This short NBA season has already felt like a roller coaster ride for the Nuggets and their fans. The first few games were ugly and it looked like the bench would be so disastrous that it wouldn’t matter how incredible Nikola Jokic played.
But the team was able to right the ship and find just enough contributions along with peak-level Jokic to scrape out wins. They ripped off five straight wins, improving their record to 7-3, but then Jokic was away from the team for the birth of his son and things went downhill again.
Now, Jokic is back, but Denver has lost three of their last four games, falling to 8-6 on the season and getting eliminated from the NBA Cup. The Nuggets bench has gotten a lot better as the season has gone along, but it’s still an inconsistent unit lacking size and shooting.
Vlatko Cancar weighing options after knee injury
Unfortunately, the team’s depth took yet another hit recently as Vlatko Cancar suffered a long-term knee injury. Coach Micahel Malone said they are still weighing their options for Cancar, that the injury is “not necessarily” season-ending, but that he’ll be out for the “foreseeable future”.
It’s a horrible blow for a player who just finished working his way back from another gruesome injury. He had gotten a chance to play recently and had looked good. There was hope that Cancar could provide some much-needed shooting off the bench, but it seems those hopes are now dead.
One more hole for the Nuggets to plug
Cancar was most likely going to be a fringe rotation player who would be used in specific situations and matchups. But still, the Nuggets don’t have enough competent bench players to afford any losses. They could have used the extra depth option that Cancar could provide.
The Nuggets have already lost DaRon Holmes II for the season after he tore his achilles in Summer League, so they’re now down to 13 healthy players on the roster (once Aaron Gordon returns). They’d need another injury to be eligible for a Disabled Player Exception.
So, at this point, it doesn’t seem like help is on the way. The Nuggets are going to have to keep plugging away, patching things together to trot out a sustainable bench unit. They’ve got time to figure it out, but things are only getting tougher.