At the end of the 2022/2023 season, with the Denver Nuggets playoff seeding all but finalized, there was an opportunity to get a glimpse of the future. The Nuggets already had Christian Braun playing regular minutes as a rookie but in the previous Summer they drafted another young prospect who had yet to get a true chance to show what he could do on an NBA court. That prospect was Peyton Watson. Over the final six games of the season though he found regular rotation minutes and flashed a tantalizing ability as a shot blocker, floor runner and cutter. Come the beginning of the 2023/2024 season, Watson translated that half dozen game run into a regular rotation role from the jump. He continued to show what he could bring to the court but also had his ups and downs as many young players do, with the downs being particularly noticeable in his outside shooting. In the end it meant a reduced role and ultimately falling out of the rotation bin the second round of the playoffs but as the focus shifts to ’24/’25, there’s still plenty of reason to be optimistic about the Nuggets’ rangy wing prospect.
2023/2024 Season Stats
| MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | BLK | FG% | 3PT% | VORP | BPM |
| 18.6 | 6.7 | 3.2 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 46.5% | 29.6% | -0.1 | -2.2 |
Season Story
Watson started the year as the go to player in Las Vegas on Denver’s Summer League team (mixed results) so just as we saw this year with Julian Strawther as the go to guy, it was fairly apparent the Nuggets had immediate plans for him in their rotation. He legitimized the hopes of many by showing early on that he had the ability to be a fantastic defender and he in fact ended up leading the team in blocks for the season. Beyond the counting stats on defense though, he showed that he could bring something to the table that no one else on the team could: a defensive combo forward with a seven foot wingspan who knows how to use it. While his scoring was hit and miss, Watson recorded at least one blocked shot in fourteen of his first twenty games of the season despite playing over twenty-five minutes in a game just one time.
It wasn’t all roses throughout the year though. On a very limited sample size (0.6 attempts a game over twenty-three games) Watson shot very well from three point land in his rookie season (42.9%). Now a regular player with a much larger sample size, his long distance shooting success from his rookie year looked to simply be statistical white noise. Over the course of the year he struggled greatly to stretch the floor and ended up shooting just 29.6% from three. That contributed to a larger problem with the Nuggets bench which manifested itself in the form of stagnant offenses and scoring struggles. With a bench unit of Watson, Christian Braun, Reggie Jackson and one non-shooting big or another, there was simply no respect for outside shooting from opposing defenses. Had Watson been able to shoot just near league average from three then perhaps the Nuggets, and his personal, story in the playoffs would have played out differently.
’24/’25 outlook with the Nuggets
There’s no reason to believe that Watson won’t pick right up where he left off at the end of the regular season in terms of his role in the rotation. The Nuggets did not retain Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in the offseason which means one of Denver’s bench unit will move to the starting lineup. Most expect that person to be Braun but Watson should at least be part of the competition to earn a starting role (though if he were to win such a role he will have to play out of position as a shooting guard). The Nuggets also replaced Jackson with Russell Westbrook who should help the bench scoring, but perhaps also exacerbate the issues with stretching the floor. By far the biggest skill the Nuggets need Watson to improve on is his shooting. It is unreasonable to expect Watson to shoot near 43% over an entire season but getting to 36% needs to be the goal.
Beyond just the shooting, the hope will be that Watson continues to round into more of a complete player. His role as a defensive bench player is certainly needed and he performs it well, but the Nuggets targeted him in the draft and traded up to ensure they acquired him. The idea has to be that Watson can either one day develop into a starter, or at the very least an elite bench player. In order to do that he’ll need to bring more on the offensive end and be more fundamentally sound on the defensive end. If he can add to his playmaking ability and get better at beating defenders off the dribble that will expand his offensive game and put pressure on opposing defenses regardless of where he ends up on his long distance shooting. If he can be more disciplined on defense and go from a player who hunts blocks to one who never lets his man get past him on the perimeter in the first place he will elevate himself to one of the elite defenders in the league. Ultimately the future is still very bright for Watson but he’ll need to continue to improve and take the next step this season if he is to be more than a 20 minute a game player.
