Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is fully leaning into becoming an integral part of this season's Philadelphia 76ers squad — a team that has, in the early goings of this season, looked like one of the biggest threats to dethrone the reigning champion New York Knicks.
With the 76ers already having taken two games against the Knicks this season, including on Friday night during NBA Cup action, Caldwell-Pope's confidence is soaring through the roof. In fact, the veteran guard believes that the 2023 Denver Nuggets, the team he won his second championship with, would beat the 2026 Knicks in a seven-game series.
“We win 4-2 for sure,” Caldwell-Pope said of a hypothetical matchup between the two sides in the latest episode of his podcast, “The Dawg Talk”.
These hypotheticals are difficult to evaluate since there is no time machine that exists to pit the two aforementioned teams against one another. The Nuggets, three years later, are not nearly as good as they were, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that the second apron has gutted their team's depth considerably.
But to humor the 76ers guard, it's not too difficult to see where his confidence is coming from. That Nuggets squad may not have beaten a single 50-win team on their way to the title, but they had an elite offense with Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray at their best, and they had stout defenders all across the team.
Caldwell-Pope was still one of the best defenders in the NBA back then, and Denver could deploy Christian Braun and Bruce Brown off the bench to hound Knicks star Jalen Brunson.
Article Continues BelowIt is important to note that the Knicks fell behind in all five games of the 2026 NBA Finals and had to mount comebacks to win all four games. Jokic is a much more complete offensive player than San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, and that team had the composure to execute late in games.
So perhaps Caldwell-Pope does have a point. But it's difficult to see this as anything other than him stirring the pot amid this brewing rivalry with the Knicks.