Nuggets’ absurd opening night snub will provide even more motivation
Parts of the NBA schedule have leaked, including some of the major days on the calendar and while the Nuggets will be playing on Christmas night, they did not get selected to play on opening night. Instead, the league opted to start the season with a doubleheader featuring the Rockets at Thunder and followed by Warriors at Lakers.
🚨🚨🚨Opening Night of the 2025-26 NBA season on NBC on Oct. 21, per sources:
– Houston Rockets at Oklahoma City Thunder
– Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Lakers
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 8, 2025
The first matchup is reasonable enough, as the Thunder are defending champs and the Rockets were the two seed in the West last year. Plus, they added former OKC legend, Kevin Durant, which vaults them into contention and creates extra drama with Durant’s first game as a Rocket coinciding with the Thunder raising their first banner.
The second game of the night is where the league disrespected the Nuggets, choosing two second tier contenders in the Lakers and Warriors. LA was bounced in the first round last season in five games and hasn’t made any big splashes this offseason.
Their second-best player is over 40 and seems to be growing into a malcontent; this team is not a contender as things stand. The same could be said for the aging Warriors, who have yet to make a single move this summer.
Nuggets a better team than Lakers/Warriors and have best player
Not only are the Nuggets a much better team than either of the Lakers or Warriors, but they also have the best player in Nikola Jokic. Furthermore, they had by far the most intriguing offseason, coming in with five new rotation players.
Denver arguably had the best offseason of any team in the league, adding to a group that won it all in 2023 and took OKC to seven games in the second round a few months ago. On top of that, they have the best player in the league who is squarely in his prime.
Adam Silver and his crew opting to run it back with his aging stars LeBron James and Steph Curry instead of embracing a team like the Nuggets shows what’s wrong with the league. Surely, there will be plenty of opportunities for national TV audiences to watch the Warriors and Lakers this season as those teams compete to avoid the play-in tournament.
But on opening night, when all eyeballs will be on the game, to not highlight the most intriguing team in the league, showcasing Jokic and his newly stacked supporting cast in their run for another title is a huge whiff by the NBA, and should provide a little extra motivation for the entire Nuggets organization.