With the departure of Tim Hardaway Jr. this offseason to the Miami Heat, the Denver Nuggets needed someone to step in and fill his shoes. Hardaway made 224 threes and averaged 13.5 points on his way to a third-place finish in the Sixth Man of the Year Award voting last year. Now, through two preseason games, it looks like Julian Strawther is stepping up to the task and finally taking the leap forward Nuggets fans have been waiting for.
Sure, the sample size is small at the moment, but the fourth-year former first-round pick out of Gonzaga sure looks good. Strawther has always shown flashes of his offensive skills, but he's often been buried on the depth chart and on the fringe of the rotation. Even last year, with all of the injuries the Nuggets had, he still never fully cracked head coach David Adelman's rotation. That looks ready to change in 2026-27.
Strawther is showing signs of breaking out
Those flashes last year were evident when Strawther drew starts. He had 14 starts, averaging 26.5 minutes, and put up 14.8 points on 48.4% shooting from the field and 38.5% from beyond the arc. He was great at getting downhill and attacking the rim, and his catch-and-shoot three-point shot was terrific.
So far this preseason, we're seeing that same energy. Strawther's scored 14 and 15 in back-to-back games while playing less than 20 minutes off the bench. He's been a standout scorer and looks to be, so far, locked into the Nuggets' second unit. Strawther is shooting 50% from the floor and 40% from deep, right in line with the expected numbers, but his shooting volume has increased, as it should. He's the best three-point shooter on the second unit, and he's one of the better players on the team at driving to the rim.
What's kept Strawther from receiving more minutes in the past has been his defense. It can't be sugarcoated; it's not great. But in the victory over the Jazz, he played well and had a positive plus-minus of 13, the second-highest mark of the night for the Nuggets. And with defensive specialist Alpha Diallo also patrolling the perimeter, it relieves a lot of pressure from Strawther, who can play a more team-oriented zone rather than trying to face up on man-to-man.
The leap Nuggets fans have seen from Strawther over two games has been three years in the making. He's just needed to have the right opportunity in the rotation with the right players around him to make the most of it. And if he does indeed pick up the slack left over from Hardaway, the Nuggets' second unit may just be the best it's been in years.
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