Centennial, the Nuggets Are Building for Another Run

Preseason basketball rarely tells us who will be holding a trophy in June, but it can tell us what a team is trying to become. For the Denver Nuggets, that makes these early games especially interesting.

Denver enters the 2026-27 season with Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon still at the center of the operation, but the pieces around them have changed. After three consecutive playoff exits that came earlier than the organization hoped, the Nuggets are once again trying to turn one of basketball’s most talented cores into another championship run.

The biggest offseason addition is six-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan, who gives Denver another veteran scorer capable of creating offense when possessions slow down. He joins a roster that also added Marvin Bagley III and other new faces around the established trio of Jokić, Murray and Gordon. That makes preseason more meaningful than the final scores suggest. The Nuggets already know what Jokić can do. They know Murray can take over games, and they know Gordon can provide physicality, defense and timely scoring. The larger question is how the pieces around them fit together when the games begin to count.

Denver split its first two preseason games against the Utah Jazz, following a 109-97 loss in Boulder with a 117-106 victory in Salt Lake City. Aaron Gordon offered one of the more encouraging performances in the second meeting, scoring 18 points on five-of-seven shooting while adding five rebounds in just over 15 minutes. Jokić also played a limited preseason workload, finishing with six points, four rebounds and five assists in a little more than 16 minutes.

Of course, every preseason box score comes with a giant disclaimer. Coaches are experimenting, veterans are playing limited minutes, lineups are changing quickly, and winning matters considerably less than discovering combinations that might work once the regular season begins. Still, seeing Gordon moving well is encouraging, especially after injuries interrupted parts of his previous seasons.

DeRozan may become the most intriguing piece of Denver’s experiment. Jokić has spent years turning teammates into better offensive players because of his passing, vision and ability to create opportunities from seemingly nowhere. DeRozan brings something different. He has spent his career creating his own shot, operating in the midrange and giving teams a reliable scoring option when an offense becomes stuck. Put those two skill sets together and Denver could have another answer for those late-game possessions when playoff basketball becomes slower, tighter and considerably less forgiving.

The Nuggets return to Ball Arena for another preseason test before finishing out the exhibition schedule and turning their attention to the regular season. That is when the real evaluation begins.

Denver is not entering this season simply hoping to make the playoffs. With Jokić still performing at an elite level and Murray and Gordon firmly in their primes, the window to compete for another championship is open right now. That is what makes October interesting.

Nobody needs Jokić to prove he can pass. Nobody needs Murray to prove he can score in pressure situations. The Nuggets need to discover whether the roster around them is deep enough, versatile enough and healthy enough to survive the Western Conference.

Preseason will not answer that question, but it is where the answer begins taking shape.

For Centennial basketball fans, the sneakers are squeaking again, Ball Arena is waking up, and another Nuggets season is almost ready for the games that count.