The league’s board of governors voted last week to institute a new system known as the “,” diminishing the worst teams’ odds of being awarded the No. 1 overall draft pick. The changes — which are designed to disincentivize teams from intentionally losing for draft positioning — will take effect in 2027.

• Sixteen teams will be in the lottery, up from 14 in the old system.
• A lottery drawing will be held to determine all 16 picks, rather than just the first four. (In the old system, Nos. 5-14 were determined by worst record in order of the remaining teams that did not receive a top-four pick in the lottery drawing.)
• The bottom three teams in the NBA can pick no lower than 12th. The remaining lottery teams can pick anywhere between No. 1 and No. 16.
• The bottom three teams in the NBA have only two lottery balls, resulting in a 5.4% chance of receiving the No. 1 overall pick and a 16% chance of getting a top-three pick. The seven remaining teams that miss the Play-In Tournament have three lottery balls, meaning an 8.1% chance at the No. 1 pick and a 24% chance of landing in the top three.
• The No. 9 and No. 10 Play-In seeds in each conference will receive two lottery balls each (same odds as the bottom three teams in the league), while the losers of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 Play-In games in each conference will receive one lottery ball each.

Nuggets team president and KSE vice chairman Josh Kroenke was on the competition committee that mulled over various solutions to the years-long tanking epidemic. But for the most part, the Nuggets have watched this issue take hold of the league from a safe distance, perched above the lower class of the league’s perpetual pursuit of the next superstar. They already have theirs. Nikola Jokic is coming off a sixth straight year as either MVP or runner-up, and Denver possesses the longest active streak of playoff appearances in the Western Conference at eight years. Tanking has not crossed this team’s mind in quite some time.

Still, the 3-2-1 reform will have ripple effects across the NBA — among them, a recontextualization of recent transactions.

Trade value on future draft picks

One widely anticipated downwind result of this new system is that the perceived trade value of future draft picks will change. First-round picks that belong specifically to the very worst teams will be less valuable than ever. But those odds have subsequently been redistributed, introducing more randomness than ever before (especially with 16 teams in the mix, instead of 14). That means more hope for more teams. Most first-rounders should therefore heighten in value, as middle-class teams will feel more inclined to keep their picks and cross their fingers.

Owning a high quantity of picks gives you a better chance at franchise-changing luck than owning one high-quality pick (or one that was previously considered high-quality). Stockpiling first-rounders in bulk is advantageous. Two teams in the West have done that especially well over the last few years, it just so happens: Oklahoma City and San Antonio.

Denver’s two most threatening adversaries in the conference have . That’s near-infinite flexibility to continue building through the draft, or to pursue upgrades on the trade market, or to pivot around the tax apron.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets are the only team in the league without a single trade-eligible future first-round pick. (The ones they do own, they’re forbidden from trading because of the Stepien Rule that requires teams to own at least one first-rounder every other year.)

Denver is allowed to trade this year’s pick (No. 26) on draft night, but the front office’s flexibility is severely limited beyond that. Only two future seconds are available to trade. Former general manager Calvin Booth made it his annual strategy to sacrifice future draft capital for immediate late first-round and early second-round talent — players he believed could be plug-and-play contributors for a championship team, such as Peyton Watson, Julian Strawther, Jalen Pickett and DaRon Holmes II. Those four players combined to log 26 minutes in Denver’s first-round playoff series against the Timberwolves this year.

The Nuggets were particularly cavalier with second-rounders in the 2024 offseason, which turned out to be Booth’s last at the helm. They sacrificed 2024, 2026 and 2031 picks to move up six spots and get Holmes 22nd overall. They also traded their 2025, 2029 and 2030 seconds to salary-dump Reggie Jackson and make room on the depth chart for Russell Westbrook. Their 2027 and 2028 second-round picks were already owed to other teams at that point.

The good news: The 2027 and 2029 first-round picks that Denver traded in recent years are top-five protected, in case the Nuggets slip into one of the 16 lottery spots. The bad news: Both picks are owed to … Oklahoma City.

Lucky timing for the Spurs

Another rule being implemented: Teams cannot draft No. 1 overall in consecutive years, nor can they be awarded a top-five pick in the lottery for three consecutive years. The idea here is to dissuade teams from prolonging their rebuilds.

But unfortunately for the Nuggets and other championship contenders, it’s all happening a little too late to slow down the Spurs.

Their meteoric rise to the NBA Finals required more than one stroke of luck. After San Antonio drafted Victor Wembanyama with the No. 1 pick in 2023, it received the No. 4 pick in 2024 (Stephon Castle) and the No. 2 pick in 2025 (Dylan Harper). That would no longer be permitted under the new system. But it worked out swimmingly for the Spurs: Their trio of top-five picks combined for 50 points on 50% shooting in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals last weekend.

Fewer tanking teams

Teams at the bottom of the standings will now be incentivized to win late in the season, as they’ll want to avoid having their lottery odds relegated. This, of course, is the core principle of all these rule changes. Tanking teams got more creative this past season, even benching high scorers for the fourth quarter of close games.

The Nuggets went 23-6 against the 10 teams that missed the Play-In Tournament. Their 12-game win streak to finish the regular season included four games against those teams.

There won’t be as many “easy” wins on the schedule going forward.

The harsh reality is that very few players available for the veteran minimum salary end up impacting teams at a championship level. Expecting to improve from good to great merely by signing guys out of the bargain bin is a fool’s errand.

But a clever vet minimum acquisition can pay dividends over the course of a season. The Nuggets have pulled off two of the savviest signings of the last two years, in terms of regular-season production relative to salary. Russell Westbrook was a chaotic but dynamic player in 2024-25, shouldering a high usage rate and playing a huge part in Denver’s first-round playoff series against the Clippers. In the next free agency cycle, a new front office scooped up Tim Hardaway Jr., who proceeded to shoot 40.7% from 3-point range and finish in third place for Sixth Man of the Year.

Both players ultimately struggled in the playoff rounds that ended Denver’s 2025 and 2026 seasons — a reminder that role player output is fickle, and that even the successful minimum signings shouldn’t be over-relied on during a series. But that doesn’t change the fact that both players were essential in their own ways to Denver’s survival of the 82-game grind.

Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer will need to make use of the veteran minimum again this summer as they seek creative ways to assemble a competitive bench despite likely payroll restraints. If the Nuggets shed enough salary via a trade, they might be able to open up part of , giving them a little more spending money to throw at free agents. But for the most part, they’ll be working on the minimum scale. (A player’s minimum salary is dependent on his service time in the league, but his cap hit is a fixed number regardless of experience beyond two years, so that teams aren’t incentivized to choose younger players just for the cap space. Next year’s projected vet minimum cap hit is $2.45 million.)

