The Denver Nuggets are only about six weeks from opening the 2026-27 regular season, and their roster picture is already starting to sharpen. The top of the depth chart looks familiar, but the second unit has been reshaped enough that Denver’s rotation could take on a noticeably different feel.
At the heart of it, the Nuggets still appear set to lean on the same core that carried them a season ago. The biggest changes this offseason were aimed more at the bench than the starting group, which is why the first five looks fairly straightforward heading into opening night.
Jamal Murray is the obvious choice at point guard. There’s no real mystery there after he delivered the best season of his career in 2025-26, earning his first All-Star nod and first All-NBA selection. With Denver short on guard depth, his role is as secure as it gets.
Christian Braun also looks locked in at shooting guard. After what was described as a less-than-ideal 2025-26 campaign, he enters this season with a full offseason to get healthy and try to build on the production he already put on the table. The Nuggets are expected to keep him in the starting five and hope the $125 million extension starts to look even better.
Cameron Johnson projects as the small forward, even with DeMar DeRozan now in the mix. Johnson’s off-ball game makes him a cleaner fit alongside Murray and Nikola Jokic, while DeRozan appears better suited to lead the second unit as a sixth man.
Aaron Gordon is the likely starter at power forward if he can stay on the floor. The source notes that playing more than 40 regular-season games would be a major boost for Denver, but when he’s healthy, he remains a natural fit at the four.
And then there’s Nikola Jokic, the anchor of everything. After six straight top-two MVP finishes, he enters the season with a chance to add another one, provided the Nuggets stay on track in the Western Conference and he keeps producing at the level he showed in 2025-26.
Where the Nuggets get more difficult to project is the bench. A number of pieces from last year’s second unit are gone, and Denver has reworked that group with the hope of avoiding a drop-off.
One issue stands out immediately: the team doesn’t have a dependable backup point guard to lean on. Tyus Jones is still on the roster, but he wasn’t a rotation regular for Denver after his buyout last season.
Because of that, a nine-man rotation may be the cleanest path for David Adelman, possibly even one without a guard coming off the bench. In that setup, DeRozan would slide in as the sixth man. He could still close games on certain nights or even crack the starting five at times, but when everyone is healthy, the bench role seems like the best fit for a scorer and offensive engine of his caliber.
Spencer Jones should also be in line for real minutes. The Nuggets need better defense, and Jones is expected to help supply it. He appeared in 64 games last season and averaged 22 minutes per night, and those numbers should rise if the rotation unfolds the way Denver wants.
Julian Strawther is another name poised to benefit from the reshuffled roster. He was squeezed out of last year’s rotation because of the depth Denver had in place, but this season gives him a clearer lane. With several of those obstacles gone, Strawther enters a contract year with a chance to make the kind of leap he’s been waiting for.
The final spot in the projected nine-man group comes down to the backup center role, where the choice appears to be between DaRon Holmes and Marvin Bagley. Holmes, Denver’s first-round pick from three summers ago, could get the first look because the team still sees upside there. But Bagley is right there as the veteran option, and if Holmes doesn’t seize the job, Bagley could end up owning it by season’s end.
In Other News...
Nuggets Explored More In Peyton Watson Trade Than Fans Realized
The Nuggets decision to move Peyton Watson was not simply a clean trade for future draft capital, even if that is how it ultimately came together. Around the league, Denver did more homework on the market than many fans realized, weighing whether a player return might make more sense before settling on the simpler path of picks. With the roster and payroll already shaped by a championship timeline, the front office had to balance short-term help against the flexibility it wants to preserve.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kris Dunn were both part of the broader conversation as Denver looked at possible sign-and-trade structures, but the Nuggets never reached the point of making official offers. Salary-cap complications loomed over every version of the idea, and the teams preference for draft capital over added salary pushed the deal toward a cleaner finish. What seemed like a straightforward asset swap, then, was actually the end result of a more complicated search that may say as much about Denvers roster-building priorities as the trade itself. [Read more 🡒]
Nuggets Just Added A Veteran Scorer With A Lot Riding On It
Denvers offseason suddenly got a lot more interesting with the reported addition of DeMar DeRozan, a veteran scorer whose rsum still carries real weight around the league. The six-time All-Star became a free agent after being waived by Sacramento, and the Nuggets are now set to bring him in on a one-year deal that adds another proven option to a roster built around Nikola Jokic, Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray.
The move gives Denver 14 players on guaranteed contracts and pushes the team over the second luxury tax apron, a sign the front office is willing to pay for a chance to strengthen the rotation around its core. DeRozan has spent much of his career as a half-court shot creator and late-game bucket-getter, exactly the kind of veteran presence that can change the texture of a playoff series if everything clicks. [Read more 🡒]
Nuggets Still Have One Defensive Problem They Never Truly Fixed
The Nuggets spent the offseason trying to clean up a problem that was plain enough during their first-round loss to Minnesota: their paint defense still left too much to be desired. Rather than solve it with a direct roster move, they moved forward with internal adjustments, bringing in defensive assistant Dave Joerger and adding Alpha Diallo as a strong defender while hoping better scheme and sharper positioning can make the difference.
Joergers arrival gives Denver another voice in the room as it looks for ways to protect the rim without fundamentally changing the roster around it. Diallo adds a perimeter stopper the team can lean on, but the bigger question remains whether the Nuggets can turn coaching tweaks and better discipline into a real answer in the lane, where opponents found too much comfort last spring. [Read more 🡒]