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NBA Power Rankings: Nuggets start season at No. 1, but new-look Celtics, Bucks, Suns will challenge the champs – CBS Sports
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Come with me. Let’s use our imaginations, shall we? Pretend for a moment that you’ve just awoken from a Rip Van Winkle-esque slumber that lasted from the final buzzer of the 2023 NBA Finals until Monday, the eve of the 2023-24 season.
“OK, so the Celtics got Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday? Chris Paul is on the Warriors? Bradley Beal’s on the Suns, and they still have Kevin Durant and Devin Booker? DAMIAN LILLARD AND GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO ARE ON THE SAME TEAM?!?!”
And, scene.
You get the point. A lot went down this offseason in the NBA, which makes it extremely difficult to predict how things will shake out. So, with this first edition of the Power Rankings, we’re just trying to get a baseline of where every team stands. And there’s one team that we know is going to be awesome: The defending champion Denver Nuggets.
While the rest of the league’s powers loaded up, the Nuggets bring back essentially the same roster with a few tweaks around the edges. But, as long as Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray are healthy, the Nuggets maintain their crown until someone takes it from them.
Next up is the jumble of the Celtics, Bucks, Suns and Lakers, whose order is really in the eye of the beholder until we see them play for a while. The fun part about this season is that a lot of the teams that were really bad last year (Rockets, Spurs, Hornets, Pistons), look like they’re trying to win. So that means, at least for the start of the season, we should have entertaining, non-tank basketball every single night.
With that, here is the first edition of the 2023-24 NBA Power Rankings.
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