What If? Series: 2009 Orlando Magic vs. Denver Nuggets

Carmelo Anthony claims the 2009 Denver Nuggets would sweep the Orlando Magic if they met in the NBA Finals. We put his claim to the test.

Carmelo Anthony was on Dwyane Wade‘s Instagram live broadcast last week when the conversation turned toward Anthony’s best chance to win a championship in 2009.

The Denver Nuggets lost in six games to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers that year. But like the Orlando Magic — and probably LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers — he believed they had a good chance to win. And when discussing that year, Anthony puffed his chest a little bit.

He said they really wanted Orlando in the Finals. If they could beat the Lakers, he felt confident they would not only but sweep the Magic. Wade merely said Orlando was “all right,” giving the 2009 Magic a second 9.

Nuggets coach George Karl actually agreed with his former star.

This is some serious shade getting thrown at a Magic team that beat the top-seeded Cavaliers in a dominant six games (in fairness, Stan Van Gundy told Kevin Clark of The Ringer that if LeBron James had not hit his game-winning shot in Game 2, the Magic would have swept that series, so everyone gets to play that what-if game with their pride). The Magic lost that Finals series to the Lakers in five games, but two games went to overtime.

And the Nuggets? They lost a close Game 1 in Los Angeles and got a second game to even the series, but their playoff series with the Lakers was not particularly close. Los Angels routed the final two games to advance to the Finals.

There seems to be some revisionist history about the 2009 Magic.

They were a plucky underdog for sure. As the 3-seed, they won two series without homecourt advantage. And everyone probably would concede that if the Boston Celtics had Kevin Garnett, they were not getting out of that round.

But this was one of the most impactful and important teams in NBA history.

Their style proved that 3-point shooting could win in the NBA. One of the reasons the Lakers were able to beat them was their decision to move Lamar Odom to power forward as Dwight Howard kept fouling Andrew Bynum out of games early.

To say any team in the league would sweep the Magic in a series is not giving them their due respect.

But, let’s bite at the proposal. Would the Nuggets beat the Magic had they met in the 2009 NBA Finals? That is a question worth exploring.