It’s surprisingly not too often that a team is able to win an NBA championship by deploying the same starting five for the majority of the regular season and the majority of the playoffs, and even less so that said team returns and uses the identical starting five the next season.
Generally, the most common starting unit shifts at one or two positions between the regular season and playoffs, whether due to injuries or otherwise. Or a starter becomes a free agent the ensuing offseason. Someone new has to start out of necessity.
But the Nuggets’ biggest salary cap casualty was their sixth man.