{"id":108750,"date":"2025-07-31T23:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T23:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/108750\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T23:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T23:14:08","slug":"daron-holmes-gives-nuggets-something-they-havent-had-in-the-nikola-jokic-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/108750\/","title":{"rendered":"DaRon Holmes gives Nuggets something they haven’t had in the Nikola Jokic era"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to the Nuggets\u2019 added frontcourt depth<\/a>, much of the focus is on the trade for Jonas Valanciunas, and rightfully so. But perhaps just as important and exciting as finally having a legitimate backup center for Nikola Jokic is having a big man in DaRon Holmes II, who can play alongside the Joker.<\/p>\n

Holmes was a first-round pick by Denver a year ago, but the big man out of Dayton tore his achilles in his very first game of summer league, missing all of last season. But now, with a bit of a redshirt season under his belt, he\u2019s healthy and ready to contribute.<\/p>\n

At 6\u201910\u201d, the 22-year-old spent most of his college career playing center, but he\u2019s very athletic for his size, moves well, and has great ball skills. He can play on the perimeter and knock down open threes. He\u2019s a true stretch-big the likes of which the Nuggets haven\u2019t had in a long time<\/a>. He\u2019ll get plenty of minutes at center, but there\u2019s no reason he can\u2019t play power forward as well.<\/p>\n

But Holmes has the ability to bang inside as well. He can protect the rim on defense and score around the cup on offense. In many ways, he\u2019s a perfect complement to Jokic, who also likes to play outside as much as inside.<\/p>\n

Nuggets can overwhelm with size<\/p>\n

For the first time in a long time, the Ngugets can truly overwhelm teams with their size. The NBA has been trending in this direction recently, and Denver has leaned into it more than ever. Valanciunas isn\u2019t the perimeter threat that Jokic and Holmes are, but he can handle the ball and create from the high post as well.<\/p>\n

Throwing Aaron Gordon into the mix, that\u2019s four big men who can play inside and out. The real luxury is that Denver can fiddle with playing any combination of them together and possibly even three at once if they want to get crazy with AG at small forward.<\/p>\n

There are endless possibilities with this reloaded roster, and the ability for David Adelman and his staff to roll out some jumbo lineups is just one of the many perks. We\u2019ll see just how much the team chooses to experiment with different combinations, but one thing is clear: the Nuggets have the ability to be creative this season, and that\u2019s a breath of fresh air for the entire organization and the fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to the Nuggets\u2019 added frontcourt depth, much of the focus is on the trade for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":108751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-108750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114950390647618217","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}