3. Denver Nuggets
It may seem like a bit of an insult not to have the defending champion Denver Nuggets sitting at No. 1 in the season-opening power rankings but that just goes to show just how crazy an offseason it was in the NBA. Even though the Nuggets won’t be entering the season as the favorite to win the 2024 NBA Championship, that doesn’t mean they don’t have as good of a shot as anyone to pull off the feat.
The Nuggets are returning the same core, minus Bruce Brown. But as long as Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are healthy, this is a team that will have a great chance to make it back to the NBA Finals. You can’t say enough about the job this team did to win the championship last season. They were dominant all throughout the postseason and you can make the argument that they were never truly pushed en route to the title.
Even as the defending champs, I have to imagine that there are still some who won’t believe in their chances to repeat. Looking around the league, the Nuggets have a path toward doing so. Even though there are some improved teams, most of them are still very much unproven.
The Nuggets, after last season, are not.