The Nuggets already owned the NBA’s most efficient offense in the 2025-26 regular season, finishing at 1.23 points per possession. But the numbers say Denver left even more on the table.
On possessions where the Nuggets took a three-pointer - whether it dropped or not - they produced 1.36 points per possession. That includes their league-best 39.1% mark from deep, plus the offensive rebounds they grabbed on missed threes and turned into baskets. That 1.36 figure would have stood alone at the top of the league by a wide margin, the kind of output that would have made the offense feel almost impossible to stop.
The lesson for this season is pretty clear: Denver should lean harder into the shot that already powers so much of its attack. The roster has plenty of pieces that can make that work.
Jamal Murray, Cam Johnson, and Aaron Gordon can all knock down threes. Nikola Jokic remains an elite offensive rebounder.
Jokic and Murray can create shots, while players like Christian Braun and some of the bench options can serve as catch-and-shoot outlets who have to fire without hesitation when the ball comes their way.
The broader league numbers back it up, too. Every NBA team was more efficient on possessions that included a three-point attempt.
Even the 30th-ranked team in that category, the Dallas Mavericks, still posted 1.19 points per possession on those trips. That number would have matched the Rockets and Hornets for the fifth-best offense in the NBA last season, even with Dallas shooting only 31.9% from three.
Three-pointers aren’t the whole story in the NBA, but their value is impossible to ignore. Denver was just 20th in three-point attempts per game last season despite the efficiency it got from long range, and that has to change. More volume should mean more scoring, and it could also help cover for what might be another shaky defensive group.
If the Nuggets are going to contend this season, it will be because their offense becomes a force strong enough to offset the defense. The path is there in the numbers. Denver needs to take more threes than ever.
In Other News...
Cam Whitmore Could Change How Nuggets Fans View The Peyton Watson Trade
The Peyton Watson trade left plenty of Nuggets fans uneasy, since Watson still looked like the kind of young, homegrown piece Denver could have built around for years. But the story has taken an unexpected turn with Cam Whitmore, another former first-round pick who was part of the larger deal and now gives the Nuggets a fresh developmental swing. Whitmore arrives on a two-way contract, which keeps the risk low while giving Denver a chance to see whether his talent can translate into real help down the line.
For a team that has had to balance contending right now with keeping an eye on the future, that matters. Whitmore is still more projection than certainty, and no one is pretending his presence makes up for what fans felt they lost when Watson moved on. Still, if he develops into a useful rotation player, the trade will look a lot less painful in hindsight, and Nuggets supporters may end up viewing the whole sequence a little differently. [Read more 🡒]
DeMar DeRozan Could Change How Nuggets Fans View This Offseason
The Nuggets spent most of the offseason boxed in by salary cap realities, which made every move feel more about survival than splash. They brought back Tyus Jones, dealt Peyton Watson to help manage luxury tax costs, and generally had little wiggle room to reshape the roster in a meaningful way.
Then came DeMar DeRozan, a veteran scorer whose game gives Denver another layer it had been missing. His arrival should make the offense more versatile and add the sort of seasoned presence the Nuggets have been trying to preserve, which is why this summer may look a lot different if his fit proves as useful as it appears on paper. [Read more 🡒]
Nuggets Camp Could Decide Two Crucial Bench Roles
Denver enters training camp with the same basic shape that carried it into contention, but the real intrigue is on the second unit. The starting group is mostly set, which only makes the bench competition more important for a team that knows it needs more reliable depth to keep its title hopes on track.
Lonnie Walker IV is part of that fight after signing a non-guaranteed deal, while DaRon Holmes is trying to turn a secure roster place into a meaningful rotation role after returning from injury. Both have a clear path to matter if camp goes well, and for Denver, those battles could end up shaping not just the final roster, but how workable the bench looks when the season begins. [Read more 🡒]