Peyton Watson with a career night in the Nuggets’ win against the Pelicans : 32/3/12 on 13⁄19 shooting, 5⁄9 from three
Now in his fourth season, it seems that Watson is finally emerging as a legitimate two-way player. The last three seasons he’s been on the bench, he displayed incremental improvements in his jumper and rim-finishing, but never enough to get him any real playing time until now.
Nearly all his buckets in this game were within the flow of the offense, moving off the ball to get himself catch-and-shoot threes and easy shots at the rim. Sustainable offense like this was essentially absent from his game in his first three seasons, causing him to get completely ignored as a scoring threat in the playoffs.
With Christian Braun out for at least another month, Watson is stepping up big-time in his absence. Considering that he is arguably the best defender on the team, he may actually end up being more valuable than Braun by the end of this season. At this rate, Denver might not be able to retain him by the time he hits free agency in 2026.
Nuggets improve to 11-3 on the season