NEW ORLEANS — Sage basketball advice from the man who cared enough to chauffeur him around Los Angeles is echoing in Peyton Watson’s head.
It has been a lot these days. In the East Coast cities, where Watson seized the wheel of a Nuggets season threatening to veer off-course. Back home in Denver. In New Orleans, where Watson crafted a 31-point performance on Tuesday, his latest in an increasingly unassailable month.
“My father, (when I was) growing up, taught me that if you can’t dribble, if you can’t shoot, if you can’t do everything, then it’s gonna be hard for you to make it at the highest level,” Watson said. “He’s taught me that since I was at a young age, and that’s something that I took from him and worked on, on my own. There were so many days when he drove me to the gym, me and my little brother, and we worked on that.”
One of the gyms that Watson’s dad, Julio, drove him to was occupied by Kevin Durant. Watson had kindled a social media friendship with the NBA star and received an invite to one of his exclusive pickup runs. But this was between junior and senior years of high school. Watson didn’t have a driver’s license yet. He wouldn’t have made it to the life-changing invitation without his dad. The least he could do was remember Julio’s guidance and heed it.
Watson’s own star potential has been emerging out of an unfortunate situation this month. The 23-year-old credited his dad for the push after scoring a game-winner with 39 seconds remaining on Tuesday. With a 122-116 win, the Nuggets improved to 5-3 since three-time MVP center Nikola Jokic went down with a knee injury — a two-week stretch that has been defined by lineup uncertainty. Watson has been the main constant.
He’s averaging 24.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists in those eight games, shooting 51% from the field and 44.2% from 3-point range. He was named NBA Western Conference Player of the Week on Monday, the day before his third career 30-point game. (All three have occurred this season.)
“I can’t tell you the last time I’ve won any personal accolade. So it really means a lot to me to be recognized by the league,” Watson said. “It’s just more fuel to my fire. It makes me want to be better and better. I don’t want that to be my first and only. I want it to be the first of many.”
That Watson joined Jamal Murray and Paul Millsap as Jokic’s only teammates to earn that award was an indicator of the high-ceiling talent that could still manifest itself as Watson develops. More narrowly, it was an acknowledgment of how timely his breakout been for the Nuggets. They went into Wednesday’s game in a tie with San Antonio for second place in the West despite the horrific injury luck.
“At the end of the day, it’s hard. It’s a hard adjustment, going from being the sixth or seventh man off the bench, right, to being the second option,” Watson told The Denver Post recently while Aaron Gordon was also out. “That’s something that I’m adjusting to. And I’ve done really well at a lot of things, and there are some areas where I need to improve. … I love the responsibility and everything that comes with it. You want to blame it on me when we lose and give me the credit when we win — that’s fine.”
Jamal Murray has missed three of the first eight games Denver has played without Jokic. Gordon has missed three. Christian Braun has missed five. The Nuggets have been playing without a traditional center on their active roster. They have needed someone, anyone, to score the basketball. To handle it, to drive and facilitate.
Watson, who’s been transparent about his approach to a contract year, is happily obliging.
“It’s a blessing to have freedom in the greatest league in the world. … I don’t take that for granted at all,” he told The Post. “But this is something I worked for. I worked to put myself in this position, to be here. And I’m gonna continue to work to be the best I can in that position.”
Watson had already secured his place in Denver’s rotation as one of the team’s most effective over-screen defenders and as one of the best shot-blocking wings in the NBA. Offensively, he’s worn many hats while trying to find a place. He’s played in the dunker spot, in the corner, as a roller, slasher and split action cutter.
His recent ascent has been characterized by multiple elements. When he’s off the ball, his spot-up shooting has been astronomically efficient. His 51.7% clip on corner 3s is the second-highest of any player in the league with at least 55 attempts. Then there’s his on-ball shot creation, which has been spotlighted more due to the injuries. Watson made three midrange jumpers off the dribble in New Orleans, including the go-ahead shot off one leg while fading away.
“I had got a look from three a little bit earlier, probably a minute or so before, and the three felt good, but I just felt like on that last shot, I didn’t want to settle,” he said. “I kind of wanted to get inside. I felt like I didn’t miss many midrange jumpers tonight. So I tried to get to that bread and butter, and I got it to go.”
The increase in role hasn’t been flawless. Watson has been exploring where his dribble takes him. He’s aware that he has a couple of high-turnover games this month. His dribble can look polished one possession, sloppy the next. His next goal is to eliminate the looseness. He recently mentioned Pistons star Cade Cunningham as an example of how turnovers can be a common growing pain for bigger ball-handlers.
Nonetheless, Watson’s green light has been a worthy exercise for the Nuggets. As the rest of their lineup regains health, the Nuggets will be faced with a balancing act — to scale back Watson’s role an appropriate amount while also integrating his on-ball skillset to the offense in ways that it hadn’t been previously.
“I think it’s just part of the NBA. We have not had that conversation,” coach David Adelman said in New Orleans. “I think what will happen is, as guys come back and the minutes go up and the restrictions are off certain people, we’ll have to feel out who we are as a team again. And that’ll be, we know we have something new with Peyton that he’s been able to do. And then you just add it to the package of guys that have come off the bench, are in the rotation. And I have to look back at these games and see what actually works. A lot of this stuff was patchwork as we went. Out-of-timeout plays. Just trying to get them in spots where they can be successful. And we’ve found some things.
“So for Peyton, for everybody else, it’s all about the team and how to win games. But I do think we found some new things with him that we can use with the second unit and at times when he starts, or he’s with that first unit.”
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“He’s been super-supportive to me, even when he’s been gone,” Watson told The Post. “And it’s been vice versa. The love is always there. He’s having an All-Star campaign of a season, and I really couldn’t say enough good things about him. He really deserves everything. … We’ve been in touch a lot. That’s my guy.”
One of many. Watson has been successful at making friends in the NBA throughout his career, and really since he was an opportunistic teenager, invited to play pickup with the stars. Now he’s becoming one himself.
To get here, he just needed a lift.
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