{"id":767064,"date":"2026-07-16T21:47:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/767064\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T21:47:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:47:19","slug":"why-nuggets-daron-holmes-ii-is-entering-crucial-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/767064\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Nuggets’ DaRon Holmes II is entering crucial season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Denver\u2019s Summer League team<\/a> this year was an omission.<\/p>\n

Third-year big man DaRon Holmes II has been absent from the sideline in Las Vegas this week, left off the roster. That hasn\u2019t stopped him from hanging out around the team, though. The 2024 first-round pick spent last week practicing with the Summer League Nuggets at their mini camp<\/a>, and he did make the trip to the desert, where his goal has been to join as many informal pickup runs as he can find.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friends always ask me, \u2018Why aren\u2019t you playing?\u2019 It wasn\u2019t my decision,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cBut at the end of the day, I\u2019m gonna do whatever the coaches ask me to and the front office asks me to. I would love to play, but at the same time, if they\u2019re telling me no, then I\u2019m gonna listen to what they have to say, and I\u2019m gonna get better every day regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holmes, who turns 24 next month, has an emotionally complicated history at UNLV\u2019s Cox Pavilion<\/a>, the site where Denver has played most of its Summer League games in recent years. Two weeks after he was drafted with the 22nd pick, he tore his right Achilles tendon in his Summer League debut, delaying his rookie season and setting back his career in ways that still resonate to this day.<\/p>\n

He made a triumphant return to competitive basketball last year in the same gymnasium where he suffered the injury, scoring 15 points in his re-debut. This would have been his second healthy Summer League, a normal step for players at his developmental stage. But Denver\u2019s front office decided he had graduated from the annual showcase for young players.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been here every day since the season ended,\u201d Nuggets executive vice president of player personnel Jon Wallace said recently. \u201cWorking on his shot, working on his conditioning, working on his mobility. He\u2019s a very important factor in terms of his lethal shooting ability. So any time you can do that, you can find a place on the floor. As we continue to develop his game, we\u2019ll see how he fits in with other guys. But we\u2019re very pleased with his development at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nuggets made a point to slow-play his 2025-26 season. They didn\u2019t trust that Holmes could make an immediate impact for a championship contender while coming off such a severe injury, so they sent him down to the G League for large chunks of the year, imploring him to master Denver\u2019s system and spacing. He averaged 20.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and four assists with the Grand Rapids Gold under coach Ryan Bowen, who had previously served as a Nuggets assistant alongside David Adelman.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time you have an injury the way he had it, it goes beyond just the physical,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cSo it was in a place where we didn\u2019t want to push him mentally and make sure he trusted his body, felt comfortable, but also (we wanted to) give him the ability to do it as his pace. I think he should be commended for the way he stayed true to it. Because a lot of guys don\u2019t really return to their same form.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to be an injury where you\u2019re done if you tear your Achilles,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cI think it\u2019s definitely the worst injury you can have playing basketball. But it\u2019s been a full process, and it does take a while. \u2026 I\u2019m learning new things about my game. I\u2019m learning how to play without being the most freakish athletic guy. I felt like I was very athletic before. I feel like I still am, but at the same time, I\u2019m learning new things about my game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Limiting Holmes\u2019 NBA minutes was a luxury that Denver probably can\u2019t afford again next season. One of the deepest rosters of the Nikola Jokic era has been replaced by the swirling uncertainty of a cap crunch.<\/a> Assuming Holmes is on the roster in September \u2014 if there\u2019s any subtext to his absence from Summer League, it might be the Nuggets\u2019 reluctance to risk damaging anyone\u2019s trade value right now \u2014 he\u2019ll be one of the most important players at training camp.<\/p>\n

This could be a make-or-break season for his viability in Denver\u2019s rotation, whether as a backup center or power forward. One of his G League missions last year was to learn the dunker spot, he told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaturing, understanding the game a little bit more,\u201d he said. \u201cKnowing where to be, knowing what spots to do. Knowing the plays. But that comes with just being here and getting in the reps.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so \u201cbeing here\u201d remained a priority for Holmes after the season. If he wasn\u2019t going to be on the court at Summer League, he needed to find other ways to prove himself to a front office regime that\u2019s not the same as the one that drafted him. Calvin Booth was his biggest believer in 2024. Now, it\u2019s Wallace, Ben Tenzer and Adelman steering the ship. Holmes also pinpointed his defensive mobility as a top focus this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to be here early. I shouldn\u2019t be going on vacations right now,\u201d he said. \u201cI haven\u2019t proved myself yet. So my goal is to get better every day until I gain trust from my teammates and coaches that I can go out there and compete.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 When guys come in, especially for Summer League, everybody is trying to earn something. Everybody is trying to get that spot. So everybody is playing hard. For me, that\u2019s what I need to be around, because that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to do. I\u2019m trying to earn my time on the court. So regardless of wherever anybody\u2019s at in their careers, everybody\u2019s out here busting their tails to get to where they want to be. I think that\u2019s somewhere I need to be around.\u201d<\/p>\n

One reason for his confidence: The Nuggets picked up his team option for the 2026-27 season last October, six months after Booth lost his job. The fact that he\u2019s still under contract in Denver was a Wallace and Tenzer decision. Holmes is set to make $3.4 million. He has another team option next summer, before the last year of his rookie-scale deal. If that\u2019s picked up, he\u2019ll carry a $5.5 million cap hit in 2027-28.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, he\u2019s still looking for a second glimpse of NBA action. The extent of his real playing time last season was a 10-game stint when Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas were both injured, forcing the Nuggets to call him up and start him.<\/p>\n

The most enticing element of that small sample size was Holmes\u2019 confidence as a floor-stretching big. He made 20 of his first 45 career 3-point attempts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like \u2018Deuce.\u2019 I wish he was playing (this week), so we could do his pick-and-pop and let him shoot 3s all Summer League,\u201d Nuggets assistant JJ Barea said, laughing. \u201cI told him that in Vegas now, there\u2019s going to be a lot of pickup games, a lot of NBA games randomly. Try to play in all of them so you can get reps in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those reps are the only true remedy for the awkwardness of Holmes\u2019 last two years, he believes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter an injury I had like the Achilles, what I had to go through, it\u2019s really no joke,\u201d he said. \u201cNot a lot of people understand that. So I mean, the fact that I\u2019m at where I\u2019m at today, I\u2019m very proud of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Denver\u2019s Summer League team this year was an omission. Third-year big man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[402,17719,17720,3832,4133,14950,4134,1840,1753,4142,6745,6746,10156,19681,4137,2114,2558,4139,355,1756,4140,327713,99,447,86717],"class_list":["post-767064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-ben-tenzer","tag-calvin-booth","tag-colorado","tag-contract","tag-daron-holmes","tag-david-adelman","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-front-range","tag-g-league","tag-grand-rapids-gold","tag-injury","tag-jon-wallace","tag-jonas-valanciunas","tag-las-vegas","tag-latest-headlines","tag-more-nuggets-news","tag-nba","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nuggets","tag-ryan-bowen","tag-sports","tag-trade","tag-unlv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767064","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=767064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}