For years, the Denver Nuggets have been waiting for their 3rd star to emerge. Yes, Jamal Murray has still never been named an All-Star, but when your stat line in the playoffs over a sample size of 51 games is 25.0 PPG, 6.3 APG, and 5.0 RPG, I’m sorry, but that player is a star.
Michael Porter Jr. has long been the guy we’ve thought could possibly form that Big 3. After another back injury and the fact that he’s still only a 15-17 PPG player while being average at best on defense, I don’t know if being a star on this team is still in the cards for MPJ. He’s still only 25, and hopefully has a lot of years left to improve, but it feels as though we sort of know who MPJ is at this point. He’s a solid contributor on a championship winning team. That’s still a great player.
Aaron Gordon, besides Murray, gets brought up most often as the guy who could possibly be the other All-Star alongside Jokic. AG is the glue guy. He’ll get you 10-15 points every night, 5-10 rebounds, a couple assists, and he’ll guard the best guy on the other team. Gordon is what brought this team from possible championship contender to bona fide NBA champions. Every championship team needs an Aaron Gordon. But 3rd star? That’s not AG’s role on this team.
Which brings me to Peyton Watson.
Do the Nuggets need a 3rd star? I think last years championship run says no, they don’t. But if one emerges…you can’t stop it from happening.
P-Wat’s measurables jump off the page. He’s 6’7″, with a 8’10” standing reach, and a 7′ wingspan. For reference, LeBron James had almost the exact same measurements at his draft combine (albeit almost 40 pounds heavier).
His athletic gifts are one thing, but his mentality is what is going to take him to the next level. Here’s Jamal Murray talking about Watson just a few days ago:
And here’s how his head coach, Michael Malone, speaks of him.
Not only is he hearing the praise from his teammates and coaches, I love the way he carries himself and the mentality he displays off the court.
This dude’s only 21 years old!
But what about ON the court?
For the season, he’s averaging 7.1 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 1.0 APG and nearly 1 block per game. He’s shooting 48% from the field and 34% from 3.
Those number don’t exacltly explode off the page, but what we’ve seen is Peyton Watson get better and better throughout the year. In the last 25 games, Watson is averaging 8.8 PPG, 3.4 RPG, and 1.0 APG. More importantly, he’s playing lockdown defense on some of the best scorers in the league.
There aren’t a ton of Peyton Watson defensive highlight videos out there, but here’s one from Summer League his rookie year when he was just 19 years old.
Again, not a lot of recent Peyton Watson defensive videos out there, but all you have to do is watch one Nuggets game to understand what I’m talking about. This guy you just saw in the 2022 Summer League has only gotten better. Guys are starting to fear driving to the paint when he’s lurking. Star players try and go one-on-one against him and quickly learn that’s not an efficient way to get a bucket. Considering his length, and overall defensive awareness, Peyton Watson might just have the highest defensive ceiling of anyone the Nuggets have EVER drafted.
So why was he drafted 30th overall?
Well the thing is, Watson only averaged 3.2 PPG at UCLA his Freshman year before declaring for the draft. But that was a really good UCLA squad who went to the Sweet 16, and Peyton was clearly focused on going to the NBA if he declared that early after not really playing in college. What Nuggets GM Calvin Booth probably saw was the highest-ranked player from California in the 2021 recruiting class. The #12 recruit overall in the country. Calvin Booth saw the potential.
And while Booth has expressed that he’s looking for length and defensive versatility in the draft to surround Murray and Jokic, what Watson has shown offensively lately is what we should really start to get excited about.
This was from a recent game in San Francisco against Golden State:
Smooth.
Again, the kid is only 21! He still has tons of room to grow into his body, and into his game.
But the league better watch out.
Because while I think it’s fair to compare this version of the Nuggets to the Tim Duncan led Spurs teams (Unselfish/Low-maintenance superstar, elite role players, small market), I think there’s one key difference:
The Nuggets may have just drafted their Kawhi Leonard 5 years ahead of schedule.
And his name is Peyton Watson.
-Mustache Man
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