The Nuggets have been no strangers to injuries this season, and the pattern continued in the Nuggets' most recent 116-93 win over the Golden State Warriors. Head coach David Adelman had just come up with what seemed to be a solution for the non-Jokic minutes, and now he's talking about having to adjust the rotation, again.
Adelman said after practice in preparation for the Utah Jazz, that he was prepared to experiment with the rotation, including putting Peyton Watson in at the backup center position in place of the injured Spencer Jones on the small-ball unit.
Adelman also said that if he had to "put Cam [Johnson] and Jamal [Murray] in tough situations with the minutes," he would do it. "If that's what we have to do to win games, that's what I'll do."
Adelman explained some plans for the rotation
Both Cam and Murray have been featured on the small-ball unit, and they'll be asked to cover more time across the whole rotation due to the injuries to Jones and Zeke Nnaji. Adelman did say he would look at going big with Jonas Valanciunas to spell Jokic again at backup center, but he didn't sound overly committed to that plan. Big Val has recently disappeared from the lineup amid defensive struggles.
Coach Adelman said he planned to use P-Wat as a "Swiss Army-knife," including playing him at the back-up five and even as the primary ball handler. Defensively, Adelman has no issue deploying Watson against bigger opponents, as he did against Kristaps Porzingis, or against smaller guards.
Watson has been having a career year
P-Wat's been a revelation this season for the Nuggets. He stepped up when others went down, before going down for 19 games himself with a hamstring injury. Watson is putting up a career high in points, at 14.8 per game, rebounds at 4.9, and assists at 2.1.
For the month of January, when Nikola Jokic missed most of the month with a knee injury, Watson averaged a sterling 21.9 points per game. And he did it with 46% three point shooting.
He became a legitimate scoring option alongside Jokic and Murray, and his excellent play is going to make it difficult for the cap-strapped 2026-27 Nuggets to match whatever offer he receives when he becomes a restricted free agent this summer.
Adelman said Aaron Gordon and Cam both practiced, leaving Jones and Nnaji as the question marks. We will all get the answer to the question about what the Nuggets do for their rotation when they take on the Utah Jazz in Utah in the second-to-last road game of the year.