Speaking on his podcast, former NBA guard JJ Redick came to the defense of the Denver Nuggets, who are falling victim to critics trying to discredit their championship run. According to Redick, Denver’s 2023 championship is up there with the best of all time, especially considering the number of All-Star players they had to beat on the way there.
“Not willing to put it up as an all-time great run is just the most asinine statement,” said Redick. “In the four rounds, they went against players that had combined for 22 all-defensive awards, 85 combined all-star appearances… the most all-time.”
Contrary to popular belief, the Nuggets had a pretty difficult path to the Finals. In the first round, they went against a very big and feisty Timberwolves team. While Denver would ultimately win the series in 5 games, the Wolves consistently gave them problems with their size and length on the interior.
In the Semi-Finals, the Nuggets faced off against the new-look Suns. Both Booker and Durant would catch fire in the series, taking two games against the Nuggets before eventually losing in six. The Western Conference Finals should have been the hardest test yet for the Nuggets, especially going up against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Instead, Jokic led his team to a 4-0 sweep over the competition, advancing to the NBA Finals where they would go on to win the title and his coach, Michael Malone, would go on to demand the world finally show their respect. By all accounts, it was a crowded path in the West, and yet the Nuggets beat all the best teams on their way to victory. Behind the play of their 2x MVP, Nikola Jokic, Denver is almost unbeatable as a team and they could very well go on to win it again in 2024.
Can The Denver Nuggets Go Back-To-Back?
After winning the title for the first time in franchise history, it’s no surprise the Nuggets decided to run it back with their same core. With the exception of Bruce Brown, the Nuggets retained pretty much all of their players and even carved out some playing time for their young guys like Peyton Watson and Christian Braun. Currently, with a 36-18 record, the Nuggets are 4th in the Western Conference and 1.5 games back from the first seed. Regardless of the record, any team with Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, and Michael Porter Jr. healthy is going to be considered a major threat and the Nuggets look as dangerous as ever with those guys on the floor. And with Nikola Jokic currently leading the MVP race, his performance alone could be enough to lead the Nuggets to their second-straight title.
The question now for the Nuggets is if they have enough to get past the top three teams in their Conference. With the Timberwolves, Clippers, and Oklahoma City Thunder all positioned as the favorites to win, the path is harder than ever for the Nuggets to even make the Finals. But if they could win it all last year after taking down stars like Edwards, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, and Jimmy Butler, then nobody can doubt their chances to win again this year and add their name to the NBA history books. But whether Denver repeats or not this season, their dominance over the past year and a half deserves to be recognized and celebrated for what it is: one of the most impressive runs by any team in the modern NBA era.
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