Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets find themselves just one win away from claiming their first NBA title in franchise history, and former coach George Karl seems convinced that this is the best iteration of the team that has ever been
Asked during a recent appearance on Fanduel TV's Run It Back if this was, in fact, the best Nuggets team he'd ever seen, the former NBA Coach of the Year retorted with a resounding “yes.”
“I'd have to say yes,” George Karl said. “Our team went to the Western Conference Finals in 2009. I thought the next year was the best version of our team. That was the year I got sick and we stubbed our toe late. The year after that [Carmelo Anthony] made the request to be traded… This team has had a similar run. I think it's fantastic because I think [Nikola] Jokic has been underlooked, underappreciated, under accepted and now everybody's realizing what a great player he is. And I think their roster now is, in a very quiet way, [has] become probably the best roster in the Western Conference.”
At 53-29, the Nuggets finished off the 2022-23 campaign with the fourth-best record in the entire association and the best in the Western Conference standings, the latter of which marks the first time they've claimed the number one seed heading into the postseason.
With Nikola Jokic averaging a near triple-double of 30.1 points, 13.3 rebounds, and 9.8 assists per game coupled with the phenomenal efforts by co-star Jamal Murray and the rest of the key contributors on the club, the Nuggets will look to put an end to the Miami Heat's historic eighth-seeded run by winning Monday's Game 5 and, in turn, bringing their first Larry O'Brien trophy back to Salt Lake City.