Is the upcoming season the proverbial “Last Dance” for the Denver Nuggets?
It’s a fair question, and one that’s sure to be asked more and more if the 2023 NBA champs were to fall out of serious NBA title contention by the middle of next season. With Western Conference powers Oklahoma City and San Antonio looking like they might each be even better next season, and nemesis Minnesota lurking as well, ending up lower in the final standings than at any time since the 2017-2018 season is very possible. And if that happens, the postseason road to another NBA title gets steeper than Vail Pass in January.
While most of the teams around them got better over this offseason, Denver – at least on paper – did not. By necessity, they’ll be running it back with the same starting five as a year ago, with less depth (again, on paper) coming off the bench. If we thought Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray had to carry a big load in the past… well, let’s hope both get a lot of rest before training camp begins.
As has been the case the previous two seasons, the health of the starting five will mean everything for this team. If there’s a repeat of last year’s injury-riddled campaign, everything – including potentially being forced to trade Joker – would be on the table.
Yes, signing veteran DeMar DeRozan should help some, but he’s also no spring chicken. He’s been pretty reliable up to this point, but at 37 years old, we know Father Time is still unbeaten. Counting on him to stay healthy for the entirety is also a very risky proposition.
It’s safe to assume that the Nuggets themselves know this could be the last go ‘round with this core group of players. Will that motivate them to potentially overachieve this coming season? That would include Aaron Gordon having spent the offseason finding new and improved methods for training and conditioning his leg muscles, which have betrayed him the past two years. It would mean Christian Braun has spent most of the summer working on his outside shot; sort of a must-have skill for a shooting guard. It would mean that they’ll be able to truly count on Tyus Jones as a backup point guard, and that “we wish we could trade him” Zeke Nnaji finds a way to be a consistent contributor. Same goes for another former first-round pick, DaRon Holmes. When does the production start to match the draft pick?
Not every player on what appears now to be Denver’s final roster has to have a career year for the Nuggets to contend, but it would surely help. Otherwise, we may not recognize much of the roster in the season that would come next.
