Are the Nuggets the 2024 NBA Title Favorites?
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The Denver Nuggets are now NBA champions after a hard-fought season. The question now becomes whether they are the most likely team to win another championship; or was this season just a fluke.
When looking at the Nuggets' offseason, almost all of their core players will be under contract for next season. The only player who will be a free agent this off-season is Bruce Brown. The Nuggets shouldn’t have any issues bringing him back since he has stated his number one goal is to return to the Nuggets. If the Nuggets bring back their same core, can anyone stop them?
The Miami Heat faced the Nuggets in the finals and lost pretty quickly in five games. They will have a long offseason as the contracts of both Gabe Vincent and Max Strus have expired. Even if Miami makes major changes to the roster, I don’t believe they will have a chance at taking down the Nuggets next season.
The only other candidates of teams that could take down the Nuggets depending on how the offseason goes are the Celtics, Lakers, Warriors, Bucks, Suns, and Clippers. The Suns don’t have enough depth, and the Clippers have too many injury problems to be considered the favorites. If the Lakers make a major move in free agency and land Chris Paul or Kyrie Irving, they will have a legitimate chance at taking down the Nuggets, but I still view the Nuggets as the favorite in that hypothetical series. The Warriors are past their prime. At this point, I don’t see them making a run next season. The two legitimate candidates to be better than the Nuggets next season are the Bucks and the Celtics.
If the Bucks are fully healthy next season, they will be on a mission to prove the haters wrong and head to the finals. A Giannis Jokic battle in the finals would be an amazing matchup and could help to determine the best player in the league. As for the Celtics, they have so much depth surrounding Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum that they always have a chance. In the end, though, no team in the league is as strongly built as this Denver squad. They should still be considered the favorites to win the championship next season.