Denver Nuggets 2024-25 season preview: Are Nikola Jokić and Co. fading as title contenders?

(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

The 2024-25 NBA season is here! We’re breaking down the biggest questions, best- and worst-case scenarios, and fantasy outlooks for all 30 teams. Enjoy!

DENVER NUGGETS

2023-24 finish

Offseason moves

Additions: Russell Westbrook, Dario Saric, DaRon Holmes II

Subtractions: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Reggie Jackson, Justin Holiday

Complete roster

The Big Question: Can the Nuggets stem the tide of attrition?

The Nuggets have Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr. and … who else exactly? Do not get me wrong: That is an incredible top four — the foundation of a team that won the championship in 2023 — but the rotation around them has taken hits over the past two summers.

Bruce Brown and Jeff Green left for more money after the title run, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope did the same this past offseason. None of them is a game-breaker, necessarily, but added together they are enough to wage a war of attrition. Without Brown and Green, Denver could not extract the value it would have hoped from Christian Braun and a collection of rookies to avoid a second-round playoff exit.

Now what? Does the loss of Caldwell-Pope tug them further from contention?

Let us slow down for a moment. The Nuggets still boast Jokić, the best player alive, an offense unto himself and a walking 50-win season, so long as he stays healthy. They have Murray, whose pick-and-roll partnership with Jokić forms the most lethal offensive combination in the league. Porter is a flame-thrower from the peak of his 7-foot wingspan, while Gordon possesses untold strength and athleticism.

Throw in anyone, and that group will cause plenty of problems, as it did last season, when they outscored opponents by 14.5 points per 100 meaningful possessions without Caldwell-Pope in the lineup with them.

But are they enough to navigate the Western Conference gauntlet, much less defeat whoever emerges from the East? Certainly not if Murray still needs to get a handle on his health. He told reporters on media day that he has no limitations from the knee injury that cost him the entire 2021-22 campaign or the…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-02 14:03:35

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