After The Timeout · NBA 2026-27 guide

Western Conference · tip-off October 20

Denver Nuggets

Our win estimate next to the market's, the last three seasons, who came and went, and the rotation we expect.

Our estimate

43 wins

Median of 20,000 simulated seasons. Middle 80%: 38 to 49 wins.

The market

49.4 wins

Where the Kalshi yes price for "wins or more" crosses 50%.

Last season

54-28

2025-26 · net rating +5.1 (7th in the NBA)

Our estimate is 5.6 wins below the market.

Treat the gap as a flag, not a verdict. In backtests on 2024-25 and 2025-26 (60 team-seasons) this kind of estimate missed a team's win total by 8.3 wins on average. Last season's wins pulled toward 41 missed by 9.0. Ratings built from games alone said 47 wins for this team.

Two ways to count wins

Our range against the market

The blue bar is the middle 80% of our simulated seasons. The orange line is the market's win total.

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 49.4 market wins in an 82-game season
Our median 43, middle 80%: 38 to 49 Market 49.4

Where we think they finish in the West

Top 6: 51% Play-in, 7th to 10th: 44% Outside the top 10: 5.3%
Market prices by strikeKalshi, captured Oct 19, 4:38 pm UTC
Wins or moreBidAskMidOur odds
2595¢ 100¢ 98¢ 100%
3093¢ 100¢ 97¢ 100%
3590¢ 99¢ 95¢ 98%
4078¢ 92¢ 85¢ 81%
4566¢ 70¢ 68¢ 40%
5046¢ 49¢ 48¢ 8%
5518¢ 30¢ 24¢ 1%
601¢ 12¢ 7¢ 0%
650¢ 7¢ n/a 0%

A strike with no bid is treated as unpriced. The market win total is a straight line between the two strikes that straddle 50%.

What the scoreboard said

The last three regular seasons

Ratings are points per 100 possessions. Possessions are estimated from box scores, so treat them as close, not exact. Ranks are out of 30.

2025-26 · 54-28 (5th in wins)

Points per game
122.11st
Allowed per game
116.921st
Offensive rating
120.31st
Defensive rating
115.321st
Net rating
+5.17th

2024-25 · 50-32 (6th in wins)

Points per game
120.83rd
Allowed per game
116.925th
Offensive rating
117.84th
Defensive rating
114.021st
Net rating
+3.89th

2023-24 · 57-25 (2nd in wins)

Points per game
114.914th
Allowed per game
109.66th
Offensive rating
116.65th
Defensive rating
111.210th
Net rating
+5.34th

Our preseason ratings

Offense
+3.341st
Defense
+0.8020th
Net, games only
+2.557th
Roster value
+1.23

Offense, defense and net are points per game against an average team, fitted on every completed game before tip-off (defense: lower is better). Roster value is the on-court net per 48 minutes of the players on the roster list, weighted by minutes.

Who came and who left

Offseason moves

Built from the DraftKings roster list and 2025-26 box scores. Players who left had at least 500 regular-season minutes here last season.

In (6)

  • DeMar DeRozanfrom SAC
    31.3 min, 18.4 pts a game
  • Marvin Bagley IIIfrom DAL
    20.1 min, 10.4 pts a game
  • Ryan Nembhardfrom DAL
    19.5 min, 6.6 pts a game
  • Cam Whitmorefrom WSH
    16.9 min, 9.2 pts a game
2 moredepth and rookies
  • Bryce HopkinsRookie / newNo NBA box score on file
  • Trevon BrazileRookie / newNo NBA box score on file

Out (5)

  • Tim Hardaway Jr.now with MIA
    26.6 min, 13.5 pts a game
  • Bruce Brownnot on a 2026-27 roster we can see
    24.3 min, 7.9 pts a game
  • Peyton Watsonnow with CLE
    29.6 min, 14.6 pts a game
  • Jonas Valanciunasnot on a 2026-27 roster we can see
    13.4 min, 8.7 pts a game
  • Jalen Pickettnow with LAC
    16.1 min, 5.2 pts a game

The rotation we expect

Top eight by projected minutes

Minutes come from our DFS minutes projection and are not scaled to a 240-minute game. Open a player for three seasons of per-game lines and shooting.

