DaRon Holmes tears achilles tendon in Nuggets Summer League debut

DaRon Holmes tears achilles tendon in Nuggets Summer League debut

[Music] [Music] all right nuggets fans uh welcome into to pickaxe and roll uh not doing any sponsors today although I’m usually brought to you by bet online number 38 um let me just uh quit out of the other thing here sorry just a horrible horrible bit of news that nuggets just got from the end of su or from the beginning of Summer League the end of their first game of summer league as donon Holmes unfortunately sustained a torn Achilles injury according to Sham chirania then confirmed by a bunch of different people that are on the ground there just looking at the timeline and then seeing benett durando tweet out things like a man it doesn’t look very good you could sense that there was a lot of concern a lot of just very very strong feelings surrounding this towards the end of the game obviously you hope for the best in these situations but you just never know and unfortunately the Nuggets got the absolute worst news that they could possibly get uh just a just a horrible horrible turn of events um look again once I like I said no reads nothing like that today I hope the companies understand but just an absolute heartbreaking moment for a young player for a family more than anything like my heart goes out to the holes family first and foremost because like they were there I I we were talking to Holmes and the Holmes family at his introductory presser I took pictures just like every other family does celebrating the moment for Don when he was officially introduced as a member of the Denver Nuggets and you just never ever want to see something like this this is just the worst bit that Sports has to offer just the absolute worst real quick for those who did not see the play this was towards the end of the fourth quarter uh I won’t like link the play or anything like that and if if you don’t want to see injuries then I I wouldn’t go and see it it didn’t look that bad in the moment Holmes went up and contested for a rebound like normal and ultimately came down Awkward on that left leg and then limped over he hopped over to the sideline couldn’t put any pressure on that left foot and the Nuggets immediately checked him for an Achilles injury and unfortunately they they found out that that was the case just an awful awful situation because like there’s no because for any of it because like the Nuggets obviously valued what Holmes would bring to the table this year but like I said more than anything you just feel bad for the person feel bad for the player who’s absolutely giving his all and Holmes was very good in his summer league debut I think he had like 11 points seven rebounds he made some awesome threes like dude was playing well and you just like this is about as bad as it gets and I just I I’m hard broken for him man like and like nuggets aside because that’s just not like like that’s not my main priority here for covering up what’s going on like this is one of those moments that can shift a career that can sort of change the trajectory of somebody’s life and you think about like medic modern medicine has come such a such a long way that he will be able to like I I have a feeling that he will be able to recover from this but you automatically know that Holmes is going to be out for the next year he’s going to get offseason surgery he’ll be in rehab he’ll be in recovery trying to get back his strength get back his uh his athleticism and continue to work on his body but this is just one of those things where you automatically like a career can be altered right at the start I remember uh it was Julius Randall actually it didn’t happen in summer league but it happened in the first game of his rookie season his career where I think he broke his leg immediately in the 20145 season after being drafted really high in that 2014 draft and he sat out for that entire year I wonder what his career would look like if he didn’t have that happen but things just change and I really am just like I wanted to pop on here and talk about this injury and just send out not like thoughts and prayers or anything like that but just how horrible this situation is for every everybody involved nobody wants to see this thing and nobody wants to see this happen and I know the nuggets are like they’ll talk about it for sure they are absolutely heartbroken about this as well good god um Holmes was going to play a role in the rotation this year I’m not sure he would have played every night it probably would have looked a lot closer to a Julian Str situation but it was always going to be like there was a reason that the Nuggets traded up to get him Denver had the 28th pick they had very limited draft C Capital draft resources in order to use for the rest of their plan and they traded three second round picks in order to move up six spots just to ensure that Don Holmes was on their roster that’s how much they value this guy that’s how much they value the energy the athleticism the shot blocking the shot making and the connectivity that he brings to the table and that’s not going to go away for the rest of his career like he’ll still be able to be that kind of player I think think about it um Kevin Durant for example he tore his Achilles came back perhaps just as good of a player or close to it as the player that left a or before the the injury he can absolutely come back and be a great player there’s nothing stopping him from that this is just a setback and not the it’s not a death sentence and I do not want to sit here and say that or act like that it just sucks like this is just the worst and I wanted to make sure that everybody