The Denver Nuggets finished third in the Western Conference despite a season that was ravaged by injuries, but that doesn't mean that they're championship aspirations are safe or that they can tale the position they're in for granted. 

The Western Conference is rapidly improving. The Oklahoma City Thunder remain a premier threat despite their elimination in the Western Conference Finals and the team that eliminated them, the San Antonio Spurs, are a young team full of promise that will only get better as they get older and grow within their experience. 

Beyond the obvious top two teams in the Nuggets' conference, there are a handful of other teams that will be looking to improve this offseason, including teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors. 

With all of these factors at play, the Nuggets need to be supremely wary of their position in the league and caution themselves against the idea that being one of the top teams in the Western Conference, let alone one of the top teams in the league, is some kind of foregone conclusion. 

As talented as the Nuggets roster is, headlined by players like Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, the Nuggets haven't advanced past the Conference Semifinals since 2022, when Denver won the NBA Finals. After that, the Nuggets have made it as far as the semifinals twice and were first round exits in this past season's playoffs. 

That first round exit against the Minnesota Timberwolves was a rude awakening for the Nuggets and has served as a stark reminder that the Nuggets' playoff window is rapidly closing.

Jokic is 31-years-old while Murray is 29-years-old and while they should both have several more fruitful years in front of them, they don't have unlimited time to stay stagnant. 

The conference around them will only continue to improve and while the Nuggets' relative success this season has inclined ownership to "run it back" with the majority of the same roster, each season will only get more difficult to maintain success. 

With all of those factors in mind, the Nuggets may only have a few years left where they can be considered a top three team in the Western Conference and looking at the big picture of a NBA championship, with teams like the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons putting together solid rosters, the Nuggets are even more threatened.

With all of those factors in mind, the clock is ticking for the Nuggets to both stay healthy and possibly even make the appropriate roster moves to capitalize on Jokic's current dominance in the league. 

For now, the roster may be good enough to continue to compete with mostly the same core, but it won't be that way forever and the Nuggets may only have a few seasons to go on a run and take home another championship before the retirement of their biggest star.