Interestingly, though, during the portion of Denver’s scrimmage that was open to reporters on Monday, Jokic played on a team with Westbrook, Strawther, Watson and Saric. Still, the 10th-year Nuggets coach wants to be conscientious of the rhythm he risks losing from Murray if he’s too frequent with his substitutions.

The Denver Nuggets and OKC Thunder will begin their NBA season on Thursday night. The top two seeds in the Western Conference last season will tip-off at 7:00 P

In recent years, Nikola Jokic has had his minutes split between playing alongside co-star Jamal Murray and Denver's back-up point guard. He sounded open to spending more time

That’ll be Thursday (8 p.m.), when the Nuggets host Oklahoma City to tip off the 2024-25 campaign. They moved downstairs from their practice gym Monday to scrimmage on the main court at Ball Arena, providing more of a game-like practice setting that they don’t often get.

The Denver Nuggets will be one of the last NBA teams to tip off their 2024-25 campaigns, and that could be a godsend. The Nuggets, who will have a new starting lineup this year, could have everyone in their rotation available for the first time when they host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night.

There's no way around it, the Denver Nuggets were a very bad team during this NBA preseason. The performance was so poor, even Nikola Jokic couldn't beat around