2023-24 NBA title odds: First-time champion Denver Nuggets favored to repeat, open next season against Lakers

The Denver Nuggets, a former charter member of the ABA, made history Monday night by beating the Miami Heat 94-89 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to win their first-ever title. Denver's 46 seasons before winning an NBA championship are the most by any team prior to its first title. How about a repeat next June? All five Nuggets starters are under contract, and Denver is the +475 favorite at Caesars Sportsbook to win a ring again in 2024. But which team will the Nuggets open against? SportsLine offers odds.

If you were wondering, the Nuggets were +1400 to win the 2023 title directly following the 2022 NBA Finals won by Golden State. Denver was +1100 to win it all entering these playoffs, pretty long odds considering it was the West's top seed.

Two-time regular-season MVP Nikola Jokic cemented himself as an all-time great with the championship and an NBA Finals MVP Award. He averaged 30.2 points, 14 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game in the Finals and became the first player in NBA history to lead all players in points, rebounds and assists in a single postseason. He was also the first player with 10 triple-doubles in a single postseason. Jokic also became the first player drafted outside the top 15 picks – he was a 2014 second-round pick -- to win both Finals MVP and regular season MVP. Denver went 16-4 in these playoffs. It was clearly the best team.

Jokic is entering the first year of the five-year, $272 million supermax extension he signed in July. He and fellow starters Jamal Murray, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon are all under contract through at least 2024-25. Jokic is just 28 and Murray is 26. They are poised to be one of the league's top duos for the next few years. Remember, Jokic and Murray helped get Denver to the 2020 Western Conference Finals in the bubble. In early 2021, Murray tore his ACL and missed an entire year and a half. In his first season back, the Nuggets won it all.

Key reserve Bruce Brown has a player option for 2023-24 that he's expected to decline, and he will be popular on the open market. Fellow reserve Jeff Green is an unrestricted free agent but he barely played in Game 5. Now that Jokic has a title, the Nuggets should be able to lure some veteran ring-chasers around him at a discounted price. Chris Paul, perhaps?

Boston (+575), Milwaukee (+700) and Phoenix (+850) are the only other teams below +1000 to win the 2024 NBA title at Caesars. Miami is +1800 after its surprising run to the Finals as a No. 8 seed.

The 2023-24 NBA regular season is scheduled to begin Oct. 24 and as the defending league champion and sitting in the Western Conference, history thus dictates the Nuggets will host the late game of the Opening Night national TV doubleheader on TNT to raise the championship banner.

Golden State opened this past season at home vs. the Lakers, and those are the two early favorites to be the Nuggets' first opponent on Oct. 24. It's all about TV ratings and buzz, and no two West teams bring both more than the Warriors (+1200 to win the 2024 title) and Lakers (+1200). We know that Stephen Curry and LeBron James, respectively, will still be with their clubs regardless of whatever other moves they make this offseason. The Nuggets swept the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals but didn't face the Warriors in the postseason.

Phoenix has Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, but Chris Paul will be elsewhere. The team has a lot of other questions, including at head coach. It's hard to see a scenario where the NBA puts the Clippers on Opening Night instead of the Lakers. The games are usually intraconference matchups, so that would rule out a Heat rematch.

Memphis isn't a big enough draw and will open next season without the suspended Ja Morant – we should learn any day now how long that suspension will be now that the Finals are over. We will include San Antonio even though the Spurs were wretched this past season because of the curiosity surrounding mega-prospect Victor Wembanyma, who should find himself in San Antonio after being taken first overall in the upcoming draft.

The 2023-24 NBA schedule should be out sometime in August. There was some talk that the schedule could be dropped from 82 games to 80 if a midseason tournament is officially adopted as expected, but the latest word is that the schedule will stay at 82 games. The NBA and NBPA are still working to finalize the in-season tournament concept. The NBA's 2023-24 salary cap is projected to be $134 million — $10.4 million higher than this season. 

Via SportsLine oddsmakers: Which team will the Nuggets host on 2023-24 NBA Opening Night?

• Lakers +250
• Warriors +300
• Suns +400
• Mavericks +500
• Clippers +700
• Pelicans +800
• Spurs +1000  

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