If there was one glaring weakness on this Nuggets’ roster coming into the season, it was the lack of a true backup point guard behind Jamal Murray. But the only other point guard on the roster, fourth-year pro Jalen Pickett, got his chance to step up on Monday night with Murray out of the lineup, and boy did he ever step up.
Pickett dropped 29 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists, hitting 7-11 from three-point range. He dug down and played solid defense against the Sixers’ dynamic guards, and steadied the offense, helping lead the most improbable victory of the season, a 125-124 overtime win in Philadelphia on the second night of a back-to-back.
And it wasn’t just any back-to-back; it was the Nuggets’ third game in four nights, nearing the end of a brutal seven-game East Coast road trip. On top of that, the team was also without its entire starting lineup of Murray, Christian Braun, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, and Nikola Jokic. If that wasn’t enough, they were also missing two crucial reserves in Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valanciunas.
But with only seven players from the active roster and two two-way guys, the ridiculously shorthanded and exhausted Denver Nuggets took down a full-strength 76ers team in Philly, largely due to the leadership, composure, and overall play of Pickett.
Nuggets wanted out of Westbrook business
Last season, the Nuggets basically had a one-man bench with the heliocentric Russell Westbrook domineering the second unit. He was a useful entity for a team that badly needed one, but Denver was clearly over that experiment, basically kicking Russ to the curb in favor of a less conventional approach at point guard.
That approach was essentially point guard by committee after Murray. Jokic is almost like a point guard on the floor, certainly an offensive hub who can have the ball at any time. THJ, Cam Johnson, and Gordon are all guys who can handle the ball and initiate offense as well.
Then it’s been a heavy dose of Peyton Watson, Bruce Brown, and Pickett coming off the bench and running the offense. Brown and P-Wat aren’t conventional point guards, but they’ve looked comfortable in that role with Watson emerging as a real threat with the ball in his hands.
And then there’s the overall steadiness of Pickett. He’s on the fringe of the rotation and doesn’t play every night, but it’s good to see that when he’s called upon, he can deliver. This was an all-time performance by Jalen, and one that should have the Nuggets’ front office feeling good ahead of the trade deadline.
Maybe the backup point guard they’ve been desperately looking for has been right there on the roster all along.