After one week, the Denver Nuggets’ defense is already under a spotlight they can’t escape.
The latest warning sign came Monday night, when Golden State put up 134 points in a 20-point win over Denver. The Warriors shot 54% from the field and 50% from 3, and the Nuggets never found a way to make the game uncomfortable. That kind of damage has stacked up quickly: New Orleans scored 135 in an overtime game, and Denver opened the season by allowing just 96 to Oklahoma City before things started sliding the other way.
Three-time MVP Nikola Jokic didn’t sugarcoat it afterward.
"I’m not surprised. Last year we were pointing something in defense, so I don’t know, it cannot happen overnight," Jokic said about the Nuggets' defense, per TalkBasket.
"To be honest, everything. We cannot defend."
That blunt assessment matches what the standings already show. Through three games, Denver owns the league’s fifth-worst defensive rating, a rough place to be even this early in the season. It’s still a tiny sample, but the early results have been ugly enough to raise real concerns.
The biggest immediate issue is health. The Nuggets are missing important defensive pieces, including Alpha Diallo, Spencer Jones, and Cameron Johnson, and that has clearly left them thinner on that end of the floor. But injuries alone don’t explain everything that has gone wrong.
Over the last five halves, Denver has looked like a team with deeper problems than availability. The structure has been shaky, the rotations have looked off, and the coaching staff hasn’t sorted it out yet. David Adelman hasn’t made the kind of impact the Nuggets need, and the fixes have to come fast.
There’s also the roster reality that makes this tricky. Jokic and Jamal Murray are the team’s two biggest offensive engines, but both are negative defenders, which puts extra pressure on everyone around them. Denver has to build the rest of the lineup with enough defensive competence to cover that ground, and right now that balance is off.
Murray acknowledged the issue after the loss, too.
"Our offense has been for years that tone-setter. Just a lot of firepower and teams have to keep up with us, trying to stop us.
This year and a couple recent years, we’ve gotta focus on defense. … We have to have a better awareness and not even effort, just more skill," he said, per The Denver Post's Bennett Durando.
The Nuggets get another shot at cleaner play Wednesday against the Pelicans.
In Other News...
DeMar DeRozan Could Quietly Solve A Nuggets Problem Around Jokic
The Nuggets have opened at 1-2, and the early look has only reinforced how much this offense still needs cleaner spacing around Nikola Jokic. With a few rotation pieces sidelined, Denver has leaned on whatever shot creation it can find, and DeMar DeRozan has already become a useful part of that mix off the bench. He has given the team steady scoring in limited minutes, and his willingness to keep defenses honest from the perimeter has stood out in a group still trying to settle in.
DeRozan does not need to reinvent his game for Denver to feel a lift, but any real jump from beyond the arc would matter for a team that has been fighting through a slow shooting start. The Nuggets are already short-handed, and when the floor stays cramped, Jokic ends up carrying even more of the burden to manufacture offense on his own. If DeRozan keeps trending in the right direction as a shooter, it could quietly give Denver a different kind of option in lineups where every bit of spacing counts. [Read more 🡒]
Nuggets Just Got A Reminder About The Wolves Without Anthony Edwards
Anthony Edwards latest injury is a reminder the Timberwolves have already spent time figuring out how to function without their brightest star. Minnesota has dealt with Edwards on the sideline before, including during its playoff series against Denver, and the roster has enough length and secondary creation to at least stay competitive while he recovers. Jaden McDaniels is among the players expected to shoulder more of the load, and the Wolves have not exactly sounded shaken by the setback.
For the Nuggets, the timing still matters because this is the kind of opponent that can look very different from one month to the next. Edwards absence opens the door for Minnesota to keep grinding through games, but it also leaves Denver waiting to see what version of the Wolves shows up when the teams meet again later in the season. If Edwards is back by then, the rematch conversation changes quickly. If not, the Nuggets will get another look at a Minnesota group that has already proven it can make life difficult without him. [Read more 🡒]
Nuggets Suddenly Have An Energy Issue They Can't Ignore
Through the first few games of the season, the Nuggets have looked a little different on the glass, and not in a way that fits their usual standard. Their defensive rebounding has slipped early, a notable change for a team that has long counted on finishing possessions cleanly, while the other end of the floor has shown a more encouraging sign with the club crashing the offensive boards at a much higher rate than in past seasons.
Nikola Jokics rebound totals have been part of that picture, especially in back-to-back matchups against the Thunder and Warriors, where the usual nightly control of the paint has not been as evident. The encouraging part for Denver is that the offensive approach appears intentional, a reflection of coaching emphasis rather than a random hot stretch, but the bigger question is whether that tradeoff can hold if the Nuggets keep giving away extra chances on the defensive end. [Read more 🡒]