One advantage the Nuggets have as they try to pitch players? Evidence of countless others who’ve benefited statistically and financially from playing alongside Nikola Jokic. We’ve compiled a list of 20 free agents they could try to lure to Denver this summer. For the sake of the exercise, we’re only looking at potential newcomers here — not Denver’s own free agents, who are also candidates to re-sign (Hardaway, Peyton Watson, Spencer Jones, Bruce Brown, Tyus Jones).

LeBron James, Lakers F

Look, what kind of a list would this be if we didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to start with LeBron?

Let’s preface by recognizing this is probably not happening. If James signs for the minimum outside of Los Angeles this offseason (and that’s a big “if”), it’s way more likely to be somewhere that A) maximizes his chances of going out with a fifth championship (*coughs* Eastern Conference), and B) has either some emotional resonance (*coughs again* Cleveland) or historical gravitas (*something must’ve gone down the wrong pipe* New York). And that’s all if the conveniently located incumbent team with ample cap space and his son on the roster doesn’t make enough of an effort to retain him for one last contract.

Alternatively for the Nuggets, there’s the sign-and-trade route — if they’re willing to get older while helping the Lakers get younger (Peyton Watson? Cam Johnson?), and if they can navigate the salary cap obstacles (you can’t complete a sign-and-trade if you’re in the second apron), and if James is onboard with the whole thing. In any case, a complex alignment of the stars would be required to get him to Denver.

But if you want to talk yourself into it, you can start with the fact that James and Josh Kroenke have a friendship that dates back years. Or that Kroenke once sent LeBron a Nuggets jersey in a cheeky attempt to recruit him to Denver. Or that Jokic’s Serbian agent, Misko Raznatovic, posted a photo to Instagram of him and LeBron on a boat last summer, captioned: “The summer of 2025 is the perfect time to make big plans for the fall of 2026!” Or that James has long admired Jokic’s basketball IQ and has seen it up close in three playoff clashes between their teams. Or that Jared Dudley, a former teammate and noted confidant of James, is David Adelman’s lead assistant coach. Or that to land the all-time great back in March. Anything is possible in a league where Luka Doncic can get traded to the Lakers in the middle of the night — maybe even something as wacky as LeBron leaving the Lakers for a less prestigious team in a landlocked smaller market.

Khris Middleton, Mavericks F

Denver pursued Middleton pretty aggressively before the buyout market deadline earlier this year. The three-time All-Star ultimately chose to play out the season in Dallas, where he had landed in February as part of the Anthony Davis trade. Once an NBA Finals hero for Milwaukee, Middleton turns 35 this offseason. He’s entering the twilight of his career. Does that mean he’ll be open to signing a cheap deal with a contender? He’s worth revisiting as Denver goes looking for ball-handlers who can take over the scoring load on a random Tuesday in January when Jamal Murray is out.

Collin Sexton, Bulls G

Sexton can probably get paid more than the minimum if he wants. But the 27-year-old combo guard has never appeared in a playoff game, and Denver is a winning team in need of his specific talents. He’s a quick driver with a bit of maniacal competitive energy to him. That personality has never really experienced the NBA spotlight, though, as Sexton has spent eight years in the wilderness of several rebuilds. If the Nuggets are feeling ambitious, he’s the kind of player they could try to convince to take a cheap, short-term contract — a “prove it” year that could parlay into more money later.

Nikola Vucevic, Celtics C

The Jonas Valanciunas experiment was smooth enough in the regular season, but underwhelming in the playoffs. The Nuggets are unlikely to bring him back at a non-guaranteed salary of $10 million. They’ll need a new backup center, especially if they remain reluctant to play DaRon Holmes II. Can they find another veteran innings-eater for less money than they paid the last one? Vucevic would make a lot of sense. A trade deadline acquisition for Boston on a $20 million expiring salary, he never established a consistent role in a frontcourt with two younger centers. If a handful of contenders recruit the 35-year-old Montenegrin, his friendship with Jokic should give Denver an upper hand. Vucevic is certainly flawed (especially on defense), but he’s also a viable five-out big man and a vocal locker room leader.

Bogdan Bogdanovic, Clippers G

Speaking of Jokic’s friends, how about his longtime partner in crime on the Serbian national team? Bogdanovic has a $17 million team option next season. The Clippers might want to pick up the option to use it in a salary match for a trade, but if they choose to let him walk instead, he could be drawn to Denver, where he would be an affordable bench option. Bogdanovic seems to be a scorer in relative decline, but maybe he can capture some of that Serbian pick-and-roll chemistry with Jokic.

Keon Ellis, Cavaliers G

After getting traded from Sacramento to Cleveland this February, Ellis didn’t get as much playoff run as expected with the Cavaliers. The Nuggets could look to add some point-of-attack defense on the perimeter with the 26-year-old wing if he doesn’t want to re-sign with the Cavs.

Gabe Vincent, Hawks G

Vincent is coming off a down year that saw him shoot just 35.2% from the field while getting traded from Los Angeles to Atlanta. He turns 30 this summer.

Matisse Thybulle, Trail Blazers G

How much do the Blazers want to spend on a wild card like Thybulle as they take their next steps toward contending? He guards at a high level — when he plays. His durability has become a major concern, on top of his offensive limitations, as he has played only 45 games over the last two years. Maybe his value hasn’t dipped all the way into minimum territory, but he’s another dynamic defender the Nuggets might want to keep an eye on.

Gary Payton II, Warriors G

The Golden State veteran could add leadership and defense if he finds a new home this offseason. Wherever he ends up, it’ll likely be on a minimum contract. Fellow Warriors guards De’Anthony Melton (player option) and Seth Curry could also be on the market, as their team faces an uncertain future of building around Seth’s brother.

Jordan Goodwin, Suns F

Waived by the Lakers last summer, Goodwin found a home in Phoenix, where the former two-way player continued to develop as a reliable 3-and-D rotation player. The Suns might just do everything in their power to retain him.

Aaron Holiday, Rockets G

Long ago, the Nuggets were in trade talks to acquire Jrue Holiday before he went to Milwaukee. They had Justin Holiday on their roster two years ago when they tied a franchise record with 57 wins. The third Holiday brother is on the market this summer after averaging 11.2 minutes for Houston in the playoffs.

Jordan Clarkson, Knicks G

The 34-year-old scoring guard averaged 8.6 points in 17.8 minutes with New York this season. His minutes have predictably decreased in the playoffs, but he’s headed to his second career NBA Finals nonetheless. Nuggets connection: Clarkson and Josh Kroenke share University of Missouri basketball roots.

