The Denver Nuggets have built a championship roster for the 2025-26 NBA season.
The Denver Nuggets traded Michael Porter Jr. and Cameron Johnson and made some great additions to strengthen their bench.
In Denver, Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway, and Jonas Valanciunas join, and Nikola Jokic has perhaps the best supporting cast ever.
Jokic has proven to be unstoppable alone and now has a strong team behind him.
As dominant as Jokic is, there is one player that Brian Windhorst said has had success against Jokic.
The Nuggets played the Los Angeles Clippers in a preseason game, and Ivica Zubac matched up with Jokic.
Zubac proved to be a problem for Jokic, who returns to the first round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs.
Windhorst liked what he saw from Zubac on a preseason trip with Denver and said no one in the NBA can give Jokic as much of a challenge as he does.
“Ivica Zubac was great in this game. There’s no one in this league who can give Jokic as much of a challenge, but Zubac has had some success among the players who have tried so far.”
“I wouldn’t say it was successful. He was able to control himself a little bit more. Zubac looked great in this regard.”
The Nuggets were able to acquire a quality backup center in Jokic in Valanciunas in the offseason, something they haven’t had in a while.
But something happened during the Nuggets’ preseason win over the Clippers that caught Windhorst’s attention.
“There were some interesting wrinkles in this game by the coach.
“So Nuggets coach David Adelman had Jonas Valanciunas and Jokic play together, and then they played zone on defense.
“Jokic played power forward. I can’t remember the last time I saw him do that.”
It seems strange to see Jokic playing power forward, but the Nuggets will likely play him alongside Valanciunas in a large frontcourt long term.
Given Jokic’s outside play and guard-like playmaking ability, this will be an interesting lineup for head coach David Adelman to deploy this season.