Nuggets Remain a Top Threat in NBA Title Odds

Despite the injury woes that have plagued the Denver Nuggets all season long, it looks like Vegas still has yet to lose faith for their odds to win the NBA title later this year.

Per DraftKings Sportsbook, the Nuggets currently sit with the second-best odds to win the NBA championship at +450, trailing only the reigning champion OKC Thunder, who currently sit as the favorites at +130.

The closest competitor to the Nuggets behind them as a title favorite is actually the Cleveland Cavaliers, who sit as the third-most likely team to come away as this year's champions following the All-Star break at +1200, then followed by the New York Knicks at +1300.

But as for the Nuggets, they clearly sit in a tier above the rest alongside the Thunder, making them the two title favorites to keep watch of as we move past the All-Star break and into the final stretch of the regular season before the postseason arrives in mid-April.

Does Denver Still Have a Real Shot at Winning the Finals?

It's hard to truly count out the Nuggets for a shot at this year's Larry O'Brien. They have one of the best players, if not the best player, in the world in Nikola Jokic, have Jamal Murray playing at one of the highest levels of his career, and on paper, Denver has some of the best depth down their lineup since Jokic broke out into a perennial MVP candidate.

But, it's hard to really put a ton of stock into the Nuggets as Finals contenders until their rotation is able to get back to better health.

The Nuggets have been dealing with injuries all season, to the point where their rotation really hasn't been 100% healthy since the beginning of October. In recent weeks, Denver's health has turned a corner in a positive direction with names like Jokic, Cam Johnson, and Christian Braun returning, but they're still without a couple of their top contributors in the rotation, especially on the defensive end.

Peyton Watson is out with a hamstring strain he suffered at the beginning of the month, and Aaron Gordon is still sidelined with his own hamstring issue that was re-aggrivated at the beginning of January.

For any Finals run that the Nuggets make, those two will be critical components of their success and any run they make, so ensuring that both are ready to go for the rest of the season will be huge for the Nuggets ahead of the playoff slate that lies ahead in a couple of months.

Jan 29, 2026; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Nuggets guard Peyton Watson (8) and guard Jamal Murray (27) during the first quarter against the Brooklyn Nets at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

If that health can finally come to form in the Nuggets' rotation, they have time to gel and build the right chemistry, and that health can sustain in the deeper months of the season as the playoffs intensify, then there might be none better equipped than Denver to dethrone the reigning champs in OKC.

But, to this point, the Nuggets have yet to see that health turn out as fortunate as they'd like coming out of the All-Star break. And until it does, they won't be crowned as the favorites to come away as this year's champions any time soon.

Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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Does Denver Still Have a Real Shot at Winning the Finals?

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