![]() ![]() ![]() With Murray and Porter effectively out for the entirety of last season, Denver saw their offense, usually in or near top-five range, slip to ninth in the league as their defense remained middling. The Denver Nuggets' rank in offensive and defensive rating over the past five seasons Data via Cleaning the Glass The Nuggets will rank top three in offense and top 10 in defense.Īs with most versions of the Nuggets through their history, the team in the current era has seen its offense consistently outperform its defense, and while that trend figures to continue, Denver should see improvement on both fronts this season. ![]() This may well be the Nuggets’ best chance ever to win the NBA championship, and they look more than ready to seize the opportunity. And the return to action of the dominant Jokic and Murray two-man duo that led Denver to a historic two 3-1 playoff series comebacks and within arm’s reach of the Finals is not to be underestimated. That “core four” is now bolstered by defensive upgrades in offseason acquisitions Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown, and an ostensibly improved bench unit led by rapidly-improving sophomore Bones Hyland. To wit, in the 232 possessions when Jokic, Murray, Porter and Gordon shared the court, Denver outscored their opponents by 17.1 points per 100 possessions, per Cleaning the Glass. And although we have yet (to paraphrase a certain emperor from a galaxy far, far away) to witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational Nuggets team, the small sample from the short window a year and a half ago between their midseason acquisition of forward Aaron Gordon and Murray’s ill-fated ACL tear demonstrated their legitimately elite potential. ![]()
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