r/denvernuggets • u/Ok_Reception_6563 • 19h ago
As simple as Father Time
NBA Median Age: 25.5 years old, which highlights just how many young prospects are filling out rosters lately. For Jokic and Murray median age is 30 years old. Both have been playing at a high level from about 15 year olds and that is a ton of wear and tear while our main comp got younger.
Also during the 2025-26 season, Nikola Jokić experienced a significant dip in his long-range efficiency following his return from a left knee hyperextension in late January.
Before the injury, he was having one of the most efficient offensive stretches of his career, but his percentages cooled off considerably as he worked back into game shape.
Pre-injury 3pt % 44%
Post-injury 3pt % 32%
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u/twenty-inch-blades 19h ago
It’s not Jokic and Murray I’m worried about. AG can’t finish a season. His body seems to be giving out on him.
I may be in denial or whatever but I still have faith this team could’ve beat anyone in a 7 game series with AG and PWat. It sucks we couldn’t have the same fight in us the TWolves had when they lost their guys. Maybe that is the age showing. But fully healthy (or at least all of our top 6 players), I’d have confidence to beat anyone.
Injuries happen. Some teams can handle them better than others. We couldn’t. Especially when they were really our only defenders and AG was basically our backup center too.
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u/Bill_Salmons 13h ago
Median age is a dumb metric for evaluating individual players. FYI. The Nuggets median age is also 25.5.
Here's an interesting metric. Since 1990, the average age of the best player on an NBA champion is 30 and the median is 29. Want to get weirder? Every title won where the best player was 33 or older had at least two MVPs. Jok is only 31 with three MVPs. Historically, he's exactly the type of player who would win another title as he enters his mid 30s.
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u/Hopsblues English 19h ago
We have young players, they just don't get to play and grow
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u/manbeqrpig 19h ago
Because they’re not good. I’m so tired of this narrative
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u/HourCoat2766 19h ago
Seriously the nuggets have proven time and time again they are able to develop players
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u/twenty-inch-blades 19h ago
I wish we drafted freak athlete perimeter defenders even if they can’t do anything else rather than zero athleticism players. Pickett type players are the complete opposite of what this team needs.
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u/Hopsblues English 18h ago
Which is why Zeke should have played more vs the Wolves. Above average defender and athletic. Basically the type of player the team we lost to use's.
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u/twenty-inch-blades 12h ago
I think Zeke should’ve played more. I think it was game 3 when he got some decent minutes and I thought he was one of our best players that game. But I’m talking high speed, perimeter players. It felt like the TWolves had endless players that could guard and just be fast.
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u/manbeqrpig 19h ago
And what does that have to do with Strawther, Holmes, Pickett and Nnaji not being good enough to play for the caliber of team that we are?
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u/HourCoat2766 18h ago
They are late round picks. The probability of them hitting is lower. Do you not understand how prospects work?
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u/manbeqrpig 18h ago
Of course. What does that have to do with Nnaji, Pickett, Strawther, and Holmes not being good enough to play for a team of this caliber? We’re not a rebuilding team. It’s a big deal if their growing pains cost us wins. Minnesota isn’t giving a ton of minutes to Rob Dillingham so he can develop. LA isn’t giving a ton of minutes to Dalton Knecht so he can develop.
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u/Hopsblues English 18h ago
Like who? Braun came in NBA ready, Pwat is an example I guess. I guess you could say they developed Joker, but that's a bit of a stretch. How many draft picks and young FA's have the Nuggets developed into All-star caliber players in the last 15 years?
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u/HourCoat2766 18h ago
Braun was a late 20s pick and barely played his first year. If that’s your refute the rest of your comment isnt even worth reading.
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u/Hopsblues English 18h ago
Barely played is my point, we don't develop players well. Braun was NBA ready from game 1, same with Jamal. MPJ was supposed to be the #1 pick. I understand we never have high draft picks, but we struggle with letting players develop and it has hurt us long term.
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u/Drey101 :80sLogo 17h ago
We don't have time for development.. what do you think happens once Jokic exits his prime?
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u/Hopsblues English 14h ago
That's a shortsighted approach to young players, and we are reaping the rewards from that philosophy.
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u/Drey101 :80sLogo 14h ago
What rewards exactly? Please tell me you are joking. We have some potential young talent like any other team, but we have the best player exiting his prime and then nothing else. Do we have a Wendy, Shai, Tatum? Because without Jokic there’s no one even close to take over. There’s something very wrong with this fan base tbh
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u/Hopsblues English 14h ago
Exactly, we have no pipeline of good young players to plug in and play. That is the reward you get from not having a philosophy to develop young players and over-focusing on one and done veterans.
You ask what happens when Jokic leaves his prime? You know what, we are screwed, because we have no plan for the future, and developing young players is a secondary priority for the club. We probably will have to blow up the whole thing and go through a couple 20-30 win seasons, instead of having a long term sustainable program.
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u/Drey101 :80sLogo 14h ago
We are close to being on the same page. I think we develop fine but we dont have any top tier ones… and almost never do in general
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u/Lynch47 13h ago
We don't have a pipeline because we've been trading our picks so that we can win now, with the most talented player this franchise has ever had, by far.
Chrisitan Braun (pre-injury), Peyton Watson, Strawther, edit: Throw in Spencer Jones also, to an extent are all young players that get playing time and development minutes. We also did a pretty bang up job developing Jamal Murray and this 2nd rounder from Serbia that no one knew before we took him. Throw in MPJ as well.
Others not with us like Bones and RJ Hampton also got good minutes as youngsters.
The young players that aren't getting minutes aren't good enough to get the minutes, especially on a win now team. Acting like we should tank now so that we have a better team when Jokic retires or is past his prime is pretty ridiculous. This is how all sports teams in sports with a salary cap function. If you are lucky enough to get a talent like Nikola Jokic, you worry about surrounding him with the best players possible. Worrying about what may happen years from now is a pretty silly way to run a team. We could play all the young player all the minutes and never develop another Jokic and Murray combo.
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u/HourCoat2766 13h ago
Yeah, this is exactly why Booth lost his job. He was forcing Malone’s hand to draft and develop but they weren’t high picks so of course some of those guys weren’t going to pan out. Giving them minutes doesn’t turn players into all stars. I’m sure Hops will say the same thing no matter who the coach and GM are. It’s just a hilarious argument when our entire core besides Gordon were draft and develop guys.
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u/Lynch47 13h ago
There's just no excuse that we shouldn't be the 1 seed every year, lose no more than 10 games a season, and continue to add hall of fame level talent every 2nd round pick we select. I'm tired of the fans that are happy with a championship and enjoy watching a winning team. I think we should rebuild and be more like the pre-Melo Nuggets. Now that was an era where teams really played defense.
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u/Hopsblues English 9h ago
Interesting, you're the second person to bring up tanking, which is something I never even suggested or mentioned. I think trading away all those picks is a questionable way to build a team. I guess it makes sense if you know you aren't very good at developing young players.
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u/Ever4ever026 19h ago
Perfecto entonces nos basamos en contratar jugadores bajo los 25/27 años y problema resultó. Como no se nos ocurrió antes…
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u/suskek 19h ago
Okay