NBA Playoffs 2023

[Birdman]

Congrats to Denver, especially Jokic…love it when experts pick Suns & Lakers got whoop by them

[gouki88]

Good to see the Nuggets franchise get their first.  Brings me to this question, who's your favorite Nuggets player, past or present?  Mine is a toss up, and it's old school, I liked watching Issel and English play, but I'd probably lean English.  Although the Joker is fast closing that gap!

Jokic without a doubt. Was a big fan of those late 2000s teams with Nene and Ty Lawson (Melo not so much)

The Anthony trade gave Denver the pick swap that allowed them to draft Murray, funnily enough.

Outside of Jokic, who's certainly my favourite, I always really enjoyed Andre Miller's game.

Poor Knicks

I always loved Andre Miller and his fake timeouts.

[scaryjerry]

Should've been the Celtics vs. nuggets. If was pretty clear Miami didn't belong.

But I guess they also didn't shoot 50% from 3. Only one game this series which they ended up winning.

They clearly did belong. They beat all their competition in the east fair and square and were competitive in the games against the nuggets. Pretty sure the nuggets only lost 4 games all playoffs.

getting a gentlemans sweep in the finals shows that they really didn't belong on the same stage as the Nuggets. Any other team from the East and this would've at least been a series. It was like watching those Lebron teams get demolished by the warriors or whomever came out the east in the 00's get demolished by the lakers.

they do get props for beating Milwaukee/knicks/boston which all shouldve been better teams than them. but I think they just got on an incredibly lucky hot streak from 3 that finally came home to roost. the only game they won was the game they shot 50%.

They belonged there. They won the east. Period.
Nuggets swept or gentleman swept everyone they played other than the suns.

[Who]

Good to see the Nuggets franchise get their first.  Brings me to this question, who's your favorite Nuggets player, past or present?  Mine is a toss up, and it's old school, I liked watching Issel and English play, but I'd probably lean English.  Although the Joker is fast closing that gap!

Jokic is the new #1

I loved absolutely loved Dikembe Mutombo on the 90s Nuggets. I love shot blockers / interior defenders and Deke was one of the best ever. He was awesome to watch. Controlling games without scoring.

I was a big fan of Melo. Also Kenyon Martin although more from his NJ days than his DEN days. Likewise, I loved Camby in NY but not so much in DEN. He stopped playing disciplined D in DEN and just went for blocks / counting stats defensive plays. I still admired Kenyon in DEN because of how tough his D was. Nene was a blast as well. Smooth on both ends of the floor.

The 80s Nuggets I did not love as much. I enjoyed them but I didn't love them. English was always surprisingly fun. I say surprising because most of what he did he kept basic but he was just so dang consistent in getting what he wanted. You couldn't help but admire him and admire him more the more you watched him. Issel was fun as a skilled stretch 5. Similar to David Lee on the D'Antoni Knicks. Fat Lever had some Rondo-esque moments but I never saw that much of the late 80s Nuggets so I never quite fell in love with him.

David Thompson was absolutely insane in the late 70s. Similar athlete to D-Wade. Competing with Westphal for best SG in the league. Only D Thompson was a legit shooter unlike Wade. However, he did not have Wade's passing chops or defensive effort. Still, D Thompson was one hell of a player and one of the most effortless scorers I have ever seen.

Ohh, McDyess!! I forgot McDyess in late 90s to early 00s. What a fun player he was. Incredible dunks and incredible blocks. Did the dirty work in the paint. Also, I loved watching him as a rookie play next to Dikembe Mutombo. Those two looked like a force to be reckoned for years to come. Sad that never came to pass.


#1 Jokic
#2 Mutombo

#3 David Thompson

#4 Antonio McDyess
#5 Melo
#6 Alex English
#7 Dan Issel

#8 Kenyon
#9 Nene

Honourable Mention: Fat Lever

[Who]

Phoenix was the best team Denver played in the playoffs. That was the unofficial Finals.

MIN was chicken feed. LAL and MIA gave DEN a game but not enough. MIA the 2nd worst team after MIN. LAL 2nd best.


I agree with the idea that other East teams would've given DEN a better series. I would have loved to have seen Embiid against Jokic. That would have been one heck of a battle. Also Giannis would've given them a real test.

I am not sure Boston would have done any better than MIA did given how poorly BOS played throughout the playoffs. If it was BOS from early in the season, sure. But not the BOS of the last few months.

I don't think NY or CLE would've fared any better than MIA. NY not an impressive team. A solid team but nothing special. CLE are a good team but small backcourt that Jokic can exploit and no depth. It would have been nice seeing E Mobley play free safety off of A Gordon though. See if he could gum up their offense.

DEN had some nice luck in facing a weak team like MIA in the Finals. Sort of like, back to the Tim Duncan 1st Championship comparison, the Spurs did in 1999 to face NY who were without Pat Ewing and couldn't compete with the Twin Towers without Ewing. It was a coronation rather than a series. Much like this one.

[Phantom255x]

We certainly could have given Denver a better fight, but the way our frontcourt looked I think we would have gotten demolished by theirs. Not just Jokic, but even Gordon gave Miami fits and he likely would have given us fits too

[bdm860]

On paper at least, this has to be one of the easiest paths to a championship.

