The Denver Nuggets’ preseason roster includes 19 players, and the team will try to figure out which 15 of them deserves a shot during the regular season throughout the team’s seven-game exhibition slate.
But, for now, how do these players stack up? We polled our staff writers and editor at Nugg Love to get a consensus power ranking of every player on the roster, and we’ll be releasing one player each day from October 5 to 23, starting from No. 19 and finishing at No. 1.
Originally a 2013 second-round pick of the Utah Jazz, Erick Green made his first regular-season appearance in the NBA during the 2014-15 campaign, playing spot minutes for Denver. Let’s learn some more about the 6’3″ guard, then project what sort of impact he might have on the Denver Nuggets.
Who is Erick Green?
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Green had an excellent four-year college career at Virginia Tech, finishing with a senior season that saw him average 25.0 points per game win ACC Player of the Year honors.
Apparently, scouts didn’t think his game would translate well to the NBA, and he slipped to the Jazz at the 46th pick in the draft in 2013, who traded him to Denver for Rudy Gobert (!) on cash on draft night. After playing with the Nuggets’ Summer League team, he went to Italy for a year. His averages there were 11.3 points in 22,1 minutes per game on a 48.9/34.6/81.0 shooting slash.
The Nuggets brought him over for the 2014-15 season. Green wasn’t a factor in 9.5 minutes per game, scoring 3.4 points and notching 0.9 assists. He did play well in two games for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the D-League, totaling 42 points on just 29 shots.
Strengths
Green is just a solid, high-IQ player. He makes very few mistakes despite playing with the ball a lot, and he’s consistently established himself as a low-turnover player (just 1.2 per 36 minutes last season).
He’s also a polished dribbler who has mastered the pull-up jump shot as sort of his bread-and-butter.
He also moves well without the ball. Give him some screens to maneuver around, and he’ll get open.
Weaknesses
His physical tools are less than ideal. 6’3″ and 185 pounds is NBA point guard size, but Green’s scoring mindset is more fitting for a shooting guard. He’s not strong enough to guard 2s, and his quickness is exceeded by many of the league’s best 1s.
Green is a careful passer, as evidenced by his low turnovers, but he isn’t a great setup man. He’s not the type who looks to make his teammates better.
His mediocre athleticism for an NBA guard also limits his effectiveness finishing at the rim and prevents him from being a lockdown defender. Since his offensive skills are so refined, he also seems to allocate most of his energy toward that end of the floor. He won’t contribute much in the area of rebounds, either.
2015-16 Outlook
Green has a shot to return as a member of the Nuggets 15-man roster, but the team did trade for combo guard Nick Johnson from the Houston Rockets. He doesn’t have the offensive skills of Green, but he’s much more athletic and has the tools to develop into a defensive stopper and a nightmare in transition, two skills that fit nicely with Denver’s approach under Mike Malone.
At this point, it looks like Johnson and Green are the ones vying for the last spot, per the Denver Post‘s Chris Dempsey. Green has the advantage of being familiar with the Nuggets organization, but, in my opinion, Johnson has the slightly more enviable skill set.
If Green does make the roster, he’ll probably play eight to 10 minutes per game and get a lot of his playing time at the end of blowouts or when the team is injured.
Note: All statistics are from RealGM unless otherwise indicated.