2021 Western Conference race to the playoff

[The Rebel]

Dallas is a key team here. Pretty easy schedule and they are winning a lot lately.

I would love to see Lakers 7th to make sure we don´t face them in first round

If Lebron and AD are healthy than I do not see any way they lose the playin games, but if they did I bet there are no more playin games after this year.

[FilNugsFan]

Not sure if it's because Murray isn't playing and he's not around to lead the bench when Jokic gets a rest, but I'm still concerned about their inability to protect huge leads. I hope they could still fix that in preparation for the playoffs.

[skywalker33]

Clips losing Beverly for a few weeks may throw off their defense. That said, Rondo may fill that void and then some.

[THE J0KER]

Interesting info about the season's last quarter schedule.



Suns are our legit target for Nuggets (for Clippers too) despite the current advantage.

[FilNugsFan]

I'm still crushed with what happened to Murray and it's ramifications on our title hopes. I honestly believed that this could be our year primarily because of Jokic having an MVP season, MPJ finally earning Malone's trust and becoming a significant contributor as a starter, and also on how the Gordon and McGee acquisitions have turned out for us.

From that epic 7-game conference semis loss to POR in 2019, to last year's incredible WCF finish in the bubble. I truly felt we can beat anybody including the Lakers this time around and make it to the NBA Finals. But all of that are now gone. Not saying that I've totally lost faith in Jokic and co., but just keeping it real I guess. I fear that someday, Nuggets fans will be looking back at 2021 and say, "that could've been our year". Hope I'm wrong though...

Pardon me for all the negativity. The timing is just brutal and devastating.

[slicedbread2]

I'm still crushed with what happened to Murray and it's ramifications on our title hopes. I honestly believed that this could be our year primarily because of Jokic having an MVP season, MPJ finally earning Malone's trust and becoming a significant contributor as a starter, and also on how the Gordon and McGee acquisitions have turned out for us.

From that epic 7-game conference semis loss to POR in 2019, to last year's incredible WCF finish in the bubble. I truly felt we can beat anybody including the Lakers this time around and make it to the NBA Finals. But all of that are now gone. Not saying that I've totally lost faith in Jokic and co., but just keeping it real I guess. I fear that someday, Nuggets fans will be looking back at 2021 and say, "that could've been our year". Hope I'm wrong though...

Pardon me for all the negativity. The timing is just brutal and devastating.

Well there's not much anybody can do. When you think of Murray's nagging injuries, it was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode and it makes you wonder if they had brought him back prematurely and whether or not they should've rested him up while giving Campazzo and Morris the opportunity to hold the fort till he healed up.

I always wondered and thought what more could've been done to boost the Nuggets. I thought tbh that finding a way to acquire Lonzo Ball would've been a nice fit to add to the guard rotation to help out Murray, Joker and co. The only way I could've seen it happening is if the Nuggets ate Bledsoe's deal and then sent out more picks in the form of 2nds or a future 1st to say Orlando to eat Bledsoe's deal in exchange for T.Ross. The only way said deal would've worked is if Barton and one of Millsap/Green were shipped out in order to make the deal legal under the CBA plus keeping them under the tax. They may have had to include Bol bol in order to sweeten the pot, but oh well.

My reasoning for it was largely due to Ball not feeling happy over the way things were being handled and that he was being mentioned in rumours involving him being used as incentive to dump Bledsoe's god awful deal although his last year is only guaranteed for 3.9M. The only thing that'd suck is that he's up for a new deal, but to me he's Shaun Livingston with a 3pt shot who's size and ability to defend both guard spots presents problems for opposing teams and he can be a secondary playmaker when joker is off the floor.

It's a real shame as I was looking forward to seeing this team show off some great potential. Murray will most likely miss all of next year and hopefully he'll be back and healthy and won't let this get to him.

[skywalker33]

Well we still have a top 5 front court with an MVP candidate. MPJ looks ready to step up and the addition of a guard like Rivers should shore up the bench enough to allow Morris to jump onto the starting lineup, we’ll just have to see how it works going into the playoffs

[THE J0KER]

Denver championship odds dropped after Murray's injury and instead of fighting with Suns and Clips for #2 and #3 seed, our new goal is to stay at #4 according to the latest regular season projections.

[skywalker33]

Denver championship odds dropped after Murray's injury and instead of fighting with Suns and Clips for #2 and #3 seed, our new goal is to stay at #4 according to the latest regular season projections.

I can't see our goal has changed just because of Murray's injury. Whether that's possible is a different story but riding into the playoffs riding a wave of victories is what we need to be our goal, not drowning in our sorrows.

[NuggetsWY]

Denver championship odds dropped after Murray's injury and instead of fighting with Suns and Clips for #2 and #3 seed, our new goal is to stay at #4 according to the latest regular season projections.

I can't see our goal has changed just because of Murray's injury. Whether that's possible is a different story but riding into the playoffs riding a wave of victories is what we need to be our goal, not drowning in our sorrows.

I do believe we have a solid shot at finishing #4 and a good chance of maybe finishing #3.

Finishing #5 might be a problem because with our guard rotation missing Murray & Harris from last year, Utah with Mitchell will be a rough matchup. The Suns would be a difficult matchup with Booker & Paul for the same reason.

The two LA teams will certainly be tough wins but with our current roster, if Millsap & Green can contribute behind Porter & Gordon; we have enough forwards of a size able to cause trouble for them.

No matter what happens, this season could show us a great deal about our guards and our bench.

[THE J0KER]

Denver championship odds dropped after Murray's injury and instead of fighting with Suns and Clips for #2 and #3 seed, our new goal is to stay at #4 according to the latest regular season projections.

I can't see our goal has changed just because of Murray's injury. Whether that's possible is a different story but riding into the playoffs riding a wave of victories is what we need to be our goal, not drowning in our sorrows.

