Nuggets' Jusuf Nurkic: Cleared for practice

Nurkic (knee) has been cleared for contact practice, Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post reports.

Nurkic was initially expected to meet with a doctor Friday, but he's been medically cleared a day early and will be worked gradually into full-contact drills. It will still be a couple of weeks before Nurkic is ready for game action, and at that point he's expected to begin his season on a minutes restriction. Once fully healthy, Nurkic figures to step in as the Nuggets' starting center, meaning Joffrey Lauvergne and Nikola Jokic could each be in for role reductions.