The Denver Nuggets have one of the most important offseasons in franchise history looming after bowing out of the Western Conference Semifinals to the Oklahoma City Thunder in seven games. The Nuggets showed that they very well could still be playing against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Conference Finals, but one aspect of their game will haunt them in the coming weeks as they watch the season end from home.

The turnovers.

Denver and Oklahoma City had the biggest difference in turnovers between two teams in the Conference Semifinals, as Denver committed 6.6 more turnovers per game than the top-seeded Thunder did. No other series had a disparity of more than 1.2 per game.

Whether it was bringing the ball up the floor or trying to make a post-entry pass, Denver looked lost at times on the offensive end of the hardwood. The post-entry passes were the most frustrating part for the 2023 champions, as the guards’ inability to get Nikola Jokic the ball in Game 7 was one of the reasons why the game got out of hand so quickly.

Not being able to get the Joker the ball resulted in him having one of the lowest playoff usage rates of his career as he finished with just nine field goal attempts in the season-ending game.

Nikola Jokić’s 20.2% usage rate today ranked 93rd-highest out of his 94 postseason games. 94th was his postseason debut in 2019. pic.twitter.com/RFBUVnRiba

— Mr. Statistician Face Man (@tomhaberstroh) May 18, 2025

When two of the three max contract players don’t show up, it’s not a good recipe for success to not get the ball to the third guy making a high salary.

Denver’s 17.7 turnovers per game in the series against the Thunder were up from the 13.9 they averaged per game in the first round against the LA Clippers. The Memphis Grizzlies, who were swept by Oklahoma City in the opening round, led the playoffs with 19.3 turnovers per game.

The Nuggets also had the second-highest turnover rate on post ups among teams in the Conference Semifinals, only trailing the Timberwolves, who are a turnover machine. Whether it was getting the ball to Jokic or once he had the ball, the Thunder were swarming to get the ball out of Denver’s hands and in into transition.

One of the reasons why Denver won the championship in 2023 was because they committed the fewest turnovers per game throughout that entire postseason run, with just 11.6 per game. Granted, teams didn’t play defense against Jokic the way the Thunder did this year, the Nuggets had a much cleaner operation on the offensive side of the ball in all aspects than the display they put out on the floor this postseason.

Part of that is because this is a less-talented roster around Jokic than it was two years ago, as the front office failed Jokic and the core with the roster construction, but it still comes down to effort and game planning. Denver didn’t try hard enough on the floor to take care of the ball, and the coaching staff didn’t do a good enough job of scheming ways to get Jokic the ball without turning it over.