I know we're full steam ahead for football, but it's hard not to think about the upcoming NBA season, which is a little over a month from beginning.

Unfortunately for my wallet, I'm perpetually addicted to betting on futures, especially when it comes to the Association. I'll have a future blog full of predictions of over/under's for each team, awards, conference winners, and the like.

I've been racking my brain for days pondering which team is going to hoist the Larry OB next June.

Of course, the Oklahoma City Thunder are in prime position to be the first repeat champions we've seen since Golden State. The Thunder are still incredibly young, and they've inked the 3 pillars of their young core (Shai, J-dub, and Chet) to max extensions. One of the more dominant teams we've seen in a while, no one will be faulted for thinking OKC can run it back.

However, I can't stop thinking about how Jokic willed the Nuggets to a game 7 against OKC in the second round of last year. They were essentially playing with 6 able bodies, one of those being Russell Westbrook, who was good for at least one airball a game.

The Joker did everything in his power to extend Denver's season. His On/Off stats were once again disgusting, as the Nuggets were 21.4 points better when he was on the court versus when he was on the bench (via cleaningtheglass.com). They're depth and ability to keep the ship afloat when Jokic was off the court was a glaring issue, and they still managed a game 7 with one of the most dominant teams we've seen in recent memory.

They went guns a'blazin in the offseason to build a better supporting cast around (for my money) the best player on the planet. Out with the MPJ, in with the Cam Johnson. Brucie Brown is back home. Tim Hardaway Jr can still light it up from the outside. They actually addressed the backup center spot and signed Jonas Valančiūnas (after flirting with some greek team or something like that).

As we saw from last year's finals, depth is more crucial than ever. I think the Nuggets did a good job of addressing it and getting guys that can get to spots and play a role extremely well alongside the Joker. Not to mention the guys already on the roster are pretty dang good.

There's also the fact that they got rid of the guerilla warfare atmosphere that was Mike Malone vs. Calvin Booth, which apparently had front office people joining factions like it was an Elder Scrolls quest. David Adelman enters the fold after a nice interim stint, and it seems like the vibes in the building are back on track.

At the end of the day, They've got Nikola Jokic. With this crew around him, I like their chances to win the NBA title.

I've got Nuggets futures every which way:

• Win the West

• Win the Finals

• Jokic regular season MVP

• Jokic Finals MVP

• Over 53.5 wins

As long as they rank middle of the road defensively, the offense will have the firepower to be a force in the league once again.

Now watch some highlights to get pumped for the NBA season:

-WhataMark