KJ Simpson’s Homecoming: Nuggets vs. Jazz in Boulder Preseason

BOULDER – The CU Events Center is getting an NBA spotlight again, and this time one of Colorado’s own will be at the heart of it.

The Denver Nuggets will face the Utah Jazz in a preseason matchup on Sunday, Oct. 4, at 5 p.m. in Boulder, a showcase that doubles as a homecoming for former Buffaloes star KJ Simpson.

For three seasons, from 2021 to 2024, Simpson drove Colorado’s backcourt and helped push the program into national focus. He collected two All-Pac-12 Conference honors and steered the Buffaloes on a memorable surge through the 2024 NCAA Tournament, the kind of run that tends to stick in a campus’s memory for a long time.

Now he returns wearing NBA colors.

Simpson entered the league as a second-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, selected by the Charlotte Hornets. His path shifted again midway through the 2025-26 season when he joined the Nuggets on a two-way contract, carving out a role in a championship-caliber organization rather than just clinging to a roster spot.

He has already logged meaningful minutes. Across 56 NBA games over two seasons, including 17 starts, Simpson has averaged 6.7 points, 2.8 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game. Solid, rotational numbers for a young guard still learning the league’s pace and physicality. In Boulder, those numbers will feel less like a stat line and more like a progress report for a fan base that watched him grow up on that very floor.

This is not Denver’s first preseason detour up US36, but it has been a while. The Nuggets last played in Boulder in 2015, when they met the Chicago Bulls on the Russell “Sox” Walseth Court. Before that, they brought NBA preseason basketball to the CU Events Center in 2007 and 2014, facing the Portland Trail Blazers in both visits.

Now they’re back, and this time the story has a strong black-and-gold thread running through it.

Nuggets Launch Preseason in College Town

The matchup with Utah in Boulder opens Denver’s five-game preseason slate. From a scheduling standpoint, it’s a soft launch. From a narrative standpoint, it’s a curtain-raiser with some emotion attached.

Once the final horn sounds in Boulder, the two teams won’t have to wait long for a rematch. Denver heads to Salt Lake City for another preseason clash with the Jazz on Tuesday, Oct. 6, flipping the setting but keeping the matchup intact.

After that, the Nuggets return to more familiar surroundings.

They’re back at Ball Arena on Sunday, Oct. 11, to host the Chicago Bulls, a nod to that 2015 Boulder visit but now in Denver’s downtown home. The tune-up tour then shifts west: a trip to Los Angeles to face the Clippers at Intuit Dome on Wednesday, Oct. 14, followed by a preseason finale against the Lakers at Crypto Arena on Friday, Oct. 16.

It’s a compact schedule, five games that will help Denver tune rotations, test young pieces and manage minutes. For Simpson, it offers something else: the rare chance to run an NBA offense on the same court where he once ran the Buffaloes’ show.

Tickets and Anticipation

Tickets for the Nuggets–Jazz preseason game at the CU Events Center go on sale to the general public on Thursday, Sept. 10. Demand should be strong. It’s not every year Boulder gets an NBA doubleheader of storylines: a reigning Western Conference power, a division rival, and a local favorite returning in a Nuggets uniform.

For Colorado fans, this isn’t just a preseason date on the calendar. It’s a check-in on a familiar face and a glimpse of what comes next for both Simpson and the franchise that brought him back up the highway.