{"id":132954,"date":"2025-09-04T19:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/132954\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T19:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:18:07","slug":"predicting-denvers-leading-scorers-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/132954\/","title":{"rendered":"Predicting Denver’s leading scorers and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denver Post beat writer Bennett Durando<\/a> opens up the Nuggets Mailbag periodically during the season and offseason. You can submit a Nuggets- or NBA-related question here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Hey Bennett, will we see much from Julian Strawther or Jalen Pickett this year? It seems like they\u2019re going to be losing minutes after all those new guys we signed.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark, Arvada<\/p>\n

I actually think they\u2019ll get pretty decent playing time over the course of the regular season. That doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019ll be in the rotation for all 82 games. But even before the \u201cinterim\u201d tag was removed earlier this year, coach David Adelman<\/a> was very articulate about his belief that Denver needs to find a way to get to the playoffs without burning out the starters in 2025-26. Guys like Strawther and Pickett are part of that formula, at minimum. My guess is that Adelman wouldn\u2019t have played 33-year-old Reggie Jackson 82 games two seasons ago, and he won\u2019t play 33-year-old Tim Hardaway Jr. 82 games next season.<\/p>\n

That being said, Denver\u2019s bench ultimately will be a meritocracy. Strawther (Game 6<\/a>) and Pickett (Sacramento<\/a>) both showed encouraging flashes late last season, but if they play poorly, they\u2019ll play less. The Nuggets should have enough depth for that to be the case now more than last year. \u201cThis is going to be an open competition; I hope our young guys understand that,\u201d Adelman told The Denver Post in July<\/a>. There\u2019s nothing ambiguous about his approach to this.<\/p>\n

And what\u2019s the future for Zeke Nnaji? We\u2019re paying a lot for a guy who\u2019s riding the bench.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark, Arvada<\/p>\n

When you get paid more, expectations are obviously loftier. (See Jamal Murray.) Nnaji has been held to a higher standard than Denver\u2019s other young players in the court of public opinion since he signed the extension. He simply hasn\u2019t been an $8 million-per-year player.<\/p>\n

Now, I do think he deserves some grace. The last couple of years have been awkward to navigate mentally while trying to make it in the league. Nobody got caught by the shrapnel of Denver\u2019s internal strife between Michael Malone and Calvin Booth quite as much as Nnaji<\/a>, whose position was a topic of constant litigation. I am curious to see if he can play more freely and produce more consistently with that conflict out of the way.<\/p>\n

On the other hand \u2026 his position\u00a0is\u00a0still being litigated. Malone and Booth being fired doesn\u2019t necessarily change that. The numbers make it seem fairly obvious that he\u2019s better suited to play only the four, but versatility is how role players stick around in the NBA. Nnaji is listed as a \u201cforward\/center\u201d on the official roster. It\u2019s probably a fair critique to say he needs to be somewhat capable in both roles to be worth his contract.<\/p>\n

The situation is pretty stagnant for now. The Nuggets openly tried to trade him at the deadline last season. If he doesn\u2019t recoup some of his value on the court, it\u2019s difficult to see them finding any takers any time soon. He\u2019s low on the pecking order in Denver, but the new regime could at least be something of a fresh start for him.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s going to be the Nuggets\u2019 second-leading scorer this year? Jamal Murray\u2019s been that guy, but Cam Johnson looked great with a terrible team last year, and if Christian Braun takes another step up, he could be special this year. Thanks.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mike, Denver<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t overthink this one. It\u2019s Murray, health abiding.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019ll pretend you asked a slightly different question instead: I could see any of Johnson, Braun or Aaron Gordon being Denver\u2019s third-leading scorer. Johnson is the easiest bet, considering he averaged 18.8 points in Brooklyn last season on a similar number of field goal attempts (13.1) and 3-point attempts (7.2) to what Michael Porter Jr. took with the Nuggets.<\/p>\n

But Nikola Jokic also tends to cultivate a pretty natural balance of opportunities for various teammates to finish possessions. Braun should score plenty as a cutter and roller in the half-court, in addition to his transition leak-outs. How opponents guard Gordon on the perimeter will be a key storyline to watch early in the season. Will he continue to get open looks after his career year as a 3-point shooter? Or will most of his scoring have to be from the dunker spot if defenses start to respect his range?<\/p>\n

It seems reasonable to expect all three of those starters to average somewhere between 14 and 17 points. I\u2019ll go Johnson third, Gordon fourth, Braun fifth.<\/p>\n

The good news, if you\u2019re a Nuggets fan, is that all three of them have sturdy team-first reputations. Any of them would probably roll their eyes at this topic. Still, it\u2019s a fun question to debate (especially at the point of the offseason where we\u2019ve run out of things to talk about).<\/p>\n

Last year, you predicted if there was going to be a seventh different champion in seven seasons, it would be Philadelphia. Not quite. So I ask you now, who is most likely to be the eighth different champ in as many years?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ed, Aurora<\/p>\n

Geez, who predicted that? Why would you ever listen to that guy?<\/p>\n

In fairness, I wrote that Oklahoma City was the most likely Western Conference candidate, then acknowledged<\/a>\u00a0that I was getting cute with the Philly pick. But that\u2019s fine, I\u2019ll own it, Ed.<\/p>\n

So the Nuggets, Thunder and Lakers are the main contenders disqualified from this prompt. I could convince myself that Houston gets over the hump with the addition of Kevin Durant, or that Anthony Edwards reaches an MVP level and takes Minnesota to the promised land. But for the distinction of \u201cmost likely,\u201d I\u2019m once again compelled to pick an Eastern Conference contender with an easier path to the Finals. Give me the Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n

Hi Bennett, I was looking at your All-Century Nuggets team,<\/a> and I was shocked Antonio McDyess was rated so low. Nene was a solid starter for Denver, but McDyess was special when he was here. Out-of-the-world athleticism, he was well on his way to becoming the next Shawn Kemp or Dominique Wilkins if knee injuries didn\u2019t derail his career.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ryan M., Denver<\/p>\n

Fair question, Ryan. McDyess did receive one First-Team vote, matter of fact. I omitted him from my ballot, though, a decision that ultimately came down to the 21st-century cutoff. It had nothing to do with his talent. We based our votes on the 25 full seasons played this century so far \u2014 starting with 2000-01. That means that if you\u2019re playing by our rules, McDyess (a six-year Nugget) had only 80 games eligible to be considered for this exercise.<\/p>\n

He was an All-Star in 2000-01, hence the Third-Team inclusion. But most of us valued the longevity of players like Gordon and Nene over the higher highs of McDyess. If this were a \u201clast 30 years\u201d project, he might\u2019ve been on my First Team as well. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed the rest of the roster we chose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denver Post beat writer Bennett Durando opens up the Nuggets Mailbag periodically during the season and offseason. You…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[1750,17720,6430,1751,3832,4133,4134,1840,1753,4142,20174,11054,1754,4138,2558,19507,8220,4139,355,1756,4140,16734,56199,99,4141,16735],"class_list":["post-132954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-calvin-booth","tag-cam-johnson","tag-christian-braun","tag-colorado","tag-contract","tag-david-adelman","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-front-range","tag-injuries","tag-jalen-pickett","tag-jamal-murray","tag-julian-strawther","tag-latest-headlines","tag-michael-malone","tag-michael-porter","tag-more-nuggets-news","tag-nba","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nuggets","tag-nuggets-mailbag","tag-reggie-jackson","tag-sports","tag-tim-hardaway","tag-zeke-nnaji"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}