NBA news: Nuggets place in history, NBA Draft prospects to know
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2023-06-12 22:19
Today on The Whiteboard, we're running through the latest NBA news, including new coaching hires, NBA Draft prospects to know and the Nuggets' place in history.The Denver Nuggets are on the verge of their first NBA title, with three more chances to get their series-clinching win. But w...

Today on The Whiteboard, we're running through the latest NBA news, including new coaching hires, NBA Draft prospects to know and the Nuggets' place in history.

The Denver Nuggets are on the verge of their first NBA title, with three more chances to get their series-clinching win. But while they are firmly in the driver's seat but some are already rushing to pencil in an asterisk next to their name in the record books.

It's true that, by some measures, the Nuggets have had a relatively easy path through the Western Conference. If they do beat the Heat, the four teams they'll have bested were ranked No. 9 (Suns), No. 16 (Lakers), No. 18 (Timberwolves), and No. 21 (Heat) in regular-season net rating. That data point alone doesn't quite capture the difficulty of beating the Suns with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, the rebuilt Lakers or this version of the Heat.

Still, all the Nuggets can do is beat the teams in front of them. And they won't just have beaten the teams in front of them, they'll have thrashed them at a historically impressive level.

Where would a Nuggets title rank in terms of historic dominance?

The signature of this Nuggets' playoff run is their offense and, through the first four games of the NBA Finals, they've been scoring at a rate of 120.7 points per 100 possessions in the postseason. That would make them the most efficient postseason offense of the 3-point era, of teams that played at least 12 games.

Their average margin of victory across this postseason — plus-8.47 — is the 15th-best of the 3-point era among teams that played at least 12 games. It's a better mark than four of Michael Jordan's title-winning Bulls teams managed. Only eight of the marks better than theirs have come in the past 20 years.

Finally, the Nuggets have already piled up nine double-digit wins this postseason. A 10th would tie them with nine other teams in the 3-point era. Only seven teams in that era have managed 11. Just four teams have managed 12.

No championship deserves an asterisk but if we're going to put one on the Nuggets. Let's leave it there as a reminder that they were perhaps the best postseason offense in NBA history and that they didn't just sneak through a weakened field, they made the most of their opportunities and bulldozed their way to a title.

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Better know an NBA Draft prospect:

We're less than two weeks away from the NBA Draft and as the top few picks begin to come together, it's worth shifting some focus to prospects who could be selected later in the lottery or first-round. Over the next few days, we'll share some brief capsules on several of these prospects. But don't forget to check out Chris Kline's excellent scouting reports for more details.

Taylor Hendricks

Bilal Coulibaly

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Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Chris Paul rumors:

Kyrie Irving, James Harden and Chris Paul are three of the biggest names who could be changing teams this offseason and they're especially interesting because it, increasingly, sounds like their fates may be linked.

So, that's the fates of five teams — the Lakers, Suns, Rockets, 76ers, Mavericks — and potentially the power structure in both conferences wrapped up in the futures and decisions of these three players.

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