The entire basketball community was waiting yesterday for news on Nikola Jokic‘s injury, which could ultimately define not only the Denver Nuggets‘ season but the direction of the entire league. Initial fears suggested a possible ACL injury after teammate Spencer Jones awkwardly stepped on Jokic’s leg.
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What followed was a chain of encouraging updates – Dr. Brian Sutterer was the first to provide optimism, Serbian outlets confirmed the news and Shams Charania reported that the three-time MVP will be re-evaluated in four weeks. With that timeline in mind, many began doing the math because it is clear that this team without its Serbian center is simply not the same.
In total, David Adelman will be without four starters for a period of time, and over the next 18 games, the stretch during which Denver is expected to play without Jokic, the Nuggets could very realistically slide into the Play-In zone. Former Nugget Carmelo Anthony believes that would be a major problem for the rest of the league.
“For me, this is not about whether Denver can survive. It’s really about what this moment reveals for the other guys, about Denver’s identity, about the margins, about their championship pedigree. … Now, we have to figure out as a team where this puts us because Joker being out, this changes the geometry, I think, of the whole league,” Anthony said on the “NBA on NBC and Peacock” show.
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Challenging times are ahead for the Nuggets
Of course, the Mile High City team should not be written off as Jamal Murray is currently playing the best basketball of his career. Also, Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun are expected to return within the next 10 days. Meanwhile, Jonas Valanciunas has shown that Denver’s front office may have finally found an ideal replacement to hold things together in Jokic’s absence.
Still, both AG and CB will likely need time to regain form after being sidelined for over a month, despite playing excellent basketball before their injuries. Valanciunas, on the other hand, is averaging a career-low 13.0 minutes per game and at 33 years old, it remains fair to question whether he can handle heavy NBA minutes for an extended stretch.
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Any additional injury would further damage the Nuggets’ chances of staying above .500. When looking at the loaded Western Conference, Denver is clearly facing a brutal stretch. As Melo stressed, they will need to show flashes of that 2023 championship pedigree.
If they enter the postseason as the eighth seed, a first-round series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Nuggets would be almost inevitable, a matchup many labeled “the Finals before the Finals” heading into the season. It’s also hard to imagine the young San Antonio Spurs, currently sitting second in the West, wanting to face a seasoned Denver team in the first round.
Denver can be a dark horse
The Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves are also in the mix. Any of those first-round matchups would be a nightmare for the teams we mentioned because when healthy, Denver was off to the best start in franchise history, boasting the best offense in the league, the second-best defense and the second-best net rating overall.
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From that perspective, we arrive at a paradoxical situation – Denver could very realistically finish the regular season seventh or eighth, yet enter the playoffs healthy with one of the strongest starting lineups in the entire NBA. That group could reunite over the final month of the regular season, regain chemistry and once again resemble the well-oiled machine they were early in the year.
It could quickly become scary hours for the rest of the league once that lineup is back together.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Dec 31, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.