2023 was a breakthrough year for the defending champion Denver Nuggets. Not only did they win the franchise’s first ever NBA title, they also finished as the 1-seed in the West and swept a playoff series, both firsts. With almost their entire core returning, Nuggets odds show them as favorites to win it all again, listed at +450 to repeat as champions.
The one downside to Denver’s offseason was the inability to retain Bruce Brown. Simply put, they couldn’t afford to bring back their versatile sixth man, who signed a two-year/$45 million deal with the Indiana Pacers. Look for second-year man, Christian Braun to command a good portion of Brown’s minutes from last season, with Reggie Jackson filling in as this year’s backup point guard.
Denver Nuggets odds
View the updated Denver Nuggets odds below, including moneyline, point spreads and totals.
View Nuggets NBA title odds below.
Nuggets Roster
Here is the current Denver Nuggets roster.
Nuggets Schedule
The Nuggets have opened the 2023-2024 regular season. Here is Denver’s complete schedule including a Christmas Day matchup versus the Golden State Warriors.
Nuggets Transactions
Additions: Justin Holiday (signed), Jalen Pickett (draft), Julian Strawther (draft), Hunter Tyson (draft)
Subtractions: Bruce Brown (free agent), Jeff Green (free agent)
Who are the best players on the Nuggets?
Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are indisputably the Nuggets’ two top players by a fairly significant margin.
Jokic is averaging of 24.8 points, 11.8 rebounds, a career-high 9.8 assists and 1.3 steals, as well as career-best 63.2 percent shooting. Jokic has also churned out an NBA-high 29 triple-doubles, an astounding figure even by his standards.
Meanwhile, Murray has made an impressive comeback from having missed the entire 2021-22 season due to a torn ACL, as he entered his final regular-season appearance with averages of 20.0 points, a career-high 6.2 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 1.0 steal, along with the second-highest three-point shooting percentage of his career (39.8).
Nuggets props
The Lines’ dynamic prop search tool allows bettors to quickly identify the best possible price among top legal, regulated sportsbooks. The mechanism enables bettors looking to capitalize on wagering opportunities for star players such as Jokic and Murray to quickly identify the most potentially profitable scenarios.
For example, say Jokic is facing a Rockets team that’s highly vulnerable defensively, particularly against a player of the big man’s diverse skill set. Using The Lines’ prop search tool, a bettor can find the best possible price on Jokic points + rebounds +assists prop bets, or any other prop wagers available for the star big man.
Nuggets 2022-2023 season
The Nuggets entered the 2022-23 season with expectations of once again qualifying for the postseason after a 2021-22 campaign where they finished with a 48-34 record and were jettisoned in the first round by the eventual champion Golden State Warriors in five games.
Murray’s expected return to full health and another projected stellar season by Jokic fueled the optimism, while the addition of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope via trade was also expected to upgrade Denver’s defensive capability. Then, Michael Porter, Jr., who’d played in just nine games during the 2021-22 season due to injury, was also expected to make a significant impact in the new campaign.
All three players indeed delivered handsomely, which served as the foundation for the Nuggets’ considerable success. Good health largely prevailed for the three stars and talented big man Aaron Gordon, who was a key complementary source of scoring and rebounding while demonstrating career-best shooting efficiency.
After a solid but unspectacular 14-10 start to the season, Mike Malone’s club changed the entire dynamic of its season by winning 19 of 22 games between Dec. 8 and Jan. 20. The cushion inherent in the 33-13 record that torrid stretch forged gave the Nuggets the necessary cushion to withstand a couple of subsequent rough patches and a spirited challenge from the Memphis Grizzles for the top seed that fell just short in the final days of the regular season.
How to bet on the Nuggets
There are a multitude of ways to place bets on the Nuggets throughout the NBA regular season and postseason — moneyline, point sprad, over/under, futures, props, live betting, parlays and teasers are just some of the wagers available through top legal, regulated sportsbooks.
