Denver Nuggets

Larks, Rockets, Nuggets

The club that now fills Ball Arena started in 1967 as the Denver Larks, a name that barely survived contact with the public, and played its first American Basketball Association season as the Denver Rockets instead. Nine ABA years followed: division titles in 1970 and 1975, playoff basketball in almost every season, and a roster that ran through Byron Beck, Dan Issel and David Thompson. The change to Nuggets was made on 7 August 1974, with half an eye on an eventual NBA move. That move came in 1976, the same year the team reached the ABA Finals and the two leagues merged.

Four NBA decades then produced a great deal of watchable basketball and no trophies. Alex English and Kiki Vandeweghe fronted division winners in the 1980s. Dikembe Mutombo's spell from 1991 to 1996 delivered the franchise's most repeated piece of trivia: Denver was the first eighth seed to knock out a first seed in an NBA playoff series. Carmelo Anthony's run from 2003 to 2011 peaked in 2009, when a side built around him and Chauncey Billups reached the Western Conference finals. Seven numbers hang retired — 2, 12, 33, 40, 44, 55 and 432, the last of which no player ever wore.

The Jokic era and the 2023 title

Nikola Jokic joined the first team in 2015 and the ceiling moved. The centre has collected three MVP awards, and in June 2023 the franchise finally won something: the Miami Heat beaten 4-1 in the NBA Finals, with Jokic named Finals MVP. It was Denver's first championship in 56 years of existence, and it was won with a core that is still largely intact — Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon remain the three largest salaries on the books.

Jokic's individual output has not dropped off since. In 2025-26 he averaged 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds and 10.7 assists across 65 games, and finished runner-up in MVP voting to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. On Christmas Day he became the first player in league history to post a 55-point, 15-rebound, 15-assist game, in an overtime win over Minnesota. Murray, meanwhile, scored 25.4 points a game with 7.1 assists across 75 appearances and broke the franchise single-season record for three-pointers made on 27 March.

Fifty-four wins and a bad ten days

Last season was the first full campaign under David Adelman, hired on 22 May 2025 — the first season since 2014-15 that Denver began without Michael Malone as head coach. The team went 54-28, second in the Northwest Division and third in the Western Conference, and closed the regular season with twelve straight wins, tying the second-longest streak in franchise history.

None of that survived the first round. Denver, seeded third, lost 4-2 to the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves. Adelman's reading of it, offered at media day on 29 September 2026, was that injuries and a "bad 10 days" cost the team its season, and that the wider body of work still counted: "You're going to have these years where you play really well and the ending is not storybook." It is the second consecutive spring in which a 50-win Denver side has gone out earlier than its record suggested it should, which is the context for everything the front office did over the summer.

A bench rebuilt against the second apron

The 2026 offseason was mostly about the second apron. With Jokic at roughly $59.3m, Murray at $50.1m, Gordon at $31.9m and Cameron Johnson on a $23.0m expiring deal, Denver had no cheap route to depth, and the bench was dismantled rather than patched. Peyton Watson was moved to Cleveland on 20 August in a five-team trade that brought back Julian Reese and future draft picks. Tim Hardaway Jr left in free agency for Miami. Jonas Valanciunas was waived. Marvin Bagley III arrived from Dallas on 15 July and Alpha Diallo came in from AS Monaco on 13 July. The 2026 draft brought Tarris Reed, a centre out of UConn, at 26, and St John's forward Bryce Hopkins at 49.

The headline addition came late. DeMar DeRozan, waived by Sacramento in July, signed a one-year deal worth $3.9m on 8 September 2026. He is 37, in his eighteenth season, averaged 18.4 points over 77 games for the Kings last year and sits 16th on the all-time scoring list with 26,711 points. Jokic, Murray and Gordon all had a hand in recruiting him; he is chasing a first ring. Executive vice-president and general manager Ben Tenzer's summer therefore amounts to a bet that veteran scoring on a small contract is worth more than a young wing on a rising one.

The projected starting five is unchanged: Murray, Christian Braun, Johnson, Gordon and Jokic, with Tyus Jones, Spencer Jones, Julian Strawther, DaRon Holmes, Bagley and Zeke Nnaji behind them.

Where it stands in October 2026

The live question is Jokic's contract. He has turned down an extension in each of the last two offseasons and repeated at media day on 29 September that he intends to sign with Denver next summer, when the maths allows a five-year supermax in the region of $350m rather than the shorter deal available now. "I've been more than open about it. Hopefully, they trust me," he said, before adding "If they want me." Tenzer's line on it was blunt: "We have no concerns." Functionally, Denver is playing a season with one year of certainty on its best player and a deliberate financial reason for the delay.

Preseason finished 3-2 on 16 October. Aaron Gordon sat out the final warm-up for rest and was expected back for the opener; Spencer Jones, who missed the preseason with a hamstring problem, was also on track. The regular season starts on 22 October away at Oklahoma City on ESPN, with the home opener against New Orleans on 24 October. Expectations locally are measured rather than giddy — Ryan Blackburn of Mile High Sports has the team at 50 wins, which would be four fewer than last year and still comfortably inside the playoff picture.

The calendar is kinder than usual. Denver has 28 national television games, fourteen back-to-backs and no road trip longer than four games, with longer home and away blocks cutting the number of flights. January is the crunch: seventeen games, including a seven-game homestand from 14 to 25 January and two five-games-in-seven stretches. Christmas Day is at Golden State, 10.30pm ET on ABC. Minnesota visit on 28 December and again on 27 January during Rivals Week; Oklahoma City come in on 30 January, and the regular season closes at home against them on 11 April.

Ball Arena at 5,280 feet

Home is Ball Arena, a mile above sea level, and the altitude is a genuine component of the product — the Nuggets' home-court edge has long been among the most pronounced in American sport. The building itself is now a construction site in waiting. On 18 September 2026 Kroenke Sports and Entertainment announced a $135m renovation to be completed in phases by the 2028-29 seasons: a 30,000 sq ft glass-fronted expansion of the east atrium, entrance doors increased from eight to 20, a team store roughly twice the size of the current one, widened concourses, faster point-of-sale technology, three new clubs and a 34,000 sq ft pedestrian plaza facing Chopper Circle. Josh Kroenke promised "a world-class venue offering a legendary guest experience night after night"; Stan Kroenke framed it as keeping the operation in Denver "for another 25 years and beyond."

Fans will see a sliver of it this season. The first 24 Ball Arena Legacy suites at the 100 level and Signature Suites at the 200 level debut for 2026-27. The rest arrives around them while the team plays.