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I thought in this offseason our 2 primary goals were to find backup PG to replace BB and backup C. I hope Jokic will play no more then 70 games similar to last season with some resting near the playoffs. Our first big off the bench is Zake Nnaji (I hope). As we all know, he is injury prone and in the best case he will play around 70 games, which means in 20+ games we will have to play somebody else as a backup C. Also, as we saw last year, there are backup C's much stronger/bigger than Zake and he had trouble guarding them. So then we will use ....DJ...or not. I mean I like his presence in the locker room and on the bench, but he is bad at basketball for the last 5 years. I hold my breath for 12 minutes he had to play in PO's with Jokic in foul trouble. We survived.

With that in mind I looked around the league for backup C's we could sign to be useful as 2/3 option because I don't think throwing away 20+ games is right strategy. Unsigned are Bismack Biyombo (good D), Willy Hernangomez (good O), maybe we could have traded for Goga Bitadze...all better options then DJ.

But we signed Jay Huff... so I looked on the interned about him and I am thrilled. He looks exactly like C we needed.

1. NBA G League Defensive Player of the Year (2023)
2. All-NBA G League First Team (2023)
3. NBA G League blocks leader (2023)
4. NCAA champion (2019)
5. Second-team All-ACC (2021)
6. ACC All-Defensive Team (2021)

G League stats

- 2021-22 - 15.7/6.1/1.2 with 2.4 blk and 64/29/83 shooting
- 2022-23 - 15.0/7.8/1.4 with 3.1 blk and 65/41/77 shooting

In some of this videos he looks like solid NBA player, I'm so high on him, but my question is, if he was unsigned, and we signed him to 2-way contract, what is wrong with him or the NBA?

His numbers are interesting and it looks like he is a late bloomer. I am probably not alone in having not see him play yet, so it is too soon to make any judgment by me on his future here. The knock on him seems to be lack of speed but we will see him in preseason and he will be interesting to watch.

Well to answer my own question, I have watched the whole games he played for Washington against Bucks, Hawks and Miami, and some highlights from g-league, so here are my observations.

1. Offense

Offensively he is NBA ready. Great 3pt shooter, FT and from the midrange. Can finish around the rim with ally-ups or some good moves as an pnr roller. Has pump-fake and straight line drive, sometimes uses euro-step or floater. Unselfish and willing to pass to the corners. Average 15 pts in g-league and his offense can transfer to the NBA easily. In 3 NBA games he played significant minutes he averaged

- 27 min, 14.7/5.7/2.3 with 1.3 blk, 1.3 stl and 4.6 PF. Shooting 61/45/91. A lot of fouls which is understandable for rookie, but low rebounding number for a player of his height and athleticism lead us to

2. Defense

He was defensive player of the year and blocks leader in the g-league, but has one problem to be good defender in the NBA - strength. rn can't hold his position, easy to move under the basket. Second problem is he used his length and athleticism to defend in the g-league but it didn't work so well in this 3 NBA games. He didn't use simple verticality, and he can be very good considering his length and bounce.

If he put some strength and learn how to use verticality he could be the best backup C we had in this era. If that happens, we can use Zake some as small-ball C, but a lot more as backup 4 which could be important since we lost Vlatko for the year.

I find it really hard to evaluate Huff until we see him play in NBA games. His resume so far seems impressive, showing good potential. That said, I've seen many players shine against lesser competition then come down to earth when playing at the NBA level. Could this be attributed to lesser PT or a loss in confidence, perhaps even that level of competition is too great ? My point is, let's wait to see what he can bring before touting him or giving up on him.

Anybody can look good on YouTube, but I like what I saw. I think the OP gave us a solid evaluation and I agree with Skywalker that we need to see more of him. If he were kept on the NBA roster, IMO he'd make a decent backup option and get some PT as well.

He wouldn't have to play many minutes, Jordan can play most of the minutes Jokic sits down for. But Huff could get some minutes in blowouts. Plus, he'd be able to practice with/against Jokic & Jordan -- that should help his development.

Denver is one of the teams that does develop talent, so all our two-ways have an opportunity here. While Huff will be behind the immortal Nikola Jokic, it feels like we have a need to find quality backup C, which Huff looks like he could become.

NuggetsWY wrote:Anybody can look good on YouTube, but I like what I saw. I think the OP gave us a solid evaluation and I agree with Skywalker that we need to see more of him. If he were kept on the NBA roster, IMO he'd make a decent backup option and get some PT as well.

He wouldn't have to play many minutes, Jordan can play most of the minutes Jokic sits down for. But Huff could get some minutes in blowouts. Plus, he'd be able to practice with/against Jokic & Jordan -- that should help his development.

I have watched him closely in 3 games he played in the NBA against real competition (the whole games). Against the Hawks, he was better than Onyeka Okongwu their backup C, and left a pretty good impression.

The game against Milwakue was most interesting because he guarded Giannis and Lopez, and was attacked by Jrue in pnr. His D on Giannis was surprisingly good due to his great length. Jrue finished around him easily few times because he tried to block everything and Jrue just initiated body contact first, preventing him from jumping. That is why I said he needs to use simple verticality more.

Brook Lopez looks much stronger than him.

Against Miami was his worst game, not much rebounding, and was quickly in foul trouble.

That is all on D, on O was impressive (for backup C) in all 3 games.

I just don't like DJ as backup C, Nnaji will be 1st big off the bench, but we must have another option when injuries inevitably strike in a long season.

BelgradeNugget wrote:I just don't like DJ as backup C, Nnaji will be 1st big off the bench, but we must have another option when injuries inevitably strike in a long season.

Absolutely agree!

[Snipped a good response because I wanted to emphasize the last sentence.]

In the preseason game in Chicago, Huff looked interesting with good rebounding, block shots and a 3 point shot.