Guerschon Yabusele, Bulls F

There’s been a lot of smoke involving Yabusele and a return to Europe. If he stays in the NBA, though, Denver is a landing spot that might appeal to the French power forward after bouncing between Philly, New York and Chicago over the last two seasons.

Andre Drummond, 76ers C

Another backup center option. Drummond was in trade rumors around the deadline, but nothing came of them. (Instead, Philadelphia ducked the luxury tax by handing over Jared McCain to the best team in the league.) There are a few free agent bigs who are probably out of Denver’s price range (Mitchell Robinson, Robert Williams III, Kristaps Porzingis). Drummond, like Vucevic, is sort of in that next tier — affordable former All-Stars who can give you a short stint of minutes each half. For a younger alternative? Perhaps Marvin Bagley III (27), who finished the season strong in Dallas.

Harrison Barnes, Spurs F

Barnes’ on-court role decreased throughout the year, but there’s no reason to think the Spurs won’t want him back anyway for his locker room leadership. If he has the choice between signing a minimum in San Antonio or in Denver, he seems more likely to stay where he’s at. Not a shabby situation down there in Texas.

Josh Okogie, Rockets G

Okogie played well on a one-year minimum deal in Houston. In fact, he might’ve played himself out of needing to sign for the minimum again this summer. If he doesn’t have enough of a market to get the taxpayer mid-level exception, Denver could swoop in and pursue the 3-and-D wing who’ll be 28 on opening day.

Jeff Green, Rockets F

We started this list with the oldest active player in the NBA. We’ll finish it with the fifth-oldest. Not only was Green a valued presence on Denver’s 2023 championship team; he’s also a close friend and former college roommate of Nuggets co-general manager Jon Wallace.

Nuggets center Nikola Jokic finished in second place in the 2025-26 MVP vote, the league announced Sunday night. In what was widely regarded as a three-horse race, Jokic was a distant runner-up but extended his streak of top-two finishes to six consecutive years, joining Bill Russell and Larry Bird as the only players to do so.

Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was crowned MVP for the second straight season. San Antonio Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama, just 22 years old, placed third. He was also named Defensive Player of the Year last month. The Spurs and Thunder are set to compete in the Western Conference Finals starting Monday night.

The award is decided by a panel of 100 voters who cover the NBA and its teams for various local, national and international media outlets. Jokic appeared on all 100 ballots, earning 10 first-place votes and 48 second-place nods. He was third on 37 ballots, fourth on four, fifth on one.

Gilgeous-Alexander received the lion’s share of the first-place votes with 83. Wembanyama got five votes for first. Ballots are submitted before the playoffs begin, ensuring that only the regular season is taken into account — meaning that Denver’s first-round exit had no bearing on the tally this year.

Jokic averaged 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds and 10.7 assists per game, marking the seventh time in NBA history that a player has averaged a triple-double. Jokic, Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson are the only players to accomplish the feat. Jokic has done it two seasons in a row.

He shot 56.9% from the field, 38% from 3-point range and 83.1% from the foul line, good for a 67% true shooting clip that ranked fifth in the league. At 66.5%, Gilgeous-Alexander was the only non-center to rank in the top eight. He averaged 31.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 6.6 assists for the defending champion and first-place Thunder.

Jokic’s season was split in two parts by a knee injury he suffered on Dec. 29, 2025, in Miami. Before he limped off the court with a bone bruise, he was averaging 29.6 points on 67% shooting inside the arc and 43.5% shooting outside it. After he returned a month later, his scoring dropped to 25.8 points per game at a 60.3% clip from 2-point range and an inefficient 31.9% mark from deep.

His shooting splits were even worse in the playoffs — 55.3% from two, 19.4% from three as the Timberwolves eliminated Denver in six games. The Serbian big man struggled to contend with four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert for most of the series. The Nuggets failed to advance to the second round for the first time since 2022.

Jokic has won three regular-season MVPs in his career, in addition to NBA Finals MVP in 2023 when he led Denver to its first championship. He’s eligible to sign a contract extension this summer.

Is Adelman the right guy for the job? And the team? I don’t think so.

— Sam C, via email

The team seems to be a collection of disparate personalities. … Was Michael Malone the secret to the team’s success? He seemed uniquely tuned in to how to handle these very different players’ needs for guidance (until the conflict with Calvin Booth eclipsed that). Adelman seems more like a passionless technician who can’t or won’t work on meshing the team’s personalities. The team’s lack of in-game fire compared to peak Malone has me wondering.

— Casey, Denver

I’ve heard this sentiment a lot recently, and I find it a little misguided. Last week, I came across the video of Jamal Murray’s 2024 playoff buzzer-beater to beat the Lakers. It’s one of the most memorable games I’ve covered on the Nuggets beat (top three at minimum?), so of course I was instantly reeled in by the highlight. My eyes wandered to Denver’s bench, studying the reactions as Murray released the shot and fell backward into his teammates. Perhaps the most animated of all is the bald guy with the clipboard who jumps for joy and punches the air.

Evidence of Adelman’s emotion is pretty easy to find unless you willfully ignore it. Players have said on the record that he can be startlingly direct with them, that he wields an intensity but reserves it for behind the scenes. “I probably seem pretty calm, but I am kind of psychotic sometimes,” he said himself in March, before the calmness became a popular criticism.

From my point of view as The Media, accusing Adelman of being passionless or unable to motivate his players just because he’s usually a more stoic sideline presence and a less fiery postgame quote than his predecessor is unfair to the position he’s in.

Michael Malone lost the locker room largely because his fire-and-brimstone approach to the job grated on players. That’s not to discount his coaching chops or his accomplishments in Denver — his name will be in the rafters someday, and rightfully so — but it’s just the reality of how his tenure ended. When he blasted his team’s effort at press conferences, it might’ve felt satisfying to fans watching on TV who felt the same way. But to many players, it sparked frustration, not inspiration. Adelman took over the job with that needle to thread. By nature, he’s certainly a cooler head than Malone to begin with, but he also had to be a little reticent about calling players out publicly.

He did criticize the Nuggets for their effort two or three times this season — he wasn’t completely unwilling to do so — but he was conservative with those bullets. By firing fewer of them, the times he did felt more revealing, from my perspective as the person who was often eliciting postgame comments from him.

For the most part, he prioritized substance over style in his messaging. He didn’t shy away from the obvious when someone played poorly. He didn’t pretend Jamal Murray shot 80% from the field in a game if he shot 20%. He just didn’t discuss it with any bluster. He was matter-of-fact without being harsh on his players. His approach to media actually reminded me of Jared Bednar, whom I covered briefly on the Avalanche beat.

