{"id":839194,"date":"2026-09-19T19:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T19:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/839194\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T19:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T19:54:14","slug":"nuggets-notes-derozan-gordon-camp-questions-ball-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/839194\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets Notes: DeRozan, Gordon, Camp Questions, Ball Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an interesting story for The Athletic, Mirin Fader<\/a> takes a closer look at DeMar DeRozan<\/a>\u2019s \u201ckeen interest in mental health issues\u201d and how he\u2019s been trying to \u201ctransform that topic from conversation to action, from podcasts to policy, to reach more people \u2014 specifically, young boys and men \u2014 who are struggling to cope with mental health challenges and emotional isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeRozan, 37, signed a one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Nuggets this summer after having his partially guaranteed contract waived by the Kings in July. According to Fader, DeRozan often repeats the mantra of \u201cit\u2019s almost over\u201d to remind himself to cherish the final stages of his playing career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a negative thing,\u201d DeRozan said. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful thing. You can\u2019t do this forever, but while you\u2019re in it, give it all you got, so when it\u2019s time to walk away, you\u2019re at ease with everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeRozan confirmed to Fader that he received recruiting calls from Nikola Jokic<\/a>, Aaron Gordon<\/a> and Jamal Murray<\/a> before he agreed to sign with Denver. He\u2019s looking forward to playing with those accomplished veterans, who won a title together in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came in the league, I never would have imagined or thought I\u2019d be playing that long,\u201d DeRozan told The Athletic. \u201cAnd when you get in, you don\u2019t realize how fast and how much time goes by. \u2026 It\u2019s a blessing to be able to play this long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fader\u2019s story on DeRozan is worth reading in full. The link above isn\u2019t behind a paywall.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more on the Nuggets:<\/p>\n

In a brief Q&A session with reporters at his youth basketball camp last week, Gordon gave a simple and \u201cexpressionless\u201d response when he was asked about the team\u2019s offseason moves, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ll see,\u201d Gordon answered. The veteran forward, who has been plagued by soft-tissue injuries the past two years, has been a \u201cconsistent presence\u201d in the Nuggets\u2019 practice facility this summer, team sources tell Durando.
\nGordon, who also talked about<\/a> the departure of Peyton Watson<\/a> and organizing a team mini-camp in Puerto Rico, said he\u2019s been impressed by 2026 second-round picks Trevon Brazile<\/a> and Bryce Hopkins<\/a>, as Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette<\/a> relays. \u201cYeah, the rookies are good,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cBryce is really good. TB is really good. They can play. I\u2019m not entirely sure where they\u2019re going to fit in, but they can go.\u201d
\nChris Dempsey of Demps and Circumstance<\/a> lists five burning Nuggets questions ahead of training camp, with the first being, \u201cHow hungry will the Nuggets be to claw back to the top of the NBA?\u201d As Dempsey observes, the answer to that question the past couple seasons has been not hungry enough.
\nKroenke Sports and Entertainment \u2014 the Nuggets\u2019 parent company \u2014 announced plans on Friday for a $135MM renovation of Ball Arena, per Jessica Alvarado Gomez of The Denver Post<\/a>. Construction of the upgrades\/additions, which will be funded privately, will begin next summer. \u201cWhen we acquired the Nuggets, Avalanche, and the Arena, we committed to developing winning teams and to supporting the City of Denver,\u201d said Kroenke Sports and Entertainment founder, owner and chairman E. Stanley Kroenke. \u201cThe renovated Ball Arena and the subsequent redevelopment of the surrounding land allow us to keep doing both for another 25 years and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an interesting story for The Athletic, Mirin Fader takes a closer look at DeMar DeRozan\u2019s \u201ckeen interest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[877,7,6903,3213,301,187,3943,762,6,253,302,14704],"class_list":["post-839194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-nuggets","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-basketball","tag-bryce-hopkins","tag-demar-derozan","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-denvernuggets","tag-jamal-murray","tag-nba","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nuggets","tag-trevon-brazile"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117299463014712086","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839194","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=839194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}