Denver Nuggets: 3 takeaways from the team’s scrimmages

1. Troy Daniels not afraid to shoot it

Troy Daniels played 42 games for the Los Angeles Lakers this season before signing with the Denver Nuggets on March 5 and playing just one game with his new team before the NBA hiatus. As a result, he didn’t have a chance to leave much of an impression with the Nuggets and it was reasonable to wonder what — if anything — to expect from him when the team returned. In fact, the only thing that anybody knew the 29-year-old shooting guard could bring to the team was 3-point shooting, as he’s shot 39.6% from 3-point range over his seven-year career.

During the Nuggets three scrimmages, Daniels showed himself to be a confident shooter, averaging 16.7 points per game while taking a number of tough shots. Although that number is technically ranked 3rd in the team averages, he’s 1st among players who participated in more than one game. To add to his impressive feat, Daniels shot 45.7% from the field, 52.4% from three and 87.5% from the free-throw line.

He won’t be averaging that many points in the team’s seeding games and he may not touch the floor in the playoffs unless there’s an injury or a player who needs to quarantine. He went scoreless in 6 minutes of playing time when starters Jamal Murray and Will Barton returned for the scrimmage finale, even with starting shooting guard Gary Harris not playing.

However, if Denver does need to call on Daniels, his showing in the team’ scrimmage games should give the Nuggets some confidence about how he could produce when given extensive minutes.