The NBA’s Last Hope
The NBA is on the brink currently of witnessing another multi-year dynasty in the Oklahoma City Thunder as they had just absolutely piss slammed and pimps slapped every single team that was in their way. They just absolutely brutalized all of them and they dominated their way to the finals. Now, yes, they did struggle a little bit against Denver and a little bit against the Indiana Pacers, but for reasons I’ll be getting to later for this video, I’m going be saying why I think specifically Denver is the only team that can stand in the way of this happening. Because I think all of us can agree that although we are happy to see OKC be the underdog and build it the right way and become a championship, we also like there to be parody in the NBA. But I think we’re very close to that not being a thing at all because I think the OKC Thunder are literally a Denver Nuggets team away from dominating the NBA for a very long time because they’re set up for just a perfect future for the next few years. They have replacement guys for their veterans that probably are going to need more money that they’re that they’re not going to be able to keep. They’re young guys are going to be to keep on the roster for a very long long time. Their young guys aren’t even in their prime yet. And they just have a lot going for them as a team. Now, I think really the only team right now that can do anything, especially going into this next season due to some of the circumstances surrounding other teams. I think the Nuggets are really the only team that can help that because if you look at the other elite teams that you would usually associate with a team that could be a team like the Thunder in a sevename series. Well, the Boston Celtics got very very much worse going into this season. They lost a lot of key players. They lost um Jason Tatum for probably the whole year, at least for the majority of the year next year. The Indiana Pacers, who made the finals last year, is not going to have Tyres Hallebertton, and they lost Miles Turner, so they’re going to be significantly worse. Uh, I don’t think the New York Knicks are good enough. The Milwaukee Bucks are probably not good enough. Uh, you can argue the Clippers because they did get better this year, but I I still don’t think they’re good enough to beat a team like the OKC Thunder. And I think the only team that actually put up a fight against the Thunder last year, that was the Denver Nuggets in the playoffs out of the West. Um, they’re the only team who didn’t get worse and actually probably definitely got better going into next season. So, I think right now they’re the NBA’s only hope. They are the last thread of hope to stop the OKC from just running the league for the next few seasons. And the biggest reason why I think that the Nuggets are probably our best shot is because look how they match up with the Thunder as a whole. Like when it comes from starters versus starters, let’s just look at their guards. First, you have Jamal Murray versus Shay. Now, obviously Sheay is the better player by a pretty sizable margin, okay? But at least Jamal Murray is no slouch. He’s a starle guard who can definitely hold his own. Obviously, he’s not going to win his matchup consistently, but he’s also not going to get completely blown out of his matchup. Like, he’s not a bum. Like, he’s going to be good enough to at least put up a fight against Sheay. Although, yes, Shay is definitely the better player. And then even at shooting guard, you have Lud Dort versus Christian Braun. And I mean, although I like Christian Braun and I like Lou Dort, I think that’s pretty much a wash between them two, I I wouldn’t be mad at you giving the edge to either one of these players. Uh Lou Dort, I mean, has the championship experience from last year. He has a very high like motor. He plays very hard. He can shoot the three pretty well. But Christian Braun is basically the same way. Um I wouldn’t mind you giving the edge to either one, but I pretty much have it as a wash. And then at their small forward positions, you have Jaylen Williams versus Cam Johnson. Now, Jaylen Williams is definitely the better player, but Cam Johnson is coming off his best year of his career with the Brooklyn Nets. And I expect him, although not to be the same player that he was in Brooklyn. He’s probably going to play more like he did when he was in Phoenix. I think Cam Johnson’s going to be a great player. I think he’s going to be just as good as Michael Porter Jr. was for them, if not a little bit better because he plays his role better. He’s probably going to be a 3 and D type guy. Now, like I said, yes, Jaylen Williams is the better player and is definitely a more star caliber player at the position. So the the edge definitely goes to him that I once again I think Cam Johnson can hold his own against Williams and he’s not going to get blown out of the water in that matchup. And then even at power forward you have Cet versus Aaron Gordon. Uh they both play very different and are very different players. Um but they’re very good at what they do. And I think both of them match up pretty well against each other. I don’t think either one’s them going to blow each other out of the water. And I think yes, Chad’s upside’s better and maybe he ends up being better by the playoffs come around next year. But I think as of right now they’re pretty even and in the same level of player. So as of right now I’d have them as a wash as well. And then I mean Jokic versus Hardenstein. I shouldn’t have to say this, but Jokic definitely has the edge in this matchup. He’s literally one of the best players to ever live. Will probably go down as a top 15 player of all time, maybe even top 10 player of all time by the time he retires. He’s the MVP, multi-time MVP of the league. Jokic wins this matchup. So, the starters, although I would definitely give the edge to OKC, like from a overall standpoint, it’s not by a very big margin and I think it’s close enough that gives the Denver Nuggets a legit fighting chance. So, starters are starters, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. While I think OKC starters are much better than a lot of other teams, I think the Nuggets actually hold their own. So, I’d give the edge to OKC, but not by as much as you would probably think. And then even if you kind of get even deeper into it, like you look at their bench versus bench, OKC is a very deep team, but so is this year’s coming in Denver Nuggets team. As you look at their guard rotations, talent-wise, I would say the Thunder have the better overall guard rotation because they have guys like Isaiah Joe, Alex Caruso, Kase