The Nuggets Might Have A Bruce Brown Replacement Ready, Courtesy Of The 2023 Draft
The Denver Nuggets find themselves in a bit of an odd spot. They're the defending NBA champions, but they lost an insanely valuable player - Bruce Brown - to the Indiana Pacers during free agency.
With no cap space to find a replacement, the Nuggets did get out ahead of the situation, somewhat, when they made their 2023 draft selections.
Julian Strawther, the team's first-round selection out of Gonzaga, is a 6-foot-7 wing who can stretch the floor, and absorb minutes at potentially three positions, not unlike that of Brown. Strawther hit 40.8% of his nightly 5.3 attempts from outside, and his game projects as being extremely bendable to fit alongside Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray.
While Strawther has size and shooting ability, he doesn't have the playmaking of Brown, which was one of the key areas of his presence during the club's championship run last season. Having a player come off the bench to not just defend, but to initiate the offense on the other side of the court, provided the Nuggets with two-way consistency they are now lacking.
Enter Jalen Pickett.
The 6-foot-4 guard/forward is probably the closest to a long-term Brown replacement in the draft. He's got similar size, can indeed playmake (6.6 assists last year), rebounds at an incredibly high rate similar to Brown (7.4 per game), and even canned over 38% of his triples.
However - and it's a big however - Pickett was used in a heliocentric fashion at Penn State. Only two other players on the roster averaged over 1 assist per game, and most had to configure their game around him.
That is not the role he'll get on the Nuggets, or probably anywhere else in the NBA, and it's fair to question if he can bend his game to that of being primarily a role player who contributes to the offense and isn't the whole offense in and of himself.
That's why, in part, Strawther is projected as a more seamless fit. He can move off the ball, he can stretch defenses, and he doesn't require the ball in his hands to be effective. He's easier to insert into most line-ups, and his size offers him more leverage to move up to the four, a position he will undoubtedly play a fair bit in the minutes he'll play.
That said, Pickett does have upside. Significant upside. If he can find a way to bridge his talent with a new less-involved role, there should be minutes available almost immediately. He's a talented post player, his frame is physically strong, and defensively, he should be able to handle both guards and smaller forwards.
Let's not kid ourselves here, the Nuggets are absolutely trying to win another title, and they're coming into this season at a disadvantage with no Brown. Minutes are available for the right player.
Whether that's Strawther or Pickett, or maybe a combination of the two, remains to be seen. And who knows, perhaps fellow rookie forward Hunter Tyson has something to say about all this as well.
Unless noted otherwise, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball-Reference. All salary information via Spotrac. All odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.
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