Denver's Roster Can Win Now. Its Books Say It Has To.
The Nuggets enter the season with a core built to contend and a cap sheet that forecloses reinforcements, so this roster is the one that has to get past Oklahoma City.
Denver's payroll runs $221.1 million, above the $209.0 million first-apron threshold and the $200.4 million tax line, with almost no first-round draft capital left to trade for help. That leaves David Adelman's group — Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and DeMar DeRozan — to answer the Oklahoma City question with continuity instead of a trade.
The case the roster is still enough
Last season's numbers back the core. Jokic averaged 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds and 10.7 assists across 65 games, Murray scored 25.4 a night on 43.5 percent shooting from three, and Denver's offense finished 121.2, the league's best. The record was 54-28, a 5.2 net rating, seventh overall. Every piece from that roster — Jokic, Murray, Gordon, Braun, DeRozan — returns, and David Adelman gets a full season after taking the job on a permanent basis. Nothing about the on-court group has gotten worse since.
The case the clock is the problem
DeRozan is 37. Jokic is 31. The defense that finished last season 21st in the league sits inside a roster that averages 26.9 years old across 21 players, and that number does not point toward getting younger. Oklahoma City eliminated Denver in the second round of the 2025 playoffs and went on to win the title, and the Thunder are still the team standing between the Nuggets and a return to the Finals. A roster this age does not get an unlimited number of tries to clear that bar.
Why the books won't let Denver wait
Payroll runs $221.1 million across 14 contracts, past the $209.0 million first-apron line and the $200.4 million tax threshold, with Jokic, Murray, Gordon and Johnson accounting for most of it. Denver's draft capital is mortgaged well past this core's window: protected firsts owed to Oklahoma City in 2028, 2029 and 2030, with seconds promised to Utah, Washington and Charlotte. There is no pick to flip and little room under the apron if this group needs a piece in February.
The answer
The roster that opens the season against the Jazz tonight is the roster Denver has. Continuity is the only lever left — Ryan Nembhard's two-way deal and Cam Whitmore's arrival for Bruce Brown are the only real additions since the title run, and Aaron Gordon's health, still unresolved three weeks after his designation first flipped in September, matters more than any move the front office could make. This season has to be the answer, because the books make sure there isn't a next shot built the same way.
Can the Nuggets get under the luxury tax this season?
No. Denver's $221.1 million payroll is already past the $200.4 million tax line and the $209.0 million first-apron threshold, built around the contracts of Jokic, Murray and Gordon.
Do the Nuggets have draft picks to make a trade?
Very few that are usable now. Denver's first-round picks are protected and owed to Oklahoma City through 2030, with seconds already promised to Utah, Washington and Charlotte.
