Five Questions: Can the Nuggets bring an NBA title to Denver?
Oct 23, 2019, 7:08 AM
The Denver Nuggets tip off their 2019-’20 season Wednesday night in Portland with expectations reaching level unforeseen in recent history.
Those expectations, says “Stokley and Zach” and the “Mile High Hoops” podcast host Zach Bye, include a shot at bringing Denver its first NBA championship.
Catching up with Bye this week — as you should do every week with his podcast — 104.3 The Fan attempts to answer how this “small-market team” can pull off winning a title.
The Fan digital content producer Johnny Hart: Tim Connelly opted to “finish business” in Denver instead of taking his “dream job” with the Washington Wizards this offseason. So, what do the Nuggets have to do to make him not regret the decision?
The Fan host Zach Bye: To make Tim Connelly not regret his decision to return to the Denver Nuggets, they have to make the Western Conference Finals. They were on the brink of that a season ago, playing in Game 7 of the semi-finals. In order to validate success and growth this season, I think they have to cross through that threshold and play in the NBA’s Final Four.
Hart: Denver has long been not thought of as a basketball city. Toronto’s by no means a small market other than purely in basketball terms. Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, Orlando have all had success in recent years. Can a “small market” team like the Nuggets compete with bigger market clubs?
Bye: The Denver Nuggets, as a small-market team, can compete with bigger-market clubs because they’ve built their roster the right way, in the most organic fashion possible. They’ve drafted well and, most importantly, the biggest secret in the NBA is development. And the Nuggets have done it all the right way, and you could say the old-fashioned way.
Hart: Matt Moore, the newest member of the 104.3 The Fan family of contributors, said the Nuggets have a legit shot at a title this season. Is he right? Is he crazy? Why?
Bye: Matt Moore is right, that the Denver Nuggets will have a legit shot at the title this season because they have the right components of their team. Their roster is deep, they have an MVP candidate and the have the perfect coach — and I believe one of the best coaches in the NBA — in Mike Malone. You add all that together, and it equals a title equation. Whether they get there or not, remains to be seen.
Hart: Denver will always be a Broncos town. But with the team’s recent woes, can the Nuggets — who seem poised to earn perennial postseason berths — steal a little of the spotlight from the orange and blue?
Bye: The Nuggets could absolutely earn a bigger piece of the pie, in terms of fan interest here in Denver, if they’re competing at the highest level that the sport has to offer. But, again, only if they’re competing at the highest level, and that means competing for an NBA championship.
The Broncos are always going to own this town because they’ve had multiple parades celebrating championships in the nation’s most popular sport: football. But the Nuggets can eat into that fan interest by forcing fans to pay attention. And the only way to do that is to win game after game and force the entire nation to pay attention to the Nuggets. And then, along with the nation will come Denver.
Hart: What player are you expecting the biggest contribution from this season, or maybe takes the biggest step, and who is the biggest liability?
Bye: The player I’m expecting to make the biggest contribution is Nikola Jokic being one of the five- or six-best players in the NBA. There’s no one else like him in the NBA, and it’s arguable that there’s been no one like him in the history of the NBA — a big man who’s a walking triple-double. Not like Wilt Chamberlain in the day and age where he’s playing against centers who are 6-foot-5. But he is running the floor, running the offense and is basically an NBA unicorn.
The biggest liability, I believe, is the potential inconsistencies of Jamal Murray. Up until this point, Murray has been a boom or bust player on any given night. And the Nuggets will only go as far, I believe, as Jamal Murray’s consistency will take them.