Jamal Murray G · age 29 · 37.4 projected min 2025-26: 75 g, 25.4 pts, 4.4 reb, 7.1 ast

2025-26 · DEN

75games
35.4min
25.4pts
4.4reb
FG48.3%657/1360
3P43.5%245/563
FT88.7%346/390

7.1 assists a game

2024-25 · DEN

67games
36.1min
21.4pts
3.9reb
FG47.4%531/1121
3P39.3%156/397
FT88.6%218/246

6.0 assists a game

2023-24 · DEN

59games
31.6min
21.2pts
4.1reb
FG48.1%474/986
3P42.5%145/341
FT85.3%157/184

6.5 assists a game

Nikola Jokic C · age 31 · 33.9 projected min 2025-26: 65 g, 27.7 pts, 12.9 reb, 10.7 ast

2025-26 · DEN

65games
34.8min
27.7pts
12.9reb
FG56.9%644/1132
3P38.0%112/295
FT83.1%399/480

10.7 assists a game

2024-25 · DEN

70games
36.8min
29.6pts
12.7reb
FG57.6%786/1364
3P41.7%138/331
FT80.0%361/451

10.2 assists a game

2023-24 · DEN

79games
34.6min
26.4pts
12.4reb
FG58.3%822/1411
3P35.9%83/231
FT81.7%358/438

9.0 assists a game

Christian Braun G · age 25 · 32.3 projected min 2025-26: 44 g, 12.0 pts, 4.8 reb, 2.7 ast

2025-26 · DEN

44games
31.8min
12.0pts
4.8reb
FG51.9%202/389
3P30.1%43/143
FT78.2%79/101

2.7 assists a game

2024-25 · DEN

79games
33.9min
15.4pts
5.2reb
FG58.0%476/821
3P39.7%89/224
FT82.7%177/214

2.6 assists a game

2023-24 · DEN

82games
20.2min
7.3pts
3.7reb
FG46.0%222/483
3P38.4%63/164
FT69.4%93/134

1.6 assists a game

Cameron Johnson F · age 30 · 31.4 projected min 2025-26: 54 g, 12.2 pts, 3.8 reb, 2.4 ast

2025-26 · DEN

54games
30.5min
12.2pts
3.8reb
FG48.0%228/475
3P43.0%110/256
FT83.9%94/112

2.4 assists a game

2024-25 · BKN

57games
31.6min
18.8pts
4.3reb
FG47.5%355/747
3P39.0%159/408
FT89.3%201/225

3.4 assists a game

2023-24 · BKN

58games
27.6min
13.4pts
4.3reb
FG44.6%276/619
3P39.1%138/353
FT78.9%86/109

2.4 assists a game

Aaron Gordon F · age 31 · 28.6 projected min 2025-26: 36 g, 16.2 pts, 5.8 reb, 2.7 ast

2025-26 · DEN

36games
27.9min
16.2pts
5.8reb
FG49.7%198/398
3P38.9%61/157
FT76.7%125/163

2.7 assists a game

2024-25 · DEN

51games
28.4min
14.7pts
4.8reb
FG53.1%264/497
3P43.6%75/172
FT81.0%145/179

3.2 assists a game

2023-24 · DEN

73games
31.5min
13.9pts
6.5reb
FG55.6%398/716
3P29.0%40/138
FT65.8%177/269

3.5 assists a game

DeMar DeRozan New here Questionable F · age 37 · 26.6 projected min 2025-26: 77 g, 18.4 pts, 2.9 reb, 4.1 ast

