The Denver Nuggets needed someone to take over the bench scoring and provide depth after the departure of Tim Hardaway Jr. and the sign-and-trade of Peyton Watson. They found one of the best scoring options possible on the free-agent market in six-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan. And after Nuggets media day comments from head coach David Adelman, it sounds like we're going to see DeRozan get used "a lot."
DeRozan's 16th on the NBA's all-time scoring list, and he's used to being the primary scorer. The 17-year vet has averaged 21.1 points per game in his career. While he may not hit that number this year in his new role coming off the Nuggets' bench, he'll likely have a good chance to get close to it. Adelman made it clear how he intends to make DeRozan a focal point of the Nuggets' second unit offense.
"Just so everybody knows, you can tell the NBA. I'm going to throw DeRozan the ball a lot. He's going to catch it at the logo, the elbow, the nail. So, we're going to do that," Adelman said.
That should be just fine for DeRozan, and the Nuggets bench will be better for it.
DeRozan gives the Nuggets bench a special weapon
Replacing the scoring loss of Watson and Hardaway won't be easy, but if there's anyone who can do it, it's DeRozan. DeRozan slowed a step last season with the Sacramento Kings, and he had his lowest scoring output since 2013-14, yet still put up 18.4 points. More importantly, he shot a highly efficient 49.7% from the floor, doing most of his damage in the mid-range over 31.2 minutes per game. He may see that many minutes with the Nuggets this year.
On top of his midrange scoring prowess, DeRozan is also a multi-positional weapon who can play the one through four offensively, and the Nuggets may just try that out. General Manager Jon Wallace described him as a "Swiss Army Knife" and alluded to DeRozan's ball-handling skills as well, which means DeRozan will likely get a shot to reprise his primary distributor role that he ran with the San Antonio Spurs.
The Nuggets may finally have the non-Jokic minutes scoring answer
The Nuggets have been crushed over the non-Jokic minutes throughout Nikola Jokic's career. But DeRozan's the best bench scorer the Nuggets have had to put on the floor when the three-time MVP hits the bench. A true floor general who takes his time to survey and set up,
The boost DeRozan will give the second unit will be real. If he's able to cut into the disparity that occurs when Jokic hits the bench, the Nuggets' ceiling will be a lot higher than it already is.
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