The Denver Nuggets have high hopes heading into the 2025-26 NBA season. After a disappointing second-round loss in last season’s playoffs, they come into this year reloaded and ready to compete for a championship.
The Nuggets made major roster changes, adding plenty of depth as head coach David Adelman enters his first full season at the position. The star duo of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray have even more help, with names such as Cam Johnson, Jonas Valanciunas, and Bruce Bown added to the rotation.
The roster isn’t the only area of the organization where changes have been made, though. The Nuggets announced on social media that their black alternate jerseys will be making a return this season. Denver last wore them during the 2019-20 season, becoming an iconic representation of the NBA Bubble.
The rumors are true 😏 pic.twitter.com/lYXxyA7vTl
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) August 1, 2025
Fans reacted to the Nuggets’ post on social media, generally excited for the return.
“I thought this day would never come,” one fan replied.
“Words can’t describe how back we are,” another said.
“Lowkey might need a Joker jersey,” a Miami Heat fan replied.
The Nuggets went 46-27 during the 2019-20 season, finishing as the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. In the Orlando bubble, they would pull off back-to-back 3-1 comebacks, getting to the Western Conference Finals after defeating the Utah Jazz and LA Clippers. Denver would fall to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers.
While that season didn’t end in a championship, many remember it so well for a multitude of reasons. For one, NBA fans will always remember it as the season the league shut down and came back during the global pandemic.
For Nuggets fans, it’s the first time Jokic and Murray reached the Western Conference Finals, doing so in an improbable fashion. The black alternate jerseys have become symbolic of that playoff run, and following that season, Jokic would take home three MVP awards in four years.
Now, the Nuggets will bring back those jerseys to a roster with even more talent, perhaps more than their 2023 championship team. Brown will make his return to Denver after bouncing around the league for some time, while the organization swapped out Michael Porter Jr. for Johnson in a trade with the Brooklyn Nets.
Many underestimate that the Nuggets took the Oklahoma City Thunder to seven games in round two of the playoffs last season. With more pieces to the roster, they might have enough to dethrone the champions.
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