This is not meant to be an anti nuggets post. More about how ridiculous Jokic is. If Jokic was out for the year due to injury how many wins would the Nuggets get? I feel like Jokic is worth like an additional 20 wins.
Let’s take the other 3 teams of Vegas top 4 title contenders
Boston: Take out Tatum and they are for sure making the playoffs
Milwaukee: Now that they have Dame I think they would for sure make the playoffs if Giannis was out for the year.
Phoenix: Whether it’s KD or Booker, if only one of them is out they should definitely still make the playoffs.
Good thing for Denver is Jokic is built like a horse
Probably not but I wouldn’t judge that based on their +/- with and without Jokic, who because of his greatness has an outsized impact on those numbers than your average player. They’d also learn to adjust and develop plays/etc. as a non-Jokic team and get the most out of what they do have.
Just not enough top end offensive talent without Jokic to be a playoff team in the West, IMO. Gordon would have to take a scorer role and he wasn’t amazing in Orlando in that role. KCP and MPJ likely become less efficient. I do think Jamal would continue to be very good.