. If their stars all get hot at once there may not be anything an opponent can even do.

The Wolves have also played the Nuggets well, including taking a game off them in last year’s playoffs and having two impressive wins this season. They are one of the few teams who can actually bother the Nuggets with their size and they have the defense to really make Denver work.

But this is another team that’s just inexperienced. Anthony Edwards still seems a few years away from his best form and I’m not sure how much I trust Karl-Anthony Towns in the playoffs. To compete with the Nuggets in a playoff series a team will have to keep up with them offensively and I’m not convinced that Minnesota can find enough points to survive over a seven-game series.