Nuggets forward Spencer Jones not on the injury report before Saturday’s game against Indiana in Mexico City, tweets Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette, which means the former Stanford Cardinal will make his season debut.
As of this week, Jones and the team were planning to make his 2026-27 debut on Saturday, a source told Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (Link to Twitter).
After playing a modest role as a rookie, Jones became an important rotation player for the Nuggets last season amid a wave of injuries at forward. He was moved from a two-way contract to a standard contract in February after he reached the active-game cap, then signed a two-year, $11.75 million contract offer letter with the Thunder as a restricted free agent this summer, a deal with the Nuggets coincide.
Jones, who dealt with a hamstring problem last season, corrected his hamstring during training camp in early October and then underwent an MRI, which revealed strain He said before the regular season, he expected to play in the championship, but it was held out Denver’s first seven games with what the team called bilateral treatment for a hamstring injury.
Veteran forward DeMar DeRozan is likely to play Saturday after missing Wednesday’s contest with back spasms, according to Benedetto.
Here’s more on the Nuggets:
- Denver needs a lot more from both Nikola Jokic and his supporting cast if the team hopes to make the playoffs this season, according to ESPN.com’s Ben Golliver. According to Golliver, the three-time MVP got off to a slow start this fall urging fans for booing when the team played poorly in the first half of a home game. Golliver notes that the Nuggets are 4-3 but are 0-3 against winning teams, and the talent drain they’ve experienced since their 2023 title was evident early this season when Jokic wasn’t playing at his typical level. Aaron Gordon and Cameron Johnson have also not been sharp enough to start 2026/27, Golliver adds, and the bench is also largely struggling. Giving Jokic a big, long-term contract next summer looks like an increasingly risky proposition for the Nuggets, according to Golliver, given that they’re already the only team working on a second tax apron and there’s no recent precedent for a big man continuing to play at an MVP level past his age-36 season (which would be the fifth year of a theoretical new deal).
- Jokic looked more like himself in Wednesday’s win over Toronto Durando of The Denver Postwith 32 points (on 13-of-19 shooting), 11 assists, 10 rebounds and three steals in 30 minutes in a dominant win in which he stayed the entire fourth quarter. What’s important is that Jokic was able to operate in the post, and the Nuggets have struggled to get him the ball downfield in previous games. “I think a lot of it was the pressure,» head coach David Adelman said. “We had to initiate the offense early, which resulted in him being at the top of the key, which is a lot more than five cars. Tried to make a concerted effort last game to get him in the post. Obviously he will read and react. So much rip-screen stuff to get it to the block; when (defensive backs) go under (the screen), sometimes that leads to more of a lateral pick-and-roll where he picks and pops against the coverage. But I would like to see him more there, in the quarter. Obviously, your post crime is dictated by the shooting that’s going on around him, so sometimes the bells play or the concepts, whatever you want to call it, it’s the four guys that are in there with him, too.”
- Rookie forward Bryce Hopkins was another bright spot in Wednesday’s win. How – writes BenedettoThe 49th overall pick in this year’s draft was unexpectedly inserted into the rotation with DeRozan, who scored a career-high 18 points on just seven field goal attempts to go along with four rebounds and two steals in 28 minutes. Both Adelman and Jokic praised Hopkins for his professional approach to the game. “I feel like I’m just a very diverse player. I feel like I can create offense whether I’m off the ball or on the ball” said Hopkins.Whatever the team asks of me, I feel I can do it. I feel like my physicality is big for me both defensively and offensively. Whatever the team needs, I’m ready to do it.”