Josh Kroenke said the Nuggets are leaving every option on the table this offseason after a first-round playoff exit ended a season that never fully came together. That includes running it back with the same core or making bigger changes to a roster that finished third in the West at 54-28.
The comments came after a 2025-26 campaign in which Denver was one of the NBA’s most injured teams. The Nuggets were missing Peyton Watson and Aaron Gordon during the playoffs, and the club believes the roster did not get a fair chance to show what it could have been with better health.
That matters now because the 2026 offseason has arrived with a simple question hanging over Denver: keep the group intact or shake it up. The team is coming off a disappointing exit, but it still won 54 games and spent most of the season near the top of the Western Conference, which makes the decision harder than a typical reset.
The tension is between the record and the reality. A 54-28 mark usually suggests a contender, yet the injuries changed the shape of the season and left the Nuggets short when the games mattered most. Kroenke’s stance reflects that split view. He did not shut the door on continuity, but he also did not promise it, signaling that Denver will treat this summer as a full evaluation rather than a simple endorsement of the roster as it stands.
What comes next is the part that will define the franchise’s direction. The Nuggets must decide whether the 2025-26 team was a true measure of its ceiling or a lost chance shaped by bad timing and bad health. If they believe the latter, keeping the core together becomes easier to justify. If they believe the window needs a new push, the 2026 offseason could bring the kind of change that follows a playoff disappointment, even for a team that won enough games to look far better than its postseason result.
