Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has no doubt about it. Despite the departures of Bruce Brown and Jeff Green last offseason, the guard believes the Nuggets had enough weapons to do the double.
Former Nuggets guard, passing through on the microphone of Draymond Greenquotes Christian Braun or Peyton Watson and the “ promising signs » that they have displayed, to be able to « take over “. ” During this season, we all had the same mentality, that's what we wanted to do (double). We had some obstacles, we skidded “, however, recognizes the 2023 champion.
The latter, beyond the existing workforce, quickly understood that the “ road to the title » borrowed a year earlier would not be the same this season. KCP highlights the injury factor, even if the starters, with the exception of Jamal Murray, missed fewer games in 2024 than in 2023.
Above all, in the year of the title, the Nuggets did not have to fight for first place in the West. Leading from mid-December 2022, Denver was able to manage its lead over the Grizzlies until the end of the season. Quite the opposite of last season when Mike Malone's men experienced a final three-way waltz with the Thunder and the Wolves.
” We're out of gas »
“ Coming into the playoffs, guys are resting. But I feel like that's where we spent the most energy at times, trying to get that first spot. “, judges the new Magic rear, who adds: ” And then we arrive in the playoffs… »
He takes a deep breath and continues: “ We're out of gas. We feel like the Lakers should have beaten us. We were down every game, at least 10 (points) up to 20, something like that… We took that energy and used it in there. »
The veteran will not say openly whether it was a ” error ” from the Nuggets to get involved in the race for first place. “ I was talking about it with the veterans as a DJ. (DeAndre Jordan), we knew we were going to make the playoffs. We said we wanted first place, and there's talk about who we could play against. I don't care about that, let's make the playoffs, no matter what position we're in. ” he says today.
Despite the energy expended at the time, his team managed to eliminate the Lakers (4-1), but was unable to overcome the Wolves in the next round.
