Is the Championship Window Still Open for the Denver Nuggets?
Three years after winning the title, Denver is caught in a limbo of its own making.
Brian Windhorst of ESPN has one of the best mottos in NBA media: “If you win a championship, you never have to say sorry.” When the Denver Nuggets won the first title in franchise history in 2023, being apologetic was the furthest thing from their minds. For Denver fans, the wait had been a roller-coaster ride, marked by its fair share of promising playoff runs and disappointing seasons. That championship was the apex of an 8-year partnership between head coach Mike Malone and superstar Nikola Jokić, who both arrived in Denver in 2015.
Since the title, Jokić remains a perennial MVP candidate and has already cemented himself as one of the greatest centers in the history of basketball.
But despite having a future Hall of Famer in his prime, the Nuggets have not returned to the Western Conference finals since 2023. Their most recent playoff run, a six-game first-round loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, was their worst result since the championship. It was their second postseason series loss to the Timberwolves in three years.
Yet the greater threats may lie farther south: the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder have emerged as the Western Conference’s current behemoths. Both teams are also significantly younger: their projected starting lineups average 24.4 years old for San Antonio and 25.4 for Oklahoma City, compared with 29 for Denver. That reality only heightens the urgency of maximizing Jokić’s prime.
To the Nuggets’ credit, they have won at least 50 games in each of the three seasons since their title. They have also consistently fielded one of the league’s best offenses. Last season, their 122.6 offensive rating led the NBA. They have retained two of Jokić’s most complementary players by agreeing to extensions with Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon in the fall of 2024. As of this writing, they are the only team above the second apron, an indication that they remain committed to contending for a championship.
Still, the vibe around the Mile High City isn’t entirely optimistic.
To understand this, we need to revisit the spring of 2025. At that time, a growing divide had emerged between then-general manager Calvin Booth and Malone. The root cause of the fracture was philosophical: Booth wanted to transition to a younger roster, while Malone preferred veterans. The tension escalated until the organization abruptly fired both Booth and Malone, with the team sitting at 47–32 and only three games remaining in the regular season. Their misalignment resulted in a string of decisions that still affect Denver’s ability to build the best possible roster around Jokić.
A focal point of their tension was Peyton Watson. Coming out of college, the 6'8" wing was considered a developmental prospect. Early in Watson’s career, Booth wanted him to receive more playing time so he could become a regular rotation piece. Malone, by contrast, wanted Watson to develop further before giving him significant minutes.
In 2024, their disagreement became especially apparent. During that postseason, Watson’s minutes per game fell from 18.6 in the regular season to 9. Booth was reportedly upset by Watson’s diminished playoff role, particularly after he was benched for Game 7 against the Wolves. That summer, Malone was reportedly frustrated that Watson was left off the Summer League roster, believing the setting would provide valuable reps.
But over the following seasons, Watson improved as a shooter and scorer, raising his three-point percentage from 29.6% in his second year to 41.1% in his fourth and averaging a career-high 17.8 points per 36 minutes last season. He also established himself as a dependable wing defender, making plays both on the ball and as a weak-side helper. In each of the last three seasons, he led the team in total blocks. That defensive impact matters because the Nuggets’ biggest weakness is on that end; as Jaden McDaniels put it during the playoffs: “Go at Jokić, Jamal… Yeah, they’re all bad defenders.”
Very notably, there was a 14-game stretch last season when the Nuggets played without Jokić during which Watson played arguably the best basketball of his career. Watson averaged 22 points, 36.1 minutes, 2.7 stocks, and a 46.6% three-point percentage as Denver went 8–6 without its superstar.
Nevertheless, Watson continued to have a limited role in the postseason. In the 2025 playoffs, Watson’s minutes per game decreased from 24.4 in the regular season to 14.2. On advice from his agent, Rich Paul, Watson sat out the 2026 playoff run to fully heal a lingering hamstring injury. His limited postseason availability may have complicated Denver’s evaluation of his long-term value.
Eventually, the Nuggets traded Watson for a pair of draft picks, prioritizing short-term flexibility over a longer investment in homegrown talent. Watson ended up in Cleveland on a contract worth $22 million annually. For comparison, the Nuggets’ starting small forward, Cameron Johnson, is due $23 million. The annual salaries are similar, but Watson’s contract required a four-year commitment, while Johnson has only one year remaining on his deal.
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Cameron Johnson is a clean offensive fit alongside Jokić. But Watson was the better defensive complement, providing the athleticism the Nuggets lack and the versatility to cover for Jokić on that end. This is not to suggest that Denver should have traded Johnson to keep Watson. Rather, the decision exemplifies a lingering effect of the Booth-Malone divide.