would be able to get their thoughts in for d get their thoughts in for his family make sure that everybody understands how much the Nuggets Family Values him and how even though he’s been a member of the team for a short amount of time that this stuff like he’s still a member of the family and Nuggets fans I know are just like heartbroken because of it um look I know that everybody’s feeling horrible about it and for a good reason because there’s there’s not much more to say about it until we we hear more details he’ll probably get surgery over the next few weeks they might let I’m I’m not sure whether it’s different like like the structure of it is different from an ACL te or anything like that usually in those situations they let the swelling go down before they operate on it before they do a surgery I’m not sure how that differs from Holmes but he will likely have offseason surgery he will likely be out for the next 12 months and maybe the next opportunity he gets is for the Nugget summer league team next year and it will kind of be feel like it’s back to square one with them unfortunately but the Nuggets really needed him this year they really did and I guess now second segment we can talk about what this means for the team what this means for uh just what the next steps are for the Nuggets it’s just horrible horrible situation I can’t get around it he was playing so well and like made some some pretty awesome threes contested some shots I don’t know if he had a block but it felt like he was he was protecting the rim pretty well and making some hustle plays because that’s just what you wanted him to do so here’s to Don to his family making sure that he comes back and like he he’ll be better than ever just working through through the rehab that I know it’s just it’s just going to be a long long road he’s probably feeling horrible right now he can’t even fully react to everything man H just sucks just sucks for sure okay let’s take a break when we come back we’re going to talk about how this affects the Nuggets themselves and if we go longer than that so be it we’ll be right back on pickaxe and roll all right we’re back pickaxe and roll Ryan Blackburn thank you so much for tuning into the show I need a haircut man this is just unacceptable um okay let’s talk about how this affects the Nuggets let’s talk about what’s going on I what’s going on with the Nuggets depth jard things like that this is a this is a blow this is a this is a really really difficult thing for Denver obviously nobody was expecting Don Holmes to immediately step into this massive rotation role for the nuggets and I think them signing Dario shich getting back vco chanar from a Tor ACL that will allow them to be okay in this situation it won’t be great but it’ll allow them to be okay um dur was going to help them he was going to give them the energy and some of the things that I think Denver like I know they’ve been going pretty young but they like in some of the players that they went with it hasn’t been as much about the energy Holmes was going to bring energy so they’re goingon to have to find something like that they’re gonna have to find some of that in the form of a replacement for him um I would have penciled in Don Holmes as the 10th Man ahead of players like and he would have been the back of power forward to me Dario shich would have been the backup center and then vaco chanar zek Nagi those guys would not have played if it were up to me in Michael Malone’s rotation and also DeAndre Jordan like I I DeAndre is not officially on the roster yet I expect him to be on the roster um but this I think will probably facilitate that as well although who knows maybe there’s maybe Denver decides to Pivot now uh we’ll have to discuss kind of what that means but um I think that in terms of the starters obviously this doesn’t change anything you’ve got Murray Brown Porter Gordon jic bench it’s assumed that Russell Westbrook will come in at some point Julian staler will play pton Watson will play although now I think that there is a there’s at least an opportunity for pton Watson to kind of move back to more of a backup power forward spot at various points but I do think that the front runner for this final rotation spot is actually vaco chanar coming back from that torn ACL he didn’t look good in na uh International play didn’t necessarily look good for Slovenia obviously like that is not like the most indicative of what he’s going to look like at the NBA level just it was immediately coming off of that ACL trying to that was the first of minutes that he played but for the Nuggets I think that what they’re ultimately going to do and somebody says here Watson is too skinny to play the four stop it Ryan he played the four all last year so I don’t know what you’re telling me like it was vco not playing it was pton Watson playing the four and it was Zeke Nagi or DeAndre Jordan playing the five that is literally what happened so you can say that he’s too skinny but that’s what they did um I think that they will get to vaco playing the four and the Hope being that he can provide a little bit more size he’s a good enough shooter good enough connective piece that he’ll be able to make some stuff happen him and Dario charge playing together that will like the offense will be fine with those guys out there and then the Hope being that pton Watson at the three can really give them uh just some extra like defense and athleticism just from the wings but that lineup that I just talked about you’ve got Watson at the three vaco at the four Char at the five it’s not a very good like front Court like it’s just not and the idea with Holmes is that he gives you a little bit of