{"id":160128,"date":"2025-07-10T06:34:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T06:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/160128\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T06:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T06:34:12","slug":"nuggets-notes-holmes-tyson-valanciunas-mpj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/160128\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets Notes: Holmes, Tyson, Valanciunas, MPJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

After suffering a torn right Achilles tendon during last year\u2019s Summer League, Nuggets big man DaRon Holmes<\/a> is returning to Las Vegas to restart his NBA career, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post<\/a>. The organization had huge expectations for Holmes after trading up to take him with the 22nd pick in the 2024 draft, but the injury forced him to sit out his entire first season. He has fully recovered and won\u2019t be on any limitations for Denver\u2019s first game Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be pretty difficult, because you have to trust what the trainers are saying (while recovering),\u201d Holmes said. \u201cSo if they\u2019re like, \u2018Hey, we don\u2019t want you coming back in the gym tonight \u2014 rest your legs, rest your Achilles,\u2019 I might try to fight back and say no, I want to get shots up. But I have to listen to what they have to say. They went to school for eight-plus years doing that. I grew up playing basketball. So that\u2019s the fight. It\u2019s more of a mental thing. But I listen to what they have to say. And I trust my form. I\u2019ve been still getting up shots, but I listen if they say (to rest).\u201d<\/p>\n

Holmes considers himself to be a natural power forward, but he\u2019ll likely see some time at center this summer. He\u2019s a little short for the position at 6\u20199\u2033, so Durando expects him to compete for backup minutes during the season at the four spot with Zeke Nnaji<\/a> and Peyton Watson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnywhere they put me, I\u2019ll be comfortable playing,\u201d Holmes added. \u201cI spent a lot of summer time playing the five. \u2026 I trust what the coaches have. I trust this team, the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more on the Nuggets:<\/p>\n

Hunter Tyson<\/a> will return to Summer League for a third season, Durando states in a separate story<\/a>. The former second-round pick was the only player on Denver\u2019s roster who averaged less than 10 minutes per game last season, so he signed up for another summer in Las Vegas to sharpen his skills. \u201cTrying to use this opportunity to get better,\u201d Tyson said. \u201cMake the most of it every time I step on the floor. \u2026 Going to go out there and try and win, try and work on my game, try and get better. Use the game reps to continue to grow my game.\u201d
\nThe Nuggets\u2019 trade<\/a> with Sacramento for Jonas Valanciunas<\/a> remains on track to be finalized this week, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link<\/a>), but the team hasn\u2019t agreed to guarantee his $10MM salary for 2026\/27. Valanciunas will make $10.395MM during the upcoming season and has been hoping<\/a> to return to Europe to play for Panathinaikos. Speaking Tuesday to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews<\/a>, Valanciunas sounded ready to report to the Nuggets. \u201cOnce the trade is finalized, we\u2019ll put together the plan for the trip to Denver,\u201d he said. \u201cThe team will outline how they see the situation, medicals, and all the details. That part is up to them.\u201d
\nMichael Porter Jr.<\/a>\u00a0released a YouTube video<\/a> thanking Nuggets fans for their support and discussing his trade<\/a> to Brooklyn. Porter said he enjoyed his time with the organization, especially the 2023 championship, but added that his \u201cceiling in Denver kind of plateaued.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After suffering a torn right Achilles tendon during last year\u2019s Summer League, Nuggets big man DaRon Holmes is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,2288,301,187,3943,4091,6890,562,6,302],"class_list":{"0":"post-160128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-daron-holmes","10":"tag-denver","11":"tag-denver-nuggets","12":"tag-denvernuggets","13":"tag-hunter-tyson","14":"tag-jonas-valanciunas","15":"tag-michael-porter-jr","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nuggets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114827550216449462","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}