2022-23 NBA Prediction: Can Healthy Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. Help Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets?
The 2022 NBA season is less than a month away from tipping off. The Nuggets are hopeful they can improve on last season with a healthy roster and MVP Nikola Jokic leading the way. Handicapper Matt McCuen gives us his first NBA Futures prediction here.
Matt McCuen - September 28, 2022, 12:00 PM EDT
4 Minutes2022-23 NBA Prediction: Can Healthy Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. Help Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets?
The NBA season is right around the corner, and I could not be more fired up to get things going. The best thing that we can do until the season starts is to place some future bets, and that is what we will be doing today.
This future bet will be centered around the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets come into this season hoping to make some noise out of the Western Conference. They are led by Nikola Jokic, who has won league MVP back-to-back years. Jokic has been magical for Denver, but their issue has been winning in the playoffs. They have not been able to make a deep run into the postseason.
Last year, the injuries were too much to handle for Denver. Star guard Jamal Murray and young star Michael Porter Jr. missed the entire season essentially. This put a lot of pressure on Jokic, and teams knew if they forced other Nuggets to beat them, they would be in good shape. The Nuggets now return Porter Jr. and Murray. These two players will make it feel like the Nuggets signed two big-name free agents with the impact that they will make. They should also open things up a bit more for Jokic, which is a scary sight. Denver also added some good bench depth when they signed Bruce Brown and traded for Kentavious Caldwell Pope. The Nuggets added some young talent in the draft in Peyton Watson and Christian Braun. Head coach Michael Malone is very excited about this Nuggets roster and believes that they can compete for an NBA championship this season.
I am all over the Nuggets team total over 49.5! The Nuggets are finally healthy to start the season, and I love the balance that this roster represents. The return of Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. will be massive, and I like what they did in the off-season adding solid bench pieces. This is a team that won 48 games last season without Murray and Porter Jr. and a much weaker bench unit. Lastly, Denver has the second easiest schedule in the NBA. This is obviously a huge reason why I love this play as well.
2022–2023 NBA Future Prediction
- Denver Nuggets Over 49.5 Wins (-135) (Bet $135 to Win $100)
Looking for the best sportsbook offers? Check out the free bets page