Moneyline
Moneyline wagers involve placing a bet on a team to win a game outright. Using the same Nuggets-Kings example, say Denver is a -150 favorite. That means bettors placing a bet on a Nuggets victory will win $1 for every $1.50 they wagered if a win does indeed come to pass. If Denver loses, the bettor will lose the amount they originally staked.
Point Spread
Point spread wagers involve placing a bet on the margin of victory or defeat a team will produce in a certain game. For example, say the Nuggets are favored by 5 points in a matchup against the Sacramento Kings, denoted as “-5” on a sportsbook’s betting market. Bettors wagering the Nuggets -5 will cash their tickets if Denver beats Sacramento by at least six points. If they win by exactly 5, they’ll receive back the amount they originally staked, while if they win by less than 5 or lose outright, the bettor will lose the amount they originally staked.
Point total (over/under)
An over-under wager involves betting whether a game, quarter, half, etc. will end over or under a certain point total for either both or one of the teams in a game. For example, say the projected total for a hypothetical Kings-Nuggets game is 230 points. Bettors placing a wager on the Over will cash their tickets if the game ends with a combined score of 231 points or more, and they’ll lose the amount staked if ends with 229 points or less. The game ending exactly with 230 points would result in the bettor getting the original amount staked in return but no actual winnings.
Futures
Futures wagers involve placing a bet on an outcome that won’t unfold until a later date, such as the end of a season. An example of a futures wager involving the Nuggets would have been a bet prior to the start of the season on whether they’d finish with the top seed in the Western Conference. Bettors who would have placed that wager would have cashed their tickets in conjunction with whatever odds the wager carried at the time.
Other Nuggets bets
Other ways to bet on the Nuggets include prop bets (i.e. whether a player or the team itself will exceed or fall below a certain statistical benchmark), live betting (wagers placed as a game is ongoing and based on certain in-game events), parlays (i.e. placing a bet on the Nuggets winning and Jokic scoring over a certain amount of points, or a bet on both the Nuggets and another team winning on the same night) and teasers (lowering the point spread the Nuggets are favored by against a certain opponent and betting another team by adding the same number of points to the spread of their game).
Nuggets Franchise History
The roots of the current Denver Nuggets franchise trace back to the American Basketball Association’s Denver Rockets, which were in existence between the 1967-1968 and 1973-74 seasons. The team changed its name to the Nuggets for the start of the 1974-1975 campaign and officially began play in the NBA in the 1976-77 season following the merger of the two leagues.
The Nuggets have enjoyed various periods of success, with the period coming between the 1980-81 and 1989-90 seasons. Under the leadership of Doug Moe in that decade, Denver recorded a 432-357 regular-season record and 24-37 mark in the postseason. The likes of Alex English and Kiki Vandeweghe spearheaded some stellar offensive teams that nevertheless frequently came up short on the defensive end.
Legendary coach George Karl’s tenure with the franchise, which spanned from the 2004-05 to the 2012-13 seasons, saw the Nuggets put together a stellar 423-257 regular-season mark, albeit with an accompanying 21-38 tally in the postseason. The era was highlighted by the drafting of Carmelo Anthony in 2003 and the trade acquisition of Allen Iverson in December 2006.
The Mike Malone Era began with the 2014-15 season and that has been highlighted by Jokic’s emergence into a perennial MVP candidate and the drafting of Murray in 2016. While the team has also recorded another 21 postseason wins during Malone’s ongoing tenure, Denver’s decades-long quest for its first NBA title finally ended during the 2022-23 season when the Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat in five games.
FAQ
Who is favored to win 2024 NBA Finals?
Heading into the 2023-24 regular season, the Milwaukee Bucks are the NBA title favorites with along with the Boston Celtics . The defending NBA champion Nuggets at have short odds of repeating.
What are the odds that the Nuggets are going to win the Western Conference this year?
The Nuggets are the preseason favorites to repeat as Western Conference champions with () odds. The Phoenix Suns (), Golden State Warriors (), and Los Angeles Lakers () are the other top contenders.
Who owns the Denver Nuggets?
The Denver Nuggets are owned by Stanley Kroenke. He also owns the Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rapids, Los Angeles Rams, and the Arsenal FC.