By no means am I saying Adelman is above criticism. Part of a head coach’s job is to be accountable for the team’s failures, and this Nuggets season unquestionably ended in failure. He’s earned praise over the years for being one of the masterminds behind a great offense; that means he must also be willing to accept blame when that offense sputters. He understands that. In his end-of-season presser last week, he pointed out that the Nuggets allowed Minnesota to guard their two-man game straight-up too much throughout the series, 2-on-2 with Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels, reducing Denver’s shot quality. Role players didn’t get as many open looks. Nikola Jokic and Murray didn’t sufficiently bring weaker defenders into the action. That’s part execution, part coaching. Jokic, Murray and Adelman needed to be better.

But I think there’s a difference between criticizing him for that and ridiculing him for his measured approach, which was a key reason his employers hired him and a reason his employees advocated for him last summer. Arguably the most important aspect of being an NBA head coach today is managing personalities in a locker room with a payroll exceeding $200 million. You need your players to think highly of you. As of now, the two most important people in the building do. And that’s more important than the court of public opinion.

Based on last year’s moves during the offseason, what letter grade would you have given our front office at the time? What is our dynamic duo/power of friendship front office’s letter grade potential this offseason?

— Madalynn, Denver

Without literally grading them, I essentially gave Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace an “A” last summer. They managed to simultaneously improve the depth of the roster and decrease the payroll — a balancing act that satisfied their fans, their star player and their bosses in the owner’s suite.

In hindsight, there are a few decisions that sting. They had to part with an unprotected first-round pick to swap Michael Porter Jr.’s controversial contract for Cam Johnson’s more modest salary. That’s an asset they’d like to have now, even if Johnson ultimately outperformed Porter in recent playoff games.

The Jonas Valanciunas, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown acquisitions were successful in the regular season but disappointing against Minnesota. Valanciunas, in particular, was out of the rotation for most of the series — but it’s not like Tenzer and Wallace were kicking themselves, wishing they had kept Dario Saric as they watched Game 4 fall apart.

The Nuggets also swayed Russell Westbrook into declining his player option by telling him he wasn’t wanted back for a second season. That decision looks bad on paper now, especially when athleticism and ball-handling have been pinpointed as 2026 offseason priorities. But I still feel inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one, because efficient ball-handling is what they really need. Westbrook’s recklessness was costly last year. His turnover rate caused a lot of headaches internally.

Choosing to keep Spencer Jones for a second season on a two-way contract ended up being a huge win. The Nuggets should want to make sure they keep him in restricted free agency this summer.

And speaking of restricted free agency, the obvious winner for most regrettable decision one year later was choosing Christian Braun’s extension over Peyton Watson’s. It seemed like a self-explanatory decision at the time. Now Braun is coming off his worst season, and Watson is coming off his best.

It will be much more difficult for Tenzer and Wallace to earn an “A” this year. The payroll restraints are far more inhibitive, and the most likely outcome — as I see it — is that Denver will tip off the 2026-27 season with a noticeably worse roster than the 2025-26 team.

Who can you see leaving the Nuggets roster in the offseason?

— Ed, Auburn, New York

Apologies for the temporary cop-out answer, Ed, but I’m planning to write a more in-depth answer to this exact question soon. (That’s right, it’s a shameless plug for another story that is yet to be written.) Without going into detail on my reasoning, my educated guess is that Denver loses Cam Johnson and one other top-six player.

Which season-ending loss to Minnesota was worse: 2024 Game 7 (blowing a 20-point lead at home) or 2026 Game 6 (no Ant, Donte or Ayo)?

— Lucas, via email

Perfect way to wrap this up: with the most self-loathing question of the day. We appreciate your vulnerability, Lucas. We’ve all been there as sports fans at one time or another.

My take is 2024. After Denver was eliminated a couple of weeks ago, I wrote: “The 2024 loss stung because the Nuggets knew they were good enough to win the championship. The 2026 loss stings because they were jolted awake to the unforeseen reality that they weren’t good enough.”

The former is going to be more painful to reckon with over time, I think. If the Nuggets end up winning only one championship with Jokic, there are two critical moments that Coloradans will look back on as the tragic what-ifs. First will be Murray’s ACL injury, which sidelined him for the 2021 and 2022 playoffs, neither of which ended with a particularly dominant, convincing champion (Milwaukee and Golden State). Second will be that second-round Game 7 in 2024.

Obviously, there’s no telling what would have happened next. But the Nuggets won a franchise-record 57 games that season with the same starting five that won the title. They ranked in the top 10 in defensive rating, which feels impossible to imagine now. They would’ve been clear favorites to beat the fifth-seeded Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals. And in the NBA Finals, they would’ve faced an elite Boston team that had lost to them twice in the regular season. At minimum, I think NBA fans missed out on a potential classic series, regardless of who would’ve won.

This year, the Nuggets dug their grave on the last night of the regular season, whether they care to admit it or not. They weren’t going to knock out Minnesota, San Antonio, Oklahoma City and New York consecutively. Especially after they fell behind 2-1 to the Wolves in a series they needed to end quickly. Losing to such a depleted team might be more embarrassing, but decades from now, it won’t be as haunting.

As he caught a pass from Nikola Jokic and began to uncork a 3-pointer moments later, his old friend suddenly lunged toward him and shouted, doing his part to distract the open shooter. But Braun was ready for it. “When I catch the ball in the corner, they say the same exact thing every single time,” he said. “So I’ve come to expect it. … It’s a lot of different things from different people. So I try to pick out one or two things that I hear and go for that person.”

Usually, that person is Bones Hyland.

Braun drained the shot and pointed at his former Nuggets teammate. It was the first quarter of Game 1 between Denver and Minnesota, and the trash talk was already flying both directions.

“I’m pretty close with Bones, from when he was here. So he’s obviously a really good dude, and I love going back and forth with him,” Braun explained. “It was funny because I think in the preseason, it was the same exact thing. I caught it in the corner, hit a shot, turned around, looked at him — and it just feels so familiar. Playing these guys. We’ve played them so many times.”

The Nuggets and Timberwolves can’t seem to escape each other. Not in the regular season, when they face off four times as division opponents. Not in the offseason, when their coaching staffs and front offices regularly trade places. And not in the NBA playoffs, where they’re meeting for the third time in four years.

Not all NBA rivalries are created equal. This one has persisted long enough to stand tall as arguably the most compelling of the 2020s. In large part because the only feeling more satisfying than defeating your enemies is that of defeating your friends.

“It’s weird to shake their hands after the series,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said, “because you know those guys so well. But during it, it’s kind of, ‘See you in a couple of weeks.'”

