The Nuggets Starting 5 has proven to be the most competent lineup in the league behind, of course, the Celtics. This team has seen their core 4 players intact for more than three years and has even won a championship together. With the reigning MVP still playing at the level that he's been doing, there's no doubt that the Nuggets should still have a shot at winning the title, but a mediocre-bound season seems to be predictable from just their first 5 games, with a potential finish worse than their 7-game second-round exit last season.

If the past seasons weren't bad enough, the Nuggets now have a net rating of -31.0 with Jokic off, with a 75.0 offensive rating. Their main cast cannot keep digging out of these holes created by their non-Jokic minutes as they will also deal with their own matchup conflicts when they're on the floor. This has already been an issue for the past two season but to no good action taken by the front office. The overused seen solution to this by Michael Malone is staggering Jamal Murray to the bench, which ultimately puts Jamal in more situations of pressure from the defense and ultimately, out of rhythm and more fatigued - still a questionable strategy by the coaching staff. Unless the Nuggets decide to play their starters 40 minutes a game and jeopardize their late regular season, the Nuggets shall make a swift move before they'd have to climb a tall mountain in the stacked Western Conference and call it a wasted season.

The intention in signing Westbrook is to alleviate this load, but he will often have to rely on transition opportunities to create advantages as the 4-bench lineup is the only one where he gets these opportunities from, with the awful shooting and halfcourt creation of Watson and Saric/Jordan also present. Westbrook, not to mention, is an active liability when played with the starers. If he's seen to be the solution to all of this, then by all means should the whole front office get fired el pronto. The Nuggets need just another halfcourt scoring guard, just to at least keep the game +/- 0 when Jokic is off the floor.

The Jazz is a team that may already be open for transactions this early onto the season, as they are so obviously tanking, presenting their worst rotations possible against terrible opponents. They'd also rather play Keyonte and Collin, which puts Clarkson in a tough spot since he often prefers to be treated as an energizing scoring initiator than a secondary ball handler to amp up his production, and he has not seen this role for the past season either in Utah.

A first round pick should suffice Denver's need and Clarkson's skillset in this trade. Accepting Nnaji's contract should make this trade heavier for the Nuggets, but the Jazz should see Denver's struggles as an opportunity regardless and do their due diligence to make a trade happen months before the deadline, when it'll be already too late.

Updated Nuggets Rotational Bench:

Westbrook - Clarkson - Strawther - Watson - Jordan