2025-26 · SAC

77games
31.3min
18.4pts
2.9reb
FG49.7%499/1005
3P32.0%47/147
FT86.8%374/431

4.1 assists a game

2024-25 · SAC

77games
35.9min
22.2pts
3.9reb
FG47.7%624/1308
3P32.8%84/256
FT85.7%378/441

4.4 assists a game

2023-24 · CHI

79games
37.9min
24.0pts
4.3reb
FG48.0%650/1355
3P33.3%75/225
FT85.3%522/612

5.3 assists a game

Ryan Nembhard New here G · age 23 · 25.9 projected min 2025-26: 60 g, 6.6 pts, 2.2 reb, 5.3 ast

2025-26 · DAL

60games
19.5min
6.6pts
2.2reb
FG41.5%162/390
3P35.6%48/135
FT80.6%25/31

5.3 assists a game

2024-25

No regular-season games on file.

2023-24

No regular-season games on file.

Marvin Bagley III New here F · age 27 · 20.0 projected min 2025-26: 60 g, 10.4 pts, 6.1 reb, 1.4 ast

2025-26 · DAL/WSH

60games
20.1min
10.4pts
6.1reb
FG61.8%254/411
3P46.2%24/52
FT66.0%95/144

1.4 assists a game

2024-25 · MEM/WSH

31games
8.6min
4.4pts
2.7reb
FG51.9%55/106
3P15.8%3/19
FT65.7%23/35

0.4 assists a game

2023-24 · DET/WSH

50games
21.0min
11.7pts
6.2reb
FG58.6%239/408
3P39.1%9/23
FT76.2%96/126

1.1 assists a game

How to read this

Method and limits

How our estimate is built
  • Our estimate starts from the roster. Each player's on-court net points per 48 minutes (from his most recent full season, pulled toward zero when the sample is small) is averaged by minutes across the roster list, then turned into wins at about 2.9 wins per point of net.
  • That win total is then pushed through the real 2026-27 schedule 20,000 times, using a home win probability for every game, to get the range and the playoff and play-in odds.
  • Ratings built from games alone (6,153 games before October 20) are kept as a comparison. They fade old games over the offseason, which pulls every team toward average.
  • The market number is the wins where Kalshi's "wins or more" price crosses 50%, read off a straight line between strikes five wins apart.
What the estimate does not know
  • Possessions are an estimate from box totals, not tracked possessions.
  • The season simulation uses each game's win probability from the ratings and nothing else: no rating uncertainty, injuries, trades after the cutoff or in-season rating updates, so the 10th-90th percentile band is narrower than a real season's spread.
  • The 2026-27 schedule file lists 1200 games (80 per team on average) rather than 1230. Each team's missing games ([2] per team) are played against an average opponent at a neutral site with no rest terms.
  • Projection method: (d) roster values. In the walk-forward study its hold-out MAE was 8.3 wins (n = 60 team-seasons) against 9.0 for last season's wins regressed toward 41. Typical error is still about 8 wins per team, so treat every number as a wide estimate.
  • Roster values use each player's box-score plus-minus, which is not adjusted for teammates. Players with no box-score history count as average at 10 minutes a game.
  • Ties in the seeding are broken at random; head-to-head and division rules are not applied.
  • Every team has a usable market median.
  • Market median uses the midpoint of the yes bid and ask for each strike and a straight line between the two strikes (5 wins apart) that straddle 0.5; a strike with no bid is treated as unpriced.
  • Rosters are the DraftKings Best Ball player list for draft group 150564, kept only where the player is on his team's current ESPN roster (ESPN team rosters, 2026-10-19): released and departed players are out. Players DraftKings lists as Out are not in the engine's pool, so they have no projected minutes and are not in the top 8; each team's moves block names them.
  • Projected minutes are the engine's per-player estimates from box scores through 2026-04-12; they are not scaled to the team's 240 minutes and do not model new teammates.
  • Box scores start in 2021-22; a player with no box score on file is marked as a rookie or new, which can include veterans returning from abroad. Ages come from the ESPN player directory (2025-26 file) and are missing for players it does not list.
  • This team has 2 games the schedule file does not list yet; they are treated as games against an average opponent.

Data built Oct 19, 2026. Estimates are ours and can be wrong.