The NBA Draft will take place on June 23rd and the Denver Nuggets currently hold the seventh, 15th and 19th picks in the first round – three picks that can be used as assets to add depth or used to continue the youth movement. As the NBA Draft gets closer the Nuggets are expected to resume their pre-draft workouts later this week.
With absolutely no disrespect to anyone that has been in Denver for a workout thus far, there is no chance any of them will be selected with the seventh overall pick. With picks 15 and 19, however, anything is possible.
The first round of workouts came back on May 20th and included the following players: Anthony Barber, a 6-foot-2 guard from North Carolina State, another guard, Isaiah Cousins from University of Oklahoma. Nikola Jovanovic, a 6-foot-11 forward/center born in Serbia, also took the court. He was the second-leading scorer and top rebounder for the University of Southern California. Also in attendance was 6-foot-9 forward, Alec Peters from Valparaiso, and Josh Scott, a 6-foot-10 forward/center from the University of Colorado. Finishing out the first day of prospect workouts was Pascal Siakam, the 6-foot-10 forward from New Mexico State.
The second round of workouts took place the next day, the players were as follows: Ron Baker, a 6-foot-4 senior guard from Wichita State, Dillon Brooks, a 6-foot-7 forward from Oregon, Robert Carter, a 6-foot-9 forward from Maryland, Tyler Dorsey, a 6-foot-4 guard from Oregon. Marcus Georges-Hunt, a 6-foot-5 guard from Georgia Tech and Shawn Long, a 6-foot-9 forward from Louisiana-Lafayette rounded out the bunch.
The last of the pre-draft workouts up to this point took place on May 25th down at Chopper circle and that list looked like this: Wade Baldwin, a 6-foot-3 sophomore guard from Vanderbilt, Ben Bentil, a 6-foot-9 sophomore forward from Providence, Anthony Gill, a 6-foot-8 senior forward from Virginia, Derrick Jones, a 6-foot-7 freshman forward from UNLV, Ryan Stephan, a 6-foot-10 senior center from Colorado-Mesa and Tyrone Wallace, a 6-foot-5 guard from Cal.
What I see from the workouts is that the team knows they need help at the guard and forward position. Help at guard makes sense; Garry Harris is still developing and has shown improvement but may need someone to help scoring the ball at the spot. Insert Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield, if he is still around at number seven. I like Hield, but in a watered-down NBA world, no one really knowing about a guy until he is a senior is a red flag.
As far as the forward spot, I would say they are a little crowded at the spot. So, could they be looking to move one or maybe even two of the players that currently play forward, be it Kenneth Faried, Wilson Chandler of Danilo Gallinari? This is pure speculation at this point but from the list of players brought in I would say those are the biggest needs or priorities at this point.
Now on to what to expect this week and the week leading up to the draft. Expect to see an announcement Monday or Tuesday for the next batch of workouts. As far as the players who will still come through Denver, that is yet to be determined.
I will say unless the agent of Buddy Hield denies the workout, which he has no reason to, we will see Buddy get a pre-draft workout with the Nuggets. Hield, the guard from Oklahoma who carried his team to a Final Four. I would also expect to see Jamal Murray the guard from Kentucky and if I know our old friend, GM Tim Connelly like I hope I do, I would expect to see a European big man to come through for a workout before June 23rd approaches.
With three picks in the first round and two more in the second, the Nuggets are sure to be players in this year’s draft; now we get to sit back and watch Connelly and Malone work.
