The Nuggets Incredible Offseason Continues After Nikola Jokic Is Spotted Loving Life While Watching His Horse Win A Race

Zach Beeker. Getty Images.

There have been a handful of "winners" thus far during this year's NBA offseason for a variety of reasons. Say you're a team like the Atlanta Hawks, they've had a great summer reshaping their roster and making the most of their opportunity to play their way into contention in a "down year" in the East. Adding Porzingis, the draft day heist of that unprotected Pelicans 2026 pick, adding legit depth pieces like Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard, they're an easy choice as a "winner" this summer.

The same thing can be said of teams like the Rockets, Magic, Clippers, Pistons etc, all of who have had good to great summers themselves.

But when we talk about the "winners" and "losers" of the summer so far in the NBA, to me, the biggest winner of them all (to date) is the Denver Nuggets. You may remember, this was a team that, despite the injuries to multiple key rotation pieces (MPJ, Aaron Gordon), was one half of basketball away from taking down the eventual champion Thunder. They fought like hell in the first 24 minutes of that Game 7, but ultimately, their injuries, combined with the Thunder turning up their defense to an insane level, proved to be too much to overcome. Instead, Nuggets fans were left with the type of brutal "what if" that you never want to experience as a fan.

Their job this summer was pretty simple. Stop wasting Nikola Jokic's prime and find a way to surround him with legitimate NBA-caliber depth. One of the biggest issues during the majority of the Jokic Era is the fact that the second he steps off the floor, the Nuggets turn into arguably the worst team in the league. That's not me saying it, that is what their on-court production told us. The year they mostly solved the non-Jokic minutes? They immediately won the title in 2023. From that moment on, we saw them trim around the edges due to financial constraints, and things were right back to what we saw last year, where the bench just wasn't quite good enough.

So what did they do? The flipped MPJ for Cam Johnson which is a homerun swap no matter how you slice it. They added Nuggets legend Bruce Brown for basically nothing. They brought in Tim Hardaway Jr, and depending on how this contract situation plays out, a perfectly playable backup center for Jokic in Jonas Valanciunas (if he sticks around). The Nuggets also get to add DeRon Holmes to the frontcourt mix after losing him all of last year to an achilles tear. This doesn't even include the possibility of maybe adding Al Horford, should JV get out of his NBA contract and head to Greece. 

The point is, if the goal of the Nuggets front office was to add real, playable depth pieces in an effort to keep Nikola Jokic happy and get back into title contention, I'd say that's exactly what they've done (on paper). The fact that Jokic now has legitimate depth to help the Nuggets at the very least be even in the non-Jokic minutes should have him over the moon.

But you know what else would have me excited as a Nuggets fan? Not just the fact that their roster has improved (and they have ways to make it even better) and it downplays any potential Jokic trade bullshit, but also the fact that Nikola Jokic is back home living his best life watching his horses win races

This isn't quite The Summer Of Jokic levels like we saw in the summer of 2023 after he won the title, but this summer has to be pretty damn close in terms of great Jokic offseasons. His team got the help he desperately needed, they didn't over-extend themselves to do it, and the Nuggets are largely considered to be in the top tier of title contenders entering this upcoming season. In the meantime, Jokic is doing what he loves most, which is watching his horses win races. 

Advertisement

Jokic was already an unstoppable force on the court without any of this summer's events, well what do we think happens when he's in great spirits? When he knows that not only is his team much better, but he's also coming off a summer in which he saw his horses win races? I'll remind you, that following that 2023 title and being there to witness his horses winning in person, Jokic came right back and won another MVP. 

If I were a Nuggets fan, a happy and motivated Nikola Jokic is exactly what I would have been hoping for this summer. Every single box the Nuggets front office had to check this offseason they've checked, and now they get to add a happy Jokic to the mix. That's why I have them as my biggest winner so far in the 2025 offseason. It's the perfect mix of on-court upgrades mixed with off court vibes for your franchise player that puts them a slight cut above. Sure, the Rockets made maybe the loudest noise, but the Nuggets' moves might end up being even more impactful when it comes to contending for an NBA title. We just saw how close they were before all of this happened, and now they enter 2025-26 with maybe the best team Jokic has ever had.