Denver Post beat writer Bennett Durando opens up the Nuggets Mailbag periodically during the season. You can submit a Nuggets- or NBA-related question here.

To follow up on your tweet, what are Nikola Jokic’s top five passes?

— Alex, Sloans Lake

There’s probably a longer project to be done someday ranking Jokic’s greatest dimes when he’s a little closer to the twilight of his career. For now, I think it’s a fun exercise to pull from memory without combing through highlight compilations, because you shouldn’t need a refresher for the best of the best, right?

My tweet asserted that Jokic’s lefty, no-look, behind-the-back pass to Peyton Watson in Memphis this week was a top-five pass by the Serbian center since I’ve covered him. It was a completely arbitrary number in the moment, but I think it belongs on the list — again, the time period here being the three full seasons I’ve been on the Nuggets beat. I aimed for a variety of types of passes. Regrettably, I couldn’t single out any one look-away bounce pass in transition, the kind where he “leads the receiver” through traffic like an NFL quarterback would.

Also, one honorable mention goes out to his pass in Miami last season, when he caught a long outlet pass on the run and immediately tossed it backward over his head as his momentum carried him out of bounds. He drew two defenders with him, and the pass hit Aaron Gordon in stride for a dunk.

5. No-look skip pass at the Garden: Jokic loves slinging these to the weak-side corner. And Madison Square Garden just makes everything cooler, doesn’t it? The center caught an entry pass at the right elbow from Gordon, who went into a split action with Russell Westbrook. Jokic’s head was fully facing the strong side of the floor, the right side. His eyes were focused on the primary action, which often results in a slip cut to the rim by Gordon. Perhaps knowing this, the Knicks’ back-side defender was creeping in pretty far to cover the paint. And knowing that, Jokic was able to blindly catapult the ball over his right shoulder, across the court, between four defenders, to Christian Braun. The 3-pointer was good. Jan. 29, 2025.

4. Game-icing assist to Watson: It’s not often that Jokic’s cheekiest passes occur with a minute remaining in a game. That adds some allure to his latest work Monday, the aforementioned lefty bounce pass out of a double-team with his back to the basket. The ball almost grazed Santi Aldama’s leg, but was so perfectly thrown that it left Aldama feeling a draft instead, softly landing in Watson’s hands. His layup gave Denver a nine-point lead and cemented a win over the Grizzlies. Nov. 24, 2025.

3. Touch pass improv in Hollywood: His floor-mapping intuition in the halfcourt offense might be his greatest strength, but Jokic loves playing unpredictably in the open floor as well. In Game 4 of a first-round playoff series against the Lakers, he was running up the right side without the ball in transition. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope tried to loft a pass over Jokic’s head from behind him, but the big man didn’t know where the ball was until it landed in front of him. Like a soccer player one-timing a through ball to his teammate, Jokic simply tapped the ball with his right hand, and it gracefully sailed over a defender to Michael Porter Jr. under the basket. April 27, 2024.

2. Fooling Brook Lopez: Jokic has thrown countless lobs and no-looks from the paint to Gordon on the baseline. It’s the diagram for many of his best passes. This one is twice as good in slow motion because of how thoroughly Jokic wrong-foots Lopez, a generational defender who was roaming the back line for Milwaukee. Jokic drove into Kyle Kuzma with his left hand, then started to spin the other way, only to flick the ball back over his right shoulder once his back was to the basket. Thinking the pass going to the perimeter, Lopez jumped the opposite direction while Gordon was cutting to the rim behind him. March 26, 2025.

1. The 70-foot alley-oop: Also in Memphis, my top pick stands in for Jokic’s hundreds of full-court outlet passes. This is the epitome of what makes him a historic play-maker — the strength and precision, the cunning illusion of indifference, the audacity. It was so sneaky that even the Nuggets’ and Grizzlies’ local broadcasts failed to capture the play live. Jokic snagged the ball from a ref on the sideline while players from both teams were distracted by a previous call, and he launched the inbound pass over everybody. It wasn’t designed as a lob, but it worked out that way. Gordon caught the ball in mid-air and dunked it. Jokic said afterward he had never practiced an alley-oop from that distance. I was seated court-side, right behind the spot where he threw it. I was lucky I happened to be looking up. Oct. 27, 2023.

At the quarter mark of the season, what letter grade do you give the Nuggets for their record and efforts? Why that grade?

— Ed, via Twitter

I can’t judge them too harshly when they’re on pace for 63 wins, which would comfortably break the franchise record of 57. Let’s go with an A- for now, with points docked only because Denver has lost two home games to inferior opponents.

These things happen in an 82-game season, no matter how good a team is. But the loss to Chicago was especially unforgivable under the circumstances. The Nuggets were rested, and the Bulls were playing a back-to-back at altitude. They had flown into Colorado late the previous night after losing a double-overtime game to the Jazz in Salt Lake City. Then their bench took it to Denver’s.

I do think this team’s best wins are more revealing than its worst losses so far. The Nuggets have defeated the Wolves in Minnesota and the Rockets in Houston — while missing two starters in both games. In the playoffs, how you stack up to those teams will matter more than how you handled your business against Chicago and Sacramento.

Overall, Denver’s offense is elite, its defense is improved and its all-important second star is hooping. Forget Jamal Murray’s scoring — he has 17 assists and two turnovers in the last two games. That’s a microcosm of how crisp the Nuggets have been as a team.

But maybe it’s just Thanksgiving week and I’m feeling the spirit of giving. Ask again at Christmas after a few weeks without Gordon and Braun, and my answer might not be so generous.

I’d be genuinely curious to know if guys like DaRon Holmes would rather be in the G League getting consistent minutes or with the Nuggets, only playing in garbage time.

— Ryan, via Twitter

The answer here is boring, but it’s a mix of both. Everyone wants to play, but riding the bench on a good team and being around experienced NBA stars can be exciting. David Adelman is plenty aware of that.

“The guys that are down there, we have to get them back with us and then send them back,” he said. “They need to get back with the guys, keep a relationship with the coaching staff. If you leave guys down there too long, I think it’s unfair to them as a professional player. So we’ll do the best we can to rotate them through.”

Jalen Pickett has said that playing G League minutes in a system that resembled Denver’s helped him gain confidence. Holmes told me recently that he’s using his time in Grand Rapids to learn concepts that’ll make it easier for him to fit on an NBA court with Jokic. I think most players see the benefits of spending time in the minors, even if it’s really freaking cold in Michigan.