It’s great to see these kind of success stories, where teams don’t panic and continue to let their players grow. That said, I can’t help but wonder if the Nuggets were actually benefiting from their previous bad luck. Would this level of patience have been extended if Murray didn’t get hurt? That built-in excuse made it much easier to keep the core together and try again.

So many teams wind up breaking apart due to perceived failure in the postseason, and you have to wonder if any of them could have had success if they had stuck together for a bit longer.