The Denver Nuggets‘ 2025-26 season ended in utter disappointment as the title contenders were knocked out in six games by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs. Change feels almost inevitable after an early exit like this, and Nuggets president and CEO Josh Kroenke confirmed that only Nikola Jokic is untradeable during a press conference on Friday.
“I think that from my perspective, when I sit here and think about where we were 12 months ago, I think we’ve made really strong strides in certain areas,” Kroenke said, via the Nuggets. “I think there’s other areas where I think we’ve either been complacent, and I don’t want to say that we’ve regressed, but complacency would be a keyword that I think I saw in some areas in some people this year.
“So there’s going to be some challenges, absolutely,” Kronke continued. “I think that I don’t want to be masked in my frustration for how the season ended. I think that anybody that was a fan of the Denver Nuggets should be frustrated. And anything that a fan feels, I probably feel at a 1000x. I think that everything is going to be on the table, outside of trading Nikola.
“I should be clear because my words got twisted in an interesting way last summer,” Kroenke added. “But yeah, I think everything’s on the table outside of trading Nikola. I think we need to have running it back as a possibility. I think this season was, in a lot of ways, the season that never was because this group never fully got a chance to show any kind of rhythm.”
Kroenke was likely referring to when he brought up a nightmare scenario of trading Jokic in a presser back in June 2025. That caused some panic, and he wanted to make it absolutely clear here that the Serbian superstar is going nowhere.
Jokic has also made it clear he wants to stay with the Nuggets, and there would be riots in Denver if he were shipped out of town. The three-time MVP averaged 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds, 10.7 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game in the regular season, and is set to sign a four-year, $278 million contract extension in this offseason.
Jokic led the NBA in both rebounds and assists per game and became the first player in league history to pull that off in one season. It was a regular season for the ages, but the 31-year-old struggled a bit in the playoffs.
Jokic averaged 25.8 points per game against the Timberwolves while shooting 44.6% from the field and 19.4% from beyond the arc. He had dominated his matchups with four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert in the past, but was unable to do so this time.
Now, Jokic hadn’t really been at his otherworldly best since he went down with a left knee hyperextension on Dec. 29, 2025. He missed 16 games with it, and we saw a slightly different player before and after the injury.
Injuries were pretty much the story of the Nuggets’ season, too, which is what Kroenke was referring to when he brought up rhythm. Peyton Watson and Cam Johnson played 54 games each, while Aaron Gordon played just 36.
Watson missed the entire series against the Timberwolves, and Gordon managed to play in only three of the six games. They’re the two best defenders on the Nuggets, and this team looked woeful defensively without them.
While Gordon is ever so valuable, injuries are starting to pile up, and you wonder if the Nuggets will cut ties in the coming months. Watson is a restricted free agent, too, and retaining his services could prove very costly due to the luxury tax bill.
It will also be very interesting to see what happens with Jamal Murray. Murray and Jokic have been a phenomenal duo, but the former hasn’t been the playoff riser he once was for a while now. He averaged 23.7 points on 35.7% shooting from the field against the Timberwolves, and you wouldn’t blame the Nuggets for looking for an upgrade.
Jokic had said after the Game 6 loss to the Timberwolves that everyone would be fired if they were in Serbia. Well, he is the only one safe among the players and rightly so.
Kroenke also mentioned that running it back is a possibility, and you can’t help but think that would be a mistake. This no longer looks like a core that could win it all.
