If the Denver Nuggets had a dollar for every time they tried and failed to establish a capable backup to Nikola Jokic, perhaps they could afford to pay Peyton Watson this summer. And they were reminded of their failure on Wednesday night when the 56th pick in the draft was announced.
One such attempt was to take a gamble on DeRon Holmes II, a skilled big man out of Dayton. There was hope that he could both play power forward next to Jokic and as a smaller, 5-out option for bench units. That motivated them to pay the price of three second-round picks to move up from the 28th pick to take Holmes at 22 in the 2024 NBA Draft.
Holmes was far from a sure thing, as he compiled stats against lesser opponents in a weak conference in college. When he did play power conference opponents, his numbers plummeted. That reality scared off a number of teams, but it seemed to have no impact on the Nuggets' desire to add him.
It is not the Nuggets' fault that Holmes tore his ACL and missed his entire rookie season, but it only adds to the pain at the cost that they gave up to add him. He did return healthy this past season, but played just 25 games and averaged only eight minutes and 3.7 points per game as a deep reserve.
The book has not been completely written on whether Holmes can develop into a rotation player in the NBA, but it's not looking good. The Nuggets certainly cannot rely on him in any meaningful way next season. And that's a painful pill to swallow.
The Nuggets could have stayed put and drafted Virginia wing Ryan Dunn (he went 28th at their original pick), who would be a cost-controlled rotation player for them right now. Baylor Scheierman, Kyle Filipowski and Oso Ighodaro all went in the next few picks and would be helping them right now. Finding Ajay Mitchell, who went 38th, would have been a massive coup.
The pain of missing on Holmes hurts doubly so, since they gave up three picks to trade up to 22. One of those picks was their own pick in the 2026 draft, which was just finalized on Wednesday night.
Once the Nuggets sent the pick to the Suns, it took on a life of its own. The Suns traded it to the Charlotte Hornets in January of 2025...and the Hornets traded it back a month later!
From there it went from Phoenix to Minnesota in the Kevin Durant 7-team behemoth trade last summer, and from the Wolves to the Bulls in the Ayo Dosunmu trade in February. On draft night, the Lakers bought the pick -- which landed at No. 56 -- from the Bulls, then flipped it to the Dallas Mavericks.
Ultimately, Russian guard Vsevolod Ishchenko was selected, and another piece of the DeRon Holmes trade was finalized.
Perhaps Holmes breaks through and plays a key role for the Nuggets. Perhaps the Nuggets continue to struggle to find reliable bigs other than Nikola Jokic. Denver took a gamble, and thus far, it has failed.
And the cost continues to be paid. Now another piece of that cost has locked into place.
This article was originally published on www.nugglove.com as Nuggets' DaRon Holmes gamble looks even worse after latest piece finalized .
