They really did. All year people were somewhat counting them out due to their defense, but they ended up winning the clinching game due to some phenomenal defense.
What Butler was doing was kinda suspect though, tbh. Props to the Nuggets, but if the Butler just chilled out over that 6-3 minute mark I bet the Heat could've taken this one.
An interesting subplot is that since Kawhi's 2020 Raptors run, none of the finals teams have had a dominant, heliocentric wing. Maybe Boston, but even that team didn't quite rely on Tatum in the same way that other teams before had. Since the Heatles, the consensus has basically been that wings are the most important position in modern basketball, allowing teams to play 'positionless' and spread the floor.
But over the last three years the best teams have bucked that trend, instead being lead primarily by guards or bigs. Going into next season, most people would probably have a couple of centers at the top of their best players list. And in the last 6 NBA drafts, the only dominant wing player to be taken was Ant. Interesting to see the league pivot so quickly, considering it was only a few years ago that Ballmer went all out and built almost a whole team with 6'7" - 6'9" guys
Grats to the nuggs! Always been more of a college football fan, but went to college @ CU and fell in love with all three teams (broncos, nuggets, avs) and brought them home with me… been a really cool last 10 years to see so many championships out of Denver.
A lot of people just went to r/nbacirclejerk and r/denvernuggets because those subs weren't closed, but it's still good to see comments and discussion here.
Always nice to see a team finally break through and win a championship. Congratulations Denver, you have an awesome team!
Kudos to Miami for their impressive playoff run. Now for a break from basketball, at least until next week when we start chasing trade/FA/draft rumors, and of course, counting down until October.
Man what a joy this series was! This is the first time in a long while I've taken the time to watch playoff games beyond just highlights (mostly due to timezone reasons), and it was definitely worth it. Congrats to the Nuggets!