ESPN shows respect to Jokic, disdain for Murray and Gordon in latest rankings

If it feels like every few weeks, ESPN and other major NBA media outlets are looking for a new spin on power-ranking teams, that’s because they are. We live in a world of constant tiering, ranking, grading, and classifying teams and players in whatever ways we can imagine.

Generally speaking, the Denver Nuggets tend to rank pretty high on most of these lists, due to employing the best player on the planet, Nikola Jokic. The team should clearly be in the mix to contend for titles as long as Jokic is in his prime; they just need to put a competent team of players around him.

The latest rankings to be published by ESPN were in an article by Tim Bontemps titled, NBA roster tiers: Stacking all 30 teams’ top three stars. The NBA has been defined by teams’ big threes for ages; Pierce, Garnett, and Allen, LeBron, D-Wade, and Bosh, Curry, Klay, and Draymond.

The list goes on and on. But lately, and especially with the new CBA in place, it seems like teams have strayed from the big 3 models of years past. Teams are finding that it’s not worth sacrificing depth and roster balance in exchange for three frontline, star players.

Nuggets 3rd in ESPN Rankings of teams’ cores

Bontemps ranked the Celtics and Thunder first and second in his poll in a tier by themselves, called “Championship Ready”. This seems fair as the Celtics just won a championship around their core of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Derrick White. The Thunder seem to have the perfect trio of up-and-coming stars in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren.

Next up in the rankings was the Denver Nuggets at 3rd. The Nuggets were in their own tier, dubbed “Best player on the planet”. Bontemps explained that Jokic is so good that you could make a case for the Nuggets to be even higher based just on his merit.

But then he added that Jamal Murray is off to a “sluggish start” and that Aaron Gordon is a role player. It speaks to Jokic’s brilliance that the team can still place as high as third on the list. But the fact that they can’t rank higher speaks to a lackluster supporting cast.

Bontemps even stated within the article that Murray needs to regain his championship form from 2023 for the Nuggets to pass the Celtics and Thunder. While this may anger Nuggets fans, it’s the cold, hard truth.

Jokic is very clearly the best player in the league. But that will only bring a team so far in the loaded NBA of 2024-25. They need the other stars around Jokic – chiefly Murray – to raise their game and play like stars if they want to win another championship.