While it wasn’t the result that Nuggets fans hoped for, they were able to take some solace in watching the Thunder trounce the Timberwolves on Wednesday night, completing the gentlemen’s sweep and advancing to the NBA Finals.
Obviously, matchups play a huge role in which teams end up advancing, and the bracket rarely plays out as expected, but this was promising for Denver. The Nuggets battled the Thunder in round two, and despite being completely overmatched, they had them on the ropes and forced them to a Game 7.
Compare that to the West Finals, which OKC completely dominated and barely gave the T-Wolves hope at any point. After watching that series play out, the Nuggets should feel a lot better about themselves, knowing that, as imperfect as the current team is, they were within minutes of knocking off the team that appears to be head-and-shoulders above everyone else.
Nuggets may be 2nd best team in West
We all know the Nuggets have struggled with Minnesota in past years. We don’t know how they may have fared against the new-look Lakers or the Warriors with a healthy Steph Curry. But we do know that coming into the playoffs, the Thunder and Clippers were the two favorites to win the Western Conference.
Despite having homecourt advantage and a better seed, the Nuggets were short underdogs in round one against the Clippers, but ultimately prevailed in seven games. On virtually no rest, they had to turn around and face the 68-win Thunder team on the road.
On top of that, the Nuggets were working with only six reliable playoff players, multiple of which were nursing serious injuries, and being led by an interim head coach with just three games of experience after Michael Malone and Calvin Booth were unceremoniously fired in the final week of the regular season.
All things considered, the Nuggets had a very solid playoff run after a rocky, up and down season. There’s a good chance OKC cruises to a title and we look back at the Nuggets as the only team that gave them any kind of challenge.
Denver may not need drastic changes to compete
Every season is different, and we may never see this NBA landscape again, but right now it certainly looks like the Thunder are set up to be the class of the league for the next several years. That’s the target for the Nuggets, and perhaps the one team they need to catch.
That makes things seem a lot less dire than a couple of weeks ago when people were talking about cleaning house and blowing up the roster. The team has clear flaws, but perhaps just cleaning things up on the margins would do the trick. If they can find some more playable depth, improve the defense, and add shooting around Nikola Jokic, this team may be able to challenge OKC and get back to the Finals as soon as next season.