The Denver Nuggets are heading into the 2026-27 season with a clean slate, but the betting market isn’t exactly handing them a friendly path back to the top of the Western Conference.
After finishing third in the West last season, Denver can at least point to a regular season that went about as well as it could under the circumstances. The Nuggets were battling injuries for much of the year, and the top of the conference was crowded with heavy hitters. Even so, landing in the third seed was a solid result.
Now comes the harder part: climbing all the way to No. 1.
The last time the Nuggets finished as the top seed in the West was in 2023, and that run ended with an NBA Finals title. But with the new season about a month away, FanDuel Sportsbook sees Denver as only tied for the third-best odds to grab the conference’s top spot.
The Nuggets are sitting at +2.700, tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Ahead of them are the OKC Thunder at -110 and the San Antonio Spurs at +135.
That setup tells the story pretty clearly. Oklahoma City and San Antonio are both coming off 60-plus win seasons and both reached the Western Conference Finals, so their placement at the top of the board makes sense. For Denver, though, it means the road to the No. 1 seed looks narrow.
The offseason didn’t do much to widen it. The Nuggets lost multiple bench pieces, including Peyton Watson and Tim Hardaway Jr., and they still haven’t solved the defensive issues that hung over last season. Their biggest addition was DeMar DeRozan on a veteran minimum deal.
So unless Denver stays healthy and finds another gear offensively, passing both the Thunder and Spurs is going to be a steep climb. That doesn’t shut the door on the Nuggets, but it does make the difference between the third seed and something higher feel significant, especially if they end up without home-court advantage against a team like San Antonio or OKC in the playoffs.
Maybe David Adelman has something up his sleeve in his second full season as head coach. If not, Denver’s postseason road could end up looking a lot like the one it already traveled last spring.
Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
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