Strike Two: It’s tough to argue against the notion that sometimes the NBA regular season gets monotonous. A good number of fans don’t start paying close attention until the playoffs roll around. And who can blame them?

The Denver Nuggets might be in that mode, too. At least when they’re at home. They’ve looked that way for the past four home games. Head scratching losses to teams they’re far better than. Defensive collapse, especially late in games. These are losses that could be costly in terms of seeding when the reach the end of the regular season.

Remember all those outstanding roster moves the new front office tandem of Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer made last summer? Shedding the overbearing contract of Michael Porter Jr and bringing in a real, legit backup center to take some of the heat off of Nikola Jokic? Remember all the well deserved praise the pair received?

But their job is not done. This roster is not championship level complete just yet. Something is still missing.

The Nuggets – the team with the best big man on the planet – still need another big man.

They need to make a move, soon. A trade. A free agent off the street. Someone with some girth and some nasty to help Denver in the paint and on the boards.

Yes, that’s missing right now. Normally, that would be Aaron Gordon. But he’s out until January – at least – with (another) hamstring injury. Denver’s defensive rating since Gordon was injured is the worst in the NBA. Without a sturdy big to play power forward, David Adelman is forced to play slightly built Peyton Watson at the 4 position he’s totally miscast for. And with another injured starter, Christian Braun on the shelf, they’re also trying to get by with Spencer Jones in the starting lineup. Jones is a guy who couldn’t crack the playing rotation prior to Gordon and Braun getting hurt. He’s a decent role player, but not someone who’d be starting on a championship contending team.

All this is temporary until the two injured starters are back, right? Well, maybe. The way Gordon has had to battle with that same injury since last season forces you to be uncertain that he can come back fully healthy in January, and stay that way for the rest of the season. Fair to expect Braun to come back 100% from a sprained ankle. Not so much with AG.

So Denver needs to add more depth behind Gordon regardless of whether he comes back healthy or not.

The answer is not Zeke Nnaji, who’s been decent in spot duty, but not close to consistently productive at either end. Nnaji continues to give Denver not quite exactly what’s needed from the position. Same with DaRon Holmes. The first-round draft pick is going to spend most of his first healthy season in the G League learning how to play professional basketball. He’s not a “four” either, preferring to play outside the paint, a lot more like Watson. Neither is a power forward.

The answer might be to start Jonas Valančiūnas and slide Nikola Jokic over to the “four” spot. Joker isn’t just a back-to-the-basket prototypical center anyway. He brings the ball up the court half the time. He’d have no trouble setting up away from the hoop. And Valančiūnas would be a huge help on the defensive end.

Missing that additional girth around the basket, Denver’s defense is getting shredded by average NBA big men. That’s not going to change unless the lineup does.

Forget winning the Western Conference. Oklahoma City has that wrapped up already. What the Nuggets need to do now is make sure they don’t end up in the fourth spot and have to face the Thunder in the second round once again. Healthy or not, that’s not a good matchup for Denver. Home court advantage in the playoffs is critical as far as they can get it, and so is making the Thunder work through a couple of rounds against the other tough teams in the west before the Nuggets take their shot.

In the meantime, it would be best to start planning, beginning with Plan B, as in another big man, in case they find themselves still shorthanded come playoff time.