DenverNuggets

Three seasons removed from a championship, Denver is running out of time to waste Nikola Jokić's prime — and the franchise knows it. After a 54-win season ended in a first-round exit to Minnesota in six games, David Adelman returns for his second full season with new lead assistant Dave Joerger and the same starting five: Jokić, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and Cameron Johnson. Murray, coming off his first All-Star season, dismissed offseason trade talk and made his intentions clear: a title run. The supporting cast is thinner, though — Tim Hardaway Jr. left for Miami, Peyton Watson was traded, and the additions (DeMar DeRozan, Marvin Bagley III, Alpha Diallo) are minimum-salary bets.

The urgency is financial as much as competitive. Jokić can sign a projected five-year, $360 million extension next summer, and while insiders expect him to stay, Denver cannot afford another squandered year — as camp opened in Boulder, the Joker himself blessed the new group: "The starting unit is the same, but there's a bunch of new guys. I think they're going to be good." The preseason starts with a Boulder homecoming against Utah at the CU Events Center on Oct. 4, and the Oct. 11 visit from Chicago at Ball Arena is on national TV. The real season begins Oct. 22 in Oklahoma City, where the Nuggets will find out immediately whether the new pieces can ease the burden on their two stars.