The conversation: Are Nikola Jokic’s Nuggets still in NBA’s upper echelon entering 2024-25 season?

After the Denver Nuggets, then the reigning champions, eliminated the Los Angeles Lakers in five games last April, five of this website’s six NBA writers picked them to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves and 14 of ESPN’s 16 experts did the same. The Nuggets were the No. 2 seed, but they had the same record as the No. 1-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder. Nikola Jokic had just won his third MVP award in four seasons. Jamal Murray had put together the best regular season of his career. The Timberwolves posed problems with their size, but I figured that, even if the games were close, the Nuggets had the edge because of their superior crunch-time execution.

Then Denver lost Game 1 at home. In Game 2, it scored only 80 points, despite the Wolves being without Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert. The Nuggets responded like champions, winning the next three games, but were blown out in Game 6 and, after building a 20-point lead in Game 7, collapsed. Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics had thought, just like the rest of us, that Denver matched up with them better than anybody else, but we never got to see it. Instead, we’ve seen Murray look like a shell of himself at the Olympics and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope sign with the Orlando Magic. For a team that employs the best player in the world, there are a lot of questions about its immediate future.

For one, who steps into Caldwell-Pope’s place? In another universe, that could have been Bruce Brown, but he walked the summer after the title, so the answer is likely 23-year-old wing Christian Braun. He may prove to be a fine fifth starter, but what about the increasingly thin bench? As well as betting on numerous young players — one of them, Peyton Watson hurt his hamstring early in training camp — the front office, led by Calvin Booth, signed veterans Russell Westbrook and Dario Saric in the offseason. It’s a bit of a strange brew, but the core ingredients are still the same as in 2023, so Denver should still be considered a contender … right?