NBA: Ranking the 9 contenders with the best shot to win the 2019-20 title

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NBA Denver Nuggets Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /

8. Denver Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets are another team fresh off of a dream season a year ago and they’re set to improve in a few ways this upcoming year.

First, their star duo of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are both still young and set to improve once again in 2019-20.

Jokic will be looking to establish himself as a legitimate MVP candidate while Murray will be looking to carry the momentum from his breakout performance in the 2019 postseason into this year, where he could potentially compete for his first all-star game.

Moving down the roster you have Gary Harris who missed his share of games with injury a year ago so he’ll be looking to have a healthy bounce-back season in 2020.

And speaking of injuries, Denver still has Michael Porter Jr. on the roster; a guy who, even though he’s not played a single second in the NBA, he still has star potential – if he can stay healthy that is.

Also, given that this is still a young team, we expect them to learn from their playoff run last year and come into this season with more experience and maturity.

One way this could manifest itself could be in the team’s record on the road which was somewhat of a weak point a year ago.

We know they’re going to be tough to beat at home which is why regular-season success is going to be more important for Denver compared to some of the other teams on this list. I think for them to match or exceed what they did a year ago, they’re going to need a top-4 seed in the west.

Finally, when the playoffs do roll around, will the Nuggets have enough star power to advance. Yes, they have Jokic, but he isn’t the kind of superstar you can just give the ball to and he’ll get you a bucket. Jamal Murray has shown flashes of being that guy but whether or not he can do it consistently in the playoffs remains to be seen.

On paper, this team has everything it needs to come back better than they were last season, but we’ll have to see how they stack up against the other contending teams.

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