{"id":868809,"date":"2026-10-03T00:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T00:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/868809\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T00:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T00:06:09","slug":"nuggets-training-camp-notes-can-lonnie-walker-make-the-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/868809\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets training camp notes: Can Lonnie Walker make the team?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Behind closed doors, the Nuggets broke into three units and scrimmaged for three full quarters Friday afternoon, their first game simulation since convening for a training camp that has been largely focused on granular schematic details<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What coach David Adelman<\/a> revealed afterward wasn\u2019t exactly a state secret: Denver is still really good at scoring points.<\/p>\n

\u201cStarting five was great,\u201d he shared. \u201cI thought the bench looked good together, playing (around) DeMar, the way they played together. Tyus (Jones) was really good. It\u2019s one of those things where you hope that means that we played well, not that our defense was really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are four notes from the last two days of camp, from an Adelman goal to a CU crossover visit.<\/p>\n

Adelman\u2019s target: Start the season 10-deep<\/p>\n

The Nuggets don\u2019t appear as deep on paper as they were last season. But Adelman still wants to play a 10-man rotation in October if possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe perfect world is 10 to start, even 10 and a half, which we had a little bit last year,\u201d he said Friday. \u201cBut I think to start the season, the goal is gonna be 10. And you go from there, and obviously by the end of the year, it\u2019s like eight and a half. But I\u2019d like to play 10, especially with the veteran group that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adelman routinely went to five bench players last season, especially as injuries ravaged the starting lineup. Four of them are gone now: Peyton Watson, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valanciunas and Bruce Brown. Spencer Jones, the one who remains, tweaked a hamstring during Friday\u2019s scrimmage but isn\u2019t expected to miss much time if any. DeMar DeRozan is a lock to play every night as long as he\u2019s healthy. Marvin Bagley III<\/a> is locked in at backup center. The last two or three pieces of the puzzle will be guards or wings, with Julian Strawther, Alpha Diallo and Tyus Jones among the top candidates for consistent playing time.<\/p>\n

And in case there was any lingering doubt, Adelman made it clear Friday that DeRozan will indeed be coming off the bench for the first time since 2010, a role DeRozan has already told reporters he\u2019s willing to accept<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nembhard joins team quickly as Nuggets load up 2-way cast<\/p>\n

Less than a day after signing a two-way contract with the Nuggets, Ryan Nembhard<\/a> was in the gym, getting acclimated Thursday and scrimmaging Friday.<\/p>\n

What did Denver like about his rookie year in Dallas enough to pursue him?<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not like him last year,\u201d Adelman clarified, laughing. \u201cHe embarrassed our pick-and-roll defense last year. I\u2019m sure you guys remember that. I did not rewatch that tape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nembhard\u2019s 28-point, 10-assist gem in a Mavericks win last December isn\u2019t even his greatest performance at Ball Arena. Three years ago, he led Creighton to the Sweet 16 with a 30-piece on Denver\u2019s neutral court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat gym has served me well over the years,\u201d Nembhard said, \u201cso I\u2019m happy to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

He provides roughly the same player archetype as Tyus Jones \u2014 an undersized but quick point guard, a low-mistake floor general and a limited defender.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefensively, I\u2019m trying to be a lot better,\u201d he said. \u201cI think I\u2019ve made a jump there. Worked on my shooting. Just being an all-around player. Worked out a lot this summer. I feel like I\u2019ve made a huge jump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nembhard arrived with at least one prior locker-room relationship. He and Julian Strawther narrowly missed each other at Gonzaga by a season, but Nembhard\u2019s brother Andrew was Strawther\u2019s teammate there. Ryan used to visit, hanging out and playing pickup with Strawther while there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeed, burst kind of guy. His feet hit the paint,\u201d Nuggets coach David Adelman said of Nembhard. \u201cMade three or four really nice plays (at practice) just in the pick-and-roll. \u2026 Ryan could step in and play like he did last year (in Dallas), but also for our main people, they need to play against guys like him in practice. Sometimes you need guys like that on your roster on a two-way to impact practice for what we struggle at, which is speed and picking up full (court) and a smaller guy crawling into Jamal Murray. He did that on day one.\u201d<\/p>\n

