DETROIT — The cruelest trick the basketball gods are attempting to play on the Nuggets is convincing them they have seen enough to make real, informed roster decisions right now.

Or, frankly, at any point this season.

For the first timers — general manager Tim Connelly and coach Brian Shaw — there are obvious needs, such as a backup point guard. Almost everything else is much less clear-cut. Will Kenneth Faried grow into the player who commands the big dollars he’s going to want after next season? Will Evan Fournier or Quincy Miller develop into above-average players, at the least?

And so on.

But it is what they haven’t seen that is complicating the picture the most. They haven’t seen a single second of Danilo Gallinari in Shaw’s system. They’ve seen only a couple of weeks of JaVale McGee — and those were injured weeks at that.

And so on.

Injuries to players who are central to this rebranding process could set the whole production back a full season. As the coaching staff does everything within its power to adapt to the current strengths of the personnel on the team to win as much as possible, the sobering reality is this: Outside of a few foundation concepts both offensively and defensively, the Nuggets aren’t necessarily establishing the full package of what Shaw ultimately wants.

“When you go through a whole season, especially the two guys that were projected to be starters for you in McGee and Gallo, you don’t really have them for the entire season and you still don’t know what their status is going forward even when we get to next season. It makes it tough,” Shaw said.

And naturally, that leads to this: “At this point, we’re going to be figuring the team out all year long,” Shaw said.

Realistically, that should not be news to anyone who has paid attention to this season. From injuries small and large to suspensions and everything else, there’s no way they could have gotten a clear view of what these players’ capabilities are in Shaw’s system and what would need to move around.

But here’s the news: They will try to decipher the code anyway.

Connelly insists he’s got a handle on it.

“It’s hard,” Connelly said. “We had Gallo penciled in. We had JaVale penciled in. So it’s difficult to have a true projection of where we are, but it gives us an opportunity to see other guys play and see if they can be counted upon as we play more meaningful games.”

Playoff games. Or at least important playoff-contention games down the stretch that might give some sort of a glimpse about how the young players might project.

At this point, it’s about the only evaluation the Nuggets have.

Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dempseypost