Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Denver Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldewell-Pope won the second title of his NBA career a season ago.
The Nuggets eliminated the Los Angeles Lakers — Caldwell-Pope’s former team — in four games in the 2023 Western Conference Finals on their path to the championship. Denver head coach Michael Malone talked plenty of trash during and after the playoff series against the Lakers.
Caldwell-Pope recently said that he didn’t really hear from his former teammates on the Lakers after he and the Nuggets won the title.
“No, I didn’t hear much from them,” Caldwell-Pope told Sportskeeda. “They can take it however they want to take it. We won. We just want to enjoy our championship, and not worry about what everyone else is thinking.”
The 30-year-old was a vital piece of the Nuggets’ championship puzzle last season. Across 20 playoff games, he averaged 10.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists per contest while shooting 45.7 percent from the field and 38.0 percent from beyond the arc.
He was particularly solid against the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. The 6-foot-5 guard averaged 14.8 points and 3.0 rebounds per game for the series while shooting 48.9 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from 3-point range.
Caldwell-Pope won the first title of his NBA career with the storied Lakers franchise back in 2020.
He started in 26 of the 69 games he played in for Los Angeles during the 2019-20 regular season and averaged 9.3 points and 0.8 steals per game.
During the 2020 playoffs, he arguably saved his best basketball for the NBA Finals against Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and the Miami Heat. Caldwell-Pope averaged 12.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.0 steal per game in the championship series, and the Lakers eliminated the Heat in six games.
Caldwell-Pope will face off against his former team, the Lakers, for the first time since the 2023 Western Conference Finals on Oct. 24 to kick off the 2023-24 regular season.
Later that night, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and the Phoenix Suns will take on Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green (depending on his injury status) and the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center as the NBA celebrates the beginning of another new season.
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