This year’s Denver Nuggets roster was billed as the deepest ever assembled around Nikola Jokic. Through the first part of the regular season, it turns out this claim…undersold the supporting cast.
Denver’s bench players are a plus-5.8 points per 100 possessions so far. We would give you a list of every second-string group to match that net rating if we could. But we can’t. Because it doesn’t exist.
You’re reading this correctly: The Nuggets, statistically speaking, have the NBA’s most effective bench. That is a stark departure from how their top-heavy build last season, and the season before that, and also the season before that, and—well, you get the point.
The last time Denver had a top-10 bench was…
That would be in 2018-19, nearly one decade ago. Here is where the net rating for Nuggets bench players has ranked during the Jokic era:
- 2025-26: 1
- 2024-25: 24
- 2023-24: 22
- 2022-23: 29
- 2021-22: 23
- 2020-21: 13
- 2019-20: 20
- 2018-19: 8
- 2017-18: 20
- 2016-17: 11
- 2015-16: 19
If the current Denver bench holds somewhat firm, it will be the first time during the Jokic era that the team has fielded a top-five collection of second-unit bodies. That is bonkers.
Denver has skewed so top-heavy for as long as we can remember. Even during the title-winning campaign, with Bruce Brown in his first go-round as a Nugget, the rotation wasn’t this deep.
This Nuggets bench feels legitimate
It will be tempting to chalk this up to early-season noise. Some of it might be. Tim Hardaway Jr., for instance, probably won’t shoot 1 trillion percent from downtown until the end of time.
Mostly, though, these returns align with what’s on paper.
Hardaway’s three-point volume and confidence always loomed as an excellent fit inside this offense. Brown’s familiarity with the core players is huge. Especially when he’s knocking down 40 percent of his own triples.
Peyton Watson remains an up-and-down experience on offense, but he’s delivering some of the best, most effective defense of his career. And above all, Jonas Valanciunas is the best backup center to ever play behind Jokic.
It is no coincidence that the Nuggets have basically fought opponents to a deadlock when JV is on the floor without their MVP. He gives the frontcourt a reliable baseline on offense, and on the glass.
Nikola Jokic is making the most of the supporting cast
No one needs to pretend as if Denver can suddenly thrive without Jokic. He is the nerve center of everything they do, the one player bridging the gap between mediocrity and championship heavyweight.
More than ever, though, the Nuggets can make his life easier.
This isn’t just in reference to the positive net rating they’re posting when he sits, either. His in-game workload is more streamlined. It remains incredibly high volume, but not nearly as laborious.
Most notably, he doesn’t need to score as much. His usage rate is the lowest it’s been since 2017-18. That has lent itself to all-time efficiency. Literally. Jokic currently has the highest true shooting percentage of anyone in NBA history to average over 20 points per game—a record he already held, when he averaged 24.5 points on 70.1 true shooting in 2022-23.
Time will tell whether the Nuggets’ depth propels them to another title. For now, it’s validating everything what was said over the offseason; This is the deepest team Jokic has ever played on, the team he himself called for after last year, and the team that, as a result, has the best shot of anyone at unseating the Oklahoma City Thunder.