DaRon Holmes II Nuggets Introductory Press Conference 🎙

DaRon Holmes II Nuggets Introductory Press Conference 🎙

good yes sir all right thanks for coming out everybody uh first of all Don welcome to Denver um my first question is did you just take us to draft night when you found out you were Denver walk us through what was that like what were your impressions of get of Denver being the team to select you um it was surreal you know to be able to spend that moment with family friends coaches teammates um Second To None you know it’s a Once in A- lifetime opportunity so it was amazing you know I found out I was going to Denver uh we went to this uh back room after I had the Phoenix son’s hat on and um this guy came in there and said well you guys are both getting traded we got to get you your new hats and he said I was going to Denver so I was just very excited um wouldn’t want to be anywhere else so U Don over here uh you you have been in contact with the nuggets for a long time just what were some of those initial conversations like and then just what initially attracted you to the Nuggets um honestly you know uh we just heard that they really liked me and um I had a lot of interest in them as well you know so it was a great situation you know I didn’t uh a lot of it was my agent um all I was really doing was keeping my head down and working hard and um now I’m here so I’m just excited to be here Don have how kind of settled in have you gotten so far in Denver I know it’s been like a a pretty big Whirlwind and the quick turnaround and and what do kind of the next uh few weeks look like for you as you kind of try and get settled in get ready for summer league and all that yeah it’s been great um it’s all new to me you know it’s like my first time here I think I came here once when I was a lot younger but um now that I’m here I’m just excited and to be honest these next couple weeks is just time to get to work you know um after a lot of this stuff settles down I’m just ready to get in the lap and just see what I have to do next what do you know what have you seen what do you like about Nicole jokic’s game and what do you think you can learn from him I mean I think everybody likes Nicole jokic’s game if we’re being real I can learn anything and everything from him um offensively and defensively uh I just think that he’s very smart he knows how to play with other great players very selfless very coachable so um all those things I think he just sets the tone with and everybody else just kind of follows that so I think I’m just ready to learn from him questions for Tommy uh just from uh from the team perspective how did this come together just where what did what initially attracted you to Don and just some of the the skill set that he brings well I mean Don is you know he’s a hell of a player um you know to begin with I mean he’s uh you know he’s somebody that kind of embodies our Mo our DNA you know all other acronyms as well I mean you know this kid is a you know he is a winner uh his team won a lot uh you were what fourth in the nation like free throw attempts and things like that I mean some some of that stuff really attract to us because you know we don’t really get to the line too much and I mean you know his ability to stretch the floor to get to the rim uh to play both ends of the floor and at the end of the day you know uh just as importantly he’s a great human being uh I got a chance to you know to have dinner with him yesterday and we called everybody around him did a great job bribing everybody around you everybody was very positive about you um and you know these are you know these are the the kind of people we try to bring into organization and we know that uh they succeed with us Tommy where do you see him fitting kind of specifically within what you guys have built within this nuggets franchise um really everywhere um I know you know Cal CAD had he had a press conference as well right during the during the draft uh he can play with everybody on our team at the end of the day I mean he’s he’s a versatile player he can play with Joker he can play behind Joker with Aaron you know next to a and Zeke and vatco all those guys um and that’s that’s a huge asset for Coach Malone to use when when you need something specific on the floor I mean he can do he can really he can do it all thanks hey donon your three-point shooting really improved in terms of efficiency and number of attempts as a junior I’m just curious what what that process looked like in ter in terms of you getting uh more comfortable with that chot um it was really simple for me you know my first two years I didn’t shoot as many threes um it’s just cuz I wasn’t confident the reason I wasn’t confident is because I can honestly say I wasn’t working as hard as I was my junior year on it um some are going into junior year I was with this manager and all we did every single day was the same drill we just drilled it even during the season the same drill so me working hard on that and really trying to improve helped my confidence and since my confidence was high in the game wasn’t afraid to take the shots I’m just curious what that drill looks like uh so well I explained it before so uh we started with just going around