Last Week:3↑
2023-24 record: 57-25
OffRtg: 117.8 (5) DefRtg: 112.3 (8) NetRtg: +5.5 (4) Pace: 97.4 (26)
Key addition(s): Dario Saric, Russell Westbrook
Key departure(s): Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Reggie Jackson
Three numbers to know:
They were the only team with a winning record (18-15) in games in which they were outscored from 3-point range last season.
They had the second-best defense (112.7 points allowed per 100 possessions in 26 games) against the league’s top 10 offenses.
The 958 regular-season minutes that the Nuggets’ starters played together were the most for any lineup in the last six seasons.
Key question: Is Christian Braun ready?
Braun averaged just 17 minutes in the playoffs, but is now the presumed starter with Caldwell-Pope’s departure. The offense should be fine as long as Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are healthy, but it may be tough for Braun to match Caldwell-Pope’s excellence on defense, where the Nuggets just had their best season (2.2 fewer points allowed per 100 possessions than the league average) in the 28 years for which we have play-by-play data.
Westbrook’s a wild card, but he could certainly help the Nuggets in transition, where they ranked 23rd last season. He’s also more of an off-ball cutter than Caldwell-Pope, so he might not be a bad fit next to Jokic. More important may be that he keeps the Nuggets afloat when Jokic rests, with the Kia NBA MVP having had the league’s biggest on-off differential (minimum 1,000 minutes) in each of the last three seasons.
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