Denver Nuggets: Key Questions Ahead of 2026-27 Season
The Denver Nuggets are one month out from finding out exactly who they are.
On October 22, they walk into Oklahoma City to open the 2026-27 season against the Thunder, with Nikola Jokic staring down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in what already feels like a measuring-stick night. Training camp is a week away. The first preseason game comes right after that. The questions, though, are already here.
And they’re big ones.
DeRozan, the sixth man? That’s the bet
Denver lost Tim Hardaway Jr. and Peyton Watson in the offseason and answered with a name, not a project: DeMar DeRozan, six-time All-Star, 37 years old, still a problem from mid-range and still a grown-up in every locker room he walks into.
On paper, it’s simple. The Nuggets’ second unit badly needed a creator, someone who can slow the game down, get to his spots, and organize possessions when Jokic sits. DeRozan does all of that. He has done it for 16 straight seasons.
But this is not the usual DeRozan script.
He has not come off the bench since his rookie year in 2009-10. For more than a decade, coaches have built offenses around him. Now, Denver is asking him to stabilize a bench group, to be the sixth man, to attack second units, to close some games but not all of them. It’s a role shift, not a talent question.
The Nuggets need him to embrace it.
Without DeRozan, the bench looked thin and uncertain, short on ball-handling and short on shot creation. With him, that group suddenly has a veteran who can run pick-and-roll, get to the line, and create easier looks for role players who otherwise struggle to dribble into anything. His game has aged well; the concern isn’t whether he can still play, it’s whether he’s willing to redefine what “star” means at this stage.
If DeRozan leans into the sixth-man identity, Denver’s rotation tightens, their offense stays afloat in the non-Jokic minutes, and the Nuggets start to resemble a contender again. If he doesn’t, they have a name on the roster and the same old problem.
Lonnie Walker IV and the last chair
On the edge of the roster, another story is brewing.
Lonnie Walker IV is back from the EuroLeague, back from Maccabi Tel Aviv, back on another NBA lifeline. Denver handed him a non-guaranteed one-year deal, a classic “show us” contract that runs right up until opening night.
He’s 27. He’s athletic. He’s proven he can score at this level. The question is not whether he belongs in the league; it’s whether he fits into this particular 15-man puzzle.
There’s a belief inside and around the Nuggets that they might prefer to keep their final roster spot open, preserving flexibility for trades or buyout-season moves. Walker is trying to force their hand.
His last NBA look came with the Philadelphia 76ers at the end of the 2024-25 season, where he averaged 12.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.5 assists over 20 games. Those aren’t empty numbers. He showed he can handle the ball, create his own shot, and function as more than just a catch-and-shoot option.
Denver’s projected backup backcourt right now features Tyus Jones and Julian Strawther. Solid players, both of them. But Walker brings a different kind of juice: downhill scoring, on-ball creation, the ability to heat up and change a game in a few possessions. If he looks sharper and more dynamic than either of them in camp and preseason, the Nuggets have a real decision to make.
Do they value an open roster spot more than an extra guard who can score in bunches?
Walker’s margin for error is slim, but the opportunity is clear. One strong month could turn a non-guaranteed flyer into a rotation role on a team with real ambitions.
The heat on David Adelman
All of it, though, sits under one larger spotlight.
David Adelman is heading into his second full season as head coach, having stepped in just before the 2025 playoff run. The postseason returns so far have been brutal. A second-round exit in 2025. A first-round collapse this year that stung even more.
This is the year he has to change the story.
The Nuggets owned the league’s top offense last season. Jokic, Jamal Murray, and that system still bend defenses to their will. But they finished 21st in defense, and that number tells you why they watched the later rounds from home.
Denver doesn’t need to become a grind-it-out defensive juggernaut. They do need to stop bleeding points. Rotations must tighten. Schemes have to sharpen. The arrival of Dave Joerger as the new top assistant is meant to help on that front, a defensive-minded voice to balance the scales.
The stakes are not subtle. With Jokic and Murray in their prime, this roster is built to compete now. The organization knows it. The locker room feels it. As brilliant as Jokic is, as clutch as Murray can be, there’s a ceiling on what stars can overcome if the structure around them isn’t right.
So far, Adelman has not shown he can guide this group all the way through a playoff gauntlet. That’s the blunt truth. This season offers him a chance to rewrite that perception—or confirm it.
Camp will bring answers on DeRozan’s role. Preseason will give Walker his shot to stick. But the real question hanging over Denver is sharper than any rotation battle:
Can David Adelman turn this talented, flawed team into a champion before the window starts to close?
