Jan. 14, 2026, 5:28 p.m. ET

When the Denver Nuggets and their fans watched Nikola Jokić go down and grab his knee in pain just a couple of days before New Year’s Day 2026, they were rightfully concerned about the three-time NBA MVP suffering some sort of season-ending injury. Jokić’s injury, thankfully, turned out to be a hyperextended knee with a bone bruise, not something much more serious, as everyone in the Colorado Front Range let out a massive sigh of relief.

Roughly two weeks later, they should be overjoyed, as the superstar center has begun a critical part of his recovery process and his pending return to the court for Denver.

On Wednesday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Jokić has resumed on-court workouts after missing the Nuggets’ last eight games at the time of this writing. It’s unclear exactly what Jokić is doing in said workouts, to be sure. But it remains a great sign that the NBA’s best player has resumed basketball activities, presumably as part of his ramp-up process to return to the Nuggets’ lineup at full strength.

Jokić and the Nuggets have his target return date slated for late January. Tidbits like this on-court workout report make it abundantly clear that we will see the big man don his No. 15 Nuggets jersey again around then. Notably, said return date will also ensure Jokić remains on pace to be eligible for all postseason awards like MVP and the All-NBA teams under the 65-game minimum:

Before his injury, Jokić was averaging 29.6 points, 12.2 rebounds, 11 assists, and over two “stocks” (steals and blocks) per game on 60-43-85 shooting splits. He also remains the NBA’s leader in rebounds and assists. No player in league history has ever finished a season doing both, which makes sense when you realize that most guys getting rebounds aren’t usually adept passers, and vice versa. But Jokić is, making it seem all the more realistic that he attains this feat by the end of the regular season.

At the time of publication, Jamal Murray and the other Nuggets are 5-3 without Jokić, which is impressive given that they are without their best player for an extended period of time and are also missing other key rotational pieces like Christian Braun, Cam Johnson, and backup center Jonas Valančiūnas.

Updates like this sure sound like they won’t have to wait nearly that much longer to be without their talisman.