The Denver Nuggets unequivocally proved themselves to be the best team in the NBA throughout the course of the 2023 season. Finishing as the number one seed in a competitive Western Conference wasn't enough for plenty of the NBA world to believe it, but when they knocked off first the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games, then the Los Angeles Lakers in four, and finally the Miami Heat in five to win their inaugural NBA championship, there was little doubting that this was a very deserving team.

The starting five which led them to victory – led by Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray and ably complemented by Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter Jr and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – will return in 2023-24 for their title defense, and though every group can always get better, that's a pretty damn good starting five. Coach Mike Malone will have no concern about that group's ability to return the Nuggets deep into the playoffs in 2024, particularly with Jokic and Murray only 28 and 26 respectively and Porter Jr primed to improve further in what will hopefully be just his fourth season of double figure games in his career.

But while the starting five is well and truly set for next season, the Nuggets still have room for improvement on their roster. This is Denver's biggest roster concern deep into 2023 NBA free agency.

The Denver Nuggets biggest roster need is depth

For a team with such a settled starting five, invariably the biggest roster need for the Nuggets is accumulating sufficient depth to complement that starting unit. During their championship run, by far the Nuggets most valuable bench player was Bruce Brown, who played 100 games throughout the regular season and playoffs and contributed in a multitude of ways – scoring, facilitating, defending, you name it, Brown did it. He's now gone, having declined his player option with the Nuggets and signed with the Indiana Pacers on a two-year, $45 million deal which will likely yield him more on-court opportunities than he had in Denver.

Brown's departure leaves a significant hole in the Nuggets' bench. It's likely to result in Christian Braun playing an increased role of which he may very well already be capable, but he'll still be just a second-year player in the league and won't likely have the impact of Brown immediately.

Denver have made some moves to mitigate the loss of Brown, signing Justin Holiday in free agency, while they also retained Reggie Jackson, but placing too much faith in either of those two is a fraught exercise. Holiday has jumped around the league throughout his 11-season career, and while he has proven himself capable of playing a role on an NBA team largely as a decent shooter, his numbers over the past couple of seasons don't exactly inspire confidence.

As for Jackson, he signed with the Nuggets in February of last season, but managed just 16 games and didn't exactly set the world alight in those. In the playoffs, he appeared just six times, and only in blowouts when the Nugs cleared the bench. They did re-sign him for two years and over $10 million, so they must see some value in him, but he's not likely to be a game-changer.

That aside, there isn't much. Zeke Nnaji and Deandre Jordan will be Jokic's backups at the five, while Vlatko Cancar will pop up for a few minutes here and there and last year's pick #30, Peyton Watson, could have a minor impact. None of those names will inspire a great deal of confidence in the Nuggets' bench, and come playoff time the Nuggets won't likely be looking to give many, if any, minutes to any of them.

Clearly this is the biggest hole in the Nuggets' established roster, and the one area which will cause Mike Malone the most concern heading into their title defense. They know that their starting five is well and truly good enough to win the championship again – after all, they did it with relative ease just this year. But when Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and co. sit, the bench as it is currently constructed won't exactly be putting their opposition to the sword like their starting counterparts.