{"id":311466,"date":"2025-09-30T00:41:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T00:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/311466\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T00:41:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T00:41:20","slug":"denver-nuggets-biggest-changes-for-2025-26-nba-season-including-trading-michael-porter-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/311466\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver Nuggets&#8217; biggest changes for 2025-26 NBA season, including trading Michael Porter Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Denver Nuggets are going all-in to win another NBA Championship in the Nikola Jokic era.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/nbaanalysis.net\/tag\/denver-nuggets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Denver Nuggets<\/a> had a turbulent 2024-25 NBA season, including the sacking of <a href=\"https:\/\/nbaanalysis.net\/tag\/michael-malone\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Michael Malone<\/a> and Calvin Booth.<\/p>\n<p>With <a href=\"https:\/\/nbaanalysis.net\/who-is-david-adelman-all-you-need-to-know-about-denver-nuggets-head-coach\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">David Adelman<\/a> taking over as head coach of the Nuggets from Malone, the Nuggets have solved that issue. But the biggest flaw in the Nuggets\u2019 roster last season was a lack of good role players.<\/p>\n<p>This led to the Nuggets\u2019 elimination from the postseason, albeit with excellent numbers from <a href=\"https:\/\/nbaanalysis.net\/tag\/nikola-jokic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Nikola Jokic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"941\" height=\"627\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2195198207-941x627.jpg\" alt=\"Cameron Johnson #2 of the Brooklyn Nets takes a moment after a hard foul by the New York Knicks at Barclays Center.\" class=\"wp-image-138565\" \/>Photo by Elsa\/Getty ImagesBiggest additions to the Denver Nuggets\u2019 roster<\/p>\n<p>At 30 years old, the Joker is still in the prime of his career. Evidently, the Nuggets executives want to ensure that Jokic is provided with an excellent roster each season.<\/p>\n<p>To do so, the <a href=\"https:\/\/nbaanalysis.net\/nba-insider-explains-why-trading-cam-johnson-for-michael-porter-jr-is-a-home-run-for-the-nuggets-it-has-two-benefits\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Nuggets have traded for Cameron Johnson<\/a> ahead of the 2025-26 NBA season. But that\u2019s just the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n<p>Here are all the additions that the Nuggets have made to compete for the 2026 NBA Championship.<\/p>\n<p>Cameron Johnson (Traded from <a href=\"https:\/\/nbaanalysis.net\/tag\/brooklyn-nets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Brooklyn Nets<\/a>)Jonas Valanciunas (Traded from <a href=\"https:\/\/nbaanalysis.net\/tag\/sacramento-kings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Sacramento Kings<\/a>)Bruce Brown (Signed a one-year deal)Tim Hardaway Jr. (Signed a one-year deal)<\/p>\n<p>All things considered, the Nuggets have ensured they added quality role players during the offseason. But the trade for Johnson remains the biggest addition.<\/p>\n<p>After all, the 29-year-old averaged 18.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game last season while starting in 57 games for the Nets.<\/p>\n<p>Biggest departures from the Denver Nuggets\u2019 roster<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"941\" height=\"627\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2208937531-941x627.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Porter Jr. #1 of the Denver Nuggets looks on against the Golden State Warriors in the third quarter at Chase Center.\" class=\"wp-image-151250\" \/>Photo by Eakin Howard\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The Nuggets\u2019 underwhelming performance during the postseason showed there was an obvious need for a few departures.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nbaanalysis.net\/bill-simmons-says-denver-nuggets-offseason-deal-was-like-a-miracle-they-finally-realized\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">That included Michael Porter Jr.<\/a>, who had been with the team since 2018. Even <a href=\"https:\/\/nbaanalysis.net\/i-let-the-team-down-michael-porter-jr-expressed-regret-how-denver-nuggets-career-ended\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Porter Jr. admitted that he let the Nuggets down<\/a> last season.<\/p>\n<p>With that said, here are all departures from the Nuggets\u2019 roster ahead of the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Porter Jr. (Traded to Brooklyn Nets)Dario Saric (Traded to Sacramento Kings)Russell Westbrook (Opted out of player option)<\/p>\n<p>Aside from Porter Jr., <a href=\"https:\/\/nbaanalysis.net\/tag\/russell-westbrook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Russell Westbrook<\/a> is another notable star who left the Nuggets this offseason. However, Russ is yet to find a new team as it shows the former NBA MVP is on a steep decline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Nuggets are going all-in to win another NBA Championship in the Nikola Jokic era. The Denver&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,6850,2726,10877,301,187,3943,6890,562,6,302,254,911,574],"class_list":{"0":"post-311466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bruce-brown","10":"tag-cameron-johnson","11":"tag-dario-saric","12":"tag-denver","13":"tag-denver-nuggets","14":"tag-denvernuggets","15":"tag-jonas-valanciunas","16":"tag-michael-porter-jr","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-nuggets","19":"tag-russell-westbrook","20":"tag-tim-hardaway-jr","21":"tag-western-conference"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115290471398264662","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}