The Denver Nuggets have built a championship roster going into the 2025-26 NBA season.
The Denver Nuggets traded Michael Porter Jr. for Cameron Johnson and made some nice additions to bolster their bench.
Denver added Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway and Jonas Valanciunas, which gives Nikola Jokic arguably the best supporting cast he has ever had.
Jokic on his own has proven to be unstoppable and now he has a solid team behind him.
Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesBrian Windhorst says Ivica Zubac gives Nikola Jokic trouble
For as dominant as Jokic is there’s one player who Brian Windhorst said has success against him.
The Nuggets took on the Los Angeles Clippers in a preseason game and Ivica Zubac matched up against Jokic.
Zubac has proven to be a problem for Jokic going back to their first round playoff matchup during the 2025 NBA Playoffs.
Windhorst loved what he saw from Zubac in his preseason outing against Denver and said nobody in the NBA can give Jokic the amount of trouble he does.
“Ivica Zubac looked awesome in this game. There’s nobody in this league that can give Jokic a lot of trouble, but out of all the players who’ve tried, Zubac has had some modicum of success.
“I’m not even saying successes. He’s had some modicum of being able to control him a little bit. Zubac looked great in this.”
Brian Windhorst reacts to Nikola Jokic playing power forward for the Denver Nuggets
The Nuggets were able to get Jokic a quality backup center in the offseason in Valanciunas, which is something they haven’t had in a while.
However, during the Nuggets preseason win over the Clippers, something happened that caught Windhorst’s attention.
“Some interesting wrinkles were being done by the coaches in this game.
“So David Adelman, the coach of the Nuggets, played Jonas Valanciunas and Jokic together, and then they played zone on defense.
“Jokic was playing power forward. I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen that.”
Jokic playing power forward seems strange, but perhaps the Nuggets will give that a longer look where they play Jokic alongside Valanciunas for a jumbo frontcourt.
Given Jokic’s ability to play on the outside and playmake like a guard, this would be an interesting lineup to roll out this season for head coach David Adelman.