As the 2025-26 NBA season crawls closer, the Nuggets have their roster, and now they have a schedule. To make sense of it and to predict Denver’s win total, we’ve broken it down into six arbitrary chunks of about 10 to 20 games each.
See the full Nuggets schedule with game times and TV channels here.
October 23 – Nov. 8: Honeymoon phase
Setting the tone for an altogether choppy and inconvenient six months of travel, the Nuggets will board a plane after each of their first five games. They open at Golden State, where the Warriors — as of this week — remain the only team yet to complete an offseason move. If they eventually sign Al Horford, their starting lineup around Steph Curry will be formidable but also one of the grayest in the league, with an average age of around 36. That means the beginning of the season is probably the worst time to cross paths with them.
From there, Denver alternates between home and away for the first week. The road games aren’t easy. They include an early rivalry rematch at Minnesota and an NBA Cup opener at a plucky Portland team that might not have much else to play for later this season.
Still, this should be an energizing stretch of mile-high hoops. The roster is refurbished. The vibes are revamped. The expectations are high. And November starts with the first homestand of the season. The shiny new Nuggets should be favored in all four of those games.
Prediction: 7-2
Nov. 3 – Dec. 7: NBA Cup season
The Nuggets better enjoy that homestand while they can. It’s followed by a grueling four-week stretch of non-stop travel.
This is the team’s flight schedule between games, starting Nov. 10 (inhale): Denver to Sacramento to Los Angeles to Minnesota to Denver to New Orleans to Houston to Denver to Memphis to Denver to Phoenix to Denver to Indianapolis to Atlanta to Charlotte to Denver.
Will the Nuggets leave the oft-bruised Nikola Jokic at home to rest during any of these one-game excursions? Will they put the pedal to the metal in an effort to avoid another troubling start like last year, when they were 11-10 on Dec. 7? Will they be hammered by fatigue? Or will their new depth buoy them?
After the game in Charlotte is an opportunity to come up for air. Mid-December is now one of the lightest portions of the NBA calendar because of the in-season tournament. From Dec. 8-17, the Nuggets will play only two games with to-be-determined opponents (unless they reach the NBA Cup final). Those are impossible to predict, so let’s just call it a 1-1 split for the sake of impartiality. First, they’ll face Kevin Durant’s Rockets (Nov. 21) and Victor Wembanyama’s Spurs (Nov. 28) in a pair of marquee group stage games.
Prediction: 11-5 (18-7 overall after TBD games)
Dec. 18 – Jan. 7: Xmas, then a hangover marathon
After hosting Anthony Edwards for Christmas dinner, the Nuggets embark on just their third seven-game road trip of the Nikola Jokic era, unless you also want to count the bubble as a really, really long road trip. (They went 3-4 and 4-3 on the other two.) In fact, this is their first roadie longer than five games since February 2022.
The holiday season is tough timing, but there is a silver lining: Eastern Conference opponents. Orlando and Cleveland are the most imposing teams on a trip that spans from South Florida to Canada. Toronto is where the Nuggets will toast to the new year. Then they’ll make their way to the eastern seaboard with three highly winnable games to end the journey, at Brooklyn (hello, Michael Porter Jr.), Philadelphia (hopefully hello, Joel Embiid), and Boston (unfortunately, no hello for Jayson Tatum).
Prediction: 7-5 (25-11 overall)
Jan. 9 – Feb. 11: Through the All-Star break
Denver plays five of its league-leading 16 back-to-backs during this stretch. There’s a Wednesday ESPN tilt in Dallas right after leaving New Orleans, where the nightlife is more likely to take a toll than the Pelicans. There’s a home back-to-back against Charlotte on a lazy Sunday that might conflict with a Broncos playoff game. And there are challenging short-rest battles in store for the team’s best defenders against Giannis Antetokounmpo (Jan. 23 in Milwaukee), Kawhi Leonard (Jan. 30) and Jalen Brunson (Feb. 4).
This is around the time of year when Jamal Murray usually heats up, but Denver’s hoping he’ll already be in peak form by January this time. Will he be making a push for his first All-Star Game during these weeks?
Other notable dates: MPJ’s return to Denver (Jan. 29), the first of four OKC Thunder matchups that are all scheduled within a two-month window (Feb. 1), a travel day from New York to Chicago during the trade deadline, and home games against the Cavs and Lakers. So LeBron James should be in town for at least one of those.
Prediction: 13-6 (38-18 overall)
Feb. 19 – March 14: Dog days
Easily the most difficult portion of the schedule from a competition standpoint. In their first 13 games out of the All-Star break, the Nuggets will face the Clippers, Warriors, Thunder (twice in OKC), Timberwolves, Lakers (twice), Knicks, Rockets and Spurs. Eight of those 13 games are on the road. Four of them are back-to-backs. Eight were deemed flashy enough to warrant national broadcasts.
Pretty much every team goes through at least one slump during an 82-game season, and this is the obvious moment to project as Denver’s in 2025-26. Unfortunately, it coincides with the period of the calendar when playoff seeding begins to materialize.
Prediction: 5-8 (43-26 overall)
March 17 – April 12: “Home” stretch
There are pros and cons to ending the regular season with 10 of 13 games at home. On one hand, the Nuggets are nicely positioned to make a strong final push in the standings against some weaker competition. They should be able to enter the playoffs in a rhythm, their November jetlag left in the distant past.
On the other hand, wouldn’t it be preferable to not need a final push in the first place? New coach David Adelman has already alluded ad nauseam to the importance of being well-rested for the playoffs. His ideal outcome is probably something akin to 2022-23, when Denver’s seeding felt secure and Jokic was able to sit out five of the last seven games. That yielded pretty solid results in May and June.
The Nuggets would have a better chance of following that blueprint if the schedule were more balanced. Instead, they might be left dueling for position in early April. This home stretch includes two Portland games, two Utah games and some other easier matchups on paper. But it wraps up with the Thunder and a quick trip to San Antonio, where Devonte’ Graham broke Denver hearts in Game 81 two years ago.
Prediction: 10-3 (53-29 overall)
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