How Will Barton’s injury impacts the Denver Nuggets going forward

On Monday, ESPN’s Marc Spears announced that Denver Nuggets’ starting small forward Will Barton will miss 5-6 weeks with a hip adductor injury.

It was expected that Will Barton would miss some time after being carted off in the third quarter of the Denver Nuggets’ 119-91 win over the Phoenix Suns, but 5-6 weeks is certainly less than ideal for the squad.

Barton’s surgery means that he will miss Denver’s next 19-20 games at minimum. That could prove costly for the Nuggets and their playoff aspirations, as they start out the season with a tough schedule. They play 11 teams that made the playoffs last season over that stretch, including the Pelicans and Bucks twice. They also face the LeBron James led Lakers twice and three Conference Finalists from last season (Cavaliers, Celtics, Rockets).

There may be some hope for the Nuggets, however. They just defeated the reigning NBA champions without Barton, despite 18 missed free throws and only 100 points on the board. Although Barton is an integral part of this team, which can be evidenced by the $54 million that the front office threw at him this off season, Denver certainly doesn’t need him to win games. They may not be as “Thrilling” as we are used to from seasons past, but if numbers are getting put in the win column, it won’t matter how they get there.

With all this said, let’s get into how Will Barton’s injury will impact the Nuggets going forward.

(Note: All stats are via Basketball-Reference or NBA.com unless otherwise noted.)