Once an obsession of Denver’s front office, DaRon Holmes II is currently a reserve with no real NBA minutes in sight.
He’s been one of the last Nuggets off the bench throughout this preseason, a third-unit big man still stuck in post-Achilles limbo entering his third season. When Marvin Bagley III was inactive against Chicago last Sunday, an opening appeared at backup center, but coach David Adelman went with Zeke Nnaji over the 24-year-old Holmes.
Somebody has to be at the bottom of the pecking order on every NBA roster, of course. And Nuggets coaches and teammates have always maintained that Holmes brings a selfless and positive attitude to work.
But for him, of all people, to be buried on Denver’s depth chart certainly stings a little extra for the franchise and its fans. Holmes remains the Nuggets’ most recent first-round draft pick — and not only that. Former general manager Calvin Booth famously traded three future second-round picks to move up from No. 28 to No. 22 for Holmes, believing the rival Timberwolves would select him one spot before Denver’s original pick. The resources invested in acquiring him have always made his career feel higher-stakes, through no fault of his own.
Two years in, he hasn’t had a chance to pan out, largely because of the torn Achilles he suffered in his first Summer League game. But now that he’s been back on the court for a year, the stagnation of his role this preseason has been even more discouraging.
Adelman believes the path to playing time remains at center.
“We all see DaRon, his effort level,” the second-year coach said. “He’s in amazing shape. Shoots the hell out of the ball. For me, it’s more about what’s the best chance for him, and right now, I think that’s the five.”
Unless he can prove himself to be more versatile. Last season, Adelman briefly resorted to Holmes out of necessity when Nikola Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas got hurt in consecutive games. The Dayton alum started six contests. Denver lost his minutes by a combined 24 points in those games, though he flashed some potential as a pick-and-pop shooter.
The Nuggets need him to be able to do more than that. They need him to roll hard and put pressure on the paint, to improve his feel as a spacer along the baseline and to defend out to the perimeter more effectively.
“I started DaRon because of the traditional five coverage with starters, as opposed to backups who usually switch everything,” Adelman said earlier this week. “I think that’s the thing for DaRon. If he’s gonna play some four, which gives me options with him, he’s gonna have to be able to guard the four. And the fours nowadays, I mean, look at the kid from North Carolina (Chicago’s Caleb Wilson). That’s a freakish four. So there are some guys in our league that are sometimes built for DaRon to guard, and sometimes it would be unfair for me to make him go out there and guard a guy in space that could lead to some failure.”
Wilson tested even Aaron Gordon, a highly skilled defensive power forward, last Sunday. The Bulls rookie was aggressive and athletic, amassing 17 points and five rebounds.
“It’s just being up to touch, being physical, making sure that the guy doesn’t have a lot of open space,” Holmes said. “Because if you can do that, it’s harder for him to get freedom of movement. So I like to watch a lot of film on our guys. AG does a very good job of it. So for someone like me that’s probably a little bit oversized for a four, just being able to touch (the offensive player) and get up there is very helpful. I know on offense I can stretch the floor. I can shoot 3s and rebound very well. So defensively, that is very important. I feel like I’ve done a better job of that over the summer, but I’ve gotta continue to gain Coach’s trust.”
In the meantime, he’s been trying to regain more trust of his own body. That should at least make him more versatile as a pure five, if he has a longer road to becoming a viable power forward option.
“Last year, I was just popping, mainly because I didn’t fully trust my Achilles,” he said. “So I wasn’t comfortable jumping as much. But now I feel more comfortable getting up, jumping a little bit more. So I feel like I can roll again, like I was in college.”
Holmes was impressive last season for Denver’s G League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Gold. But time is already ticking on his shot at a long NBA career. According to Spotrac contract data, the Nuggets have until the end of October to pick up or decline a $5.5 million team option on Holmes’ fourth year, which would be the last of his rookie-scale deal.
His injury cruelly stole precious time from him. Now, there doesn’t seem to be enough of it to go around in Denver’s rotation.
It makes this week in Los Angeles an important one. Holmes compiled 11 points and five rebounds in the second half against Chicago. Two exhibitions remain for him to make an impact before the season tips off and he settles into a bench role.
“This is the time for us to showcase what we’ve been working on this summer,” Holmes said. “To show that we’re about the team, we’re about winning, about playing the right way and to show how much better we’ve gotten over the course of the year. I know for me, I’m already feeling a lot more comfortable from where I was last year to now. Feel like I’ve gotten a lot stronger. Feel like I’m understanding the game a lot better.”
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