Down. Goes. Jokic...
Is it time to panic? The air of calm is gone, and it's been replaced with the stench of "ugh-oh's," what ifs and plan E for the Denver Nuggets
This post originally appeared at the Your Nuggets Newsletter, hosted by Robbin Marx. I’ll be posting a weekly recap of all things Denver Nuggets there. Click that link to head on over to subscribe, like, and share from there as well.
4 weeks. Four weeks. Fore! weeks.
That’s the timeline for reevaluation for a return to the court for the best basketball player in the world.
4 weeks. That’s basically a month! In the middle of quite possibly the greatest statistical season the game has ever seen—and its seen Wilt and MJ and the Big O.
Four weeks. Without four starters, one of whom is the anchor of the franchise, and the center of the basketball world, going for his fourth MVP.
Fore! weeks. That’s how long the free fall probably lasts, the inevitable tumble down the Western Conference standings. Timbbbrrrr!!!!!
Is it time to panic? Are we overreacting?
Two weeks ago, we talked about how it was refreshing to have a sense of calm and stability as a Nuggets fan. Now? Feels like we’ve been turned upside and made to ride the local fair favorite “The Gravitron”— the one where you get stuck to the walls on the side. Stuck spinning around in a circle for the next four weeks while we see if the superhuman player can find some spinach to eat and have a superhuman recovery.
We’ve spent the last few newsletters recapping the week’s slate of games. No reason to do that today. The only news that matters this week is that Nikola Jokic is out until nearly February.
The Moment it All Changed
With three seconds left in the first half, Nikola Jokic, the NBA’s best and most valuable player (you’ll see why this month), went down in a heap after taking an inadvertent leg-kick from Spencer Jones.
His knee instantly buckled backwards. The Joker lay on the floor in Miami writhing in pain. Nuggets fans hearts sank to the bottom of the Royal Gorge. It had actually happened.
Thankfully for Nugget fans and NBA fans alike, the worst was avoided—no damage to the ACL, MCL, or any of that. Just a bone bruise and hyperextension of the knee. Jokic will be reevaluated in four weeks. January 27th, 2026. Next year. It feels like eternity.
Jokic is in the middle of his best season of his career. We’re seeing one of the NBA’s all-time greatest seasons played. Jokic had a shot at the triple double crown, the rebounding title and the assist title, while averaging what was looking to be 30+ points per night. And he just had his finest moment of the season.
A 56-point, 16-rebound, 15-assist masterpiece on Christmas night against the T-Wolves. A stat line that hasn’t ever been seen before. A game in which he set an NBA record with 18-points in the overtime session. It’s what I was going to be leading this blog off with.
Instead, the lump of coal in the stocking came later in the week.
For now, we’ll consider this an overall win—he’s avoided the worst, a season ending injury which would be a knockout blow to the Nuggets title hopes. But…where does that leave us?
S.O.S, Send Help!
The Denver Nuggets now find themselves woefully undermanned, now down four starters. A team that showed depth weeks ago is now asking the depth to man the ship.
The glimmer of hope? Christian Braun and Aaron Gordon are due back the first week or two of the New Year.
The pit of darkness? Did you see the second half without Jokic?
84-points allowed. 147-points for the game. The Heat tied a franchise record with 10 three-pointers made in the 3rd quarter alone.
The Nuggets offense couldn’t get the ball to move nearly as fluidly as with Jokic at the helm. Even worse, the defense couldn’t figure out how to rotate without him in the paint, either. Open shot after open shot. Bucket after bucket.
It’s a tough ask to get quality wins out of your second unit. They are your second unit for a reason, unfortunately.
Look for the Nuggets to lean on Tim Hardaway Jr. alongside Jamal Murray to step up the scoring. Jonas Valanciunas will take over at center. He’s got some big shoes to try and fill…
Where Do We Go from Here?
Now we sit and wait patiently for the dust to settle. We wait for each piece of the playoff puzzle to fall back into place.
Upside? We get a chance to see what Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones can do until Braun and Gordon return. We’ll get a glimpse of Julian Strawther and Jalen Pickett in extended minutes for their development.
We’ll get to see if coach David Adelman has the right combination of puzzle pieces to keep the month on track. There is no accounting for the loss of Jokic—none. He is simply too good. The Nuggets have to basically find a new identity for the next four weeks.
The top offensive pace in the league? Likely to falter. The leagues 21st worst defense? Could get worse…
But, if anything, this builds character that comes in handy in May and June. I like that the Nuggets have a cushion in the standings. I’m just being honest—.500 without Jokic would be a huge accomplishment, I expect something like 6-10 over the 16 games he’s expected to miss.
But that only happens if one of Adelman’s puzzle pieces comes up with a way to keep the other team from scoring 147-points. The team defense has got to step up and learn to get some stops while Jokic is out.
This isn’t a season ender—it’s a gut punch for fans and fantasy players. The Nuggets can still make a lot of noise from Groundhog Day onward. Have to keep our heads up and take what we see the next four weeks with a grain of salt. It’s not the same team without Jokic. The season isn’t over, it’s just sort of, kind of, on pause.