The hits keep coming for the Nuggets as Cam Johnson was the latest player to exit a game with an ugly-looking injury on Monday night. It looked bad in real time, and there was major cause for concern, but luckily, the injury was reportedly only a bone bruise to his right knee, with an MRI revealing no structural damage.
Johnson is going to miss some time, but all things considered, this is a best-case scenario after his scary-looking fall against the Mavericks. The immediate fear was something season-ending, with possible ligament damage in the knee, but that’s not the case, and the Nuggets can breathe a sigh of relief.
Still, it’s another brutal blow to a team that is already missing Christian Braun and Aaron Gordon from the starting lineup. Now, a third starter has gone down, and early indications are that Cam will be reevaluated in 4-6 weeks. That means we’re suddenly looking at a scenario where the Nuggets don’t really get to assess their rotation before the NBA trade deadline in early February.
Nuggets must adjust to life without 3/5 of starting lineup
Denver committed to depth in the offseason, and it’s now being put to the test. We’ve seen guys step up like Peyton Watson, Tim Hardaway Jr., Peyton Watson, Spencer Jones, Bruce Brown, and others, but with each new injury, the bench gets thinner.
Players have been thrust into much bigger roles than they should have, and perhaps most significantly, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are now forced to take on a massive burden. We saw that they are up to the task on Christmas Day as the star duo combined for 91 points and 25 assists in an overtime win over the T-Wolves.
But that’s not a sustainable performance for either player, as they each played 42 minutes and took 51 shots. That may be a recipe for short-term success, but this season is about the long term, specifically, winning in the playoffs.
Nuggets can't lose sight of long-term with Jokic/Murray
In the past two seasons, the Nuggets have run out of gas as the stars were overtaxed. The main goal this year was to get the stars fresh and healthy ahead of the postseason, but they are already being forced to take on heavy loads just to keep the team afloat before the calendar flips to 2026.
Something has to give at some point. The Nuggets can’t run Jokic and Murray into the ground, but they also can’t afford to sink too deep in the Western Conference standings.
Ideally, Braun and AG will be back before too long, and the team will be able to stay relatively healthy the rest of the way. Being able to spend some time together, everyone playing, and building a nice rhythm before a playoff run would be a huge win at this point.