With the 2026-27 NBA regular season just days away, the Denver Nuggets are already down an impactful young player. 

Denver swingman Julian Strawther will be out at least six weeks after suffering a left knee injury during a preseason game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday. Strawther will be re-evaluated after those six weeks to assess if he'll be able to return.

The injury occurred after Strawther fell while handling the ball, with him looking to be in immediate pain.

Strawther played 57 games with the Nuggets last season, averaging 15.1 minutes per game and scoring 7.2 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game.

Strawther was projected to have an elevated role with the Nuggets this season and is entering into the final season of his rookie-scale contract after the Nuggets picked up his team-option earlier in the offseason.

Losing Strawther now deprives the Nuggets of some crucial wing depth to start the season, putting more strain on forward/guard DeMar DeRozan to provide a lift for the team off the bench and leaving starting small forward Cameron Johnson with a heightened responsibility to lead the team from the front at the position as well.

Losing Jones also paved the way for forward Alpha Diallo to possibly have some elevated playing time as well as he steps in to fill the game left by Strawther's absence. 

Denver was already one of the most injury-prone teams in the NBA last season and even if the hit they've suffered at this time isn't to one of their starting players, it's still a bad sign for a team that was looking to enjoy the benefit of health to at least start the season.

That won't be the case at least for Strawther. Any kind of knee injury is a concern, especially for a basketball player, but the state of his injury looks to be closer to a sprain than any kind of more severe soft tissue damage.

However, the severity of his injury is only something that can be known after further assessment and observation, so for now the Nuggets simply have to bide their time and accept that they'll be missing Strawther for a long while.

This will be a crucial season for the Nuggets to prove that they still have a rightful and defensible place as one of the NBA's top teams and they'll need all the the depth they can get to help achieve that goal. Losing Strawther now puts a dent in that goal, but they'll likely be eagerly waiting for his return whenever that may be.