With training camp about a week away, the Denver Nuggets still have a few moving parts to sort through around a roster that looks much more settled at the top than it does on the bench. The starting five is back intact, and that group remains one of the strongest in the NBA. The real test now is whether the second unit can hold up.
Denver did add veteran help this summer in DeMar DeRozan and Marvin Bagley, but those moves alone won’t be enough. The Nuggets will need a few other reserves to raise their level, and two players in particular enter camp with a lot riding on how they perform.
Lonnie Walker IV may have the most to prove of anyone on the roster. Denver brought him in on a non-guaranteed contract, and he’ll be battling for the final spot on the team. That gives the 27-year-old guard a real shot, but it also puts him under the brightest spotlight in camp.
Walker’s most recent NBA run came with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2024-25, when he put up 12.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.5 assists across 20 games and seven starts. He shot 42% from the field and 35.4% from 3-point range.
After spending the 2025-26 season overseas, he now has a chance to get back into the league. If he earns his way onto Denver’s roster, he could also make a case for rotation minutes once the regular season begins.
The opportunity is there because the Nuggets are thin in the backcourt behind their top options. Tyus Jones and Julian Strawther are expected to handle the second-unit guard work, and Walker’s game fits the need for another playable ball-handler.
He can attack the rim, put pressure on defenses, create off the dribble, and take some of the playmaking load off others. If he brings that package to camp, he gives himself a strong argument to stick.
DaRon Holmes is in a different spot. His roster place is secure, but his role is not. He’ll be competing for minutes with Bagley, Spencer Jones, Zeke Nnaji, and rookie Trevon Brazile, and a strong camp could help him get on the floor early.
Holmes missed his entire rookie year because of an Achilles tear, then finally made his Nuggets debut last season. He appeared in 25 games and averaged 3.7 points and 1.4 rebounds in 8.4 minutes per game. But his most encouraging stretch came with the Grand Rapids Gold in the G League, where he looked far more like the first-round big Denver drafted in 2024.
Across 22 total G League games, Holmes averaged 20.8 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.8 stocks per game while shooting 46.7% from the field and 34.3% from deep. At 6-foot-9, he has the kind of talent that can matter if the Nuggets give him a real runway. The challenge now is simple: he has to earn that runway in camp first.
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 Enter A Make-Or-Break Season For Key Rotation Pieces
The Nuggets are heading into a season that feels especially consequential for the middle of the rotation, with several familiar names now carrying extra weight beyond the usual nightly production. Julian Strawther, Cameron Johnson and Aaron Gordon are all entering the final year of their contracts, which gives Denvers front office a chance to sort through not just fit and performance, but the longer-term shape of the roster as the team looks to rebound from recent playoff exits.
For some of those players, the stakes are different but equally real. Strawther needs to show he can keep carving out a role, while Johnson arrives with the sort of profile that can make teams think hard about value and flexibility. Gordon, meanwhile, remains one of the most important pieces on the roster, but his standing could hinge on whether he can stay on the court after a season limited to 36 games, leaving Denver with another important decision to monitor as the year unfolds. [Read more 🡒]