The Nuggets Have Built a Juggernaut and a Potential Dynasty

The Denver Nuggets have finally won it all, and they're ready to start running laps around the rest of the NBA

The 47 years of NBA irrelevancy are over. The Denver Nuggets are the only playoff team to win their final game this year, and are finally NBA Champions. And it’s been an extremely “compelling” journey. (Thanks for that word, Chris Mannix).

The Rise, The Fall, The Rise Again

Thankfully for me, I’ve only watched them since I moved to the U.S. in 2015, but I’ve followed them since well before then. I remember the legendary 2014 draft. I remember being happy about the Doug McDermott pick only to see him get traded the same night for Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkić. (Good thing my 13-year-old self wasn’t the GM). Of course later on in the draft, the legendary selection of Nikola Jokic occurred. I remember the Nuggets using one of their picks they acquired in the Carmelo Anthony trade to select Jamal Murray. (Thank you New Orleans for selecting 24-year-old Buddy Hield a pick before). I remember the Jokić/Nurkić battle for a spot in the starting lineup. I remember Gary Harris looking like a future All-Star playing next to Jokić before he was hit with a parade of lower-body injuries.

Then there was the Michael Porter Jr. pick in 2018 when the Nuggets had the luxury of selecting someone with heavy injury concerns due to the emergence of the Murray/Jokić duo that won 46 games that year that ended in heartbreaking fashion after a loss in Game 82 that decided the 8 seed between Minnesota and Denver that I had to miss because I was reffing a basketball game. Then the next year the young Nuggets lost Game 7 to the Trail Blazers in Round 2. Then the bubble in 2020 when we saw Murray blossom into an elite scoring guard. Then in 2021, the Aaron Gordon trade was made only to see the whole season come crashing down 8 games later when Murray tore his ACL. 2022 was already a wash of a season with Murray being out for all of it, but of course Porter Jr. tweaked his back, which required his 3rd back surgery in 4 years. Now finally the 2022-23 season everyone is healthy and the front office replaced Austin Rivers and Facu Campazzo with the rangy archetypes of KCP and Bruce Brown. All the rehab, all the sad finishes in years prior, all the talk about how Jokić shouldn’t win MVP because of his playoff “disappointments” when he had Will Barton as the team’s 2nd leading scorer in 21-22. This had to be the year, there were no excuses. Everyone was healthy. And finally, it was the year.

The 2022-23 Season

Predictably, Jamal Murray and the Nuggets started out slowly, going 14-10 to begin, and Murray’s speed, burst, and confidence were all noticeably hampered. However, on December 8th, Murray hit this shot which I believe was the start of the turning point of the season:

That shot went in around the same time I started chemotherapy, and sparked a 31-10 run through the end of February, when my chemotherapy stopped. That run put the Nuggets comfortably in first place for the rest of the season, and is what really fueled the Jokić MVP campaign, and the best highlight of the season as Aaron Gordon took Phoenix’s soul:

Then came the abominable month of March, where the Nuggets finished out the season going 8-9, and the ESPN talking heads started to talk. Thanks to mainly Kendrick Perkins, the worst “analyst” I’ve ever seen, the national discourse around the MVP got so ugly that voting for Jokić turned into something that would be a racist thing to do. Plus he called out NIKOLA JOKIC, the most humble superstar the NBA has ever seen, who doesn’t care about stats or awards whatsoever as a “stat-padder.” It got so bad that even Jokić was fazed by it according to Michael Malone. The fact that Kendrick has a MVP vote is disgusting. This talk might have lit a fire in the Nuggets locker room, as they went into the postseason with even more to prove.

The Timberwolves were tough and fiesty, and Anthony Edwards looks like the next big superstar, but the Nuggets ran straight through them in 5 games, and set up a 2nd round matchup with the favored Kevin Durant/Devin Booker Suns. And outside of two amazing games from Booker, the Nuggets stomped them out with the average margin of victory being 17.3 points. Next came the most satisfactory series win in Nuggets history as they swept the media’s beloved Los Angeles Lakers, backed by a phenomenal series by Jamal Murray, in which he averaged 32.5 points per game. Of course, Jokić was averaging his stat-padded triple double with ease throughout. The Lakers series was so monumental because it was the first time the Nuggets had won a series against the Lakers (0-7 prior to 2023), and stamped the Nuggets into their first Finals appearance in history. One more round, and everything the team had gone through would be worth it. The opponent was one that nobody predicted. The gritty 8-seed Miami Heat ran through the gauntlet of the East, eliminating the Bucks, Knicks, and Celtics with dominance. However, this Nuggets team is different. Also a resiliant team, the Nuggets stormed through the Heat in 5, etching themselves as one of the most dominant playoff teams of all time, going 16-4. Finally, this team that I’ve seen grow in front of my eyes for 6-7 years, and during the worst year of my life, got it done.

Sacrifices

What makes this team so awesome and fun to me is the sacrifices made to become a winning team. Nowadays, and forever, it’s so hard to find an NBA player that is willing to cut down on his shot attempts and points for winning. They pretty much all grow up the best player on their youth/high school team’s where they are tasked with all of the scoring. It’s understandable to think that every NBA player has thought to themselves that they are the next big thing, and usually scoring is what determines All-Star game appearances and other individual awards. Hello Joel Embiid.

Anyways, Gordon went from being the #1 scoring option on the Magic to #4 on the Nuggets. He had to cut down his midrange scoring and sacrifice some of the energy used on offense to be the Nuggets best overall defender. It doesn’t matter whether he scores 5 points or 25 points, all that matters to him is winning…a common theme in the Nuggets locker room. MPJ also had to sacrifice. He went from #1 high school player in the nation to fringe lottery pick in a year because of his back. 2 more back surgeries later, and he is unable to run without a brace due to drop-foot that he has to deal with every day. Bruce Brown, who is obviously good enough to be a starter had to scrap his way around the NBA to find a consistent role, and will finally get rewarded for it in about a week when free agency opens up.

Why The Nuggets Are Set To Become a Dynasty

Simply, the Nuggets are in a much better position to be successful in the next 5-7 years than any other NBA team. In basic terms, a new CBA agreement that takes place this offseason makes it extremely difficult for teams to hang on to elite role players, and might almost wipe out the middle class of NBA contracts. Teams will have to build through the draft more and hope their rookies play well almost immediately so that those respective teams are able to play an impactful player on a low-cost rookie-scale contract.

Thankfully for the Nuggets, they have been building through the draft. While other teams were constantly trading tons of assets Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving, the Nuggets were building their own “superteam” through patience and stability. Obviously, the draft picks of Jokic, Murray, and Porter Jr. contributed to most of the success this season, and they’re all locked up until the 2024-25 season when Murray becomes a free agent. However, the picks of Christian Braun and Peyton Watson may be just as important. Braun has already proven to be a game-changer, and Watson has garnered plenty of hype around the league and organization, as Paul George and Kevin Durant have both said that Watson will be an impactful player. Having a few max contracts on a team, plus having a few rookie-scale contracts will now be the way to build a successful team, and the Nuggets are years ahead of other teams. Combine that with the fact they employ Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, and I think the Nuggets will be a team that is consistently atop the West for years to come.