Juancho Hernangomez could be the Nuggets’ sleeper this coming season.
Like many years in the past, the Denver Nuggets possess one of the deeper rosters in the league. The Nuggets have backup players at almost every position that can start on a lot of NBA teams. This is an underappreciated trait during the grind of a season. However With so many established ballers, it can be tough for new guys to get a chance to prove themselves.
Denver Nuggets
One position where the Nuggets lack depth is at small forward. The only player that is a true three is Wilson Chandler, and even some consider him more of a four. This leaves room for Juancho Hernangomez to play a big role off the bench for the Nuggets this year.
Denver fans should be familiar with Juancho, but across the league he may be unknown, or simply known as Knicks Center, Willy Hernangomez’s brother. Juan, only in his second year, has a great chance to be an under the radar guy that makes a big contribution to the team.
The Nuggets front court is more packed than highway 405 in Los Angeles on a Monday morning. The Nuggets have seven players that could play the power forward position. Out of those seven guys, Chandler and Hernangomez are the two best players suited for a spot at the three.
Hernangomez’s rookie campaign showed a lot of potential moving forward. The soon-to-be-22-year old appeared in 62 games for the Nuggets garnering 13.6 minutes per game. He averaged 4.9 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 0.5 assists per game. Juan shot the ball extremely well from three converting on 40.7 percent of his attempts from downtown. Juan was scorching hot at the Pepsi Center knocking down 46.2 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. Hopefully his road numbers can improve in his second year, and the former first round pick can become an elite shooter.
When Hernangomez was a starter he was effective for any first year player. In his nine starts, Juancho netted 11.3 points, grabbed 6.1 rebounds, and showed some solid defense with 1.2 steals per game. A concerning stat as a starter was Juancho’s 34.9 shooting percentage from three. This could just be a direct result of being tired, but the percentage has to improve.
While Juan can handle the ball, he does not dribble much. This bodes well with Denver since there are already so many ball handlers on the squad. Juancho is most effective off the catch and shoot.
Juancho has little wasted movement in his shot, which gives him a quick release. His front leg kicks out awkwardly when he shoots, but that can only lead to more and-ones. A sharpshooter like Juancho really opens up the Denver offense, and can create even more lanes for guys like Gary Harris to cut to the basket.
While most of his scoring came from spot-up jumpers, Juan also runs the floor well. Finding gaps in the defense, Hernangomez is able to score some easy buckets around the rim. The Spaniard may not be as elite of a slasher as Gary Harris, but he will find one or two easy buckets throughout a game.
Perhaps Juancho’s most underrated trait is his ability to get rebounds, and more importantly offensive rebounds. At six-foot-nine, Juan is not as big as his brother Willy, but that doesn’t take away from his aggressive pursuit of the ball when a shot goes up. Hernangomez is the first to crash the boards, and is effective at knifing through the defense to be in the right spot for the rebound. He also has great touch around the rim resulting in several tip-ins. His rebound numbers should only go up this year being used as a small forward instead of a stretch four.
Here is some video of Juancho’s rookie year success.
At 0:16 through 0:26 watch Hernangomez’s quick release, and then on the next play his hustle to get the tip-in. 1:04 into the video you see Juancho’s great ability to run the floor and finish at the rim. From 1:19-1:36 he puts on a great display of his catch and shoot ability from different spots on the floor. Then from 2:07-2:14 you can see Juancho running the floor filling lanes nicely for easy buckets. At 5:27 Juan comes behind his defender, gets in between defenders for the tip-slam. My favorite play occurs at 3:52 when Juancho destroys the Warriors with a tip-slam.
Video Courtesy of rkamienski on youtube.com
In the summer league, Hernangomez put up solid numbers as one of the leaders on the team. In three games, Juancho was Denver’s second leading scorer dropping 16.3 points per game. He also showed off his rebounding prowess grabbing just over seven boards a game. It was great to see Hernangomez lead a team, but he will have a much smaller role in the regular season.
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Juan Hernangomez had a great rookie campaign, and will have plenty of room to grow with the Nuggets. With Danilo Gallinari moving to the Clippers, the small forward position is Denver’s thinnest. Wilson Chandler will surely be the starter when the Nuggets open the season on October 18th. Don’t be surprised with his hustle and superb marksmanship from three, if Juancho Hernangomez cracks the starting lineup towards the end of the year.