Nuggets Enter Season With an Open Roster Spot and Three Questions to Answer

The Denver Nuggets are widely viewed as one of the NBA's offseason winners, even though they have not yet filled their roster. Their summer included trading Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson, converting Dario Saric's contract into Jonas Valanciunas, reuniting with Bruce Brown and signing Tim Hardaway Jr. That reception is a sharp contrast with the reaction to last year's offseason.

Ben Tenzer, the team's executive vice president of basketball operations, has said he feels no pressure to fill the final spot before training camp opens at the start of October. Waiting could even help. By the trade deadline, Denver could respond to real weaknesses rather than guess at them, since it is unclear who will be hurt or struggling 50 games into the season. The team expects to contend either way.

Even so, a few areas could still draw attention. The first is defense at the point of attack, a problem last season, when Denver ranked 21st in the league in defensive rating. Several factors point toward improvement: Aaron Gordon should be healthier after a year of calf and hamstring trouble, Christian Braun has grown as a pick-and-roll defender, Johnson is seen as at least a small upgrade over Porter, and first-year coach David Adelman appears willing to adjust his schemes.

Whether that is enough to reach the league's top half is uncertain. Brown is a long, versatile guard, but he is replacing another effective bench defender in Russell Westbrook, while Hardaway and Valanciunas were added for other reasons. Denver may need more perimeter defensive help early in the season to ease the burden on Braun and Gordon.

The second question is ball-handling and playmaking behind Jamal Murray. The front office plainly set out to diversify the team's three-point shooting, including two-way signings Curtis Jones and Tamar Bates. Backup point guard minutes are expected to be split between Brown and Jalen Pickett. Brown was a major contributor on the 2023 championship team but has not looked like himself since leaving Denver, and he had knee surgery last September. Pickett, a 2023 second-round pick, ended last season on an encouraging note but has had his share of difficulties adjusting to the NBA.

Denver could lean on combo guards such as Hardaway and Strawther, and Nikola Jokic and Gordon reduce the need for a traditional point guard. Still, the team would not want those players handling the ball too often, and the depth chart could prove thinner than it looks on paper.

The third area is forward depth and experience. The bench forwards are Peyton Watson, DaRon Holmes II, Zeke Nnaji and Hunter Tyson. Tyson, at 25, is the oldest and the least likely to see significant minutes, and Watson is the only one who has established himself in a regular NBA rotation. Holmes missed what would have been his rookie season with a torn Achilles tendon.

If Holmes proves he can play power forward, Watson can spend more time at small forward, where he feels more comfortable. If Holmes and Nnaji struggle, Watson would probably play more power forward, and Denver might need Hardaway or Strawther at small forward.

One possible solution is Kevin Love. The 37-year-old is widely expected to be traded or bought out by Utah before the season and has already been linked to other teams, with Cleveland and the Los Angeles clubs among the possibilities. Denver has a connection of its own: Love and Adelman know each other from overlapping years with the Timberwolves. Love also played high school basketball near Portland, Oregon, and lost the 2005 state championship game to Jesuit High School, where Adelman was then a volunteer assistant coach.