DENVER — As great a basketball player as he is, Nikola Jokić will never be known as a great media soundbite. Some players are. You can press play on your recorder and the quotes that appear are gold. Others, like Jokić, prefer to let their game speak for itself.

Still, Jokić revealed a harsh truth Thursday night that the Denver Nuggets will have to deal with this season. It’s a phrase that will certainly spark discussion and questions the Nuggets will have to answer as this season progresses. And it’s a thought almost all of us have had during the offseason, during training camp, during a lackluster preseason and now after a regular season opener that yielded a 102-87 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Will they ever have a chance?

“We’re not a good shooting team, I think, except probably (Michael Porter Jr.) and Jamal (Murray),” Jokic said. “We’re all a bit streaky. Not streaky, you know, just average shooters.

Nikola Jokic: “We’re not a good shooting team, except for Mike and Jamal. We are all a bit of pork belly, not pork belly, just average shooters.”#MileHighBasketball pic.twitter.com/bOH2TeRdEv

— DNVR Nuggets (@DNVR_Nuggets) October 25, 2024

If Denver continues to win its usual 50-55 games this season, and if the Nuggets make an extended run in the playoffs, and if they prove to be NBA title contenders, the relative panic caused by Thursday night’s season opener will dissipate . . Oh well, it could go away if the Nuggets get off to a good start in the remainder of their first ten games.

But in one key game, Denver’s performance fueled the narrative that made things worse this summer in an offseason that saw starting shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope leave in free agency for the Orlando Magic. The Nuggets couldn’t shoot. The Nuggets looked old, especially compared to Oklahoma City’s collective athleticism. The Nuggets looked like a team without depth. New signing Russell Westbrook had some good moments, but mostly threw up rocks when trying to shoot from the rim. The offense looked disjointed and clunky, which was a surprising development considering the core of this team has been together for so long.

On the one hand, this is one game. A regular season consists of 82 games, and at the end of it there will certainly be a playoff. On the other hand, there were some alarming moments, and if one game is anything to go by, this Denver team looked at least a level below a team capable of contending for its second NBA title in three years.

“I thought our defense was great,” Denver head coach Michael Malone said. “I thought the defense was great. But there is obviously a lot of room for improvement offensively. That starts with execution, it starts with pace and it starts with the ability to shoot. We were 7 of 39 from 3-point range and scored 87 points. It tells me that our defense has been great, but our offense has to catch up.”

The underlying fear was that the Nuggets wouldn’t have enough shots. That came to fruition against the Thunder. What’s worse for Denver is that Oklahoma City deliberately sacked several Nuggets players in almost every lineup that put Malone on the floor, and Jokić doubled up almost every time he touched the ball. Christian Braun, Westbrook and Peyton Watson were all players who found themselves wide open to shoot from the perimeter, as the Thunder fearlessly sent multiple defenders to Jokić. When the Nuggets began their NBA title run in 2023, there was no way teams could do that to Jokić. The Nuggets always had enough shooting power to keep opposing defenses honest.

Another underlying fear was that the Nuggets wouldn’t have enough depth. That also became painfully clear on Thursday evening. Denver received a total of 16 points from its bench against the Thunder, and Oklahoma City made extended runs in both halves when Jokić went to the bench. The reserves did not play well on either end of the court and the contrast with Oklahoma City’s depth proved stark.

The irony is that the Thunder didn’t shoot much better from three-point range (8 of 36). But the Nuggets will have to play more traditionally this season. They will have to generate points in a slightly different way than the way the rest of the league operates. The good news for Denver is that this isn’t impossible, especially considering Jokić still wears a Nuggets uniform every night. But this team will have to develop offensively.

“Our questions are whether we are executing in the way that we need to,” said Malone. “And we have to use the right values ​​as teams double Nikola every time he touches him.”

GO DEEPER

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This strategy of letting other Nugget players win games outside of Jokić is one the Minnesota Timberwolves used in the postseason. It eventually wore Denver down, and the Nuggets hit a wall of exhaustion in Game 7 against Minnesota to lose that second-round series.

It’s a luxury to have 82 games to tinker with and discover what works. But Denver currently looks like it’s a tier below at least Oklahoma City. Whether the Nuggets will be on the level of other Western Conference powers like Minnesota and the Dallas Mavericks remains to be seen.

What are some possible solutions for the Nuggets?

They could do something drastic and break up their vaunted starting five and bring Porter off the bench, which would provide the reserve core with a dynamic attacking player. If you were to elevate Julian Strawther, the starting five would still have enough attacking talent to play well. But this is an extreme thought, and coaches aren’t about to change rotations and lineups in response to a single loss.

“The bottom line is I have to find a way to get Julian going,” Malone said. ‘I have to figure out a way to get Dario Šarić started. So you definitely have to take many factors into account. I think the more our guys play together, the better it will be for us.”

The obvious solution is to take more shots, especially the wide open shots. What’s more important is taking the wide open areas. Despite as many looks as Denver missed on Thursday night, the Nuggets didn’t take any obvious ones. If you miss an open shot, it’s difficult to get the same open look later in possession.

Denver needs to generate baskets more easily. The Nuggets scored just 12 points in transition, and that’s an area that can alleviate a lack of perimeter shooting. And Denver needs to figure out the lineups around Jokić. Unfortunately for the Nuggets, they will have a hard time fielding groups that don’t have at least one non-shooter. But they will have to find a way to minimize the lack of space.

The Nuggets know there are ways to figure it out offensively. Still, Thursday night sent a clear message of how far this team has to go to get where it wants.

“There were too many possessions that weren’t Nuggets basketball,” Braun said. “We know that we have to be better in many areas in the future.”

(Photo by Nikola Jokić: AAron Ontiveroz / The Denver Post via Getty Images)