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

Their second victory of the season was practically 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 the second night in a row, they needed overtime to seal the deal against a lower seed.

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

Jokic being Jokic is great, but he can’t do it alone. Aaron Gordon is 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 hit or miss.

Jamal Murray played well on Tuesday, but has shot just 37.9 percent from the field so far, continuing his struggles. shown at the Olympic Games. 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 is reason to believe they will eventually get going. They get paid the way they get paid for a reason. However, does anyone really believe in this bank?

Russell Westbrook could be a future Hall of Famer, but he’s Not even close to the player he once was.. He had a good 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 could improve a bit, but based on how his last few seasons have gone, does anyone expect him to be a big 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 like 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 outplayed in the only game they’ve played so far against a good team, and went 2-1 against poor competition with those two overtime wins. It’s early, but with a non-existent bench unit and their two best scorers, not Jokic, struggling mightily, it might be time to panic in Denver as this season’s goal of winning the championship seems completely unrealistic at this point.