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Champions have to tinker with roster if they hope to repeat.

Denver did nothing and lost a great role player in Brown.

It's absolutely insane they didn't do anything they could to help an all time great player in his prime.

If Minny doesn't end them, Dallas/OKC or Boston will.

They simply can't keep up without substantial help off the bench.

Denver front office should be ashamed.

This wasn't hard to see coming. They barely skated by in all those Lakers games. Minnesota has way better depth than the Lakers.

Letting Bruce Brown walk with zero replacement was a huge blow to that roster.

Bruce Brown is not better than Peyton Watson. Also, Christian Braun has improved. Denver has a solid three man bench though not deep bench.

Zero chance? Zero????

Their chance is as good as anyone left. Wolves matchup well with them. Will be a tight series and if they get through, they’re going back to the finals and they’ll be favourites

It's one game bruh

It’s just Game 1. Doesn’t mean much.

They definitely got worse and have looked questionable all season long. Not fully counting them out yet but definitely could be some smoke here

So if I make a 5 cent bet with OP on these odds and Denver wins, I get infinite money?

Gotta love the overreaction swings from game to game.

You got all that from a 7 point win?

Hot takes come and get your hot takes

Wolves got better. What can Denver do about this? Trade for Anthony Edwards?

On a scale from one to ten Denver's concern should probably be at around a 7 right now. Saying no chance is just an attempted jinx, though

Is it me or did Jokic look tired tonight?

They never replaced Jeff Green's minutes and Cancar is still recovering from the injury. Sometimes, it's the margins, but in this case, I don't believe it's [solely] the bench issues.

The Nuggets all year have had way more close games than what you'd expect for a team that won 57 games. My sense is that because they're the defending champs and they've been getting everyone's best shot night after night. It really has worn them down.

It's harder when you have the target on your back. If they don't repeat, they will be back in the mix next year for sure. Remember, as talented as the Nuggets are they don't have a talent advantage either. Minnesota has four current or former all-stars on the roster. Nuggets basically have one since Jordan doesn't play.

Defending champions are the hardest team for fans to properly evaluate.

People kind of immortalized the Nuggets all year. They have the best player in basketball with the same core that won last year. Denver deserved their title last year of course, but they weren't unbeatable. They were just the best team last year. Every year is different, and it's hard to repeat.

With that being said, now that they've lost game 1, we're seeing an overcorrection to where they have no chance. They obviously still have a good chance. The answer was always that they have a good chance, they're contenders, but they're beatable. That's still the case now despite losing game 1.

When you see the Nuggets as what they are... a team with a guy whose peaking as a top 3 all-time guy ... but surround him with mid-tier role players who are up and down consistency wise, naturally they'll get beat by teams who have more firepower and 2-3 all-star caliber players (like the Wolves).

If Jokic carries the Nuggets past Minnesota and wins a chip, he's instantly a top 10 guy all-time for winning two titles as the sole all-star and there will be no legitimate discussion to be had about keeping him out. IMO

I never thought there was much chance they repeated, and said so at the time.

Bruce Brown did the dirty on Denver to be fair, he promised that he would return (for unders) only to accept the bag from Indiania.

Can't really blame the Nuggets front office for that imo.

Handlez wrote:Champions have to tinker with roster if they hope to repeat.

Denver did nothing and lost a great role player in Brown.

It's absolutely insane they didn't do anything they could to help an all time great player in his prime.

If Minny doesn't end them, Dallas/OKC or Boston will.

They simply can't keep up without substantial help off the bench.

Denver front office should be ashamed.

They were a plus off the bench. They didn’t lose today because of the bench. It was the starters. Murray and Jokic the main culprits