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By Matt Levine
Contributing Sports Writer
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This past offseason for the Denver Nuggets was spent trying to help the team get back to the promised land. They fell short of winning a second straight NBA title last season but have been confident entering the year.
However, that all came to an end after the first game of the season. They dropped their opening contest to the Oklahoma City Thunder by a score of 102-87 and looked fairly poor throughout the game.
After the fact, NBA analyst Charles Barkley was critical of the Nuggets, saying that they could be in trouble this season.
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"The team that might be in trouble might be the Nuggets," Barkley said on TNT's postgame show. "Because they were pretty much last in the bench last year, and I saw nothing on that bench tonight to be like, 'Uh oh.' And because the West is better. My Suns are better. New Orleans is better. Memphis is gonna be better. The only team in the West that's not any good is Portland."
Denver has lost three of its best seven players from its 2023 title squad in the intervening two summers. First, reserves Bruce Brown and Jeff Green departed for more lucrative contracts in 2023. This past summer, starting shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope ditched Denver for a three-year, $66 million deal with the Orlando Magic. Denver brought in aging point guard Russell Westbrook and journeyman big Dario Saric this summer to help make up for the absences.
"So the Nuggets, they gonna have to find a bench. They gonna have to do something, because it's such a major dropoff on their bench. That's not fair to [the starters]," Barkley continued.
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While it was only one game, Barkley does have a point. Denver looked out of sorts on the floor and the Thunder ran all over them on the road.
It may have just been an off night for this team but the Nuggets have normally been very good on their home floor. Star center Nikola Jokic, the reigning league MVP, led the way for the Nuggets, scoring 16 points, grabbing 12 rebounds, and dishing out 13 assists in the game.
However, the bench for Denver was nowhere to be seen. During their title run, the Nuggets' bench was one of their strengths, but heading into this season, it's been one of their bigger question marks.
Jokic even weighed in on the roster, saying that they weren't a good shooting team. It was an unusual moment of honesty from a player who is normally soft-spoken.
"We are not a good shooting team," Jokic said. "Except probably Mike (Porter Jr.) and then Jamal (Murray). All of us are kind of streaky — not streaky, but you know, just average shooters. So, yeah. But we have something else. We can probably be better, have an advantage in some other things on the floor."
Even with this poor performance to open the year, the Nuggets still have 81 more games to bounce back to form. They are a confident group but it will take a lot more than confidence for them to be true contenders this season.
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