Two seasons ago the Denver Nuggets won 57 games with a powerful offense and a good enough defense, and were the team nobody wanted to face in the playoffs… until Danilo Gallinari went down. Then they became vulnerable and were ousted in the first round by the Warriors.

Then they inexplicably changed coaches to Brian Shaw. Next the Nuggets were just ravaged by injuries — Gallinari missed every single game, JaVale McGee only played in five, Ty Lawson and Wilson Chandler each missed 20 games, J.J. Hickson missed significant time… it was a mess. The Nuggets won only 37 games.

They are ripe to bounce back.

This is a team that adds Gallinari, McGee and Arron Afflalo to the roster and should get an improved (and contract year) Kenneth Faried — if healthy they are legitimately in the crowded and deep playoff mix in the West. After last season people are looking past them, but Lawson told Jeff Caplan of NBA.com’s Hangtime blog they shouldn’t.

“People,” Lawson said, “are probably going to sleep on us this year because of what happened last year…. “This year it’s going to be more of a defensive mindset. I already know we can score, everybody knows we can score with the best of them. But my mindset going into training camp is everybody buying into the defensive end. We’ve got to make stops. I feel like if we can do that, and score in the half court, we’ll be one of the top teams out there.”

Denver is going to play fast — they were the third fastest team in the league last season, averaging more than 100 possessions a game, according to NBA.com — and they have the athletes to do that and space the floor with shooting. Lawson is right that defense (21st in NBA) will be the real key. They need to get stops.

They also need to find a way to get out to a decent start. Which is not going to be easy, Lawson admits.

“We’ve got the Chicago Bulls, the Cleveland Cavaliers twice, We got OKC twice,” Lawson said. “Our first month is crazy so I was like, ‘coach, we’ve both got to be ready coming in, we’ve got to all be focused when we get in there [to training camp].” Lawson didn’t mention two games against the Portland Trail Blazers in the first month and the Phoenix Suns in the powerful Western Conference.

The West is going to be that way. Teams like Denver, Phoenix and New Orleans are going to be improved and a real threat to the eight teams that made it last season (Dallas was the No. 8 seed with 49 wins). The West is going to be 11 teams deep with potential playoff teams (or teams that would make it in the East, at least).

As they did in Denver last season, injuries are going to play a key role. We just don’t know how the dice will come up on that game of chance, but the Nuggets feel they are due for a break.