The Nuggets have dodged a major bullet as Nikola Jokic avoided a catastrophic injury on Monday night, only hyperextending his knee. Initially, it looked much worse, but luckily, the superstar big man will be reevaluated in four weeks, as thankfully, there was no ligament damage in his left knee.
In a macro sense, this is incredible news, but in the meantime, Denver is going to have to survive at least a month without their sun, moon, and stars. They’ve already been pushing things to the limit as Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun have been out with injuries since November, and Cam Johnson went down just before Christmas.
Braun and Gordon should be back soon, but still, for at least the next few games, the Nuggets will be down four starters, and they’ll likely be without Joker and Cam for all of January. We’ve already seen some drastic measures with two-way player Spencer Jones being inserted into the starting lineup alongside Peyton Watson and, recently, Tim Hardaway Jr.
That doesn’t leave much for the bench, and now, yet another bench player will have to enter the starting lineup - almost surely Jonas Valanciunas. The Nuggets’ front office went out and added much-needed depth in the offseason, hoping to keep guys fresh and compete when Jokic was on the bench.
But now, the injury bug has bitten badly, and that depth will be massively put to the test.
Nuggets must survive January to save season
Things are going to be tough as the Nuggets play 18 games in January, including four back-to-backs. They currently sit at 22-10 after Monday’s loss to the Heat, good for third place in the Western Conference.
But the 7th-seed Suns are just 3 games back of Denver, with other teams at the bottom of the West standings starting to make some moves. Dreams of a top seed may be dead, but the goal for the Nuggets should still be avoiding the play-in tournament and securing a top-six seed.
If they can manage to go 9-9 in January, that would be a big win and would put them at 31-19 with Jokic, hopefully, ready to return. That may not keep them in the top six, but it should at least have them within striking distance. If Jokic picks up where he left off after the All-Star break, the team should have time to get in a rhythm before the playoffs start and position themselves to avoid the play-in.
They’ve already reached deep into the bench, but now they’re going to truly need all hands on deck. Big Val is going to have to step it up, and DaRon Holmes and Zeke Nnaji will have to give a spark to the frontcourt. Watson, Jones, and THJ will have to keep starting and playing major minutes.
Julian Strawther, Bruce Brown, and Jalen Pickett will undoubtedly play bigger roles as well. And of course, Jamal Murray will have to raise his game even higher. These are desperate times, but at the end of the day, everyone being healthy for the playoffs is still the end goal.
So, the Nuggets must do what it takes to win games, but not at all costs. It has already been a brutal year for injuries; let’s not exacerbate the situation by overtaxing the dwindling list of players who remain healthy.