28 of the 30 NBA teams have tipped off their seasons, but the very last team in the association to start its regular season is the Nuggets. They finally get things underway Thursday night at 8 PM MT. They’ll travel to San Francisco to take on the Warriors, who opened their season on Tuesday with a win over the Lakers.
Now, the Nuggets and Warriors will square off as part of the season’s first Thursday night ESPN doubleheader. Fans will finally get to see the new-look Nuggets in regular-season action, led by Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, the newly added Cam Johnson, and the newly extended Christian Braun.
We’ll also get to see the revamped Denver bench, featuring the freshly added veterans Jonas Valanciunas, Bruce Brown, and Tim Hardaway Jr. On top of that, we’ll get a taste of the young players who have had another year of development, like Peyton Watson, Julian Strawther, and Jalen Pickett.
It’s no guarantee, but we may even get our first look at rookie big man DaRon Holmes II, who missed all of last season with a torn achilles. He has looked raw in the preseason, and there’s a good chance he starts the season on the outside of the rotation, looking in, but he’s still an exciting prospect to watch.
Nuggets and Warriors both have title aspirations
The Nuggets are obviously shooting for a championship this season, but the Warriors are too. They took off last season down the stretch after trading for Jimmy Butler, but fell short in the playoffs after Steph Curry suffered an injury.
But this season, they are healthy and ready to go with Curry, Butler, and Draymond Green leading the way. They also came to terms on a deal with Jonathan Kuminga, then added Al Horford in free agency.
It’s an aging roster, but a talented one that has a championship pedigree. They have the confidence that they can beat any team in the league, and they also are faced with the reality that the roster isn’t getting any younger, and the opportunities for this core to win another title are dwindling.
This should be a great game to kick off the season, and a nice measuring stick right out of the gate to see how the Nuggets stack up against another title contender in a hostile, road environment. At the end of the day, I think we are all just ready to watch some meaningful basketball again.