DENVER — Just when you thought you knew a guy, along comes DeMarcus Cousins.

“He’s actually proved me wrong,” Nikola Jokic said after the Nuggets beat the depleted Brooklyn Nets 124-104 Sunday afternoon.

The Nuggets are 5-0 when Cousins gets in the game. But the undefeated record is a testament to the starting center, not the backup. It’s not why the Nuggets should let Cousins stick around these hills now that his 10-day contract is coming to an end. Ace beat writer Vinny Benedetto says the Nuggets can sign another short-term deal with Cousins, and they should. 

I say that because this Nuggets season is teetering at all times. It’s on thin ice at all times. Their margin for error is 6-foot-11, 284 pounds, and if Jokic misses a few games, well, you’ll want to wear that mask over your eyes instead. It won’t be pretty. Joker’s everything.

So personnel decisions the rest of the way should take the entertainment factor into account. There’s no guarantee Jamal Murray’s hopeful return catapults the Nuggets back into the conference finals conversation, so ask, What makes the Nuggets more entertaining? Do that.

Boogie makes the Nuggets more entertaining. That was true again against the Nets, who arrived at Ball Arena with the great Kyrie Irving but without All-Stars Kevin Durant and James Harden. That wasn’t the Nets team that’s going to play the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Finals in June.

And Boogie had nine rebounds in 16 minutes, nothing major. He got a technical foul he didn’t deserve. But at least it was all entertaining, and entertaining is not something you say about the Nuggets when Nikola Jokic is out of the game.

Keep Boogie around, then we’ll move on to more important Nuggets things.

“The ultimate decision goes to the front office,” Cousins said after the game, and even after the game he was entertaining. More on that later. Cousins had a superb message to get across.

The more important Nuggets things happened before the game. It was Jamal Murray’s pregame workout with player development coach Stephen Graham, who was a heckuva player back in the day at Oklahoma State. I’m not saying (and neither are the Nuggets) Murray is coming back from a knee injury soon, but gosh, the Blue Arrow looks good, folks. Once in a while I randomly remember we could be watching Murray and Jokic do their two-man dance this season, and the day gets better for a few minutes. Murray posted up Graham. He splashed a couple step-backs. He slammed his hands together after a missed 3-pointer, as if he were in the Western Conference finals and not a pregame workout. Miss watching that guy. The Nuggets miss him a lot more.

Who knows when Murray returns? Like I was saying, the Nuggets aren’t saying.

The Nuggets without Murray are better than they should be. They have no business chasing a top-four seed in the West, three games back of No. 4 with the All-Star break coming up. The trick has been smoke and mirrors and Jokic. Sunday brought his 14th triple-double, tops in the league. It was the seventh time in 12 games he’s had a triple-double. It’s nuts. When Jokic is on the court the Nuggets look like a second-round playoff team again. When he’s off the court they look like a Gus Macker team again. But at least when Cousins subs in for Jokic you don’t want to change the Altitude TV stream you found on Reddit, I mean, change the channel.

Malone likes having Cousins around. They’ve been buds for a while. I remember after games against Cousins’ Kings when Cousins would hold up the Kings bus as he waited to see Malone.

“I see this team more than I see my wife and kids. We’re all tired of each other,” Malone said, and Malone might be the only coach in the NBA who is calmer with Cousins on his roster.

“I think he can help us,” Jokic said of Cousins.

Good enough for me. This could be misreading the tea leaves, but Jokic and Cousins shared a moment that suggested Cousins isn’t coming back. They shared a half-embrace, a man hug, and Jokic patted Cousins on the back of his head. Joker mouthed to Cousins, “Thank you.”

And consider this a thanks for what Cousins said after: “I’m grateful to be in this position, to have this opportunity.” He’s made $93 million but loves ball so much he will hunt 10-day deals.

“If you actually take the time to know a person, it can change your perspective of what you think about them,” Cousins said.

By the way, here’s a story about DeMarcus Cousins I had to tell you. Back in his Kentucky days, Cousins got an earful at halftime from John Calipari. The coach asked Cousins why the opposing center had only one foul. Foul that guy out! Calipari shouted in the Kentucky locker room.

“Coach, why would we want him to foul out?” Cousins responded. “That guy stinks.”

Hey, the guy’s entertaining.