Wallace, AJ Mitchell, who’s probably coming on, and then even a wild card and Nola Topic. So, I mean, all that all that upside, I would give it to OKC. But when you have guys like Tim Hardway Jr. and Bruce Brown on the Nuggets as their um rotational guys. They’re very solid players and I mean as far as bench guides go, you’re not going to find much better players than Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown. So, I think they’re going to play their role very well. And although I would definitely give the edge to OKC in this aspect of their teams, it’s once again not by a wide margin. And then if you move on to their forward rotation, I would say the Nuggets take that one as the Nuggets have Julian Strawther and Peyton Watson. Now, Peyton Watson is one of the most locked down defenders in the NBA, and he is a very solid overall player as well. He kind of is like a Herb Jones, but worse on the offensive side of the ball. And Julian Strawther is good for a few random games where he becomes prime Kevin Durant and can’t miss a shot and will drop 30 and basically win you a game. And you compare that to OKC’s rotation of Aaron Wiggins and Kenri Williams, I would definitely give the edge to the Denver Nuggets in that aspect. And then when you look at their big man rotations, it’s really not even close. As I mean the Nuggets have Jiannis Valentunis who is probably the best backup center in the entire NBA. And I mean that’s not a dig at anyone on the Thunder. Yiannis is just a starting center on almost every other team in the league. And he is going to be their backup center. And I think he’s probably the ideal backup center for a guy like Jokic because they play very similarly. So I can’t ask for a better situation there. And then Dron Holmes, last year’s 22nd overall pick, is available to play this year. He was out with an injury last year, but he is very good, very talented. I was very high on him coming in last year. And I think Dron Holmes is going to be a huge addition to this team. And even with the addition of Thomas Sorber to OKC, I don’t think that’s enough cuz really they only have Jaylen Williams and Kenrich Williams after that. Thomas Sorber, I don’t think makes too much of a difference. I think he’s okay. I think he’s good for what they need. But I think overall the Denver Nuggets definitely have the better big man rotation. So I think bench versus bench I would say the Nuggets have the edge there. And once again the gap isn’t crazy or anything but I think that it’s a marginal enough gap to make a difference. And when you take in the fact that the starters aren’t that big of a difference and the bench probably isn’t that big of a difference. Well now they’re a very very even team. So the last thing I want to look at is going to be their coaching and their overall just leadership on this team. And now this is definitely an area where the Thunder are going to blow out the Nuggets coaching wise because I mean the Thunder have Mark Dagnalt who I mean has been on a head coach for years now. He has a NBA championship under his belt. He has back-to-back 55 plus win seasons. He won the coach of the year award in 2023 through 2024. He is one of the best coaches in the entire NBA and he has basically been the coach since the beginning of this rebuild. and he has just been a huge part of building the culture of this team and building the system that they run and it is a very good one as we have seen. Now yes he has a lot of talent on this team but he does put an input on the draft day. He puts in input on how to like actually build this team and you see how together this team is that is a direct result of what a good coach Mark Dagnaut is. And then you compare that with the Denver coach who has a total of 10 games under his belt as a NBA head coach including three regular season games and seven uh NBA playoff games. Not ideal. Um very inexperienced. And I’m not very high on Adelman as his only former head coaching experience before this was at the high school level. And I mean the only reason he got this job is because his dad was a former NBA head coach. So he’s kind of a depo baby. So it’s hard to be high on a guy like that. Um, he has head coached a few summer league teams. I think with Minnesota he did and even those teams I think were bad. Like I don’t think they did good. I think I looked it up for a video before. Um, so yeah, chances are he won’t be better than what Mike Malone was for this team. So I think coaching wise without a doubt would have to go to the OKC Thunder. So overall, the entire teams as a whole, I would have to say OKC is definitely still the better all-around team, but the Denver Nuggets by far match up best with the OKC Thunder cuz if you did this comparison with any other team, it would even be close. Like OKC would basically blow everyone else out of the water, especially if you take injuries into um account, which you have to with how many major injuries are going to be affecting this year’s season. Like Tatum’s going to be out, that’s one of the best players in the league. Tyres Hallebertton’s going to be out. That’s one of the best players in the league. Uh Miles Turner left Indiana. So Indiana is going to be probably not even contention anymore. Uh the Dallas Mavericks could be interesting if Cooper Flag can be a star right away. But I don’t think Kyrie Cooper Flag and Anthony Davis is going to be enough, at least not a year one, Cooper Flag is going to be enough to win a finals. And I also just think overall team OKC has a much better overall team. Um and you to take into account that OKC probably has upside left on this roster. like they’re going to keep developing and get better and better, especially like Chedgrim and like other guys on this team like Kase Wallace and all their other young talent. They have a plethora of it. The OKC Thunder are probably going to still very much be the favorites to win the finals this year, as they should be. But I do think the Nuggets are the one team that has a legit chance at winning a sevename series against them. Like they went seven games last year. I think they got better and hopefully they got be more better than OKC did, but only time will tell. And that’s going to be it for this video. So com do you agree with me? Do you think that the Denver Nuggets have a chance? Do you think any other teams have a chance? Are your thoughts in the comment section below? And like point like button subscribe but me and I hope you have a blessed day cuz I had a blessed day. So you need to have a blessed day. All glory to God. See you in the next video. Goodbye. Booah.
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