Denver's Fringe Keeps Turning Over So Its Top Five Doesn't Have To
Boopie Miller replaced two players who had barely unpacked, a reminder that this roster's real chemistry lives five names deep and hasn't moved.
Denver signed Boopie Miller to an Exhibit 10 deal on September 23, one day after Reese Dixon-Waters and Keonte Jones arrived on training camp contracts — by the 23rd, both were already gone. None of the three will touch a rotation built around Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and DeMar DeRozan.
Two In, Two Out, One Day Apart
Dixon-Waters and Jones signed training camp deals on September 22 and were gone by September 23, the same day Miller's Exhibit 10 agreement, first reported by Marc Stein, became official. That kind of overnight turnover is standard for the back of an NBA roster in late September — camp invites cycle through before anyone appears in a preseason game.
What Doesn't Move
The five who will define Denver's spacing and passing this season are unchanged: Jokic, Murray, Gordon, Braun and DeRozan, who joined September 9. Cam Whitmore's two-way signing on September 18 is the only addition anyone expects to see minutes, and it came four days after Denver was reported eyeing him. Everything else moving through the roster this week is depth-chart noise around a starting group that has stayed intact since summer.
The Preseason Clock
Denver opens the preseason against the Jazz on October 4, then plays them again October 6, hosts the Bulls on ESPN October 11 and visits the Clippers October 14 before the regular season opens at Oklahoma City on October 22, also on ESPN. Four exhibition games is not much time to test a top five that returns whole.
The Open Question
Denver's payroll runs $221.1 million, over the league's first apron and above a $200.4 million tax threshold — a number that already assumes this continuity is worth paying for. Whether four preseason games are enough to restore whatever timing this group lost over the summer, with Aaron Gordon's health designation still unresolved since September 13, is the question camp has to answer before October 22.
When do the Nuggets play their first preseason game?
Denver opens the preseason against the Jazz on October 4, with the regular season opener set for October 22 at Oklahoma City.
Who is Boopie Miller?
Boopie Miller is a guard who signed an Exhibit 10 deal with Denver on September 23, first reported by Marc Stein, after two other training camp signees left the roster the same day.
