No. 4. Denver Nuggets

After trading for Aaron Gordon at the trade deadline this year, the Denver Nuggets were rolling, until there was about 50 seconds in their game against the Golden State Warriors the other night. Driving to the rim, young star point guard Jamal Murray’s left knee buckled underneath him and he fell to the ground in agonizing pain, grasping his left knee in his arms. 

Initial reactions from Murray and the Nuggets were not good during and after the game and the following morning, it was confirmed that Murray had suffered a torn ACL in his left knee and will miss the rest of the season for the Nuggets. 

Not only is this heartbreaking news for the young phenom, but for the entire Nuggets organization because of the chance that they had this year. Their championship window was small to begin with due to the fact that the Western Conference is so loaded with talent, but now, the once playoff contenders are now “pretenders.” 

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With the MVP favorite in Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets still are a force in the Western Conference and still in contention to be one of the top-4 seeds in the West, but overall, this team does not have the firepower anymore to match up with the best of the best in the playoffs. 

Nikola Jokic is going to continue to carry this team, but without their crafty playmaker and leader in Jamal Murray, this team does not have much of a shot to be anything special in the playoffs. It really is unfortunate this happened to Murray late in the season, right before the last playoff push was to be made, but now the Nuggets will just have to play out the rest of their season without their young star.