The 2023 NBA Finals are set between the No. 1 seed Nuggets and No. 8 seed Heat.
Both teams made a bit of history to reach this stage. Miami is just the second No. 8 seed to ever make the Finals, while this marks the first Finals appearance in Denver franchise history.
Although the Heat just appeared in the NBA Finals in 2020, the players on the roster do not have a ton of experience on the championship stage. And yet, they still have much more Finals experience than the players on the Nuggets.
How many players on each team have been to the NBA Finals? How many players on each team have won an NBA championship? The Sporting News takes a deeper dive.
Miami Heat NBA Finals experience
As a franchise, the Heat have three NBA championships and six NBA Finals appearances. However, this current roster is not all that familiar with the biggest stage basketball has to offer.
Only three players on the roster have an NBA championship ring: Udonis Haslem (three), Kevin Love and Kyle Lowry.
Of their regular rotation players, only Love has been to the NBA Finals more than once prior to this year.
Aside from Love, team veteran Udonis Haslem has been a part of all six NBA Finals appearances for the Heat.
Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson and Gabe Vincent were all a part of the Heat team that lost to the Lakers in the 2020 NBA Finals. For all five players, it was their one and only Finals appearance.
The same goes for Lowry with the Raptors in 2019, marking his one and only Finals appearance.
Max Strus, Caleb Martin, Haywood Highsmith, Cody Zeller, Victor Oladipo, Omer Yurtseven and Nikola Jovic have all never been to the NBA Finals.
And while you would think that makes this team inexperienced for this stage, the Nuggets' roster has even less history in the Finals.
Denver Nuggets NBA Finals experience
For the first time in franchise history, the Nuggets are headed to the NBA Finals — and that goes for most of the players on their roster, too.
There is only one player on Denver who has won an NBA championship: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who earned a ring with the Lakers in 2020.
Believe it or not, Caldwell-Pope is one of two players on the roster to ever reach the NBA Finals, with the other being Jeff Green.
Green went to the NBA Finals with LeBron James and the Cavaliers in 2018, falling to the Warriors in four games.
That means this upcoming series will be an NBA Finals debut for Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Micahel Porter Jr., Bruce Brown, Christian Braun, Reggie Jackson, DeAndre Jordan, Peyton Watson, Zeke Nnaji, Ish Smith and Vlatko Cancar.
