The Denver Nuggets have not had a good few weeks. After reeling off five of six in early December, the Nuggets subsequently lost six of their next seven, including a brutal stretch where they played the Spurs, Thunder and Cavaliers in a three-night span.

Luckily, they finally received some good news last night.

It should be noted that the Nuggets actually play the Warriors on Saturday, but this is fantastic news nonetheless.

Getting Jusuf Nurkic back is huge for the Denver Nuggets, especially if he’s anything like the player we saw during his rookie season. Not only is he a powerful low-post option (emphasis on powerful), but even as a 21-year-old kid in his second season coming off a serious injury, Nurkic is easily the Nuggets’ most-important defender.

While Joffrey Lauvergne and Nikola Jokic have been great this season — better than I think anyone expected — they’re just not nearly the presence Nurkic is at the rim. Per 36 minutes, Nurkic’s 2.2 blocks per game dwarf Lauvergne’s (.6) and Jokic’s (.9). Having a presence like that on the inside doesn’t just help the Nuggets rim defense; it can have a huge impact on their on-ball defense on the outside, too.

All season the Nuggets have been helping and switching and hedging and chasing, and it’s all because they know they don’t have that anchor on the inside to make up for their mistakes. With Nurkic, they have that. They have a guy who can not only impact a shot in the paint but step out on Kobe Bryant after a switch, too.

But Nurkic’s return does raise an interesting question: Who gets the big man minutes?

The Nuggets suddenly have three young, starting-quality centers on their roster, and they all deserve minutes. While Nurkic brings that defensive mindset Jokic and Lauvergne don’t necessarily have, those guys are significantly better offensive options at this point in their careers; both guys are shooting over 50 percent from the field, both guys are over 40 percent from three and both guys are averaging over 17 points per 36 minutes (Nurkic is at just under 14 percent).

With 48 minutes at center to go around, I’m just not sure how Michael Malone is going to be able to get all three of those guys the minutes they deserve. And given that none of them have started more than 27 games in their career, I don’t think it’s fair to say any one of the three is more valuable than another at this point.

Before the season started, Nurkic seemed like the unquestioned future of the Nuggets, both at center and overall; now, I’m not so sure that Jokic doesn’t have the highest upside, especially offensively. And with Lauvergne, he’s made a much, much bigger jump from year one to year two than I ever expected; who’s to say he doesn’t have another jump or two in him in the coming years?

And still, the Nuggets do have to make a decision, both in the immediate and in the long term. Malone is going to have to decide whether he’s going to parcel the minutes evenly across all three or cut one guy out of the rotation entirely. In the long-term, it might even make more sense for general manager Tim Connelly to turn one of these guys, while they’re young and full of potential, into some other pieces; it doesn’t really make sense to move forward into next season with three centers during this rebuilding process.

Another option, and one that I would be extremely interested to see play out, is a lineup with some combination of Nurkic at center and either Lauvergne or Jokic at power forward. The NBA has become obsessed with the idea of small-ball basketball, but if the Nuggets could effectively go against the grain and play ultra-large — a lineup with Nurkic, Jokic and Gallo in the front court would feature three guys over 6-foot-10 — then maybe Denver could find success doing what nobody else is.

Plus, it’s not as if the Nuggets wouldn’t be able to spread the floor; as I said earlier, both Lauvergne and Jokic are shooting over 40 percent from three. And Jokic has proven that he has the potential to be an outstanding passer from the elbow. Not to mention, moving Kenneth Faried back to a bench unit where he can run the floor and attack with Will Barton and Jameer Nelson might not be such a bad idea.

Having three quality centers is not only a unique problem in today’s NBA, but it’s likely going to require a unique solution from Malone, Connelly and the rest of the Nuggets franchise.