The full 2025-26 NBA regular season schedule was released on Thursday afternoon, and somehow, five teams in the Western Conference have more nationally televised games than the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets won the title in 2023, made the West semifinals the past two seasons, and had one of the best offseasons of any team in the league.
On top of that, they have the player favored to win the MVP Award in Nikola Jokic, who happens to have won the award three out of the past five years. The Nuggets enter the season with the third-best odds to win the championship, and after the tumultuous ending to last season, and all the changes this summer, they are one of the most intriguing teams out there.
Despite all that, the powers that be decided fans would be better served watching the Thunder, Lakers, Warriors, Rockets, and Timberwolves than the Nuggets this season. All of those teams, plus the Knicks from the Eastern Conference, will be on national TV more than the Nuggets this season.
Nuggets will play 26 National TV games this season
It’s not like the Nuggets got ignored completely; the team will still play more than a quarter of its games on national TV, making 26 total appearances. The Thunder, Lakers, Warriors, and Knicks all lead the way with 34 appearances.
Sure, one could make a case for those teams having plenty of compelling storylines this year, and they should all be good, but there’s no way they all deserve more attention than the Nuggets.
More fuel to fire for Denver’s revenge season
After the way the last two seasons ended, the Nuggets are coming into this year with a chip on their collective shoulder. They reloaded with veterans, and this team is going to be extremely hungry to win it all. Yet, it doesn’t feel like the rest of the league is quite taking appropriate notice.
This is just the latest example of disrespect toward the Nuggets this offseason, but maybe that’s for the best. Flying under the radar is likely a good thing in the grand scheme of things and could give this veteran crew even more motivation.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where the team plays or what network the games are on. They just need to show up, stay healthy, take care of business, and everything else will work out. But these little digs along the way certainly can’t hurt.