Now’s the time to buy low on the Denver Nuggets.

The defeat at the hapless hands of the Washington Wizards, who’d lost 16 straight games prior to that Dec. 7 tilt, was essentially the Nuggets hitting bottom. There’s nowhere to go but up.

Nikola Jokić is playing better than anyone in the league. He hung 56 points on Washington in that embarrassing loss and would still win MVP if the award were handed out today—despite Denver’s disappointing 12-10 record. Generational greats like him don’t allow teams to unravel.

Aaron Gordon is rounding into form after missing time with a calf injury, and Denver is 9.1 points per 100 possessions better when he’s on the floor. Jamal Murray has been a massive disappointment all season but will look much better when he starts hitting more than 30.0 percent of his wide-open threes.

On the other end, Denver’s half-court defense is fine, ranking in the top 10 in points allowed per possession. The youth currently occupying more of Denver’s minutes than in years past should allow for improved transition defense as well. Young legs can get back quickly; it’s just a matter of head coach Michael Malone getting better attention to detail out of his developing players.

This is a scary time, but the Nuggets have played the eighth-toughest schedule in the league, have won more than they’ve lost and aren’t meaningfully different from the team that won 57 games a year ago.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@gt_hughes), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale.