Denver Nuggets Summer League Game One Impressions

There was not one Nuggets player who played well. Quincy Miller was impressive to begin the game, but faltered as the game went on. He finished with nine points eight rebounds and three blocks. He showed some promise in becoming a stretch four. His rebounding was promising, as were his three blocked shots. He still needs work on consistency with his outside shot, but that will come with practice. Evan Fournier, although he did not particularly play well, showed promise. He scored ten points and played some good defense. He shot 4-11 from the field, but it looked as if he just had an off game, I fully expect him to come back and play well in the next game.

Jordan Hamilton shot very poorly from the field and needs to work on his shot selection. He was 1-11 from the field and did not connect on any three pointers. He also needs to work on his defense. He committed six fouls and most of them were a result of him not playing good defense. If he wants to find a spot in the regular season rotation, he needs to play much better than this. Erick Green, the Nugget's 2013 second round draft pick, played equally as terrible. He only scored four points on 2-12 shooting and had a very rough time getting to the rim. If he shows that he is not able to get to the rim in Summer League, he will have a rough NBA career, given his size. He needs to prove that he can score against NBA competition in his next game.

Ben Uzoh had the best game of any Nugget player and played like he wants an invite to training camp. He scored 11 points on 4-7 shooting. He also added two assists three boards and two steals. He played inspired defense and had the best +/- rating on the Nuggets with +5. Look for him to get more playing time if he keeps up this type of play. I was exited to see Kyle Barone play and although he did not get a lot of playing time, he finished 4-4 from the field and grabbed two rebounds, both of them offensive. I hope to see him get more minutes as Summer League continues.

Hopefully this was the worst game that the Nuggets will play during Summer League. Everyone on the team can improve their performance from this game, especially Erick Green and Jordan Hamilton. The next game will be July 15th at 8:30 Mountain Time against the Chicago Bulls.