NBA legends Miller, Webber have high hopes for Denver

The Nuggets have turned NBA legends Reggie Miller and Chris Webber into believers despite narrowly missing the playoffs the past two seasons.

Miller, a basketball Hall of Famer, and Webber, a likely future inductee, praised the Nuggets’ unselfish offense and cited last season’s devastating regularseason finale as grounds for motivation.

“Denver’s actually one of my favorite teams, because I think they have a great homecourt advantage in the way that they play,” Webber said on a Turner Sports conference call previewing the NBA season. “I think they learned a lot from losing in basically a onegame playoff last year in Minnesota.”

Webber, who predicted a No. 7 or No. 8 seed for the Nuggets, said he had concerns about how competitive the Western Conference would be but also noted how much the team’s roster still has to prove.

“I think they have a lot of guys that are fighting to prove who they are again, and (Paul) Millsap, who was hurt (last season),” Webber said. “And I’m not sleeping on Isaiah Thomas. I’m going to keep on believing in him until the end.”

Webber’s confidence level — not to mention that of new TNT analyst Candace Parker, who doesn’t see the Nuggets making the postseason — paled in comparison to what Miller had to say about last year’s ninthbest team in the West. Miller raved about franchise center Nikola Jokic and believed that had Millsap been healthy, Denver was a postseason squad.

“So (Millsap) only played 30plus games and you missed out on the playoffs by one game,” Miller said. “You’ve got the secondbest big man in the game. I’ll put Joel Embiid No. 1. To me, Jokic is No. 2.