On the next installment of our 20 Questions Series heading into the 2025-26 season, it’s time to talk about the defense.

Question 3: What are the Nuggets changing on Defense this year?

It’s been mentioned several times. The Denver Nuggets are changing things up defensively, shifting their defensive philosophy they’ve used for the better part of the last seven years dating back to the 2018-19 season. The Nuggets jumped from 23rd in Defensive Rating in 2017-18 to 10th in 2018-19 without a major personnel change. They simply improved.

Now, they’re being forced to improve again.

While the Nuggets have added wrinkles and counters during that time, the base defensive coverage has always included Nikola Jokic at the level of the ball screen. When the opposing center sets a pick for the ball handler, the Nuggets almost always have Jokic “up to touch” which puts him on the perimeter more often than not. This took advantage of Jokic’s elite hands defensively while forcing the ball out of the hands of the opponent’s best player, forcing other players to beat Denver’s coverage.

Initially, this defense gave Denver an edge. It helped Jokic find his rhythm, stay involved and impactful defensively, and took him away from protecting the rim which was probably his worst trait early in his career.

But over the course of seven seasons, as teams have grown more accustomed to the rhythms and indicators of Denver’s defense, the Nuggets have struggled to hold up against the best. Often, the two players with the most pressure applied to them by Denver’s defense are the primary ball handler and the screen setter. The ball handler has to navigate the pressure and/or make the initial pass to the screener. That screener, often a big man not well versed in playmaking, is forced to read the defense and react quickly.

Centers are handling those reads better than ever, tangentially because of Jokic’s own influence on the game. As a result, the Nuggets give up a lot of open shots throughout the season, and it’s definitely hurt them.

So, the Nuggets are making changes. What kind of changes?

Well, we don’t know quite yet, but I have some theories.

First of all, David Adelman made it clear at Media Day that the primary defensive responsibilities would go to new assistant coach Jared Dudley, a longtime NBA veteran and former Dallas Mavericks assistant. Adelman will of course work closely with the defense too, but if the Nuggets improve, a certain amount of credit will have to go to Dudley.

At the first day of training camp on Tuesday, Bruce Brown shared that the Nuggets perimeter players were going to play more aggressive with their hands this year. It’s something the Nuggets have consistently struggled with, but being more physical can only help. The Nuggets had the fourth lowest opponent turnover rate, just above the Utah Jazz (30th in defensive rating), Chicago Bulls (19th), and Phoenix Suns (27th). While it’s not the be-all-end-all, being more disruptive at the point of attack should help the rest of the Nuggets defense keep up too.

Brown also shared that the Nuggets were “funneling everything through Jokic” defensively, which can be interpreted a number of ways.

One way is that the Nuggets are going to put more cerebral pressure on Jokic to truly captain the defense. He makes the calls for the situation and the team adjusts off of his brain, his awareness, and stays on the same page that way. That’s something Jokic should want, in theory, because it keeps the team on the same page defensively more often when the center is the one directing traffic.

Another way is the actual concept of “funneling” which would imply a bit more drop coverage overall.

In drop coverage, the center (Jokic) is often down the floor a bit more away from the initial screening action. The center is asked to keep the ball away from the rim as much as possible while the point-of-attack defender recovers to get back into the action. It takes a lot of trust in the center because the defense often allows perimeter defenders to stay home on their individual assignments more consistently. Getting caught in the rotation blender is less likely in drop coverage than it is in a blitzing coverage as a result.

Jokic has never been great in drop coverage, but in theory, it’s a less physically taxing defense to play for everyone except the point-of-attack defender. Christian Braun would be Denver’s primary option there, but with defenses getting so good at hunting individual matchups, every Nuggets guard and wing would have to improve on the ball.

There are other ways the Nuggets can improve defensively, from getting back to good habits on the defensive glass, improving their transition defensive principles, and just playing with higher effort. All of that can occur if the Nuggets are intentional about improvement, and the signs are there that the team is ready to take that step.

The Nuggets must improve on the defensive end to win a title. They cannot win if they don’t do the detail work now. That they are proactively stepping up so far and saying the right things is a good first step, but the process will be long and arduous. If they do the right things for long enough, the improvement will happen naturally.

I cannot wait to see what the Nuggets are cooking up.