simply with 10 shots at each spot then we come back the same way then we do star drill 10 shots at each spot come back the same way then we do one where we ENT round slowly instead of moving to five spots we just ENT around like until you get 50 shots come back the other way and after that we would rep a lot of the things I would do in the game so like game like situations like pick and pop maybe um like trailing so a bunch of that stuff add in so you know just mixing all that stuff up Don when you look at your game what part of it do you feel like is the most NBA ready and where do you feel like you want to improve the most this summer um I honestly think the most NBA ready part of my game is kind of like what um Mr Tommy’s been saying just being versatile um being able Mr Mr Tommy Mr Tommy yes sir uh being versatile just being able to uh do a lot of different things on the floor you know being able to be selfless be a team player uh also make winning plays and just being bought into the culture uh defensively I feel the same way being able to switch being able to be vocal Talk use my hands you know being everywhere on the floor you know honestly um I think that the biggest thing to get better at is everything you know I don’t believe in like anybody’s has arrived yet you know you could always get better at something so um I’m not going to sit up here and say I’ve made it and I’m not going to sit up here and say that I know everything I’m good at so don who is maybe uh the coolest person who’s reached out to you and have any nuggets reached out to you since you were drafted the first person the first nugget to reach out to me I I’m going to remember this for the rest of my life was Julian staler um first one and he was the only one to really reach out so far uh the rest of them I heard they’re great people so I can’t wait to meet them um I met Hunter Tyson in the locker room the coaches uh reached out to me um Tommy reached out to me um Mr Tommy and Calvin reached out to me so uh a bunch of great people reached out yeah just a question for Tommy I know that this time of year right now is very busy very chaotic I know we’re mostly focusing on the draft right now but uh just potential loss of kcp just what does what does that mean for the for the team going forward um you know the free agency is still still happening so you know nothing set in stone obviously uh but you know just in general it’s the NBA right now is kind of on a verge of changing just a little bit right because of the new regulatory challenges and you know the the new CBA I mean it’s going to be a a fun challenge for a lot of teams and we’re trying to be ahead of it in so many ways um I think there’s going to be missteps along the way for for every team really to kind of start to calibrate where this new CBA is going to lead us um and you know that’s why I think this particular free agency in the draft period was a little different for for everybody because all of a sudden you know now there going to be rules and regulations in place that are going to make teams find an edge that maybe you know they weren’t able to find before I mean when you think about some of the best teams in the past the ones that succeeded were the ones who found a specific Edge and Niche to uh to succeed in uh given the the environment they were playing in um and I think for us it’s it’s going to be it’s no different we’re trying to not just be in the mix with everybody we’re trying to be better than everybody and that means finding a specific Edge and you know what that is we’re we’re in the room trying to figure out uh but again historically some teams you know whether it’s the international market or developing their g- league guys or even on the floor you know like a s seconds or less all of those were were kind of specific very uh you know specific things that teams did to separate themselves from the back a little bit we’re going to try to get to that level as well and what that looks like will you guys will see hopefully soon I guess to follow up on that Tommy what what’s kind of the I guess the concern level versus the Comfort level with um with sort of potentially losing pieces of of a championship team while there are other kind of rising contenders that are in more of a position to add pieces to their team how do you kind of see uh the way that you guys kind of evaluate that and then attempt to counter that well I mean first of all I mean there’s there’s a ton of continuity going forward for us which is which is great I mean some other teams may have it as well but uh you know continuity has been such an important factor for us over the last five six seven years uh we still have the best player in the world at the end of the day uh we have incredible pieces around him um yes you know there’s always we have to do stuff at the margins to make sure that you know we you know maybe we don’t lose a game here and there and all of a sudden you know our fortunes are a little different but at the end of the day I mean we believe in our team what we have we believe in the guys who are succeeding the guys who may leave or not and we believe in our coaching staff and I think there’s there’s plenty of positivity to be uh to be looking ahead