When the Nuggets won the title in 2023, it felt like they had finally broken through with a core in its prime and would be making frequent returns to the promised land. But the last two years haven’t gone according to plan, as the team has been decimated by free agency and poor roster building. Nobody can deny the greatness of Nikola Jokic, but Denver’s lack of depth has led them astray, and they’ve run out of gas in round two in consecutive seasons.
This season, that excuse is no longer on the table. The new front office has completely overhauled the bench, and combined with internal improvement and better injury luck, the Nuggets should actually be one of the deepest teams in the league now.
Last season’s bench was headlined by the volatile, up-and-down, domineering Russell Westbrook, with a bunch of inexperienced kids trying to fit around him. The other veterans the team signed were essentially useless, and the whole situation ended up being their undoing.
Nuggets may have the best bench in the league
Now, Westbrook, Dario Saric, and DeAndre Jordan are out of the picture while the team has replaced them with veterans, Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Jonas Valanciunas. The young players like Peyton Watson, Julian Strawther, and Jalen Pickett are still around and have another year of experience and confidence under their belt, plus reduced pressure with the added depth around them.
The cherry on top may be the health of rookie big man DaRon Holmes II. The Nuggets traded up to draft Holmes a year ago, but he immediately tore his achilles in his first summer league game and missed the entire season.
Holmes is healthy and had a very solid showing this time around out in Las Vegas. By all accounts, he appears primed to step into the rotation right out of the gate. That makes 12 players who could all realistically come in and make an impact on any given night.
No team is going to go 12-deep on a nightly basis, so that just means there should be some intense competition for playing time, some tough decisions for David Adelman, and plenty of chances to rest guys and manage workloads throughout the long, 82-game season.
All this is just to say, it’s now or never for the Nuggets. They had plenty of built-in excuses the last couple of years, but those have almost all been removed. Jokic is dominating EuroBasket, looking better than ever, and the rest of the team should be fresh and ready to go.
This is a veteran-led group that has tasted victory once and should be starving to get back there and do it again. The time is now, and if they have another disappointing early exit this season, there will be no one to blame but themselves.