The Nuggets are nothing special - now and going forward

[AleksandarN]

They are VERY good. They are extremely difficult to beat as they are poised, determined, well coached. I think they will win the title as they have more experience than the Wolves and I view the Celtics as a pretenders. I think those are their two biggest threats. However, people need to stop acting like they are the 96 Bulls. They are not unbeatable. I honestly cant wait until they are dethroned because I cant stand Jokics arrogant condescending fanbase, posting threads about him everyday, and belittling past greats. It also doesnt help thatJokic the most uncharismatic, boring #1 ranked player the league has ever seen.

I kinda want to see the Nuggets go back to back just to see posters wanting to see him fail more. Craving the salt. Realgm will be toxic for sure either way if they win or lose.

[Wigginstime]

How were they not a real 7th seed? LeBron and AD were healthy the majority of the year, and they still could only get the 7th seed.

They weren’t a real 7th seed. They were the 8th seed by record

The Lakers ended up in the 7th spot(8th by actual record) after getting 71, 76, 82, 76 and 68 games from their 5 best players.

In the last 4 years they have finished 7th, 11th, 7th, 8th by record. This is a mediocre, bottom seed barely squeaking in playoff team for almost half a decade, and people are still pretending it’s an elite contender and just getting a bad shake every year.

It’s been a long time since they were actually good.

This is deceptive
Lakers 2020 - 1st Place, NBA Champions
Lakers 2021 - Major Injuries, Lakers are 19-8 with Lebron and AD both play (win percentage would be 3rd best in West)
Lakers 2022 - Major Injuries and Westbrook Experiment was a failure
Lakers 2023 - 30-19 after trade deadline and made the conference finals
Lakers 2024 - 21-9 in last 30 games of season when healthy (highest win percentage in the west)

Effectively all the stats show that when Lebron and Davis are healthy, the Lakers are a top 3 team in the league. Except when they play against Denver. Over the course of a 82 game season a 39 year old Lebron and injury prone Davis aren't going to be great. A health Davis and Lebron in a 7 game playoff series probably beat any team in the league not name Denver or Boston.

[Exp0sed]

How were they not a real 7th seed? LeBron and AD were healthy the majority of the year, and they still could only get the 7th seed.

They weren’t a real 7th seed. They were the 8th seed by record

The Lakers ended up in the 7th spot(8th by actual record) after getting 71, 76, 82, 76 and 68 games from their 5 best players.

In the last 4 years they have finished 7th, 11th, 7th, 8th by record. This is a mediocre, bottom seed barely squeaking in playoff team for almost half a decade, and people are still pretending it’s an elite contender and just getting a bad shake every year.

It’s been a long time since they were actually good.

This is deceptive
Lakers 2020 - 1st Place, NBA Champions
Lakers 2021 - Major Injuries, Lakers are 19-8 with Lebron and AD both play (win percentage would be 3rd best in West)
Lakers 2022 - Major Injuries and Westbrook Experiment was a failure
Lakers 2023 - 30-19 after trade deadline and made the conference finals
Lakers 2024 - 21-9 in last 30 games of season when healthy (highest win percentage in the west)

Effectively all the stats show that when Lebron and Davis are healthy, the Lakers are a top 3 team in the league. Except when they play against Denver. Over the course of a 82 game season a 39 year old Lebron and injury prone Davis aren't going to be great. A health Davis and Lebron in a 7 game playoff series probably beat any team in the league not name Denver or Boston.

lol, LBJ is almost 40 and isn't playing any defense. AD has star impact and that makes the Lakers pretty good but coupled with 3 below average starters (on both ends) in D-Lo, Rui and Reaves - they are who they are..a good but far from elite team

[NO-KG-AI]

How were they not a real 7th seed? LeBron and AD were healthy the majority of the year, and they still could only get the 7th seed.

They weren’t a real 7th seed. They were the 8th seed by record

The Lakers ended up in the 7th spot(8th by actual record) after getting 71, 76, 82, 76 and 68 games from their 5 best players.

In the last 4 years they have finished 7th, 11th, 7th, 8th by record. This is a mediocre, bottom seed barely squeaking in playoff team for almost half a decade, and people are still pretending it’s an elite contender and just getting a bad shake every year.

It’s been a long time since they were actually good.

This is deceptive
Lakers 2020 - 1st Place, NBA Champions
Lakers 2021 - Major Injuries, Lakers are 19-8 with Lebron and AD both play (win percentage would be 3rd best in West)
Lakers 2022 - Major Injuries and Westbrook Experiment was a failure
Lakers 2023 - 30-19 after trade deadline and made the conference finals
Lakers 2024 - 21-9 in last 30 games of season when healthy (highest win percentage in the west)

Effectively all the stats show that when Lebron and Davis are healthy, the Lakers are a top 3 team in the league. Except when they play against Denver. Over the course of a 82 game season a 39 year old Lebron and injury prone Davis aren't going to be great. A health Davis and Lebron in a 7 game playoff series probably beat any team in the league not name Denver or Boston.

They’re inconsistent, which makes them not elite. You’re throwing out 2 full seasons, and like 50 games from2 other seasons to be like “these 30 games are indicative of who they really are, except when it comes to trying to ever actually get a win on the Nuggets.”

They are who we thought they were. A lower end playoff team in the West who can’t notch wins against a big dog. Their regular season and playoff performances (when they actually make it) confirm that.

[Fencer reregistered]

Its ironic that the Nuggets "success" is the biggest thing discrediting them.

The only lost 4 games in the playoffs last year - RealGM "They had a historically easy playoff run"

The beat the Lakers who made the conference finals last year in 5 games in the 1st round - RealGM "They will be exposed when they are challenged by a better team".

