They were already bracing for it, but the Nuggets were officially dealt some brutal news on Sunday, finding out Aaron Gordon will be re-evaluated in 4-6 weeks after suffering a grade 2 hamstring injury. AG left the game on Friday after just 3 minutes, hurting the hammy on a drive to the hoop. He exited immediately and did not return, with David Adelman stating after the game that he expected Gordon to miss some time.
Now, we know that time will be at least 4-6 weeks, and hopefully no longer. It’s brutal news for Aaron and the Nuggets as he has gotten off to an amazing start this season, and is a big reason for the team’s success on both sides of the ball.
It’s doubly tough as the Nuggets are already without their starting shooting guard, as Christian Braun should be out for at least another month with an injury of his own. Denver will now go an extended period of time without two key starters and try to sustain their hot start to the season.
But we’ve already seen some struggles as the team fell at home on Saturday night, 128-123, to a lowly Kings squad. Denver was on the second night of a back-to-back after an electric road win on Friday night in Houston, but still, this is a game the team should be able to handle, and getting embarrassed by Russell Westbrook at home should not have been in the cards.
Nuggets need depth players to step up
This is exactly why the Nuggets made a big commitment to their bench and depth over the offseason. Part of it was building a deeper, more reliable rotation, but another big part was being able to withstand injuries to key players.
That will be tested very quickly as two players will need to step into the starting lineup right away. We saw Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones get the call on Saturday night, but we’ll see if that continues.
We are going to see a lot of each of the new additions. Expect huge minutes and roles for Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., Cam Johnson, and Jonas Valanciunas. Outside of Jokic and Murray, those will be the main guys for a while here. Watson will also have a big role, and we may see more of Jones, Julian Strawther, Jalen Pickett, and perhaps even DaRon Holmes.
But this will be a big early test for the Nuggets. It’s an opportunity for the role players to separate themselves as well, and for the front office to learn a lot more about several young players. There are some silver linings, and this certainly shouldn’t derail the season or anything, but it’s certainly not an ideal issue to be dealing with in November.