The most controversial topic to start the Denver Nuggets season isn’t Nikola Jokic’s shooting percentage.
It’s not Denver’s defensive abilities.
It’s not the injuries to a litany of rotation players (an excuse that falls flat when seeing what the entire league is already dealing with around Denver).
No, it’s the battleground on urgency between the organization and the fan base.
After the Nuggets lost their season opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder, they had two opportunities at home to set the tone for what this season was actually going to be in front of the home crowd.
Their opponents? The now 0-3 New Orleans Pelicans and now 1-3 Golden State Warriors. At home, in previous seasons, at least one of those games would’ve seen Denver establish a 20-point lead and potentially even a blowout.
Instead, both the Pelicans and Warriors led by 20+ against the Nuggets on their home floor in back-to-back games. In the first matchup, the Nuggets dug deep in the second half and were able to claw out a victory in overtime. In the second matchup, they never got the deficit back to single digits to even give themselves a chance to make a comeback.
Fans, naturally, have started the season fairly disappointed by Denver’s performances. It was good to see a comeback win vs the Pelicans, and the crowd cheered raucously for their team after booing them early while the deficit was reaching uncomfortable levels. After being told by Nikola Jokic, their star player, that they wouldn’t be welcomed back if they were booing, the crowd was quiet the next night, patiently waiting for the Nuggets comeback to happen as it so often has.
It didn’t happen, and now, there’s a palpable tension for Nuggets fans wondering if this version of the team is who they are, rather than the team the Nuggets organization believes they can be.
To put these two games into perspective, the Nuggets trailed by 20+ points in both. It is the first such instance in the play-by-play era (since 1996-97) that the Nuggets have trailed by 20+ points in their first two home games of the season.
It didn’t happen in 1997-98 when the Nuggets won 11 games. It didn’t happen in 2024-25 when Denver trailed by 20+ vs Oklahoma City and 18 vs the Los Angeles Clippers in the first two games of the year. This is the very first time in 30 years.
So, Nuggets fans, at least those born the same age as me (29 turning 30 in December) have yet to experience a start to the season quite like this one. As a result, it’s completely and utterly fair for fans to be concerned about how these games have transpired.
Now, fans are of course very quick to panic in these situations. Players? They’re going to say it’s early, especially the veterans.
Asked if there’s any concern from the locker room on the way these games have gone to start the year, DeMar DeRozan stated plainly: “No, we’ll be fine.”
“We’ve got a lot of new guys on the team. We’ve got a lot of injuries. We’re relying on a lot of young guys to learn the defense. That’s even new for me.”
DeRozan concluded: “These couple games, we’ve got a lot to look at, a lot to clean up, and it’ll be fine.”
Here’s Jamal Murray’s perspective when asked about urgency and the Golden State Warriors playing with a higher level of effort on Monday night:
“Well, it’s just natural as a human being when [Golden State is] 0-3. You’re fighting for your life almost, you know? It’s not that we decided to not play hard, brother. They just wanted to win the game.”
It’s a very reasonable counterpoint from two veterans in this league that have played a lot of basketball in the NBA. They know better than anybody to not get too high and not get too low at any point in time, especially early in the year. The season is very long, and Denver’s specific injuries put them in position to fail.
Alpha Diallo (a rookie) started in place of Cam Johnson in the second half in Oklahoma City.
Trevon Brazile (a rookie) was asked to step up and play heavy minutes in the second half vs New Orleans, and it worked out.
Bryce Hopkins (a rookie) started in place of Johnson and Diallo vs Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. It didn’t work out.
From the players’ perspective, the plan for the season already went sideways very quickly, and the Nuggets have been relying on a bunch of young players, new faces, and different schemes to try and win on the fly. They’re expecting a little bit of grace, especially after the very first two home games of the year, and understandably so.
From the fans’ perspective, some of Denver’s habits (poor defensive execution, sloppy turnovers, messing around with bad teams) are already shining through. After a solid preseason, fans were expecting that to translate to the regular season and for Denver’s starting lineup to continue being one of the best in the NBA.
So far, Denver’s top trio of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon have a plus-minus of -1 in 63 minutes through three games.
Last year, that trio was +245 in 521 minutes. That is what Nuggets fans have come to expect and hope for. Denver simply has to win the minutes when their top three players, combining for about $141 million of the NBA’s $165 million salary cap, are all sharing the floor.
Back to the question at hand: what is the correct level of urgency for Nuggets fans to have?
Well, it’s lower than where most fans currently are. The conversations I’ve had with most fans over the last 24 hours have been grim. There’s a lot of frustration and sometimes panic, which is simply a bridge too far for a Nuggets team that has been top four in the Western Conference every year since 2019, at least when Jamal Murray has been available.
However, the signs that fans are seeing early aren’t entirely erroneous either. Two poor defensive performances in a row, a shot quality on offense that simply isn’t high enough, Jokic and Gordon missing more shots early than expected, and not enough consistent help from anyone other than Murray.
The right balance, as it often is, is somewhere right in the middle. Jokic and the Nuggets defense must show more urgency on defense early in games. Fans have to put down the rotten fruit they were passing around to throw at the court on Saturday night.
After booing during the home opener of the first 20-point deficit, fans were far more patient on Monday night. They listened to Jokic. They waited for the magic to happen, and it never came.
Those magical moments aren’t always going to happen, even for a 60+ win team. Sometimes, the performances aren’t going to be clean. Sometimes, the first three quarters aren’t going to go your way, but Nuggets fans will always believe in Jokic, Murray, and Gordon leading the charge on a comeback if the team is playing hard and playing the right way.
Through three games, the Nuggets have struggled to find a high gear consistently. Now, on a road trip against the Pelicans (again) tonight and the Phoenix Suns on Friday, the Nuggets have a great opportunity to course correct away from Ball Arena.
Let’s see if Denver can go get a lead and keep it before fans start grabbing the torches and pitchforks next week.
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