That quasi-practice squad philosophy has been an emphasis for the Nuggets in their two-way contract strategy this offseason, it turns out. Both Nembhard and Cam Whitmore \u2014 who \u201ccould play for the Broncos,\u201d Adelman vouched \u2014 are widely considered to be near the talent ceiling for young players willing to take a two-way.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can look at a two-way as you want to be really deep, but if you\u2019re really deep and everyone is the same, then practices look really good, because everyone is doing the same thing,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cOr maybe you get more athletic, and it\u2019s a lot of project-type players, but they make your team better because they bring something you\u2019re gonna see throughout the year. \u2026 It\u2019s kind of an interesting stylistic thing. Last year, our offense looked great in every scrimmage we had because both units were just extremely good at offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can Walker make the team?<\/p>\n

While Nembhard and Whitmore can play up to 50 NBA games for Denver this season on their two-way contracts, training camp invitee Lonnie Walker IV isn\u2019t eligible to sign a two-way anymore due to his seven years of NBA service time. That means his only path to the court is to earn a standard contract and Denver\u2019s last full-time roster spot out of training camp.<\/p>\n

As he fights that uphill battle, Nuggets brass isn\u2019t in any rush to decide on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second he walks in the room, you know he played in the NBA,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cHe has an NBA-refined game. He can score. He understands what he\u2019s trying to do with the ball. Very good athlete. He\u2019s been good defensively. But it\u2019s a roster, and it\u2019s hard to make. So we have to take our time with this. It\u2019s not going be (that) after Sunday, we know exactly who we want to keep, who we don\u2019t want to keep. We have to take our time, have solid conversations so we don\u2019t make a mistake. But Lonny is definitely in the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach Prime pays Nuggets a visit<\/p>\n

A black SUV rolled up to the CU Events Center loading dock carrying sports royalty Thursday as the Nuggets practiced inside. Buffs football coach Deion Sanders stopped by to speak to the team for a few minutes after its third day of training camp. Adelman might\u2019ve been the most starstruck person in the room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I\u2019m 45, so I was a kid (when he played),\u201d Adelman said. \u201cI don\u2019t think our guys have any idea, like, what that was back then. And what that never has been again. His personality was exactly what I thought it was going to be. But growing up, when you\u2019re a kid and Deion Sanders is playing cornerback and you\u2019re watching him play baseball in the playoffs at the same time, that stuff is just uniquely wild. So it was really cool to meet the guy. His message was good. I could tell he knew he was talking to grown men.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nuggets chose to hold training camp in Boulder this year instead of their usual home away from home, San Diego, in part because they already had a preseason game arranged at CU\u2019s gym this Sunday. They\u2019ll host the Jazz to wrap up a big weekend on Colorado\u2019s campus, highlighted by the homecoming football game against Texas Tech. Members of the Nuggets plan to attend, team officials told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrime is one of one,\u201d Cam Johnson said after Sanders\u2019 guest appearance. \u201cWhat he\u2019s been able to accomplish as an athlete, as a coach, is very unique, and his personality is very unique.\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":"Behind closed doors, the Nuggets broke into three units and scrimmaged for three full quarters Friday afternoon, their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[17718,1558,18881,6430,74191,3832,4134,1601,1840,1753,4142,23695,1754,4138,2558,4139,355,4140,1053,99,36058],"class_list":["post-868809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ball-arena","tag-baseball","tag-boulder","tag-cam-johnson","tag-cam-whitmore","tag-colorado","tag-david-adelman","tag-deion-sanders","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-front-range","tag-gonzaga","tag-jamal-murray","tag-julian-strawther","tag-latest-headlines","tag-more-nuggets-news","tag-nba","tag-nuggets","tag-ryan-nembhard","tag-sports","tag-tyus-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868809","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=868809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}