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The Denver Nuggets didn’t make a deadline deal last year, and trades should again be the furthest thing from their minds this time around.
What Denver needs instead is an appeal to a higher power for the healthy return of no fewer than four starters, led by three-time MVP Nikola Jokić, who went down with a hyperextended knee on Dec. 29.
If the Nuggets can get Jokić back and playing at full power anywhere close to the projected four-week timeline, and if they also reintegrate Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and Cam Johnson, this team will have all it needs. Fully healthy, Denver can slot Tim Hardaway Jr., Spencer Jones, Jonas Valanciunas and others back into the bench roles they thrived in earlier this year, replenishing depth behind the elite production of the starters.
The Nuggets are top-flight contenders when whole. They don’t need outside additions, but they could use some divine intervention.