Just In: Denver Nuggets plan to drop a 21 year old player due to… 

Just In: Denver Nuggets plan to drop a 21 year old player due to…

Holmes has the athleticism to be better on the perimeter, but maybe not the instincts. On-ball defense is asking for trouble against guards or wings who can get him leaning the wrong way, although he will stuff weak attempts. He uses his size to his advantage without necessarily having the fundamentals to be a multi-position defender for more than short stretches. That leaves him mostly as a paint and help presence off players that don’t drive the hoop, and being relatively skinny he doesn’t have the heft to stop bigger 5s from getting to their spots either. This is where the tweener label for him – not versatile enough for wing defense as a 4, not big enough for pure center play as a 5 – comes in.

Shooting outside the paint

Holmes vastly improved his three-point shot this year, both in appearance and outcome, which is one of the reasons I’m so high on him, but he still doesn’t have much offense between 22 and 10 feet. In the modern NBA that’s not the worst thing, and his shooting touch and footwork makes one think he should be able to get a nice jumper or fallaway from 16 to bail out the team, but he hasn’t shown much of it yet.

Verdict

I’ll be honest, I do not expect DaRon Holmes to be there at 28 when Denver is up. That said, I didn’t expect Christian Braun to be there for Denver 2 years ago either, nor MPJ for certain. Everybody has a different read on prospects, especially in a relatively flat draft like this one where the opportunity to find someone who will respond to your coaching style and team makeup may matter more to non-lotto teams than a pure talent ranking. There should be several bigs to choose from for teams looking for one, and Holmes may not match what all those squads want.

But for Denver? His ability to potentially play the 4 next to Jokic as a defender and dunker-spot player would be a huge help in taking the burden off Aaron Gordon when required, while his experience playing center gives Denver better options for big man rotations off the bench than they’ve had in a while. ‍ Blocks and steals help the squad do the thing Malone desperately wants them to do – namely, score in transition before the defense is set so that the group’s weaknesses are less apparent. He’s a good rebounder, and more than that he’s an effort rebounder while having enough size that it is a strength rather than a knock. Not being a pure 7-footer may play to his advantage with Denver, because it makes it easier to play him next to Jokic in stretches rather than relegating him only to a center backup role. A small-ball stretch 5 who can block shots and lurk in the dunker spot if he gets time with the starters? He’s my top pick for Denver if available as someone who can both fill an immediate need as well as provide growth potential.

As DaRon said himself

“I can do it all on the court you know, I know I lot of people will say that but I’m being serious. For my size I can literally do it all, I’m a very good team player as well. I’m unselfish, I think my value is very good for my position, I think that I can mix it up and also on the defensive end I provide very good capabilities being able to switch and guard.”