Although the Denver Nuggets have started the 2025-26 NBA Season relatively strongly, they shared some unfortunate news about starting power forward Aaron Gordon following his hamstring injury last Friday night.
According to the Nuggets directly: “Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon sustained a right hamstring strain on Friday night against the Houston Rockets. Gordon will re-evaluated in four to six weeks and updates will be provided when necessary.”
This comes on the heels of Christian Braun suffering an ankle sprain against the Los Angeles Clippers on November 12th that will reportedly hold him out for six weeks (now five). The Nuggets will now be down two starters for at least the next month, a difficult blow for a Nuggets rotation that appeared deep at the beginning of the season and suddenly looks thin.
Gordon started the season tremendously well for Denver. Before the game in which he suffered the injury and played about three minutes, Gordon was averaging 20.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per game on 53.6% from the field and 45.2% from three. He was also shooting 87.9% from the line and had a positive plus-minus in all but one game to start the season.
Gordon’s impact will clearly be missed. His ability to navigate the Nuggets’ two-man game of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray while adding himself into the mix has always been useful in taking pressure off of Denver’s two high usage stars. His shooting had taken another step forward, and his well-rounded game will be missed throughout 2025.
With Gordon likely to return sometime in 2026, the Nuggets now have two starting spots to fill. Fourth year wing Peyton Watson had been starting in place of Christian Braun, while two-way contract forward Spencer Jones started in place of Gordon last night. Whether that continues or not is up to head coach David Adelman, though I suspect the Nuggets value having two defenders replace the two defenders the Nuggets lost.
Off the bench, Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valanciunas are the every night contributors, having filled in throughout the year in different capacities for the Nuggets. All three will play larger roles as a result of these two injuries.
Hunter Tyson also played a short stint in the first half last night. He, Zeke Nnaji, and Jalen Pickett are the main roster players that don’t play. Julian Strawther is also a candidate but has dealt with a back injury this week. Rookie DaRon Holmes II was just called up from the G League yesterday.
“We want to see what each guy can do,” Adelman said of his roster options on the edge of the rotation. “We played Jalen a little bit, we started him. Zeke started in New Orleans. Wanted to give Hunter a little run.”
But Adelman said last night that the Nuggets can’t keep using a shortened rotation like last night.
“We’ll try different lineups to see what we can do to…give guys opportunity but also limit these minutes. I can’t play an eight and a half man rotation every night, so I’ll get creative with it as best I can.”
There’s never a good time for injuries to happen, but the Nuggets can survive in November and December without two primary contributors. They will learn a bit about themselves in the process, what they can count upon when the going gets tough, and be a better team when Gordon and Braun eventually return.
But the next few weeks will be challenging for everyone involved. It’s a lot of pressure on Denver’s stars to carry the playmaking burden. It’s an opportunity for Cam Johnson to gain extended reps. Watson has already taken advantage of the opportunity and is playing well with Denver’s starters.
We will see who joins Denver’s primary group to help the Nuggets win every single night.
