Denver Nuggets are a budding dynasty

The 2023-24 NBA season is here, so at the end of another eventful summer we take our annual trip too close to the sun, daring you to stand the swelter of these views. This is Hot Takes We Might Actually Believe.

We do not discuss enough just how dominant the Denver Nuggets’ championship run was last season.

The Nuggets played a single Game 6, never faced a Game 7 and lost once in the last two rounds, finishing the playoffs with a 16-4 record and 8.7 net rating, both of which would have led the NBA by a wide margin in the regular season, and three of the four losses were one-possession games inside the final 30 seconds.

Since the playoffs expanded to four rounds in 1984, only seven other championship cores have won 80% of their postseason games: Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics (15-3, 1986), Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers (15-3, 1987), Isiah Thomas’ Detroit Pistons (15-2, 1989), Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls (15-2, 1991; 15-3, 1996), Tim Duncan’s San Antonio Spurs (15-2, 1999; 16-4, 2007), Shaquille O’Neal’s Lakers (15-1, 2001) and Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors (16-1, 2017). Detroit’s two titles are the fewest among those squads.

So, yeah, the Nuggets could absolutely be a dynasty in the making.

First, they have a player by the name of Nikola Jokić. Perhaps you have heard of him. He has finished first, first and second in the last three MVP races, and he just averaged an absurd 30-14-10 in the postseason. For perspective, only 15 others in NBA history have even averaged a 15-7-5 on the way to a championship, and each one eligible for the Hall of Fame is enshrined. Eleven won multiple titles; half won four or more.

To say Jokić is doing things on a basketball court we have never before seen is an understatement. He might be the league’s best scorer and facilitator, as evidenced by his league-best efficiency last season (70.1 true shooting percentage) and every ridiculous pass he threads to a teammate as he gets…