Tim Connelly’s fingerprints on both rosters

The staff connections were already endless, and they’ve somehow expanded over the last year. Most of them were related to Tim Connelly, Minnesota’s president of basketball operations, who previously ran Denver’s front office for nine years. He was the Nuggets’ lead executive when they drafted Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.; when they hired Michael Malone; when they traded for Aaron Gordon. He was the chief architect of a championship team. But he walked away from Denver less than a year before his vision was realized, taking the Timberwolves job in 2022. Jokic still stays in touch with him.

“I think people see Tim as a general manager, but he is a really good person, really good friend,” the star center said last week. “So I wish people (could) know Tim. Like, (so they) don’t look at Tim as a general manager.”

Connelly took Jon Wallace with him to Minnesota. Wallace had joined the Nuggets in 2019 as a basketball operations associate — a low-level role that included building relationships with players. (Connelly introduced him and Murray via group chat, sparking a friendship.) Then last June, the Nuggets snatched Wallace back from Minnesota, hiring him as their new co-general manager alongside his friend Ben Tenzer — another longtime Connelly disciple who’d been a steady hand behind the scenes in Denver’s front office since 2013.

Wallace and Tenzer’s fingerprints are all over this Nuggets roster, even though they’ve only been in charge for 10 months. They brought in four new rotation players in their first offseason, including Bruce Brown — another link to the Nuggets-Wolves rivalry. It was he who said after Denver won the championship in 2023 that “our toughest series was Minnesota,” despite the first-round clash lasting only five games.

“Jon and Ben, they’re like family. We couldn’t be more proud,” Connelly told The Denver Post earlier this season. “It’s awesome, you know? Josh (Kroenke) has remained one of my best friends. To see Ben’s growth, to see Jon, his rapid ascent, and to see the team’s success, to see DA — there’s a tremendous sense of pride watching your buddies do such great things professionally. And they’re all just great guys. … Four times a year, I want to beat them, and the other 78, you won’t find a bigger Denver Nuggets home than ours.”

Connelly’s audacity as a lead executive has likewise been apparent throughout his time in Minnesota, even though the franchise-altering Anthony Edwards draft pick was before his time. When he traded four first-round picks for defensive stopper Rudy Gobert, he had Jokic specifically in mind. And his decision to partner with Gobert was a full-circle development dating back to his first week in Denver. In 2013, the Nuggets traded away Gobert’s draft rights to Utah for cash and a future second-round pick.

The connections run even deeper. Denver’s general manager before the Wallace-Tenzer tandem, Calvin Booth, ascended with the Timberwolves from 2013-17, first as a scout then as their director of player personnel. Connelly hired Booth away from Minnesota in 2017. Then Booth succeeded Connelly as Denver’s lead executive when Connelly left for Minnesota. Roster-building gamesmanship ensued between the rivals. In the 2024 NBA Draft, Denver originally possessed the 28th pick in the first round — one spot behind Minnesota. Booth was high on Dayton’s DaRon Holmes II, but he thought his former boss might nab the big man prospect at No. 27. Whether those suspicions were valid or a result of subterfuge by Connelly, the Nuggets ultimately traded up six spots to draft Holmes, sacrificing three future second-round picks.

First-year Nuggets coach David Adelman got his start in the NBA as a Timberwolves player development assistant under his dad, Hall of Famer Rick Adelman. JJ Barea was a player in Minnesota at the time and lived in the same building as David. They used to meet up for postgame beers to rehash the night and talk basketball — laying a groundwork, unbeknownst to them, for Adelman to hire Barea more than a decade later. Barea is now one of the top assistants on Denver’s staff, collaborating with Adelman on the offense.

Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch is a former Nuggets assistant under Malone. So is Micah Nori, Finch’s lead assistant. Nori and Jokic talked last week before the playoffs began, with Nori lamenting that he was sick of watching Jokic’s film. “We’ve definitely played, like, 40 times in the last three years against them,” Jokic agreed. They’ve exchanged a sizable amount of good-natured trash talk, both in private and public.

“We were together in the Summer League,” Jokic reminisced, “and he always made me run the lines. And I didn’t get the ball from him. He didn’t trust me at all. And then he always wants to take all the credit for my success right now.”

Hyland was on the Nuggets’ roster the year they won the championship, but he fell out of favor with veteran players and was shipped off to Los Angeles at the trade deadline that season. Three years later, he has found a home in Minnesota, where Connelly took him back. Hyland said this season that he feels no ill will toward the Nuggets. When he arrived at Ball Arena for Game 1 of the series last week, he and Tenzer greeted each other in the back hallways fondly.

Then the ball was tipped, and Hyland assumed his role as an irritant of Denver’s corner shooters.

“It’s fun, man,” Braun said. “They’re a really good team. They’re a competitive group. And this series between the two teams is always really fun for us. … Just a lot of familiar faces. So you bump into the same person a million times. That’s kind of what happens. So it’s a fun series, and I think both sides enjoy playing each other.”

“I kind of felt it in preseason, to be honest with you,” said Tim Hardaway Jr., a newcomer to the rivalry. “Just how kind of physical it would be. Both ends of the floor.”

The players have increasingly bought in over the years, even those without as many connections to the other city. Edwards taunted Nuggets fans at the end of Minnesota’s Game 7 win in 2024, getting on Jokic’s nerves in the process. Regular-season games have turned into classics since then. There was Russell Westbrook’s missed layup in double-overtime. There was Jokic’s 56-point Christmas masterpiece this season, which ended with a frustrated Edwards getting ejected and laughed at by Ball Arena.

Jaden McDaniels upped the stakes this week when he called out several Nuggets players by name, labeling them bad defenders. The Wolves backed up his talk with a Game 3 rout. A first-round series to settle the score had taken another dramatic emotional swing, as these matchups between the Nuggets and Timberwolves tend to do.

“Just playing Denver,” McDaniels said afterward, “really motivates us.”

Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama are the other two finalists. Gilgeous-Alexander is considered a heavy favorite to win the award for a second straight season. Jokic was the runner-up to him in 2025.

The winner is usually announced early in the second round of the NBA playoffs.

Jokic, 31, joined Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson as the only players to average a triple-double for an entire season last year. Now he has accomplished the feat twice in a row, after averaging 27.7 points per game and leading the league in rebounds (12.9) and assists (10.7). If he finishes first or second place, he’ll join Bill Russell and Larry Bird as the only players to with six straight top-two seasons. He has won three times in his 11-year NBA career.

Jokic secured his eligibility for the accolade by playing his 65th game on the last night of the regular season, narrowly meeting the NBA’s quota to appear on awards ballots. He missed four weeks in January after hyperextending his left knee and suffering a bone bruise.

The league unveiled the three leading vote getters for all of its individual awards Sunday. Two other Nuggets were recognized. Tim Hardaway Jr. is a finalist for Sixth Man of the Year alongside Miami’s Jaime Jaquez and San Antonio’s Keldon Johnson. Jamal Murray is up for Clutch Player of the Year against Gilgeous-Alexander and Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards.

