Five key takeaways from the Denver Nuggets 2024-25 schedule

At long last, the schedule is here. The upcoming 2024-25 season is an excellent chance for the Denver Nuggets to reclaim their title as NBA champions.

Denver is on national television 29 times in total. Eleven of those games are on ESPN, seven are on TNT, four are on ABC, and the remaining seven are on NBA TV.

Here are some takeaways.

Well, the season really starts with a bang, doesn’t it?!

Denver hosts the Oklahoma City Thunder to kick off the year. This should be a great game. Oklahoma City finished in first place in the Western Conference last season, just half a game ahead of the two-seed Nuggets, despite having the second-youngest roster in the NBA.

This matchup is ripe with storylines. Oklahoma City had a busy offseason and, on paper, improved their core. The Thunder traded for Alex Caruso, who’s widely revered as one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. Caruso and defensive stalworth, Lu Dort, should be a great test for Jamal Murray in his very first game of the season.

Oklahoma City also agreed to terms on a deal with center Isaiah Hartenstein. This could potentially move Rookie of the Year runner-up, Chet Holmgren, to the power forward position. How Nikola Jokić inevitably solves that double-big lineup should also be enticing to watch.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that Russell Westbrook’s Nuggets debut comes against his former team, the Thunder, who selected him fourth overall in the 2008 NBA Draft. What a full circle moment!

Guess who gets to play on Christmas Day for the fifth time in six years? Oh yeah, your Denver Nuggets!

Denver enters the holiday with two straight Christmas Day wins. They defeated the Phoenix Suns in 2023, and last year, they took down the Golden State Warriors, 120-114.

This season, the Nuggets match up with the Suns once more in the final slot of the Christmas Day slate. Phoenix looks much different than the group the Nuggets defeated two years ago. They acquired Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal in two separate trades to form a starry trio with Devin Booker. That core faltered last season when the Suns were swept out of the 2024 playoffs by the Minnesota Timberwolves, but still, there’s a ton of talent on this Suns team.

The Suns had an interesting offseason. They brought in Tyus Jones to assist with ball-handling duties and retained key free agents, Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale.

Phoenix also agreed to a deal with former Nugget, Mason Plumlee, to bolster their center depth. That should be pretty fun! Watching Jokić go head-to-head with his former backup.

Back-to-back games, or games that occur on back-to-back nights, are widely regarded as the toughest parts of an NBA schedule. Players and team personnel are afforded zero days of rest as they move from game to game.

Denver has 16 back-to-backs in 2024-25. That’s a lot! For context, the team had 13 back-to-backs a season ago. It’s a fairly frontloaded back-to-back schedule; 9 of those back-to-backs occur in the first 41 games, leaving 7 for the second half of the season.

Here’s a full breakdown of Denver’s back-to-back schedule, sorted by difficulty. For context, scheduling that requires the team to travel away from Denver for the second of the two games is considered more difficult. So, “road-road” back-to-backs that feature two away games are atop the difficulty scale.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that one of these road-road back-to-backs is a little different than the rest. Denver flies to Oklahoma City for a game against the Thunder on March 9th only to then play Oklahoma City AGAIN the very next night on March 10th. Pretty unique! This specific back-to-back functions more as a “road-home” back-to-back since there’s no travel required for the second night.

Funny enough, that might be Denver’s toughest back-to-back of the year. There’s one other back-to-back that stands out, though.

The Nuggets host the Dallas Mavericks on November 22nd, who came out of the Western Conference last postseason and then added five-time All-Star, Klay Thompson, in the summer. The very next night, Denver flies to Los Angeles to play the LeBron James and Anthony Davis-led Lakers on November 23rd. That’s certainly not a cakewalk.

January 7th against the defending champion Boston Celtics and January 8th against the LA Clippers is no walk in the park either, but both of those games are at home. So, that’s nice.

Denver’s road-trip schedule is pretty forgiving, at least at a glance. Denver’s longest time away from home is just five games, and those games are pretty spaced out.

The trip begins on January 25th in Minnesota for a rematch against the Timberwolves. Minnesota and Denver fought to the tooth and nail last postseason, and eventually, the Wolves came out on top in seven hard-fought games. That should be a tone-setter for the rest of the trip.

Next up is the Chicago Bulls on January 27th. Then it’s the New York Knicks on January 29th, who acquired Mikal Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets in a blockbuster trade. The Knicks are a favorite to come out of the Eastern Conference. That starting lineup of Jalen Brunson, Bridges, OG Anunoby, Julius Randle, and Mitchell Robinson—with Josh Hart off the bench—is nothing to scoff at.

Denver then travels to Philadelphia on January 31st. Anytime Joel Embiid and the 76ers go head-to-head with Jokić and the Nuggets, it’s must-watch television. Finally, the trip concludes with a back-to-back in Charlotte on February 1st against the young Hornets.

The first two weeks of March could be tricky, though luckily this stretch is directly after the All-Star Break. So, the guys will get some time off.

Denver flies to Boston on March 1st for an early-bird 11 a.m. MT tip-off. The Celtics lost just 6 total home games last season, regular season and championship run included.

Fortunately, there’s a two-day layoff between the next game, March 5th at home against the Sacramento Kings. Then, there’s another one-day layoff before the Nuggets host the Suns on March 7th.

Things change in the second week of March. Remember that back-to-back against the Thunder? Guess what’s on March 9th and March 10th! Then, the Nuggets fly home to host the Timberwolves on March 12th. Sheesh.

This stretch ends on a back-to-back: March 14th at home against the Lakers, and then another home game on March 15th against the Washington Wizards.

That’s five games in seven days in the second week of March, and eight games in 14 days altogether. Of those eight teams, six of them made the 2024 playoffs.

We’ll learn a lot about the 2024-25 Nuggets in that two-week stretch.

Single-game tickets for the 2024-25 season will go on sale on Saturday, August 17th, at 10 a.m. MT.