While the Denver Nuggets secured their second victory of the preseason over the Chicago Bulls 133-128 in their first game of the 2026-27 preseason at Ball Arena, it wasn't pretty. Of course, there were highlights, like Nikola Jokic's first triple-double of the preseason, and Aaron Gordon looks like he is ready to roll, too. But the Nuggets' transition defense was atrocious, and there were too many easy buckets allowed after the Nuggets scored a good bucket on their own end. The defense has a lot of work to do.
The defense was so bad that head coach David Adelman gave the Nuggets starters extra run, deep into the third quarter in only the third preseason game, so they could work on it. He wasn't happy with it after the game.
"They needed conditioning, because they didn't get back in the first half....Our transition defense was embarrassing until the fourth quarter...teams like that have hurt us over the years....younger teams that play fast, advance the ball, and look for advantages on two-on-ones and three-on-twos," Adelman said in the postgame presser.
That about sums it up. The Bulls feasted on easy looks after the Nuggets looked nonchalant while getting back down the floor.
The Nuggets' transition defense has got to improve
The Nuggets allowed 68 first-half points to the Bulls. The starters chipped away at the Bulls' lead, but the Nuggets never should have been trailing by as many as 15 points in the first place. There's no excuse to get a bucket and not get back on defense.
What happened multiple times was a nice play by the Nuggets and an instant layup or easy shot made by the Bulls mere seconds later because nobody was back on defense. Or, even worse, there was a wide-open three waiting to happen, and the Bulls made 21 of their 50 attempts. The Bulls also finished with 16 fast-break points.
That's a concern. One of the things Adelman was adamant about fixing was the transition defense, which was the worst in the league last season. So he was right to call it out. But it is the preseason, and perhaps the starters just didn't put in the full effort to get back into their set. Fans can only hope that's all it is. Because it was bad.
However, the Nuggets did do one thing well that Adelman had put a focus on to help stop the transition: offensive rebounding. He wanted the team to crash the boards more this year, to jam the opponents from getting out on the transition cleanly. Kind of how a defensive back in football jams a receiver at the line of scrimmage. On the night, the Nuggets had 16 offensive rebounds, So, at least there's that.
You can certainly bet that the Nuggets will be spending time in the film room and working on the transition defense before their next preseason game, Oct. 14th in Los Angeles against the Clippers. The transition defense definitely looks to be the main problem that needs to be resolved before the season tips off.
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