Denver, however, did not hesitate to sign Christian Braun to a five-year, $125 million contract extension in the fall of 2025. This was after his breakout season in 2024–25, when he became the starting shooting guard and saw a leap in almost every aspect of his game.
Braun, however, had a down year last season, with injuries affecting his play. There are questions about whether Braun can justify the contract when its terms take effect next season. At that price point, especially on a contending team, Braun needs to provide significantly more value than his previous campaign.
Braun’s relevance to this discussion is tied with Denver’s decision to let Kentavious Caldwell-Pope leave in the 2024 offseason. KCP started at shooting guard for Denver’s 2023 championship team, providing reliable point-of-attack defense and floor spacing. When the front office decided not to retain KCP, Malone reportedly grew frustrated-a reaction that further strained his relationship with Booth.
Because Braun has not yet emerged as a clear upgrade-especially on the defensive end, where KCP averaged 2.8 defensive win shares per season in Denver, compared with Braun’s 1.8 season average in the two seasons since he replaced him-it is fair to question whether the move was the right one. When KCP left Denver, he signed a three-year, $66 million deal with the Orlando Magic. For approximately the same annual value, Denver chose the younger option that time rather than the proven veteran.
Taken together, these decisions point to an inconsistent approach to team fit. Denver allowed KCP, a proven two-way starter, to leave in 2024; two years later, it retained Johnson, a reliable veteran starter in his own right. It committed to Braun after one breakout season, but declined to retain Watson in spite of his growth as a valuable young wing. Johnson and Braun are both stellar contributors, so the decisions were understandable in isolation. But KCP’s proven defensive impact and Watson’s defensive upside both address needs Denver has around Jokić. The combined effect of these decisions has been a starting lineup with flaws that may affect its ability to contend for a championship.
The same inconsistency has affected Denver’s bench. Since the title, the Nuggets’ rotation has been a revolving door: Justin Holiday and Reggie Jackson in 2023–24, Russell Westbrook in 2024–25, and Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown in 2025–26. Compared with contenders such as the Thunder, Spurs, and Knicks, Denver has struggled to retain key bench contributors.
The root cause of that instability is an unproductive contract on Denver’s books.
In October 2023, Booth’s front office agreed to a rookie-scale extension with Zeke Nnaji — a then-22-year-old power forward. Entering his seventh NBA season, he is set to make approximately $7.5 million next year — the sixth-highest salary on the team.
However, despite the salary and his experience, Nnaji has not filled a meaningful role in the rotation. Since signing the extension, he has not exceeded the 728 minutes he played in 2022–23. Malone’s decision to use Nnaji primarily at backup center, rather than at power forward, may have contributed to that limited role. Nnaji is not a strong rebounder — his career rebound percentage is 10.8% — and is better suited to defending on the perimeter. He showed promise as a shooter in his first two years, but his three-point percentage fell from 43.9% to 26.1% over the following two seasons, when he was used more often at center.
Whether the problem was an ill-fitting role or an overestimation of his potential, Nnaji has not shown marked improvement. Therefore, Nnaji has functioned primarily as a third-string frontcourt player since signing the extension.
For a team above the second apron, an unproductive contract of this size is especially costly. The salary committed to Nnaji could have been allocated toward retaining Hardaway Jr., who came third in Sixth Man of the Year voting, or Brown, a key piece of their rotation last season who was also a major contributor to the 2023 championship team. Hardaway Jr. recently signed with the Miami Heat for one year at $6.5 million. Brown is still an unrestricted free agent.
Instead, Denver will enter next season with another new group of veterans including Tyus Jones, Marvin Bagley III, and six-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan. The bench will also include returning young players Spencer Jones and Julian Strawther. Once again, the team’s success will largely depend on how well the newcomers fit and whether its younger players take another step.
Denver will never have to say sorry for delivering the franchise’s first championship in 2023. As long as Jokić is at the height of his powers, the Nuggets remain competitive in the West. But their defensive concerns have gone unaddressed, and this roster does not appear more equipped to contend than it did last season.
While this team maintained winning records throughout the Booth-Malone conflict, its fallout has made a second championship increasingly difficult to envision. If they fail to win another title with their superstar in his prime, the Denver Nuggets may eventually have to answer — and perhaps even apologize — for not doing more to maximize it.
Originally published at https://randiferousjones.substack.com on September 3, 2026.
