Denver Nuggets 2025-26: Can Nikola Jokić’s Reinforced Squad Finally Conquer the Finals?
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The big fella has led the Nuggets to 50-plus wins — or, in two COVID-shortened campaigns, a 50-plus-win pace — in six of the last seven seasons. (The one shortfall: 2021-22, when injuries limited Michael Porter Jr. to just nine games and kept Jamal Murray off the court entirely … and Jokić broke Wilt’s all-time record for Player Efficiency Rating, averaged a then-career-high 27.1 points per game, carried Denver to 48 wins and a playoff berth, and won MVP.) That includes last season, when — in a somewhat chaotic campaign that saw both head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth get fired just three games before the playoffs — Jokić averaged a triple-double en route to pushing the Nuggets to 50 wins and the No. 4 seed; averaged a triple-double to push the Nuggets past the Clippers in a seven-game Round 1 classic; and averaged 28-14-6 to push the Thunder to seven games in Round 2 despite, by series’ end, Porter Jr. playing with one arm, Aaron Gordon playing on one leg, and Denver’s bench essentially consisting of Russ and prayers (and, sometimes, prayers for Russ).


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