Six Weeks Without Julian Strawther Is the Wrong Test for a Nuggets Bench That Has to Pass It

The Denver Nuggets' preseason ended with a piece of news that will outlast the exhibition schedule. Julian Strawther sprained his left knee in Denver's preseason game at the Clippers at Intuit Dome, and the follow-up reporting has been consistent and grim: an MRI on Thursday, a six-week re-evaluation window, and a season debut now pushed to December. For a fourth-year wing who was supposed to be part of the answer to Denver's annual depth question, that's a significant delay — and it lands at the worst possible time on the calendar.

The statistical case for Strawther is modest but real. In 2025 he averaged 7.2 points and 2.0 rebounds in 15.1 minutes across 57 games, shooting 38.7 percent from three. Those aren't star numbers. They are, however, exactly the numbers a contending team needs from minutes 25 through 35 — efficient, low-usage spacing that keeps the floor open while Nikola Jokić rests. Denver's problem for years has not been the quality of its best five players. It has been surviving the minutes when the best five aren't on the floor, a weakness that resurfaced in the preseason loss to the Clippers and one that the coaching staff has openly acknowledged.

That's why this injury reverberates beyond one rotation spot. David Adelman spent the final days of the preseason talking about trusting a deeper rotation, and the entire rationale behind that trust is keeping Jokić and the starters fresh for a season that the front office clearly views as a championship window rather than a developmental year. Every wing who misses time compresses that rotation back toward the starters. Aaron Gordon, already the player Denver leans on most heavily, becomes harder to rest. The preseason free-throw slump — a separate issue, but one that speaks to how thin the margin for error is on offense — becomes harder to paper over with bench lineups that lack a proven shooter.

The opportunity falls to Trevon Brazile, who turned heads against the Clippers and has been forcing his way into the rotation conversation all month. The reporting has been explicit that Strawther's absence could fast-track him, and that Brazile's versatility makes it easier to sit Gordon for rest. There's also Spencer Jones, whose return would give the second unit a defensive boost. Neither is a like-for-like replacement for Strawther's shooting, but both are reasons Denver's depth isn't automatically a disaster.

Context matters here. Denver's offseason was widely read as uneven, the Jokić contract situation hangs over the season, and the team is coming off a first-round playoff exit to Minnesota. The market reflects that skepticism — a 49.5 win total and long championship odds — and the gap between Denver and Oklahoma City is real and measured in defense, not offense. Last season the Nuggets posted a 117.2 defensive rating against the Thunder's 108.4. That matchup is what greets them on opening night, Oct. 22, on the road, before home games against New Orleans and Golden State.

None of that means the season is lost in October. It means the six weeks between now and Strawther's re-evaluation are an audition Denver didn't want to hold. The Nuggets don't need Brazile to be Strawther. They need him — and whoever else Adelman trusts — to keep the non-Jokić minutes from becoming the story again.