At media day, Denver's head coach and key players were setting high expectations, but others look at the Western Conference and see a crowded field
The Nuggets are a trendy pick in NBA circles to emerge from the Western Conference when the 2020 NBA Playoffs roll around. The rationale for Denver making that leap is two-fold.
The team that has dominated the West in recent years will be in transition this season. With Kevin Durant gone and Klay Thompson recovering from a knee injury that will sideline him most of the season, the Warriors will most likely come back to the pack. That opens the door for teams that were in the second tier of the conference last season.
Amongst that group, the Nuggets were the best team last year. They finished 54-28 and were the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, signaling that they’re the team most likely to step forward and fill the void left by Golden State.
Of course, that assumes that the litany of teams who were piled up behind Denver last season don’t leapfrog them this year. A lot of teams in the Western Conference, including some who were nipping at the Nuggets heels in the standings prior to last year’s playoffs, have made big-time changes during the offseason. Those additions could be enough to offset the benefit of the continuity that Denver is counting on this year.
At least one national publication believes the Nuggets have been jumped. ESPN’s latest power rankings have Denver as the fourth-best team in the West.
New faces in new places have the Clippers on top of our first Power Rankings of the season. https://t.co/YwJbjDUvrY pic.twitter.com/gVJpIhnoLf
— ESPN (@espn) October 2, 2019
The Clippers added Kawhi Leonard, so it makes sense that they’ve jumped to the top of the rankings. The reigning Finals MVP is an impact player, to say the least.
After a down season in year one with LeBron James, the Lakers made a splash, as well. Anthony Davis is among the best players in the league, so he’ll spur a drastic improvement in L.A.
And the Rockets brought in Russell Westbrook, giving Houston a pair of MVP-caliber players. Pairing the league’s best point guard with James Harden is a scary combination, at least on paper.
So it makes sense that the Nuggets have slipped in the power rankings. There are logical reasons for moving other teams ahead of them.
That said, Denver doesn’t see itself as a middle-of-the-pack playoff team in the West. On media day, they expressed much-higher aspirations.
Michael Malone was talking championship. When the head coach is putting out those kinds of expectations, it makes them as real as can be.
His players have picked up the hint. Gary Harris was singing the same tune on Monday.
Can the Nuggets hang with the likes of the Clippers, Lakers and Rockets in the West? That’s only part of the question.
They still need to hold off a Jazz team that added Michael Conley, a Warriors squad that still boasts Steph Curry and Draymond Green, and a Trail Blazers roster that beat the Nuggets in the playoffs last year with Jusuf Nurkic sidelined due to injury.
All that said, Denver could be atop the conference like they believe, somewhere in the middle of the playoff pack like ESPN suggests or clawing for a playoff seed. That’s how bunched together all of the teams in the West are at this point.