There were too many injuries, too many different lineups, too many untimely freak plays and clutch conundrums. The story of their year seemed well established by mid-March as one of repressed talent.

Yet here they were, pulling away from Memphis after halftime for a comfortable 136-119 win Wednesday, their tenth in a row for the first time in Nikola Jokic’s illustrious 11-year NBA career. The Serbian big man has won three MVP trophies. He has shepherded Denver to a championship. But never to a win streak this prolonged. The limit was always single digits. Until now, with two games to go in the 2025-26 regular season.

“I didn’t know that,” a surprised Jokic said afterward.

“I had no idea that was the case, and I’ve been here for (almost) all those years,” coach David Adelman added. “I don’t know (why we haven’t). I’ve been around aggressive losing streaks before in Minnesota, and they just last forever and ever. So this has been unique. This whole season has been unique, man. I feel like we played really well at the start, and then we survived for three months, and now we’re playing really well again. … Cool way to close it out with three to go. Hopefully momentum-building. It feels like it is, with the vibe of the group.”

The Nuggets (52-28) started their surge from a sixth-place vantage point in the Western Conference. They’ve spent three weeks riding the wave all the way to third, which they suddenly control by a game and a half over the ailing Los Angeles Lakers.

“I don’t think we cared about the standings,” Aaron Gordon said, “so much as we cared about how we were playing.”

Adelman was adamant his team was playing well before the streak even started brewing. In the most daunting week of their schedule, the Nuggets went 2-2, playing four games in four cities against four Western Conference playoff teams. Both losses were at the buzzer, decided by MVP candidates. Missed opportunities left a bitter sting. Players vented in the locker room about defensive inconsistency and situational decision-making after Luka Doncic’s game-winner in Los Angeles. Four days later, they stumbled out of bed into a back-to-back at Memphis and lost a dud.

That was their most recent defeat. Since then, a more friendly schedule — eight home games in the last 10, only one back-to-back, one top-six opponent in the West — has helped prove Adelman right. The signs were already there. The results were delayed.

“Anxiety was felt in the locker room that week,” Adelman reflected. “We knew what we were about to play against. And to have the game in LA end so crazy … you leave that week feeling like, OK, we’re where we’re supposed to be. We’re up there with this group of teams. Now let’s join them. Let’s go win some games and put ourselves in a good spot.”

Jokic amassed 14 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists by the end of the third quarter Wednesday. He didn’t touch the court in the fourth. It was his 34th triple-double of the season, tying last year’s career high, and the 198th of his career. With two games remaining, he has a chance to join Russell Westbrook as the only players in NBA history with 200. Westbrook reached the milestone at 36 years old as a Nugget. Whether Jokic does it this week or has to wait a few more months, he’ll be 31.

He’s also within two triple-doubles of Westbrook for the most in league history including playoff games (221 to 219).

“We just wanted to play good. … We need to play good and feel good about ourselves,” Jokic said of the streak, “just because the league is so talented. Anybody can beat everybody.”

The Nuggets have won six games involving clutch time during the streak, correcting a trend of fourth-quarter execution issues. (Jamal Murray has cited their rediscovered floor-spacing consistency, now that Gordon is back in the lineup.) They’ve gotten their turnover rate under control — an NBA-best 10.9% over the last 10 games, with three assists per turnover. Their overall offensive rating has also been tops in the league by a resounding 3.1 points per 100 possessions.

Defensively, they’ve been better situationally, yet they still rank 20th during the streak. They’re still stubbornly selective about when and for how long they care to exert maximum effort. They offered almost no 1-on-1 resistance in the first half Wednesday against a severely depleted Memphis team that’s counting down the days to the offseason. But their offense has been so unstoppable that their defense could afford to be lackluster, to a point.

Does that qualify as peaking at the right time? Does the timing of the win streak matter? Denver’s players and coaches remain acutely aware of the flaws that have lingered throughout these 10 games and are unlikely to go away in a playoff series.

“I think good teams kind of hang their hat on defense and force teams to play bad, and I think we need to do a better job of that,” Christian Braun said. “But peaking at the right time is probably a (real) thing, especially with health. For us right now, I think guys are starting to get healthy. … We want to peak at the right time health-wise.”‘

“Every season is different, you know?” Jamal Murray said. “I feel like we’re just trying to get everybody healthy. That’s the priority. This year, it’s just get everybody healthy. Get the defense right and get everybody in rhythm offensively. That’s what it is this year.”

Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones are the last to be playing catch-up from a health standpoint as Denver prepares for its final regular-season meetings with Oklahoma City and San Antonio. In the meantime, 10 is a round number worth appreciating in Adelman’s eyes. If nothing else, it’s a token of the Nuggets’ resilience at the end of a season that has felt longer and weirder than most. He remembers watching Houston’s 22-game win streak in 2008, when his dad was the head coach.

“They never looked at it like ‘the streak,'” he said. “They looked at it like, ‘We need to win the next game.’ That’s how these guys have been.”

And Draymond Green may be a lot of things. But the man’s no fool.

“What we’ve seen now is the tip of the iceberg (for Watson). He ain’t even scratched the surface yet,” “Peyton Watson is going to be an elite NBA player … so, y’all keep an eye out for Peyton Watson. That kid is going to be an All-Star. No questions asked.”

Exactly. And yet, because it’s April, because it’s “Where Will LeBron Play Next Year” season, silly questions give way to even sillier suggestions.

On Tuesday, longtime ESPN scribes Dave McMenamin and Tim Bontemps authored a piece for Worldwide Leader’s website — including one that featured the Nuggets. In it, they speculated that Denver and Los Angeles could work out a sign-and-trade that would see the Lakers land Peyton Watson (a former UCLA star and Long Beach native) or Cam Johnson for the King. This was backed by an unnamed source, a “West executive,” who suggested:

“Who is the only guy on (James’) level from a basketball IQ standpoint in the league? Go there and team up with that guy.”

‘There’ would be the Front Range. The ‘only guy’ would be Nikola Jokic. Fun? Sure. Flattering? No doubt. But for Watson? Who ships a 23-year-old player coming into their prime for a soon-to-be 42-year-old? Even if that middle-aged wonder is one of the best five guys to ever play the game?

Yes, Tom Brady won a Super Bowl at age 42. Barry Bonds, at the same age, led the National League in walks (132). Some 44 years earlier, a 42-year-old Warren Spahn led the National League in wins (23). Age is just a number.

