The short version of Denver Nuggets NBA Rank 2026: Nikola Jokic sits at No. 1, ahead of Victor Wembanyama, and the rest of the Nuggets roster is scattered behind him. That combination, one giant at the summit and a gap underneath, is the whole Denver story compressed into a listicle.
Start with the franchise frame. The reporting around the list notes what everybody in Colorado already knows: the Nuggets have been among the league's best teams for eight years running, with the peak arriving in 2022-23 and the first championship in franchise history. Eight years of that is not a window anymore. That is an era.
What makes this particular ranking interesting is the argument happening underneath it. Wembanyama has spent the last couple of seasons turning the best-player-alive conversation from a coronation into an actual debate, and putting Jokic above him is a choice somebody at ESPN had to defend in a room. Elsewhere on the list, 2026 Finals MVP Jalen Brunson landed below both Jokic and Luka Doncic, which New York is not taking quietly. Ranking season is a contact sport. Everybody bleeds a little.
I don't have the complete Nuggets portion of the list in front of me yet, so I am not going to pretend I can name every placement. What I can say is that these lists have historically been kind to Denver at the top and stingy everywhere else, and that has consistently underrated what Jokic does to the players around him. A rotation piece in Denver produces numbers a rotation piece elsewhere does not, because the passer bends the geometry of the floor. Voters see the box score. They rarely credit the cause.
checked the almanac: jokic went 41st overall in 2014, the pick that famously aired during a taco bell commercial. twelve years later he is the guy at the top of the list other superstars are measured against. the game still hands out surprises like that.
What comes next is the part rankings cannot answer. Denver's season will hinge on the health of the supporting cast and whether the bench can hold water when the big man rests, not on where a panel slotted anybody in September. Lists are conversation. The season is the argument.
I'll be watching where Denver's second and third names actually land once the full list is out, because that number tells you how the league sees this roster without its center of gravity.
