Ever since the Denver Nuggets won last season’s NBA championship, many people have been talking about the potential for them to become a dynasty.
They have a legitimate superstar in Nikola Jokic who is arguably the best player in the world and is right smack in the middle of his prime at age 28, a young co-star in Jamal Murray and young complementary players such as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon.
Of course, the last dynasty in the league was the Golden State Warriors, who won four world titles from the 2014-15 season through two seasons ago. They’re hoping to get one for the thumb this season with the addition of 38-year-old future Hall of Fame point guard Chris Paul, who is hungry for his first ring.
They came up short against the Nuggets on Wednesday, 108-105, even though the Nuggets were without Murray, who will likely be out for the rest of the month with a hamstring injury. Thompson failed to get off a potential game-tying 3-pointer before the horn, which allowed Denver to improve to a league-best 8-1 record.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Klay Thompson, Golden State Warriors, Denver Nuggets Updates
Thompson was asked how the current Nuggets compare to his Warriors teams when they were starting to win championships, and he didn’t really see any similarities.
While Golden State has always killed teams on the perimeter with the radar-like 3-point shooting of Thompson and Stephen Curry, the Nuggets like to pound teams in the paint, both offensively and on the boards, the Nuggets are also a potent 3-point shooting team, but their 3-point shooting is more of a supplement than a main weapon for them.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Klay Thompson, Golden State Warriors, Denver Nuggets Updates
One of the challenges for the Nuggets this season, as was the case for Golden State about eight years ago, is to stay hungry and motivated and not get bored during the regular season. That year, Golden State did a great job of that by winning an NBA-record 73 regular season games, only to fall in Game 7 of the NBA Finals to LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers. It was the first time a team had blown a 3-1 series lead in the championship round.