Although the numbers in this scenario are bonkers. Especially when you consider that, odds are, James is staying put with the Lakers, popping back to the Cavaliers, or hanging it up. Of the ESPN.com hypotheticals, Denver was fifth on the list — and it’s hard to believe King James’ camp, once push comes to shove, would even have to dig that deep.

But let’s humor the concept for a second.

There’s the cost, for one thing. Watson is a restricted free agent after the season who’s made the Nuggets look bad for not giving him an extension earlier — putting up, as of Tuesday evening, career highs in points (14.9 per game) and rebounds. A show-stopping leaper and defender over his first three seasons on Chopper Circle, at age 23, he’s evolved into a foundational, two-way wing whose jumper now complements years of sky-walking athleticism. He’s also currently sporting a team-friendly $4.36 million cap number. That’s about to be tripled, or quadrupled, by somebody.

King James is slated to hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent coming off a $52.6 million cap hit this season following a $48.7 million hit in ’24-25. If he’s going to give any franchise a “hometown” discount, it’s more likely to be given to his actual hometown — Cleveland — than to the Nuggets. If the Kroenkes can’t afford Watson, how would they turn around and justify stretching the cap that much more for James?

There are the realities of the East vs. the West. If the King wants at least one more ring, more power to him. Oklahoma City’s core is young enough that they’re not going anywhere, and the Spurs with Victor Wembanyama are right behind them. The road back to the Finals in the East through Detroit, Boston and New York is far easier than the brutal hellscape of the current West bracket.

There’s the fit. Remember The Russell Westbrook Experience? Now picture that vibe, times about 50. As part of Team ‘Bron, the Joker might start seeing kinder foul calls come his way more consistently. But when you get The King, you get his demands, his parameters, his show. And maybe his family members, too. In some ways, it wouldn’t be all that unlike The Prime Effect at CU. And yet, this situation is markedly different than Boulder four years ago. The Buffs, at the time, needed an identity besides irrelevance and bad football. The Nuggets don’t.

On the court, James is an alpha who can play with anybody. If you squint hard enough, you can even see LeBron doing for the Nuggets next year what Aaron Gordon, whose health has become a daily concern, does now. Although so could Watson, at a price close to or less than James’ likely asking price.

The genius in building this Nuggets core was not just in finding Jokic and grooming him into a generational big man. It was also in finding pieces that accented Joker’s ridiculous, prodigious strengths (hands, feet, vision, touch, IQ, passing, shooting, ball-handling, strength, physicality, dexterity, anticipation, etc., etc.) while simultaneously lessening the impact of his few on-court weaknesses (rim protection, straight-line speed).

Jokic could find the open man in the middle of a crowded supermarket, so you surround him with excellent spot-up shooters (Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., Tim Hardaway Jr., Aaron Gordon, etc., etc.) and let him pick from several poisons. He can hit an earwig in stride from 80 yards away, so you give him superlative sprinters and finishers on runouts (Also Gordon, Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, Bruce Brown, etc., etc.). He’ll contest shots, but probably won’t swat many into the second row — so you pair him with defenders who can cut off the supply chain of drivers at the head (Also AG, also Watson, also Braun, also Brown, etc., etc.).

Even at age 41, King James is still an elite scoring machine (20.7 points per game as of Wednesday). That long-distance shooting, though, has been slipping — James’ 41% conversion rate on 3-pointers in ’23-24 dropped to 37.6% last season and was at 31.4% as of Wednesday, a dip of 10% over about three years.

Watson, meanwhile, is trending in the exact opposite direction on his treys. Two seasons ago? 29.6%. A year ago? 35.3%. This season, before Wednesday? 41.5%.

And then there’s the defense. , James went into Wednesday evening with a Defensive Rating (DR) of 116 opponent points allowed per 100 possessions (lower is better), and that number has been trending the wrong way, too. Last season, LeBron’s DR was 114, the same as the season before that. In ’22-23, that DR was 113. In ’21-22, it was 111. Career blocks per 100 possessions: 1.0 — 0.9 this season, 0.8 two years prior.

While Watson’s DR, per Basketball-Reference, Even in a “down” defensive year for P-Swat, he was blocking 1.9 shots per 100 possessions this season before the midweek Utah trip, after 2.7 stuffs per 100 possessions in ’24-25 and 2.9 per 100 in ’23-24.

“Peyton Watson has gotten so much better,” Green continued. “He clearly has a high-level processor. When you have a high-level processor in this league, it’s an advantage. It’s very understated, but a very big advantage.”

Why give that one up so soon? When it comes to the question of an old King or a young Watson for the Nuggets next season,

Is it fair to ask him to manage frustration in its absence?

Heck no. The Nuggets don’t need Jokic to play the heavy in the locker room.

But yes, somebody must provide bad cop energy, even if broadly defined, for the Nuggets to return to the NBA Finals.

This topic surfaced when an interview with Jokic dropped recently on the team’s YouTube page. about his process on learning to lead. His answer was refreshingly honest.

“I think a leader is someone who, sometimes, needs to be a bad guy, and I think that’s something I cannot be,” Jokic said. “When I get over that border– or take that next step — and stop worrying about whether they’re going to like me, sometimes you need to be the bad guy.”

The Nuggets cannot overlook this element as they creep into the postseason, attempting to secure the third or fourth seed. They cannot dismiss this impact.

And of course, they cannot mess with Jokic. He already carries too much burden to ask him to navigate another responsibility that is not natural for him.

Don’t take this out of context. Jokic is not a follower.

He provides leadership through tactical suggestions. Watch him in timeouts. He imparts strategy on offensive sets, defensive switches, and sometimes even tells teammates what inbounds plays opponents are running.

Everyday Jokic wears a Nuggets uniform, president Josh Kroenke and co-general managers Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace should send him texts on how much they value his contributions.

“Being the bad cop doesn’t mean you have to do it on camera. Some people do things in public make it look a certain way in public and it doesn’t do anything to help your team,” coach David Adelman said Wednesday night. “Saying something to your team or your teammates, that is out of respect. And that is very much happening with our team.”

Even as Adelman believes Jokic is “doing a good job” with strong leadership, one thing is missing for Jokic to become a top-10 player of all time. A second championship. All on that list have it.

Jokic elbowed into the pantheon of greatness with three MVPs, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, and Shaquille O’Neal among the top centers to ever roam the earth. With a fourth — the one swiped from him by Joel Embiid because of voter fatigue — he would already be in the top 10 without another ring.

Now, there is no guarantee he will win a title or the top individual trophy again.

No player 30 years or older has won MVP since Steve Nash in 2006. Jokic turned 31 on Feb. 19. He will likely finish fourth in the MVP balloting this season behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama and Luca Doncic, his first time outside the top three since the 2019-20 season.