some extra pop gives you some extra athleticism and somebody that can provide a little bit more energy a little bit more Rim protection now with Char and vaco if that’s the main pairing then Denver is going to be severely limited from an athleticism standpoint and a defensive kind of Rim protection standpoint now those two are smart and especially on the offensive end vlaco and charge I think will be able to play together they’ll be able to the passing will be pretty good but Denver’s going to have a gap there from a like a a defensive standpoint for sure maybe this allows zek Nagi to kind of get back into the plans a little bit I know that’s not necessarily what people want to hear but zek Nashi obviously has played a lot of backup five for the Nuggets over the course of the last couple years maybe this is the opportunity that he needs to then slide over to play the backup four um and then maybe he could could ReDiscover his shot a little bit but that does not sound super encouraging especially with the Nuggets doing everything that they could to trade Zeke over the course of these last few weeks like they do not like I I don’t think that they wanted him in those plans so you have to figure some stuff out maybe there’s a possibility that Michael Porter staggers and plays some backup forward whether he’s the four or pton Watson is the four doesn’t necessarily matter as much but that’s a lineup that I would seriously consider Russell Westbrook Julian Strather Michael Porter Payton Watson Dario charar it’s not a great defensive lineup but it would help Denver survive offensively and I wouldn’t stagger Murray as much but I’m not Michael Malone so Malone will probably if it were up to him he will probably go Russell Westbrook Jamal Murray as to guards playing next to each other and then maybe it’s St at the three Watson at the four Char at the five some good spacing there or at least good enough spacing as long as Murray is actually spacing and not necessarily just pounding the ball uh when Russ is playing off the ball that’s not going to be a ton of spacing itself so that would be pretty shaky I would say I tend to think that Porter is the better option in those cases but it’s just because he’s the better positional fit and that like I don’t know it’s kind of painful to have these discussions you know like we were just talking about Don Holmes and how he would fit into what the Nuggets do over the course of this next year and then for his entire like and then for his entire tenure like it’s just painful to have to even discuss this so look I wanted to go live here to be able to talk about this because it does deserve some discussion for sure like the nuggets are going to have to find a way and I think it puts a lot of perspective on Denver’s Championship run and how healthy they were how things went right how they were able to sort of survive chemistry issues or potential chemistry stuff and everybody was just in the right place things fit together Denver won a title it’s not always like that and this is obviously the most extreme example possible in terms of how it could not be like that but kind of like last year where Denver missed vaco for the entire season due to his torn ACL they will miss Holmes for this torn ailles injury they will miss him for sure because as it became evident last year you need players that are capable of playing when it matters and Denver not having Holmes like they want to keep him on the roster he’ll he’ll keep that roster spot because he matters for the team going forward but for this next year it’s going to be tougher and it puts a premium on the other roster spots on the team because they need guys that can play and I have a lot of concern that Denver does not have enough guys that can really impact things in the playoffs I had that concern last year it fell on DEA ears I think that there’s going to be issues again so Denver’s got to make the most of these roster spots that they have and here’s a couple of things that they could do they have two open roster spots right now assumably they’ll have one because of the DeAndre Jordan um because he will eventually sign but when you think about it okay you’ll have DeAndre Jordan Don Holmes jayen picka Hunter Tyson I’m not really expecting any of those four guys to play and then that is four of the 14 roster spots that you already have committed and then assuming that Russ takes the 15th spot so that means that there’s potentially 11 guys between Russ Julian St um and just other backup players but the roster crunch just is a problem that the nuggets are going to have to figure out and they cannot put this into a s like like they can’t wait for the development to maybe work again this year that is my that’s my key takeaway I hope that like Calvin Boo’s gonna have some really tough decisions man like this changes a lot in terms of the pressure that is put onto the rest of the roster it just does and I hope that Calvin Booth can make it happen because the nuggets at this point are going to be like there’s just a lot of pressure to win around yic to win around Murray Porter Gordon this very pricey current core that’s going to continue to age and you just need everything to go right and one of the things that Denver thought they got right with acquiring Don Holmes in the draft it’s already potentially gone at least for this season again I want to reiterate Don Holmes can be an impact player in this league and I think will impact the Denver Nuggets in his future there’s no doubt in my mind about that but at this point the nuggets are up against the clock and they need something that can help them now and this just goes right against that okay I don’t even know