Porter Jr. talks about the Nuggets defeat in defending title: Pope leaves the team and leaves loopholes

Former Nuggets player Porter Jr., who came to the Nets this summer offseason, talked about the many factors that affected the Nuggets' defending championship.

Potter Jr. believes that the championship celebration shortened their offseason preparation time and also weakened their desire to win another championship. He said: "It is definitely more difficult to achieve the title defense than the first time, because the offseason is shorter. When you are celebrating the championship, you may not care so much about physical care. I think although we are focused, we are not as motivated as we did in the year of winning the championship."

After the 2023-24 season, Pope's departure also left obvious loopholes in the Nuggets' lineup on both offense and defense. As it turns out, the veteran's absence caused considerable losses in the critical stage of the playoffs. "And, KCP is no longer on the team. I think this is an important factor. We lost to the Timberwolves in the seventh game."

Porter Jr. emphasized that Connelly's strategic deployment had an impact on the Nuggets' loss to the Timberwolves. The former Nuggets basketball operations president joined the Timberwolves in 2022 and created a roster designed to challenge his old club. "The Timberwolves' general manager was our general manager, so he was intentional from the beginning to build a team that could beat us because we beat them the previous year. So, he intentionally built a roster around Edwards and Towns, and they also got Gobert. They tried to build a lineup that could cause us trouble and finally defeated us in seven games."

Despite the regrets, Porter Jr. did not think these two seasons were a complete failure. He believes that the Nuggets still maintain their championship-level talent. "So, we have been championship-level teams in the past two seasons, we were just a little bit behind in Game 7, and things didn't work as expected. We won a championship after all, and life is like this. In my opinion, I wouldn't regard those seasons as a complete failure, because winning the championship itself is difficult."