The Nuggets beat an #8, #4, #7, and #8 seed.  They didn't face a team with more than 45 wins the entire postseason.  I think their 16-4 record is less impressive when looking at it in this light.

To their credit they did their part, unlike all the other top seeds.

Funny though, the #8 seed Heat had the same number of wins as the Clippers and Warriors, and only 1 less win than the Suns.  Nobody would act like they would be an unworthy Finals opponent had one of those teams made it.  Still I believe the C's/Bucks/Sixers all would have fared better than the Heat in the Finals.  Bitter the C's didn't make it.  I'm a homer, they could beat this Nuggets team.

And not just to hate on the Nuggets, it took the '81 Celtics 6 games to beat a team with a losing record in the Finals!

[Kernewek]

On paper at least, this has to be one of the easiest paths to a championship.

The Nuggets beat an #8, #4, #7, and #8 seed.  They didn't face a team with more than 45 wins the entire postseason.  I think their 16-4 record is less impressive when looking at it in this light.

To their credit they did their part, unlike all the other top seeds.

Funny though, the #8 seed Heat had the same number of wins as the Clippers and Warriors, and only 1 less win than the Suns.  Nobody would act like they would be an unworthy Finals opponent had one of those teams made it.  Still I believe the C's/Bucks/Sixers all would have fared better than the Heat in the Finals.  Bitter the C's didn't make it.  I'm a homer, they could beat this Nuggets team.

And not just to hate on the Nuggets, it took the '81 Celtics 6 games to beat a team with a losing record in the Finals!

You have to play who is in front of you. Miami, in particular, took out the first and second seed in the East before making it to the Finals. People thought Denver was overseeded all season long - go back in the thread and see how often the Lakers were going to beat them, then the Suns.

[Moranis]

Best individual playoff run I can remember. Trumps '17 LeBron for my mind. Probably best since 92/93 Jordan (unless I'm being forgetful)

Giannis was pretty great on the way to the title and I think he had a better Finals which has more weight. Also, why I might go Lebron. Shaq also had a couple of amazing runs as well.  But overall certainly one of the better deep runs a guy has had.

[SparzWizard]

I thought the Nuggets would get outlasted by the Suns due to having KD, Booker, and CP3. If CP3 was healthy, who knows, maybe they may have won. Nuggets didn't play stellar defense during the regular season so thought that may have had an impact as well. Them sweeping the Lakers were a surprise too. Healthy AD and LeBron were just no match for the Nuggets four out of seven times.

What I didn't see was the Miami Heat sneaking their way to the Finals. Beating a banged up Giannis on the road was one thing. But I didn't expect the Knicks to fold to them either in the next round. The C's were who I thought they were...f around and find out typa team.

[gouki88]

On paper at least, this has to be one of the easiest paths to a championship.

The Nuggets beat an #8, #4, #7, and #8 seed.  They didn't face a team with more than 45 wins the entire postseason.  I think their 16-4 record is less impressive when looking at it in this light.

To their credit they did their part, unlike all the other top seeds.

Funny though, the #8 seed Heat had the same number of wins as the Clippers and Warriors, and only 1 less win than the Suns.  Nobody would act like they would be an unworthy Finals opponent had one of those teams made it.  Still I believe the C's/Bucks/Sixers all would have fared better than the Heat in the Finals.  Bitter the C's didn't make it.  I'm a homer, they could beat this Nuggets team.

And not just to hate on the Nuggets, it took the '81 Celtics 6 games to beat a team with a losing record in the Finals!

Is this an indictment on the Nuggets run, or an indictment on the teams that couldn't deal with a 7 and 8 seed?

[Moranis]

On paper at least, this has to be one of the easiest paths to a championship.

The Nuggets beat an #8, #4, #7, and #8 seed.  They didn't face a team with more than 45 wins the entire postseason.  I think their 16-4 record is less impressive when looking at it in this light.

To their credit they did their part, unlike all the other top seeds.

Funny though, the #8 seed Heat had the same number of wins as the Clippers and Warriors, and only 1 less win than the Suns.  Nobody would act like they would be an unworthy Finals opponent had one of those teams made it.  Still I believe the C's/Bucks/Sixers all would have fared better than the Heat in the Finals.  Bitter the C's didn't make it.  I'm a homer, they could beat this Nuggets team.

And not just to hate on the Nuggets, it took the '81 Celtics 6 games to beat a team with a losing record in the Finals!

Is this an indictment on the Nuggets run, or an indictment on the teams that couldn't deal with a 7 and 8 seed?

it also doesn't account for the significant changes that both the Lakers and Suns made mid-season.  They were both significantly better teams than their records.  I mean the Lakers had the best record in basketball after the all star break and the Suns didn't lose a regular season game with Durant. 

[Who]

Nikola Jokic is the 1st player in NBA history to lead the playoffs in total points, rebounds, and assists.

All. Time. Greatness.

[SparzWizard]

Looks like of that top 10 draft class in 2016, Jamal Murray was the first to win a ring. Did Danny Ainge missed on him, or did he make the right choice with Jaylen Brown?

[Goldstar88]

Looks like of that top 10 draft class in 2016, Jamal Murray was the first to win a ring. Did Danny Ainge missed on him, or did he make the right choice with Jaylen Brown?

I’d rather have Murray. He put it into another gear during the postseason and can perform under pressure. Jaylen crumbles.