The Denver Nuggets have not been seen as a legitimate title contender being that Jamal Murray has been unavailable for the Nuggets come playoff team and they have suffered defeats at the hands of the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors the past 2 seasons,two teams they were undermanned against. Jamal Murray hasn’t quite made the superstar leap and in order for the Nuggets to win a championship over the next few seasons he will not only have to be healthy but he will have to produce at a high level on both ends of the floor which he is certainly capable of doing. I think we forget just how good Jamal Murray was being that LeBron James critics want to call the The Bubble a wash and not even considered basketball worth watching but any avid NBA fan tuned into watch Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic demoralize the the Los Angeles Clippers, a team favored to win the championship that season behind the dynamic duo of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George orchestrated by NBA legend Jerry West. Jamal Murray had a bout for the ages with Donovan Mitchell in the first round as well helping the Nuggets make a miraculous 3-1 comeback.
The Nuggets made impressive acquisitions over the off-season which were overlooked by bringing in Bruce Brown,Kentavious Caldwell-Pope,and DeAndre Jordan to add to what they already had in place around Nikola Jokic in Aaron Gordon,Michael Porter Jr,Jamal Murray, and Bones Hyland who has given the Nuggets all the scoring depth they need off the bench. Bruce Brown is filling in the box-score on the rebounds and assists column and I can’t help remember how much of a pest he was against the Milwaukee Bucks in the semi-finals of the 2021 NBA Playoffs on the boards, an above average rebounder with a very good motor who can play the small-forward and power-forward position rather comfortably. He’ll give the Nuggets some of that grit they lacked against the Warriors in the first round of the 2022 NBA Playoffs and we should all just hope Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr can manage to stay healthy for an entire season for once so they can finally put this puzzle together this season. DeAndre Jordan is no longer the top 5 center he once was in his Lob City days with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin but it doesn’t hurt to have a veteran like him off the bench who you can rely on for rim protection and rebounding in spurts.
As far as Michael Porter Jr goes I can only recall close to 2 years ago I finally got to watch him healthy alongside Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic and they seemed like a replica of the Golden State Warriors being that Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray’s skillsets compare to Draymmond Green’s and Stephen Curry’s and I guess you could say Michael Porter Jr has shades of Klay Thompson in him since he can shoot the lights out any given night and has shown he can score upwards of 30+ points when he has his shot going just like Klay Thompson. Michael Porter Jr is really an anomaly because it’s not too often you see a player with his length and athleticism that can shoot like he can, of the top of my head Paul George and Jayson Tatum come to mind and Michael Porter Jr likely never becomes as good as either but the Nuggets don’t need him to in order to win a championship. Since we saw LeBron James win titles with multiple all-stars many have begun to think you need 3 elite players to win but that is certainly not the case, you need the best team top to bottom and that is what the Denver Nuggets have.
The Denver Nuggets have shooting,depth,a great coach in Michael Malone who seemed to be the only coach to ever tap in to Demarcus Cousins in Sacramento, and above all an elite basketball player in Nikola Jokic who can certainly be crowned the best player in the league although most won’t give him that crown being that he keeps coming up short come playoff time. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown Jr are team first players along with DeAndre Jordan who has adapted to a lesser role as his playing career winds down so those 3 complimenting Nikola Jokic,Michael Porter Jr, and Jamal Murray won’t bring any chemistry issues. I actually gave Nikola Jokic a puncher’s chance against the Warriors last season since he dominated them in a previous matchup in the regular season where he had a block-party and actually held the Warriors to under 100 points which is extremely hard to do. I thought although he was undermanned his all-around game and MVP level play would’ve proved too much for a Warriors team which hadn’t had their big 3 of Stephen Curry,Klay Thompson,and Draymmond Green together for a full 2 seasons but the Warriors were just too good defensively and Nikola Jokic didn’t have his guns with him at the shootout.
The Denver Nuggets winning the title this season will come down to Nikola Jokic really, he has proven he can be the MVP of the league for the past 2 seasons and going into every season it seems to be the same old story. He gets off to a slow-start plays himself into shape by the 15-20 game mark and he starts putting up LeBron James like numbers and steamrolling everything in his path while Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr are in street clothes on the bench. You’d certainly like to see the man finally win a championship, he’s been dealt a tough hand due to not having his team healthy and having to go 1 on 5 the past couple seasons. Nikola Jokic could make history by becoming the first player since Larry Bird to win 3 League MVP’s in a row, could you imagine if he leads the Denver Nuggets to a title? You’d have to put him in the top 20 all-time list even if he would lack the longetivity of other former NBA greats. Longevity could be the reason Nikola Jokic will one day be recognized as a legend and possible top 10 player of all-time. Nikola Jokic I believe will go down like Tim Duncan, the superstar no one ever spoke about when Kobe Bryant,Shaquille O’Neal,Allen Iverson,and LeBron James were at the peak of their powers yet he was collecting one championship after another behind the scenes.
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