After the Denver Nuggets impressive rout of the Houston Rockets in Sunday's NBA regular season finale, the stage is now set for the 2025 NBA Playoffs.
The fourth-seeded Nuggets' first test? The red-hot Los Angeles Clippers. After stealing a road game versus the Golden State Warriors in an exhilarating finish, the Clippers snagged the 5th seed and will take on Denver on Saturday Afternoon for the first game of a series that could go the distance.
Now that the playoff field has been mostly decided, is there a realistic path for Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets to pull off a deep playoff run?
The Nuggets' potential playoff path
While the Nuggets are favored to get past the Clippers in Round One. The Clippers are legit and have the defensive capability and offensive firepower to give Denver a lot of problems. Kawhi Leonard looks healthy and has been an assassin as of late.
James Harden is thriving as the team’s main distributor. Ivica Zubac has had an impressive year and is one of the toughest matchups for Nikola Jokic around the league. If the Nuggets are going to survive another round, there is very little margin for error and a lot has to go right.
However, assuming the Nuggets are able to sneak past the Clippers, it's interesting to hypothesize who else they'd have to beat to return to the NBA Finals. Their most likely second-round matchup would be the one-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.
The hungry Thunder are led by the (likely) MVP in Shai Gilgeous Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, and a deep army of 3 and D wings. OKC is legit and doesn't have a ton of holes. The Nuggets really have no one who can match up with Shai and can't come close to matching the depth of OKC. And oh yeah, the Thunder also won 68 freaking games.
Assuming the Nuggets were able to pull off a monster upset, they'd most likely be rewarded with having to face The big bad Los Angeles Lakers in the Conference Finals.
The Lakers are scary. Any team with a Luka Doncic or LeBron James is a threat to win it all, and thanks to the incompetence of Mavericks GM Niko Harrison, the Lakers actually have both of them. Austin Reaves has taken a huge leap and is now a legitimate third option, and JJ Redick has proven himself as one of the most intelligent coaches in the league, and is a monumental upgrade from Darvin Ham.
Despite lacking a true big guy, the Lakers make up for it by having two of the best basketball players ever. They also have the ability to shell out an elite small ball lineup that gave the Nuggets serious problems in the matchups after the Luka trade.
In the extremely unlikely scenario where the Nuggets somehow manage to beat the Clippers, Thunder and Lakers after firing their coach and general manager three games before the playoffs? They'd most likely face the 64-win Cleveland Cavaliers, or the reigning champion Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. As we continue day-dreaming in the land of hypotheticals, we'll give the benefit of the doubt to an experienced and loaded Boston team, looking to defend their title.
The starting five of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, and Kristaps Porzingis is still a terrifying combination of shooting, defense, and versatility that will give their opponents headaches. A Denver vs Boston Finals series would feature the last two NBA champions and might be Denver’s toughest test of the entire playoffs.
Could the Nuggets actually beat the Celtics, Lakers, Thunder, and Clippers? Is this hypothetical exercise even remotely realistic? Probably not. The Denver Nuggets are not only worse than they were in 2023, but their path is much harder.
But... the Nuggets do have the best player in the world. And we've all seen the damage that a healthy Jamal Murray can do in the playoffs. So, what happens if they were able to miraculously pull this off?
Nikola Jokic has a chance to pull off one of the greatest playoff runs ever
Nikola Jokic's playoff run in 2023 solidified his legacy as a top 20 player of all time. He was the first player in NBA history to lead the postseason in points, assists, and rebounds, and he also won the 2023 Finals MVP.
Jokic and the Nuggets took out some pretty good players along the way, besting Anthony Edwards, Karl Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Jimmy Butler.
That 2023 run by Jokic is one of the greatest playoff runs ever. Still, that run, while impressive, was a much easier path than the one he has facing him this year.
People forget (That like most title teams) the Nuggets had a lot of luck that year. Minnesota was missing Jayden McDaniels in round one, and the Suns were without Chris Paul for a majority of the second round.
LeBron James wasn't at full strength in the Conference Finals, (and Darvin Ham is one of the worst coaches in recent basketball memory.) And in the Finals, they played an eighth-seeded Miami Heat squad that was no real match for Denver.
This year, Jokic has a chance to pull off what might be the greatest playoff run of all time. And if Joker is able to do it via the path I previously wrote out, here are the guys he'd have to beat: Kawhi, Harden, Shai, LeBron, Luka, Tatum, and Brown. Six of those guys are probably locks to end up as top 30 players of all time. Not too shabby.
There's a long way to go for a Nuggets squad that is staring at an uphill battle. But if Nikola Jokic can find a way to carry this Nuggets squad to another title, without an all-star on his team? He not only would become a universal top ten player of all time, but he'd also make a legitimate case as the best center to ever live.
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