The NBA season tips off on Tuesday, and when it does, the Denver Nuggets will begin with the second-best chance of winning the title, according to oddsmakers.
The Nuggets have hung out in this group for a few years, which is not surprising given they have one of the greatest basketball players of all time on the team currently in Nikola Jokic. However, this summer brought a lot of change. From the front office to coaches to the players, the Nuggets are all shook up, and the sharps feel like it’s for the best.
Last year, the Nuggets went 50-32, good for a fourth-place finish in the West, where they beat the Los Angeles Clippers in seven games, then lost to the eventual champion Oklahoma City Thunder in seven games. It was the sixth time in the last seven years the team won at least one playoff series, and it was the third straight season the team achieved the 50-win mark.
Oddsmakers see the team improving, setting the win total mark at 53.5. Last year, Denver had a preseason win total figure of 51.5 with +1100 odds to win it all. Those odds have also improved dramatically.
2025-26 NBA Championship favorites
Oklahoma City Thunder: +200
Denver Nuggets: +650
Cleveland Cavaliers +650
New York Knicks: +1000
Houston Rockets: +1400
The sharps see the Thunder in another class, both for the playoffs and in the regular season, where their win total is set at 62.5. Seemingly, a large part of the Nuggets’ offseason was reacting to the team’s recent playoff losses to both the Wolves and Thunder, specifically, how to match OKC’s depth and beat their historically good defense.
Maybe the biggest part of that plan is installing the man who even gave the Nuggets a shot against the Thunder as the permanent head coach. David Adelman impressed mightily as the interim coach in that second-round series and now has a full offseason and regular season to prep his team for the style he wants come playoff time. He should have a pretty good grasp of what works for the Nuggets since he’s been a long-time assistant, but also with a mix of bringing in new ideas as the son of a legendary head coach, and adding a notable new staff around his bench.
On the floor, the Nuggets’ starting five will change for the second straight year, this time at the other wing position as Michael Porter Jr. gets replaced by Cameron Johnson. Nearly as good of a shooter as MPJ, Johnson should offer more playmaking skills, agility, versatility and diversity in his scoring. That big trade was bolstered by bench additions of Jonas Valanciunas, Bruce Brown and Tim Hardward Jr. — significantly remaking Denver’s reserves for the first time since the 2022-23 addition of several veterans that pushed the team to a ring.
The Thunder returned basically everyone, as did the Cavs with a major acquisition in Lonzo Ball. At the same time, the Knicks have a new coach but a similar roster, if not deeper like Denver, while the Rockets added future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant to a group that already captured second in the West last year.
