Josh Scott personifies Colorado basketball.
From his high school days down in Colorado Springs to his college days at the University of Colorado and now on to his Summer League invite with the Denver Nuggets, Scott has played a part in more of the Colorado basketball scene than just about anybody not named Chauncey Billups.
The former Buffaloes stand out had a successful career up in Boulder but didn’t hear his name called on draft night. Still, he’s excited to make the most of his opportunity.
“I was disappointed that I was undrafted,” Scott said. “But as I’ve said before, nothing in my career has been handed to me; I’ve always had to work for it, so it doesn’t scare me to be in this position. I’ve done things like this before. So hopefully I can do it again.”
Playing for the Nuggets’ Summer League team is a great opportunity for Scott, as it’ll give the rest of the NBA a look at his skill set. Even if he doesn’t fit with Denver’s roster, there are 29 other franchises that could possibly be interested in his services.
“Playing with the possibility to showcase my talents to these other teams, it’s in my mind — it is — but it’s part of the job, and I understand that it’s a business,” Scott said. “But other than that, it’s just playing basketball, so you don’t think about it too much. I’m just going to play my game and compete and play hard. I don’t need to go outside of the box. If I pay attention to the small things, I think I’ll be fine.”
Nuggets assistant coach Micah Nori is coaching the Nuggets’ Summer League team this year, and he says that he has been impressed with what he’s seen from Josh Scott, and there is a place for him in this league.
“[Scott] gets the most out of his abilities,” Nori said. “He’s a guy that you can trust, and that’s the biggest thing with a player — can I trust you to put you in a spot where you’re going to do the right thing? He’s just a solid, solid basketball player, so you can see why he was so successful at Colorado. He was well coached at Colorado, and that’s carried on to here. With his knowledge of the game, the energy and intensity of the game, he’s just a solid basketball player.”
As an undersized center with little range on his jump shot, Scott is clearly a limited player. If he wasn’t, he would have been selected in last month’s NBA Draft. But Nori believes there is a path towards success at the professional level.
“He just needs to really develop his range so that he could be a consistent, knockdown shooter; he needs to be a guy to get into a rotation that knows every defensive coverage, knows everyone’s tendencies and be a position defender that remains mistake free,” Nori said. “Coaches love to have that type of guy where you put him in the game [and] you know you aren’t going to lose anything; he’s going to keep you right there. The other thing is: Until he develops that type of knock-down, stretch-three range, his role in the NBA might be as a guy that is bringing it in practice every single day. Josh can be one of those guys that you can count on at all times, but that’s what he really needs to do is develop his range so he can knock down the three-point shot consistently.”
Scott has a few practices remaining to prepare for the 2016 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas from July 8-18. With a good showing, he will have the opportunity to make impressions on a NBA team or international scouts.