Before Jokic, Denver Already Won by Trusting the Pass
Every era of Nuggets basketball worth remembering ran through connection between players, not a single carry — the thread tonight's trip to Los Angeles extends.
Denver opens its week with a preseason trip to the Clippers, a true road test of the kind this franchise has faced on this date before. The names change — Doug Moe's motion offense, the 1994 upset squad, tonight's Jokic-Murray core — but the pattern holds: Denver's best basketball has always been collective.
A Road Trip Like Many Before It
On this date in 1979, the Nuggets opened a season with a 93-109 loss at Portland, one of countless early-season road tests in a franchise history full of them. Tonight's preseason stop at the Clippers carries none of that game's stakes, but the pattern repeats: Denver has spent decades proving itself away from home before settling into form. Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic arrive 2-1 in the preseason, still sorting their rotation the way earlier Nuggets teams did on the road.
Ball Movement Is the Inheritance
Doug Moe's motion offense once pushed Denver to 100 points in 136 straight games, an NBA record, and a league-record 126.5 points a game in 1981-82, with Alex English, Kiki Vandeweghe and Dan Issel sharing the scoring load. Last season's Nuggets ranked first in the league in offense at 121.2 points per 100 possessions, with Jokic running the same principle through his passing rather than his own shot. The decade changed; the idea that five players moving the ball beats one player creating alone did not.
The Upset That Still Teaches Something
In 1994, an 8-seed Nuggets team built on Dikembe Mutombo, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and LaPhonso Ellis beat the top-seeded Seattle SuperSonics on a Game 5 overtime win, the first 8-over-1 upset in NBA history, before falling to the Jazz in seven. Denver's camp additions this fall — Ryan Nembhard, Coleman Hawkins, Dane Goodwin and Emanuel Miller — are auditioning for a bench role in that same tradition, with Spencer Jones' absence already pushing minutes toward less familiar names.
What the 2023 Banner Keeps Asking
Fat Lever's number hangs at Ball Arena, retired in a 2017 win over the Lakers, a reminder that connection, his passing, not just his scoring, earned the honor. Jokic and Murray's title run in 2023 extended that same thread, and Jokic told reporters on September 28 that he plans to sign an extension, with no terms or timeline yet reported. The banner already answered how Denver wins. The open question is how long this group keeps answering it.
Has Nikola Jokic signed a contract extension?
Not yet. He told reporters September 28 that he plans to sign next year, but no terms or timeline have been reported.
What is the earliest playoff upset Nuggets fans still reference?
In 1994, the 8-seed Nuggets beat the top-seeded Seattle SuperSonics behind Dikembe Mutombo and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, the first 8-over-1 upset in NBA history.