I do believe we have a solid shot at finishing #4 and a good chance of maybe finishing #3.

Finishing #5 might be a problem because with our guard rotation missing Murray & Harris from last year, Utah with Mitchell will be a rough matchup. The Suns would be a difficult matchup with Booker & Paul for the same reason.

The two LA teams will certainly be tough wins but with our current roster, if Millsap & Green can contribute behind Porter & Gordon; we have enough forwards of a size able to cause trouble for them.

No matter what happens, this season could show us a great deal about our guards and our bench.

Note that if we finish #5 our 1st round opponent is not going to be #2 seed despite only 6 teams this unique season go directly into the playoff, but our 1st round opponent as #5 seed will be the same as we finishing on West as the #4 seed (Lakers or Portland) with the only difference of lost home-court advantage (that is why is so important to stay #4). Playoff 1st round opponent of 2nd seed will be the winner of the one-game matchup between #7 and #8 (loser of that game will play vs winner of #9 vs #10, and if wins, will face #1 seed in PO 1st round best of 7 series).

[THE J0KER]

Unfortunately, seems that our most probable playoff 1st round opponent is the current champions Lakers because for both teams most probable 2021 seed is between #4 and #5. We can try to catch the Clippers or Suns, but they have an advantage right now and Murray is out, while Portland can try to overtake the Lakers, but Lebron and AD comeback is expected soon. If LA Lakers overtake us, we will not escape them in the 1st round of the 2021 playoff but only lose home-court advantage in that series.

At least the MVP race is over in our favor, seems that the only thing Jokic needs in the last 1/5 of the season to become the first-ever Nuggets player to win MVP is just to stay healthy.

[Richard Miller]

We'll see, Phoenix has brutal stretch of games in the next week, b2b Philly/Boston, then Brooklyn/NY/Clipps/Jazz

[THE J0KER]

We'll see, Phoenix has brutal stretch of games in the next week, b2b Philly/Boston, then Brooklyn/NY/Clipps/Jazz

Suns are 41-16, healthy, very motivated, and just beat Bucks in Milwaukee. Even if they finish the last 15 games of this season with a negative record 7-8 to tie with them we need an 11-4 record which is not so realistic without Murray. But if we win at least 5 of the next 6 games where we are favorites to win (Portland will play without Lillard) our chances will rise (but I still doubt the Suns will finish the last 15 games with the negative record).

BTW, I think the Clippers may calculate that for them is better to face the Lakers soon than later because of the LBJ and AD recovery process which suddenly would make Denver favorites to reach another WCF this season with Utah and both LA teams being in the opposite half of WC-PO draw

[psimanic1]

We should also calculate that, if we can beat them its early in the POs, and POR when healthy is not cake walk either, so I would rather lose to the team which will go to the finals than to POR again.. We just dont have that much constant firepower now, so you take Lakers where AD and LBJ didnt play for quite some time like 8 times out of 10 if another team is healthy POR. Not saying POR is better, but they have players to surprise us unfortunately..

Also, we signes Rivers to 10day, that couls help us with some shooting

Also, beating LAL in 1st round would give us huge boost in 2nd round I'm sure, because even with AD and LBJ missing this much time, they are still defending champions

[Richard Miller]

Idk, last year the Jazz were supposed to be a very good R1 matchup, yet they were minutes or seconds away from getting routined, even with healthy Murray and Grant it didn't matter, so I wouldn't read too much into any of that. As long they are focused and playing their game, they will have a good chance of beating anyone.

[THE J0KER]

We should also calculate that, if we can beat them its early in the POs, and POR when healthy is not cake walk either, so I would rather lose to the team which will go to the finals than to POR again.. We just dont have that much constant firepower now, so you take Lakers where AD and LBJ didnt play for quite some time like 8 times out of 10 if another team is healthy POR. Not saying POR is better, but they have players to surprise us unfortunately..

Also, we signes Rivers to 10day, that couls help us with some shooting

Also, beating LAL in 1st round would give us huge boost in 2nd round I'm sure, because even with AD and LBJ missing this much time, they are still defending champions

Clippers very ambitious and super-rich owner (Ballmer) and 2xFMVP best player (Kawhi) doesn't care will they lose in 1st round or in WCF, because their ultimate goal is big final, so if they thinking that their arch-enemies Lakers will be less ready early due LBJ and AD recovery problems, no surprise if they going to intentionally target Lakers in the 1st round. When McCollum and Nurkic are back for Portland seemed they going to overtake the Lakers without both big stars and dump them to the #6 spot, but right now that is not the most realistic scenario anymore because they stole an all-star level player under a fake veteran-minimum contract (Drummond), so Lakers have some unexpected wins while Portland's best player Lillard lately have some injury problems. Currently #7 Dallas lost 4 out of the last 5 games, so their chances to overtake the Lakers are even more hopeless than Portland's.

[THE J0KER]

Clippers (without Kawhi) beat Blazers (without Lillard) last night 113-112 is the terrible game result for our plans to escape Lakers in the 1st round (in both directions, we to reach #3 or Lakers to drop to #6).

[Mickey8]

The Suns have a very tough schedule coming up , they could loose , 4,5 games , but I am not optimistic about Denver's not losing some games either, but if they are able to win their games and Suns lose 3,4 games, they could get ahead of Suns , Denver have won tie breaker against them. Even though I would like Denver to play Lakers in the first round, this team can't go deep in the play off's anyways but if they beat defending champion there will be a lot of momentum for Denver , then who knows.

[psimanic1]

With Dallas ein over LAL, looks like we could potentially play them in first round.. Would KP be back for the PO? Do we have enough fire power for that series? Can Malone outplay Carlisle?