Denver traded as much as draft DaRon Holmes II. Now, his rookie season seems to be over after only one Summer season League sport.
Holmes was the No. 22 choose in June’s NBA draft after a stellar faculty profession at Dayton, the place he was a second-team All-American and the Atlantic 10’s Defensive Participant of the 12 months. Denver thought a lot of Holmes that it despatched three second-round picks to the Phoenix Suns to maneuver up six spots and nab him.
However throughout his very first sport in a Nuggets uniform, Holmes suffered a tear of his proper Achilles tendon, an damage that’s anticipated to maintain him on the sidelines for at the least the following season. This after a debut when he scored 11 factors and confirmed off a superb exterior shot.
Denver’s technique for the previous two summers has been to amass gamers in the course of the draft to complement its high-priced roster. With the NBA’s new punitive guidelines for groups who spend, Denver has tried to seek out younger contributors on inexpensive offers. It succeeded with Christian Braun and, to a level, Peyton Watson.
However with Braun changing the departed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Denver was banking on Holmes to again up reigning MVP Nikola Jokic. Holmes’ velocity and three-point taking pictures even made it doable that he may play alongside the Joker with out sacrificing spacing.
Now, Holmes is out till 2025, and the Nuggets are out a entrance courtroom participant who seemed like he may get severe minutes as a rookie. They’ll get a disabled participant exception, however given Holmes’ low wage, it should solely give the Nuggets a bit of over $1.5M to discover a substitute.
For a crew whose lack of dimension and depth was uncovered in a second-round loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, it’s a tricky blow, although not as powerful as it’s for Holmes.
He’ll be rehabbing a devastating damage as an alternative of chasing a title with the Nuggets all due to a meaningless exhibition sport. For a 21-year-old who landed in a dream state of affairs, Holmes’ rookie season has become a nightmare.