The cute little race to catch the Nuggets is already off and running

Good luck trying to catch the Denver Nuggets.

That cute little race has already begun.

The NBA champions will no longer be the hunters next year, they’ll be the hunted. And the Suns, Denver’s toughest competition in the playoffs, have made the first big move. Phoenix will reportedly acquire Bradley Beal from the Wizards for a package centered around the aging Chris Paul. A third team could eventually land Paul, but that’s more of a footnote in all of this.

Did GMs around the league not learn anything from how the Nuggets just won their first title? The “super team” appears to be dead, as the Nuggets drafted and developed stars like Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr to propel them to the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Yet the guys down in the desert think pairing Beal with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker is the answer to beating the Nuggets four times in seven games next postseason? I don’t see it.

First of all, the issue for the Suns against the Nuggets wasn’t their stars, it was their lack of depth. Denver had way more balance to eventually wear Phoenix out. Booker could only play out of his mind for so long, and the Nuggets beat the snot out of the Suns for the final six quarters of the series.

Beal’s a scorer, but not a winner. He’s taken just one playoff series since 2016, and had first-round exits in 2018 and 2021. Sure, it’s not like he was on a super team in Washington, but they paid him like a star and he could never deliver the expected results.

Will there be enough shots to go around for the Suns? Booker needs the basketball to thrive. So does Durant. And so does Beal. This has dysfunction written all over it, not a future NBA title.

The Nuggets put their egos aside to win the whole thing this year. Jokic was the ultimate distributor, only scoring big in games when it was a necessity. Murray had some incredible nights and some off nights, and it never affected his confidence. Porter turned into a rebounder in the finals because he couldn’t find his shot, and that was enough to get the job done.

Not to mention Aaron Gordon’s monster Game 4 against the Heat, Christian Braun’s clutch Game 3, Kentavious Caldwell Pope’s steal off Jimmy Butler to seal the championship and Bruce Brown’s huge fourth quarter down in Miami.

And guess what? At least the first six of those guys mentioned will be back next season, while Brown and head coach Michael Malone dropped some parade hints he could return as well. The Nuggets might run it back with basically the exact same rotation. That’s not common in the NBA, but it’s a credit to Denver’s front office both past and present.

That’s why other teams in the West are nervous, and that’s why Phoenix made the first big move. Draymond Green’s future in Golden State suddenly looks a little murky, Ja Morant is suspended for 25 games and the Lakers aren’t getting any younger. The conference runs through Denver, and everyone knows it.

As long as the Nuggets stay healthy next season, there’s no reason they won’t play in the finals again. Winning it could prove to be a little tougher depending on who comes out of the East, but that’s a different story for a different day.

For now, Denver can actually have a relatively uneventful offseason. Brown’s future is by far the biggest priority for GM Calvin Booth, but that’s pretty much it other than some tweaks to the back-end of the roster.

It’ll be fun to watch the panic moves other teams make to try to catch up to the Nuggets. But those might not be enough.

Because Denver did it the right way, and the rest of the NBA will continue to scramble — while likely coming up short again.

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