Why Nuggets fans should be terrified despite two straight wins

The Denver Nuggets entered the 2024-25 campaign with the same expectations that they've had for a while now — it's championship or bust. They won the NBA Championship in the 2022-23 season but lost in the second round of the playoffs last season. The lofty expectations for this team are why their 0-2 start was so alarming.

They were blown out at home against an Oklahoma City Thunder team that they are supposed to be competing with at the top of the Western Conference, and then lost another home game, this time to a Los Angeles Clippers team that might not make the Play-In Tournament.

The Nuggets have done a nice job quieting down the haters by winning two games in a row, evening their record at 2-2, but even in those wins, Nuggets fans have reason to be concerned.

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Winning two straight shouldn't ease very obvious Nuggets concerns

The Nuggets earned their first win of the season on Monday, defeating the Toronto Raptors by a final score of 127-125. The final score showed just how close this game was. In fact, the Nuggets needed overtime to defeat the rebuilding Raptors.

Their second win of the season was mostly the same. The Nuggets defeated a Brooklyn Nets team that has every incentive to lose as many games as possible this season by a final score of 144-139. For a second consecutive night, they needed overtime to seal the deal against a bottom feeder.

The Nuggets needed herculean efforts from reigning MVP winner Nikola Jokic just to get those wins. He dropped 40 points in their win in Toronto, and he had 29 points, 18 rebounds, and 16 assists in Brooklyn. He was the second player in NBA history to have the stat line that he did against the Nets.

Jokic being Jokic is awesome, but he can't do it alone. Aaron Gordon has gotten off to a solid start, and Christian Braun has played pretty well in his new role as a starter, but other than them, it's been really Jokic or bust.

Jamal Murray played well on Tuesday, but he has shot just 37.9 percent from the field thus far, continuing his struggles displayed in the Olympics. Michael Porter Jr. has shot just 39.6 percent from the field and 29.6 percent from three-point range. These are supposed to be Denver's second and third-best scorers.

As alarming as Murray and Porter's struggles have been, there's reason to believe that they'll eventually get going. They're paid the way that they are for a reason. However, does anyone really believe in this bench?

Russell Westbrook might be a future Hall of Famer, but he's nowhere near the player he once was. He had a nice game on Tuesday but even with that, he's averaging just 9.3 points per game and shooting 27.0 percent from the field as Denver's sixth man. That might improve some, but based on how his recent seasons have gone, does anyone expect him to be a big-time producer on a contending team? With players like Julian Strawther, Dario Saric, and Peyton Watson next in the pecking order off the bench, Denver simply doesn't have much of a bench to rely on.

Even assuming Murray and Porter figure it out, it feels as if the Nuggets don't have enough depth to make a deep enough run. Do they have more than five playable rotation pieces?

The Nuggets were outmatched in the one game they've played so far against a good team, and have gone 2-1 against subpar competition with those two wins coming in overtime. It's early, but with a non-existent bench unit and their best two non-Jokic scorers struggling mightily, it might be time to panic in Denver with this season's goal of winning the championship looking entirely unrealistic right now.