for this question is for both of you guys Tommy what did you see in Don that wanted to move up in the draft to get him and then drn when you found out the Nuggets moved up to get you what did that mean to you I can start yeah I mean I I’ll I’ll give Cal a lot of credit you know when Cal sees somebody that he that he likes um you know from a player perspective I mean Cal goes up and gets them right I mean we’ve done that before as well um and C has been right so many times on some of these players even you know when it seems like they might fall all of a sudden there’s a smart team out there that goes and gets them and I mean you know for for Don specifically there were teams right in that range where hey I mean who wouldn’t love to get this guy on their team so at the end of the day sometimes you have to pay a price but if you believe in somebody enough if you have a vision for a player like that you just go out there and get him and then you figure it out later so I mean I think Cal did a great job with that yeah and pigy back off of what he said um I think if you believe in somebody like that it just shows a lot and it means a lot so it means a lot to me that they were willing to do that um you know and I think it’s worth it you know um I see a great fit um this is a culture that I think any NBA player player would love to be a part of so the fact that I have the opportuni is I’m just very grateful for it and we wanted to add some extra pressure on him of course just to make sure that you know we spend all these assets D you got you got to go out there and play now man oh man Don I’m curious what your like big goal is for your career if you think about at all what kind of player what you want to accomplish in your career what are some of those goals uh honestly I just try to stay where my feet are um but to be real I just try to have little goals that end up leading me to Big goals so um you know just continue to getting better every day winning games um being able to be a part of a championship team which I am on right now so um honestly just taking things one step at a time is the biggest thing for me I’m not too big on like you know just all the big big crazy stuff so you know I’m just here and I’m just ready to get uh get to work then on on a more short view as you’re coming out of Dayton finishing your college career where’s the first thing you think you can improve on as a player is there one skill that you said all right here’s an area I can improve IMM uh kind of like I said earlier you know to be honest I think just everywhere you know I don’t think that um you could just be finished with being like good at this one thing so honestly whatever they have in store for me to get better at and watching film and seeing what I need to improve on is where I’m going to improve uh on next and just keep going from there donon I believe you said that you look up to or emulate Aaron and nicoa what about those two am I correct about that mhm okay cool um what about those two do you specifically look up to things or what about them is is something that’s intriguing to you well I’ll start with Aaron Gordon you know he plays on both sides of the ball which I think is very valuable um he rebounds the ball very well he’s a leader um he can shoot the ball as well um he’s a competitor he plays hard especially on the defensive end like just all those things I really like about his allaround game I think it just adds so much value to him as a player I think he’s transformed his game to when he first came into the NBA so just seeing how he did it um is pretty cool and I would definitely like to continue to follow those footsteps and to back off with yic like I said earlier I mean it’s yic like who who wouldn’t want to you know learn from him like you know that’s all I really have to say about him else Don the all important question have you taken advantage of the spicy nuggets yet um not yet I mean I haven’t gone by but I definitely will you know I heard about that I didn’t know it was a real thing until I we me and my friends were talking about it they’re like no this isn’t just the Wendy’s in Denver this is the Wendy’s that tweeted that out so oh this is actually Wendy so I’m going you know so um definitely want to try them out see how they are and my last question for you is it appears like your family’s here you’re getting all this attention does this make this fulfilling your NBA dreams that much more real to you uh it definitely does but um my dad pointed out something pretty well before uh we were at um dinner tonight before the draft you know it is one thing to get here but it’s another thing to stay here you know although as a little kid I’ve always dreamed of making it to the NBA um now that I’m older and came to the realization that you know um it’s more about you know staying in here you know and just continuing to get better and understanding that although it was fun and all this is fun I still haven’t arrived yet and there’s still a lot more to get done so am I moving away m

DaRon Holmes II talks with the Denver media for the first time in Denver. Hear what he has to say!

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DaRon Holmes II Nuggets Introductory Press Conference 🎙