if I want to talk about anything else okay you know actually let’s let’s just talk about the rest of the summer league game I guess we we’ll do some of that um I’ll share some of my thoughts on some of the other players that played and if anybody else has any other Don Holmes questions then do not hesitate to ask them in the comments I will pivot away from summer league and answer any Don Holmes questions we’ll be right back on pickax and roll okay final segment pickaxe and roll thanks for tuning in hit the like button hit the Subscribe button um okay the rest of the summer league game Denver lost that game 88 to 78 against the LA Clippers uh for the Clippers Jordan Miller I think is his name went off for like 36 points was just dominating Denver especially their wings on the defensive end Hunter Tyson got cooked a little bit uh but Julian stower was guarding him a little bit uh Denver switched a lot he shot over jayen picket and anybody that guarded him off the bench including guys like Trey Alexander uh really struggled as well uh Jordan Miller had 36 and just was dominating the nuggets in in every conceivable way as a scorer so it’s not super encouraging obviously but there were some good signs from the rest of the team I thought that Julian strw played pretty well I thought that he was pretty solid and thinking that he can absolutely play going forward this season like there’s no there’s no doubt about it um real quick a couple questions popped in about Don Holmes what is the injury exception that the Nuggets get now I imagine it is minimum sub two million right yes that is exactly right so the Nuggets will apply for a disabled player exception because it will be clear that Don Holmes will not be able to play for the rest of the season what they get from that is a contract or it’s like a a number that they can throw out there to a free agent on the open market that is worth half of donon Holmes’s salary Holmes is expected to make about three million so this number would be about 1.5 million it is not a lot of money it is much more attuned to the buyout Market as opposed to anything else um Denver will probably save a roster spot I guess for the buyout Market or they will create a roster spot for the buyout market so that they could get a veteran going forward let’s talk nuggets asks can the Nuggets open up a roster spot since he was injured before the season or is it just an injury exception it is an injury exception Holmes will still be on the roster and he like even if they apply for designated or disabled player exception Holmes still counts as a roster spot and so will this other player on the disabled player exception so it is not a free roster space unfortunately um and that gets very very difficult for a nuggets team that already has guys like jayen picket and Hunter Tyson under contract that they I don’t really expect to play that much and DeAndre Jordan would be the same scenario so I don’t know roster spots just get very very difficult for this nuggets team um sorry I I saw a bad joke um as for the rest of the summer league team actually no you know what ozer says Gary Trent Jr sign in trade possible who can we give in return H it is it’s not possible because Denver’s over the first tax apron and they like like there’s no way that they could stay under the first tax apron unless they send out more salary than they actually give up to a player like Gary Trent Jr it’s not really possible so they’d have to give him the minimum and maybe he would accept the minimum but I just kind of doubt it uh and he just doesn’t necessarily feel like a nuggets culture fit either um as I mentioned before Julian strw looked pretty good in this summer league game he was pretty solid seven of 19 from the field though not necessarily his most efficient d but I do think that like that’s a skill set that the Nuggets need they need somebody who is willing to take those shots and has a capacity to make them when they get hot St wasn’t perfect he took some I think pretty iffy shots for sure but he is capable and I think he’s going to play the Nuggets need the pop that he can give them on the offensive end they need the spacing that he can give them and I think if he can reign in that shot selection a little bit he will be better but the three-point percentage does matter and jjx says it here he shot 30% from three not great not great was that tonight that he shot 30% from three yeah he actually did he got up a lot he at one point was three of four from three and then he missed his final like five or six shots so I think he was trying to Chuck and I think that that’s that’s not necessarily good skill set but if you can re it in a little bit it makes it look a little bit better um Cedric asks Ryan was Holmes G to be a solid rotation player if sarch was on the bench um maybe like I think that charch would play every night or pretty close to it and then Holmes would play some nights and blacko would play Some Nights that would that would have been the expectation now you probably need vaco to be an every night player and I just don’t know if I can expect him to do that which is why I think that Denver probably goes to a ninan rotation at some point and they just play their starters heavier minutes unless they can get somebody else that’s the that is the thing that is the the problem that you run into so who knows maybe somebody else can step up in Denver and keep it a 10-man rotation but I just don’t really expected couple other summer league takes then we’ll get out of here it’s late I wasn’t expecting to podcast tonight Jaylen picket not a good game Five Points two of 10 from the field one of five from three four assists two turnovers minus 