Denver Nuggets Have the Best Championship Opportunity in Franchise History
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The 2022-23 Denver Nuggets have something that I believe no other Nuggets team in the history of the Denver Nuggets franchise has ever had, an absolute legitimate case at being NBA Champions this season. There have been some amazing Nuggets players in the past and there have been some stunning teams coming out of Denver. Looking at the 8 vs 1 seed upset Nuggets in 1994, the 2008-9 Denver Thuggets, the 2020 Bubble Nuggets. But, this team has a few things that none of those other teams had, a back-to-back MVP, three max-contract, healthy, All-Star caliber players, a capable coach with longevity and a proven system that works in the post season.
What can we say about Nikola Jokic that Nick Wright hasn’t already tried to underplay or drag through the mud as it pertains to his greatness? He’s unselfish, he’s one of the hardest worker in the gym, he’s lovable and friendly, he efficient, he does every single thing in the game of basketball in an above average manner, he’s a statistical outlier, he’s an advanced metrics anomaly, his teammates love him, he’s unguardable, he’s created a new position in the NBA, he doesn’t have off nights really. Nikola Jokic is most comparable to a handful of other transcendent talents that were able to elevate their teams to winning a championship in the face of being a small market team.
Nikola Jokic winning a single championship with the Denver Nuggets will be as meaningful as Tim Duncan with the Spurs, Dirk with the Mavericks, Giannis with the Bucks, LeBron in Cleveland, Kawhi in Toronto. These are those guys that were able to elevate small market teams to the pinnacle of the NBA in the face of small market bias, transcend the sport and their peers, and will their teams to becoming NBA Champions. I would add Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, considering the fact the franchise had never played in a finals before Jordan and the Bulls won 6 in 8 years, but that city is a sports city and I’m not 100% sure that they are considered a small market.
Nikola Jokic has won the first ever MVP for any player in a Denver Nuggets uniform. He’s obviously also the only player to win back-to-back MVPs. He’s done this in the face of missing his two best teammates for all of last season and the last two post-seasons. This coming year Nikola will finally have a healthy Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr, to finally witness a healthy roster the Nuggets built, all on the floor for a full season will be magical. With both of these players on the floor, Nikola gets his good friend and one of the best 1-2 punches in the NBA with Murray back, he also gets one of the best pure shooters in the NBA in Porter Jr.
I believe the Denver Nuggets might have had a real opportunity to play Jamal Murray or MPJ last post-season, but chose to make the smart choice of enduring the playoff loss to the Warriors to guarantee Jamal and Michael Porter Jr’s health for this upcoming season. Despite the nastiness fans were saying about the franchise and the players willingness to tough it out or whatever, the Nuggets held true to the fact that they weren’t risking reinjury by rushing these two back. This 2022-23 season gives us fans what we have been waiting for, for almost three seasons, a legitimate, no homer-ism involved, NBA Championship opportunity.
As a long time member of the Denver Nuggets fandom, it’s almost never been an easy ride, and getting your hopes up has been an exercise in futility. The Nuggets in the NBA era have never had a top overall pick in the NBA Draft despite being the worst team many times, they’ve never had a #2 pick in the NBA Draft, they received only a single #3 overall pick and we converted it into 2 decades of playoff basketball. The franchise has never made an NBA Finals, and the two times I’ve seen them make the Western Conference Finals, they played against the NBA Golden Child the Los Angeles Lakers. The Boston Celtics are the only team in NBA history that has been to more NBA Finals appearances(22) than just the number of Finals the LA Lakers have Lost (15 losses). . .
This 2022 season is going to showcase a rested Nikola Jokic that has been living it up in his hometown of Sombor, Serbia this off-season. He’s had his MVP hand-delivered by his coaches and ownership, he’s signed the biggest contract in NBA History, and he’s been spending quality time with his family, his daughter, and his horses. This man will hit the 2022-23 season likely pretty slow, but he will also not have to carry the load night in and night out, and will hit the post season in a form ready to win a championship.
Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr, and Nikola Jokic are the big three, but the reality is that Aaron Gordon is easily one of the, if not the. best fourth options in the NBA. As a fan I believe we only got to see nine games of a healthy team before Jamal went down with injury, and with Jokic, Gordon and MPJ, the Nuggets were still able to get out of the first round of the playoffs against the Trailblazers. I think the Nuggets getting rid of Will Barton will remove an ego from their locker room that will be a positive impact.
I liked Will Barton, but like many fans, we understood that him jacking up 6-10 shots a game while sharing the court with Jamal, MPJ, Nikola and Aaron Gordon was not the right player taking those shots. He had talent, he could shoot and get hot, and he could take over games, but the fact that he couldn’t do that with the bench unit, that was one of the worst in the NBA is what was frustrating. I think Will Barton should have been the sixth man, but his ego wouldn’t let him play that role. The great news is that the Nuggets went out and drafted a more electric version of Will Barton in Bones Hyland, who happily takes those sixth man minutes and impacts the game the way we all wish Barton would have, which is why he was expendable.
I think the Denver Nuggets additions of KCP, Bruce Brown, Christian Braun, and Peyton Watson will all prove to be an absolute master class from Calvin Booth this off-season. Booth shores up the defensive weakness and small forward depth with players that don’t need the basketball in their hands, guys that play sticky defense, and guys that cut, run the floor, and get open for Nikola to give them chances to score. The top paid guys are going to score and facilitate with the ball in their hands, and the role players are going to play their roles and hit shots when they are needed. This team is incredibly top heavy, but it isn’t like last season where the bench is going to be worthless, we have guys like Bones Hyland, Zeke Nnaji, Davon Reed, Bruce Brown, Jeff Green and some exciting 1st round picks who have been performing in the Summer League.
This Nuggets team lost its GM a few days before the NBA draft, then went ahead and drafted two perfect fit players in the first round, signed some perfect fit players in free agency, gets completely healthy well before the season starts, rests its overworked players with a long off-season, and has a capable head coach in Mike Malone leading the charge for his 8th year as the Nuggets bench general. The 2022-23 Nuggets are going to follow in the Denver Pioneers, Colorado Avalanche, and Colorado Mammoth’s footsteps and bring another championship home to the City of Denver and the loyal Denver Nuggets fans that never stop believing. The City knows how to celebrate and the Nuggets fans would absolutely turn out for another million man celebration parade!
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