Despite all of the Denver Nuggets injury woes throughout the 2025-26 regular season, they’re still set to have one player on the roster who’s managed to be active for all 82 games of the year.
That’s none other than veteran guard Bruce Brown.
Brown, headed into the Nuggets’ final game of the year against the San Antonio Spurs, has no injury designation to report. Which means, barring any unforeseen changes, he’ll be the only player on Denver’s roster to have been healthy and appeared in every one of their regular-season contests.
Brown is currently one of 19 players in the NBA to have played in 81 regular season games leading up to the last day of the year, putting him in a pretty exclusive club of iron men.
Bruce Brown Set to Play in All 82 Games
It’s been a season for the Nuggets where virtually every one of their key pieces in the rotation has missed extended time for one reason or another.
The longest absences stemmed from Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson, who missed several weeks with hamstring injuries. Cam Johnson and Christian Braun each missed a month with knee and ankle injuries, respectively. Nikola Jokic missed nearly a month with a knee injury, and even Jamal Murray, who’s been mostly available all year, even had a few nights where he’s been taken out of the mix.
The closest name outside of Brown to near that 82 game mark was Nuggets’ Sixth Man of the Year candidate Tim Hardaway Jr., but even he missed a game himself back in the beginning of January against the Philadelphia 76ers that keeps his attendance from being 100%.
Brown, though, in his first season back with the Mile High, has helped bring strong depth and versatility to the Nuggets’ backcourt all season long, and has done so with an appearance every night they’ve taken the floor from October to April.
In the 81 games he’s played leading up to the Nuggets’ finale against the San Antonio Spurs, Brown has averaged 7.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 3.9 assists in just over 24 minutes a night, shooting 46.9% from the field and 38.8% from three.
He might even have a chance to add just a bit more to those numbers based on what transpires against San Antonio, considering how shorthanded the Nuggets’ regular rotation will be.
As one of the several depth additions the Nuggets had brought in over the course of a productive offseason, Brown met the mark for the spark in the second unit this rotation needed. And by pairing that with his consistent availability, it makes Denver’s small investment of $2.2 million even more worthwhile.
Now, the task will be on Brown to keep that streak going headed into the postseason, where availability becomes even more important for the best teams in the league to climb their way to the top of the mountain.
