For a time, the 2025-26 season seemed like the Peyton Watson show. The Denver Nuggets had endured an unfathomable stretch of poor injury luck, with virtually every featured player missing some period of time. Watson, thankfully, stepped up to keep Denver afloat, breaking out on the offensive end of the floor without sacrificing his elite defense.
If the Nuggets are going to contend in 2026-27, then they'll need to see backup wing Julian Strawther make a leap of his own.
Strawther doesn't need to do exactly what Watson did, as they're separate players with different skill sets. The Nuggets are experiencing something of a depth crisis after losing Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valanciunas, and Watson, however, and they lack the financial resources to make significant changes through external sources.
That puts pressure on the internally developed talent to take a step forward and potentially become featured contributors during the 2026-27 season.
Strawther will be chief among the candidates to do so after turning in the most efficient season of his career in 2025-26. In 2026-27, the Nuggets will need him to join forces with fellow reserves DeMar DeRozan and Spencer Jones to help anchor a strong enough second unit to give the starters genuine relief.
A question facing Strawther is whether or not his eye-opening per-36 production can actually scale without him losing his efficiency. Another: If his defense can improve along with it.
Nuggets need Julian Strawther to excel in a higher-volume role
Strawther finished the 2025-26 season with averages of 7.2 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 1.0 three-point field goal made in 15.1 minutes per game. He did so with impressive efficiency, shooting at a clip of .467/.387/.814.
That was a vast improvement over the .432/.349/.822 shooting he mustered as a second-year player in 2024-25, which offers reason for intrigue.
Furthermore, Strawther's numbers translated to marks of 17.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 2.4 three-point field goals made per 36 minutes. Those numbers were up all but across the board from 15.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 2.4 three-point field goals made per 36 minutes in 2024-25.
That offers ample reason to believe that Strawther is trending in the right direction. In saying that, his minutes were also cut from 21.3 per game in 2024-25 to 15.1 in 2025-26.
One of the primary reasons Strawther struggled to find the court was his inconsistency on defense. He fouled far less in 2025-26 than he did in 2024-25, going from 3.9 to 3.1 per 36 minutes, but he still struggled to make stops in isolation and complete the proper rotations away from the ball.
If the Nuggets are going to contend, then they'll need Strawther to improve on defense and prove that he can stay on the floor longer to make his mark as an efficient volume scorer.
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