A championship remains realistic now that the Nuggets are healthy and their schedule is no longer a sequel to “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.”

To hear apologists tell it, Denver has had the toughest travel since the 1899 Sewanne Tigers, who won five college football games in six days on the road, including walking several miles to a stadium after an opponent’s fans greased the railroad tracks so their train could not stop.

My sarcasm was deliberate, and a reminder of why the Nuggets need a bad cop. The playoffs are no time for excuses.

My nominations, in order, are Aaron Gordon, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Christian Braun.

This isn’t a role that requires dealing with chaos or moodiness — Russell Westbrook is no longer on the team, remember? It centers on reluctance. As in the unwillingness to sell out defensively on a consistent basis.

It is the only thing preventing the Nuggets from making a deep playoff run. They are the NBA’s best offensive club, and are getting better with Peyton Watson’s return and rotations taking shape.

The postseason, however, is different. Scoring shrinks from role players in road games.

So while Jokic and Jamal Murray are as reliable as an ol’ pickup truck, they need the defense to become just as predictable.

Knowing that they can get stops when it matters most is more important than clutch shots.

Trying to win 16 games with an offensive-tilt is misguided, mirroring how MLB teams reliant on home runs get knocked out by good pitching every October.

We have seen Gordon’s scowl, his screws turn slightly lefty loosey on the threads. He does not run from confrontation, as seen Tuesday when he returned a hard pick with a more brutal screen, and mockingly clapped at the refs when Jokic drew a T.

Can he direct that same energy into a huddle if the Nuggets start out flat? Of course.

Hardaway brings a resume that demands respect. Though only in his first season as a Nugget, he has no problem getting to the point. Could he get embers glowing? Absolutely.

It is in Braun’s makeup to lead. He plays with intensity and is not afraid to talk trash. Talking truth to teammates is harder given his complementary role and age, but he knows the game so well that he should pick his spots to speak up.

I know, you think it should come from coach David Adelman? Well, Mike Malone tried that last April, and you saw how that worked out.

“There has been a lot of emotion in film sessions with multiple guys,” Adelman said.

The best teams are player-led. Where guys self-police, holding each other accountable. We saw this group do that a year ago, coming together after Malone was fired.

They need something better, more forceful. They need strong voices to be candid when standards are not being met, most notably with defensive effort.

Adelman does not coddle players. He tells them the truth, and every player I have talked to appreciates that from him, including Jokic.

But Adelman is not going to call rage timeouts. Or spew lava from the sideline or behind a microphone. He is more mad scientist than mad anything else (though he will get blamed if this team falls short).

“I probably seem pretty calm but I am kind of psychotic sometimes,” Adelman said.

Still, this is a player thing.

The Nuggets feed off Jokic’s toughness and brilliance, which is what made Tuesday’s win encouraging.

Tired of the nipping Chihuahuas’ defense against him, Jokic let the official have it early on, getting a technical. It was clearly intentional to send a message. Jokic let loose, then became refocused, which has not always been the case, as the officials sometimes stay in his head for far too long.

Again, this is where an edge from a leader — or a collective — comes into play.

Sometimes, even Jokic needs to be told to get over it. He accepts constructive criticism from my observation. And we know there will be nights this postseason when a voice is required to turn on the defense’s pilot light.

If the Nuggets want to play for another championship, they need a player — or players — to provide fire in uncomfortable moments. Adelman believes his group can handle it. Hope he is right.

Because the Nuggets need a bad cop to complement Jokic’s great play.

Sean Keeler: The eyes say P-Wat. The Nuggets are a different team when Watson and Aaron Gordon are healthy and rolling together. The Nuggets were a completely different team Sunday once Watson entered the game, outscoring Portland 97-81 after No. 8 came off the bench. Watson can rim-protect with the first unit (which needs it) and create his own shot with the second unit (which needs that, too). He’s the skeleton key that unlocks whatever coach David Adelman wants to do — Peyton can play with big lineups, small lineups, “shooting” lineups, “defensive” lineups, you name it. And yet … the stats say Gabe. Since Jan. 1, the Avs are 7-2 when he plays. They’re 9-9-3 when he doesn’t. Since New Year’s Day, the Nuggets are 11-9 without Watson and��10-9��with him.�����Գٱ������پ��Բ�.

Renck: The easy answer is Landeskog, given Colorado’s 37-4-7 record when he plays this season. So, of course, I will go with Watson. As with the aforementioned hamstrings, this is a dangerous stretch of reasoning. But hear me out. Sunday was the first time Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson played together since Jan. 22. And there is no denying how strong Denver looks with its opening night rotation healthy. Watson gives them burst and the ability to create space and shots off the dribble. He can also protect the rim and provide perimeter defense. This is the deepest team the Nuggets have had with Nikola Jokic. Coach David Adelman has 10 games to make the pieces fit, even with Watson on a minutes restriction and Gordon not expected to play in the back-to-back games this week. Find the right mix, and Watson can become the playoff X-factor to back up his Sunday boast, when he blurted, “I think when we are healthy, nobody in the league can beat us.”

Keeler:  And I hope he’s right. But the facts remain: Watson (so far) is a career 36.4% shooter in the postseason, 33.3% from beyond the arc. What’s he going to look like once good defenses, defenses that are trying, actually key on him and put him higher in the scouting report? My fear is the same as the Russell Westbrook fear a year ago — that teams are going to dare Watson to shoot, and he might end up shooting Denver out of a game. Or a series. And on that note, I hope to holy heck I’m wrong.

Renck: The Avs are better equipped to win another championship. The issue is the path. Even with Landeskog back, there is no guarantee they can outlast the Dallas Stars in a cage match. The Nuggets’ problem is more macro. They are capable of beating anyone in the Western Conference, but doing it 16 times remains thorny given their players’ familiarity with the trainer’s table. If the Nuggets find their rhythm, the missed games should work to their advantage, with a fresher Jokic — a good thing with the incredible shrinking role of Jonas Valanciunas — Gordon and Watson.

Keeler: Big Val is a “matchup” player, and I’m not convinced he matches up all that great with the Thunder or Spurs right now. But he’s serving his function — Jokic’s on a pace to record his lowest minutes per game in two seasons (34.8), while still maintaining MVP-level production. Landeskog has yet to beat Dallas in a Stanley Cup series over his storied career, that’s true. Painful, but true. Lest we forget, though, he also sat out Games 1 and 2 of that teams-too-good-to-play-this-early series between the Avs and Stars spring. If you want to make a case that Colorado wins Game 2 in Dallas if Landy gets the minutes that went to Charlie Coyle (zero points, minus-3 in 16:19) or Miles Wood (zero points, minus-3 in 12:42), instead? Can’t argue with that. Won’t argue with that.