Denver Nuggets: 5 reasons they will make the playoffs in 2017-18

5. Decreased injury risk

The Denver Nuggets were close to an even record last season, and still nearly made the playoffs. However, given the injury issues that ravaged this roster, the team should be ecstatic about how it played last season.

The Nuggets cycled through a remarkable 32 different starting lineups last season. Furthermore, only one of those units — Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Gary Harris, Nikola Jokic and Emmanuel Mudiay — started more than 10 games together. They played 11 games together, with six wins and five losses. For reference, the Portland Trail Blazers traded for a new starter in Jusuf Nurkic in the middle of the season. They still finished the year with only 15 unique starting lineups.

Most of the lineup switches were due to a plethora of different starters missing time. Danilo Gallinari, the team’s most consistent injury risk, played 63 games. That was the first time he missed fewer than 20 games since 2012-13.

The Nuggets could have expected Gallo to miss significant time. However, they also had to deal with more unexpected absences. Gary Harris (57 games), Will Barton (60 games), Kenneth Faried (61 games) and Darrell Arthur (41 games) all started games with the Nuggets last season while healthy. With most of the starting lineup locked in and with better injury luck, Denver should expect to have fewer than 30 starting lineups next season.