With Jokic potentially sidelined, where do the Nuggets turn?

The Denver Nuggets came away with a 127-120 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Thursday and won their sixth game in the last eight contests but Denver’s sudden winning ways were not the story of the game.

Nikola Jokic, who had 29 points, 14 rebounds, and eight assists in 35 minutes against the Suns, was having another impressive outing for Denver but the fun was cut short after he attempted to contest a Devin Booker layup and fell to the floor awkwardly in a significant amount of pain.

Thankfully, Jokic’s X-rays came back negative and he has been diagnosed with a strained left hip. Jokic was walking under his own power and in high spirits in the locker room after the game. The 21-year-old will still be getting an MRI Friday to make sure there’s no further damage but the Nuggets may have potentially dodged a bullet.

The Nuggets finish a home-and-home with the Suns on Saturday and Jokic could miss that matchup. The team is building around Jokic as the future of the franchise and will take extreme caution with his injury. Denver also just signed Johnny O’Bryant out of the D-League. O’Bryant is a long power forward that allows the Nuggets to have a bit more depth in their frontcourt. With that being said, where do the Nuggets go from here?

First and foremost, the Nuggets will have to decide who is going to start at center. While it is easy to assume that Jusuf Nurkic will step into the starting lineup, it may not be as simple as that. In Denver’s last seven games, in which they have won six, Nurkic is averaging just nine minutes per contest and did not see the court at all against the Suns. In the five games prior to that, from Dec. 30 of last year through Jan. 7, Nurkic averaged 21 minutes per contest and the Nuggets lost all five of those match-ups. This may be blind coincidence but it seems that Nurkic playing more does not equate to winning.

In the meantime, Malone has elected to play either Kenneth Faried or Darrell Arthur as a small-ball center for stretches to let Jokic catch his breath when not going to Nurkic. Arthur is dealing with an arthritic knee that flares up when he pushes it too hard and his knee only improves with rest. While Arthur is arguably the best choice on paper it would be hard for him to withstand the rigors of starting at center while keeping him a member of the rotation.

That leaves us with Faried as the final remaining option. Faried does have experience playing center and has been playing some of the best basketball of his career recently. While Faried is very small to be playing center he would have an easier time handling the physical nature of defending centers. Malone has a tough decision on his hands.

In addition to figuring out who starts, it will be hard for the Nuggets to continue the same style of basketball they’ve been playing as of late. While starting Faried against the Suns on Saturday is feasible seeing how Phoenix likes to play small, what happens if Jokic is still out by the time Memphis and Marc Gasol come to town?

Malone has his work cut out for him. For now, Denver plays the waiting game until the results of the MRI are released.

The Nuggets, with and without Jokic, are essentially two separate teams. With Jokic on the floor this year the Nuggets have outscored their opponent by 128 points. When Jokic is off of the floor, the Nuggets have been outscored by 174 points. Jokic is by far and away Denver’s most important player on their roster and without him, the identity of the offense will change drastically.