Nikola Jokic is the best basketball player in the world, but the Denver Nuggets have been bleeding talent around him ever since he led the franchise to its first ever championship in 2023. The Nuggets that opened the 2024-25 season on Thursday night looked nothing like the team that raised a banner only 15 months ago. Key contributors have left for other teams (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Bruce Brown, Jeff Green), and their replacements are either too young or too old to make a meaningful difference. Meanwhile, Jamal Murray hasn’t looked like himself since Feb. even before he begins a new $208 million extension.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are the new favorites in the Western Conference, taking over a spot Denver held at this time last year. OKC left no doubt who runs the West these days by blasting the Nuggets, 102-87, in Thursday’s season opener. The Nuggets have a laundry list of problems, and already feel like they’re on the downside of should have been a long championship window with Jokic still only 29 years old.
Jokic talked about the team’s issues after the loss, and no lies were told:
The Nuggets ranked dead last in the NBA in three-point attempts last season, even as they won 57 games. Their big move this offseason was letting go of one of their best shooters in Caldwell-Pope, while signing arguably the worst shooting in the league in Russell Westbrook.
Denver shot 7-of-38 from three (18.4 percent) in the loss to the Thunder. The fact that OKC shot the ball horribly too (22 percent from three) and still won in a rout is bad, bad sign for the Nuggets. During a time when contenders are ratcheting up their three-point volume to unforeseen levels, the Nuggets have very few shooters who are even confident enough get shots up.
A year ago, the Nuggets had the best starting lineup in basketball. That doesn’t feel like the case anymore with Christian Braun in for KCP. The biggest issue for the Nuggets is the dwindling play of Murray. He hasn’t looked like himself since coming back from a knee injury after the All-Star break last year. He was horrible in the 2024 NBA Playoffs and in the 2024 Paris Olympics, and he couldn’t even generate a paint touch effectively against OKC in this season’s opener. Murray finished 4-of-13 from the field for 12 points in the loss.
Murray is still only 27 years old, and shouldn’t be cooked yet. At the same time, if he can’t regain his form as a proper No. 2 option on a title contender, the Nuggets really have no chance because their depth is terrible. Denver might have the worst bench in the league of any non-tanking team. Top executive Calvin Booth wants his young draft picks to play, but to this point Braun, Peyton Watson, Julian Strawther, and company haven’t proven they can handle high leverage minutes for a contender. Signing Westbrook and Dario Saric isn’t going to help, either.
Team-building around Jokic should be easy. Get him a team of shooters and defenders, with one shot-creating guard, and you’re good. Somehow, the Nuggets have capped themselves out with no shooters and no other All-Star players on the roster. Jokic is the only top-15 player in NBA history to never play with an All-Star.
Jokic deserves to have more than one championship on his resume. Unfortunately, it seems like his window with Denver is already closing.
