3 Players that will need to step up after DaRon Holmes injury

It took all of one Las Vegas Summer League game for the Nuggets to be dealt a brutal blow as first-round pick DaRon Holmes II suffered a torn achilles. Holmes will miss the entire 2024-25 season, but will hopefully make a full recovery two seasons from now.

It’s truly a devastating blow for Denver as they’ve been high on Holmes dating back to the beginning of the draft process. They targeted the big man out of Dayton and eventually traded three 2nd-round picks to move up and get their guy.

The front office and coaches have gushed about Holmes and what he can bring to the table for the Nuggets who have had pretty dismal backup bigs for several seasons. Holmes was supposed to step in and solve a lot of those problems with his combination of size, strength, athleticism, and versatility. 

But now, after one game of Summer League, that’s all out the window for the coming season. This shouldn’t impact the outlook for Holmes’ career, as he should fully recover and help the Nuggets going forward. But the Nuggets have the best player in the world in his prime and they can’t afford to waste a season.

The Nuggets can add another player to the team, but they still need a backup point guard more than anything. With Homles in tow, they were feeling pretty good about the frontcourt, but now that’s up in the air at best. They’ll likely need to rely heavily on internal improvement and bench players to step up. Three players in particular will now have to fill even bigger roles.

Player no. 1) - Dario Saric

Luckily for the Nuggets, they did sign a veteran big man this offseason in Saric. Saric and Holmes were slated to form a nice PF/C duo off the bench but now Saric will be asked to do even more. He’ll probably be the main backup for both Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon and will have to find a way to play alongside either one. He can fill the role on offense, but he’ll need to really rise to the occasion on defense and on the glass.

Player no. 2) - Peyton Watson

Watson is more of a conventional wing player but he has the size and skills to play power forward and now he’ll need to do that a lot more. Watson could easily now be the direct backup to Gordon and will have to play bigger than his stature. Perhaps this injury will force Michael Malone and the Nuggets to lean more into small-ball in general and that means rim protection and rebounding from Watson as much as anyone.

Player no. 3) - Zeke Nnaji

Nnaji was likely on the outskirts of the Nuggets rotation after his disappointing 2023-24 season, but now the team may have no other choice but to try him again. He’s shown flashes but lacked consistently. Hopefully, this is the year he will put it all together, but if not, he’s a very obvious trade candidate and maybe the team can turn his $8.8 million salary into another useful player or two.