This Denver Nuggets 2026-27 season preview starts with the bench. The Nuggets spent the 2026 offseason answering a specific problem from their first-round playoff exit: a bench that could not hold leads when Nikola Jokic sat down. Denver lost to Minnesota in the first round despite entering the playoffs as the No. 3 seed, with injuries, including a hamstring injury that knocked wing Peyton Watson out of the series, compounding the problem, according to Hoops Rumors’ Sept. 13, 2026 offseason check-in on the team.
Out With the Old Bench, In With a Scorer
The headline addition is DeMar DeRozan, who signed a one-year minimum contract with Denver after averaging 18.4 points, 4.1 assists and 2.9 rebounds on 49.7% shooting last season with Sacramento, according to Sports Illustrated’s Sept. 10, 2026 breakdown of the Nuggets’ offseason. SI’s reporting frames DeRozan as Denver’s new leading bench scorer and playmaker, a marked shift from a reserve unit that struggled to generate offense in last season’s first-round loss. Denver also added center Marvin Bagley III on a fully guaranteed minimum deal; Bagley shot 61.8% from the field and 46.2% from three last season while averaging 10.5 points and 6.1 rebounds, the same report shows, giving Denver a more efficient frontcourt option than the departed Jonas Valanciunas. The Nuggets rounded out the bench with wing Alpha Diallo and guard Lonnie Walker IV on minimum deals, and re-signed guard Tyus Jones and forward Spencer Jones, matching Oklahoma City’s offer sheet for Jones using Early Bird rights, per Hoops Rumors.
Watson Is Gone, and the Return Is Complicated
The clearest subtraction is Peyton Watson, who left in a five-team sign-and-trade that sent him to Cleveland along with the draft rights to Ismael Kamagate, according to Hoops Rumors’ reporting. In return, Denver received a 2031 first-round pick from Cleveland, a 2032 second-round pick from Sacramento and two-way center Julian Reese from Washington, the same report shows, a return built entirely around future draft capital rather than immediate roster help. That is a defensible bet for a team that just watched an injury to Watson contribute to a first-round exit, but it also means Denver enters the season with less proven wing depth behind its stars than it had a year ago.
The Tax Bill Behind the Roster
All of that roster-building came at a real cost. Denver’s team salary for luxury-tax purposes sits at roughly $224.8 million, according to Hoops Rumors, which is above the $221.686 million second-apron threshold the league set for 2026-27 in its June cap memo, and Hoops Rumors projects Denver’s luxury-tax bill at $75.29 million. That is the tradeoff at the center of Denver’s offseason: ownership paid a significant tax bill to keep DeRozan, Bagley and the rest of a retooled bench around Jokic and Jamal Murray, betting that a deeper, more efficient reserve unit is worth the cost after a bench that could not hold leads helped end last season early.
A Schedule That Opens and Closes With the Same Rival
Denver will get an early look at whether the new bench is ready. The Nuggets open the 2026-27 season on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Oct. 22, 2026, play their home opener two days later against New Orleans, and close the regular season next April back in Denver against that same Oklahoma City team, according to Denver Sports’ report on the league’s official schedule release. Denver also drew a Christmas Day assignment at Golden State on Dec. 25, one of 28 national television games on its 2026-27 slate, the same report shows, meaning the retooled bench will be tested on national television well before the playoffs arrive.
What Still Has to Happen
None of the math on paper replaces games. DeRozan is walking into a new locker room on a one-year deal, Bagley is an efficiency bet more than a proven high-minutes center, and Denver is trusting a retooled group to perform better in a playoff setting than the bench that struggled last spring. Training camp and the preseason are where that bet starts getting tested, before Denver’s actual second-apron tax bill becomes real in the spring. For the full run-up to camp and opening night league-wide, see NBA Trending’s guide to the 2026-27 season’s key dates.