If they beat the Wolves or Thunder in 5 or less games RealGM will scream that those teams were fake contenders instead of giving the Nuggets due credit.

It seems the only way for the Nuggets to "gain credit" is to loose more games and have longer playoff series...

Catch 22

If the Nuggets beat a team, said team was bad.

Welcome to the life of Celtics fans. The Celtics dominated the East; therefore the entire conference was horrible.

(In fairness, if you only look at games against the West, the Celtics beat out the other top teams in win percentage by only a small amount.)

[Ssj16]

How were they not a real 7th seed? LeBron and AD were healthy the majority of the year, and they still could only get the 7th seed.

They weren’t a real 7th seed. They were the 8th seed by record

The Lakers ended up in the 7th spot(8th by actual record) after getting 71, 76, 82, 76 and 68 games from their 5 best players.

In the last 4 years they have finished 7th, 11th, 7th, 8th by record. This is a mediocre, bottom seed barely squeaking in playoff team for almost half a decade, and people are still pretending it’s an elite contender and just getting a bad shake every year.

It’s been a long time since they were actually good.

This is deceptive
Lakers 2020 - 1st Place, NBA Champions
Lakers 2021 - Major Injuries, Lakers are 19-8 with Lebron and AD both play (win percentage would be 3rd best in West)
Lakers 2022 - Major Injuries and Westbrook Experiment was a failure
Lakers 2023 - 30-19 after trade deadline and made the conference finals
Lakers 2024 - 21-9 in last 30 games of season when healthy (highest win percentage in the west)

Effectively all the stats show that when Lebron and Davis are healthy, the Lakers are a top 3 team in the league. Except when they play against Denver. Over the course of a 82 game season a 39 year old Lebron and injury prone Davis aren't going to be great. A health Davis and Lebron in a 7 game playoff series probably beat any team in the league not name Denver or Boston.

I think you should give it a break. It's truly hard for people to make the distinction between regular season and playoff basketball.

Do you remember when Atlanta Hawks were destroying the regular season under coach Bud and had 4 all-stars? Heck, look at Miami of last year. It doesn't happen all the time but there are some teams where their regular season, is not indicative of their post season performance.

[tsherkin]

Welcome to the life of Celtics fans. The Celtics dominated the East; therefore the entire conference was horrible.

(In fairness, if you only look at games against the West, the Celtics beat out the other top teams in win percentage by only a small amount.)

TBF, the East is the weaker conference. But that shouldn't really take away from Boston rocking 64 wins, the best offense in the league and a top 3 defense. Particularly since they were 23-7 against the West anyway.

I kinda want to see the Nuggets go back to back just to see posters wanting to see him fail more. Craving the salt. Realgm will be toxic for sure either way if they win or lose.

I'm very much rooting for Denver, heh.

[Maf]

Honestly I understand why OP feels this way. To me Lakers are not great team, more like Two and Half Man (Reaves being the half). Their bench is even worse than ours. And it is saying something. (WTH happened to Dinwiddie? He was decent player year ago)

Of course I believe we can beat Wolves. Although I am worried watching Murray and KCP having trouble moving. The Real PO starting just now.

[gabri3l3]

The lakers are the 2nd best team in the conference and they just got dispatched 4-1

As evidenced by their 7th place finish?

regular season placement means very little when for half the season you play the wrong lineups, they went on a tear when ham finally figured out that the russell-reaves-james-hachimura-lineup was the way to go.

[nbafan38]

Sorry for beating a dead horse and making a thread about my random thoughts, but people are still picking them as favorites. The Nuggets are barely handling the 7th seed Lakers who can't shoot 3s. I know it's 3-1, but the Lakers have lead for far more minutes during this series. Without Murray playing way above his head and like a superstar, the team isn't that special. Jokic is basically God, but it's a team game. They are going to really struggle against the better teams in the west.

I see this as a problem though forward for this team. Murray isn't THAT good, MPJ has injury concerns. I wouldn't be surprised if the Nugs don't win another championship with this roster.

Are they the greatest team ever no? Are they really good and the deserved favorite to win it all yes. The lakers were not a real 7th seed and if anything were great prep for the nuggets to make a deep run imo.

How were they not a real 7th seed? LeBron and AD were healthy the majority of the year, and they still could only get the 7th seed.

Besides the fact the lakers are way more built for the playoffs than the regular season they won 47 games which is not usually a 7th seed and the difference between 8 and 4 in the west this year was 4 games.

[Revived]

Honestly I understand why OP feels this way. To me Lakers are not great team, more like Two and Half Man (Reaves being the half). Their bench is even worse than ours. And it is saying something. (WTH happened to Dinwiddie? He was decent player year ago)

Of course I believe we can beat Wolves. Although I am worried watching Murray and KCP having trouble moving. The Real PO starting just now.

I think Reaves should count as more than just “half”, he’s proven he’s a solid player.

He reminds me of guys like Goran Dragic who were definitely real solid players that was almost AS caliber but not quite there.

[Dominator83]

Now? Perhaps not

Going forward? Cant say that. I mean, they're really only short about 2 solid role players right now. Not impossible to find. Maybe challenging due to their lack of resources (no high picks and capped out), but certainly not impossible

[ScrantonBulls]

Lotta people thought I was crazy. Either they aren't that special, or the TWolves are beasts.

[Revived]

Now? Perhaps not

Going forward? Cant say that. I mean, they're really only short about 2 solid role players right now. Not impossible to find. Maybe challenging due to their lack of resources (no high picks and capped out), but certainly not impossible

Denver has found good quality players even without high picks. Their scouting department is one of the best in the league.