DeMar DeRozan's New Role as Denver Nuggets' Sixth Man

DeMar DeRozan has spent a career walking into hostile arenas as the main event. In Denver, he might finally become something else: the league’s most dangerous luxury.

Days after losing Peyton Watson to the Cleveland Cavaliers and watching Tim Hardaway Jr. depart, the Nuggets moved quickly and decisively. They didn’t just plug a gap in their rotation. They dropped a six-time All-Star into a bench unit that had been stripped of scoring and structure.

At 37, DeRozan is not a perfect fit on paper. He doesn’t stretch the floor from deep. He’s never been a defensive stopper. But Denver isn’t asking him to be any of that. They’re asking him to carry their second unit, to organize it, to squeeze offense out of the dead minutes when Nikola Jokic sits and the game so often drifts.

That’s where the Sixth Man of the Year conversation starts.

A New Role After 1,199 Straight Starts

This will be unfamiliar territory. DeRozan has not come off the bench since his rookie season in 2009-10 with the Toronto Raptors. Since then, he has started 1,199 consecutive regular-season games, a streak that defines his career as much as his mid-range mastery.

Now, he walks into a locker room where the starting five is already etched in stone. Instead of being introduced under the bright lights, he’ll wait. He’ll check in. He’ll run the show when the starters rest.

For some stars, that’s a comedown. For DeRozan, it might be a perfect late-career pivot.

With the Sacramento Kings last season, he averaged 18.4 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 4.1 assists in 31.2 minutes per game. Those are not empty numbers. They’re the profile of a player who still bends defenses, still dictates tempo, still punishes single coverage.

Sixth Man of the Year winners typically live in the 23-to-32-minute range. DeRozan will likely sit closer to the bottom of that band in Denver, somewhere around 26–28 minutes a night. That’s less volume, but not less impact—especially when he’s the clear focal point of the second unit.

The Odds and the Field

FanDuel Sportsbook has already weighed in. DeRozan opens as the fifth favorite for the 2026-27 Sixth Man of the Year award at +1800 (18/1).

• Ajay Mitchell, OKC Thunder (+500)
• Dylan Harper, San Antonio Spurs (+700)
• Anfernee Simons, Philadelphia 76ers (+1500)
• Ayo Dosunmu, Minnesota Timberwolves (+1500)
• DeMar DeRozan, Denver Nuggets (+1800)

The market is betting on younger legs and bigger roles. Mitchell and Harper project as high-usage engines for their benches. Simons and Dosunmu should see heavy minutes and the ball in their hands often.

DeRozan’s case is different. He’s not chasing numbers on a rebuilding team. He’s trying to tilt the margins on a contender.

If he wins it, he would become the oldest Sixth Man of the Year in league history, surpassing Jamal Crawford, who claimed the award at 36 in 2015-16. That’s not a sentimental angle. It’s a reminder of the scale of what he’s attempting: to reinvent himself, this late, and still dominate in a narrower window.

Why Denver’s Bench Is Built for Him

The Nuggets don’t need DeRozan to be a star in the starting lineup. They need him to be the adult in the room when the second unit hits the floor.

He’ll be the primary ball-handler off the bench. The go-to scorer. The player who can slow the game down, drag a smaller defender into his office at the elbow, and get to that soft spot he’s been living in for more than a decade.

There will be nights when Michael Malone rides him to the finish. If Denver needs an extra creator or an extra bucket in a tight game, DeRozan will close. His recent résumé backs that up: he has finished top-three in Clutch Player of the Year voting in two of the last four seasons. When the game shrinks, his value grows.

Yes, the questions remain. Can Denver hide him defensively in key stretches? Will his lack of three-point shooting cramp spacing when he shares the floor with Jokic and Jamal Murray? Those are tactical puzzles for the coaching staff.

What isn’t in doubt is what he still does at an elite level. DeRozan remains one of the league’s most polished mid-range scorers, a technician who keeps getting sharper at navigating to his spots. Give him control of the second-unit offense, and he’ll squeeze those minutes for every point they’re worth.

A Serious Sixth Man Threat

DeRozan’s path to the award is clear, if narrow: own the bench minutes, anchor one of the best reserve offenses in the league, and deliver enough late-game cameos to stay in the national conversation.

He won’t be the favorite. He doesn’t need to be. On a team with championship ambitions, his case will be built on impact, not empty volume.

If Denver’s bench stabilizes and swings regular-season games in their favor, the narrative will follow. And if a 37-year-old former franchise cornerstone turns himself into the league’s most ruthless sixth man, the voters will have a decision to make.

How long can a scorer like this keep reinventing himself—and how high can that take the Nuggets when it matters most?