16 and it felt like it like Denver had some guys that played pretty well and picket was not one of them he really struggled with the Press pressure and the on ball pressure that was being applied to him full court he could couldn’t really like Escape that for much of the time and then like when he got switches on an island he couldn’t really create everything or anything other than a step back three against bigs and that’s just not a good situation like I was expecting a little bit more shake a little bit more ability for Picket to be able to create some shots for other people but in order to do that in order to leverage that skill he’s got to be able to create space for himself and draw the defense towards him if he can’t do that then he’s goingon to struggle to play like it’s that simple and I thought that he was the I thought there was another guard that was clearly better than him tonight and Trey Alexander Alexander of course being Denver’s two-way contract of other than uh in addition to PJ Hall of Clemson Trey Alexander of kraton pretty good I was pretty impressed with him he’s got some shake he’s got some shimmy he can stop and pop from three he looks very comfortable with the ball in his hands as a score and then I think he’s going to be able to leverage that make some good decisions some of the shots that he takes going to the rim don’t necessarily look good he’s a little bit small he gets bumped off his spot a little bit and then his defense he’s going to have to focus on that a little bit more but he does look like a player that can help he looks like a player that could like maybe even play he might even be better than picket like there’s at least a possibility there so I am curious to see what happens for the rest of Summer League like it’s just one game pick could look better Alexander could look worse but right now Trey Alexander looks like a player that could really help and I’m curious to see whether that continues Hunter Tyson was not great in this game tonight he was four of 10 from the field two of six from three like the shooting initially was pretty good and he got to the he got to the free throw line five times as well but he was a team worst minus 20 and it was almost entirely because of two reasons one he grabbed one defensive rebound the entire game that he was out there 30 minutes 6 fo eight 6′ n like that’s just unacceptable like he’s got to play bigger than that and then two he was getting lost defensively over and over again and having that happen on a consistent basis was an issue like he was one of the reasons why Jordan Miller got so many open shots why the Clippers were able to get and generate so many threes they were 12 of 39 from three but I thought a lot of the threes that they were generating were because of Hunter Tyson and that is not good like Hunter should be able to read that a little bit better and I don’t know did he get a steel did he get in the passing Lanes at all no he did not no steals no blocks so the roaming that he was doing wasn’t necessarily impacting things at all and the Clippers were just taking advantage of that so he’s got to be better I’m not sure if he’s ready I would like to see him play better going forward and then PJ Hall also had a really tough debut five turnovers for him six fouls zero defensive rebounds as the center on the floor that’s unacceptable as well like he has some touch and the three that he hits and there were a couple passes that he made pretty impressive plays but the larger product of it was not positive and he was also one of the problems for Denver like he just could not grab defensive rebounds and the Clippers grabbed 16 offensive rebounds including ining mus diabate who was the other Center going up against him he grabbed four offensive rebounds Bannon the Big Stiff that they had uh grab three they had a couple of other guys that crashed the boards as well like that’s a problem Denver’s summmer League team pretty small like they have some good Wing size for sure with Hunter Tyson and uh Julian ster but if that’s it like those guys got to take advantage of that strawther at least like grabbed some rebounds and grabbed five five defensive rebounds tied for the team lead pick a grab four defensive rebounds Hunter Tyson grabbed one PJ Hall grabbed zero got to be better than that and that’s that’s about all the takes I have from the game it’s all I really care to share about again this podcast was about Don Holmes and just an absolute sham absolutely disgusting and I’m heartbroken for him and his family that’s the the takeaway and I really hope that he gets better I really hope that he’s been able to like like he’s able to recover he’s able to do what he needs to do in order to get back on the court because this is something that he and his family were clearly very excited for he brings a lot of energy he brings some smiles to the group just a very pure worker and to see that like have to shift like this it it will never get easy ever ever that is gonna do it for this episode of pickaxe and roll uh brought to you by our sponsors thank you so much for tuning into the show really appreciate you guys stopping by make sure to send a positive message to donon Holmes and his family I’m sure that they need it right now and share the love as much as possible thank you so much for tuning in I’ll I’ll see you when I see you we will talk soon

On the newest Pickaxe and Roll, Ryan Blackburn reacts to the horrific news from the Denver Nuggets Summer League opener that DaRon Holmes suffered a torn achilles tendon in his left ankle. Ryan discusses what happened and what’s next for Holmes and the Nuggets.

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