Brimming with confidence, former Gonzaga wing Julian Strawther looking to ‘seize’ new opportunities with Denver Nuggets

LAS VEGAS – Julian Strawther couldn’t necessarily point to a single “welcome to the NBA” moment that defined his rookie season with the Denver Nuggets.

He’d rather point to four individual moments that made up one memorable sequence about a month into his professional basketball career.

On Nov. 27, 2023, the second night of a back-to-back, Denver traveled to play the Los Angeles Clippers at Crypto.com Arena without its usual cast of characters. Nikola Jokic took the night off with lower back pain. Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon stayed home in Denver as well, each dealing with minor injuries.

In the fourth quarter, Denver’s shorthanded roster made an unexpected surge. Looking to stop the bleeding, Los Angeles’ trio of All-Star veterans took account of the five Nuggets on the floor to identify potential mismatches. Strawther, a 21-year-old rookie known more for his knockdown shooting than his lockdown defense, was an easy target.

“We’re getting down to the fourth quarter and four straight possessions, Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Kawhi (Leonard) called me up for the iso,” Strawther told The Spokesman-Review in July. “That’s a tough island to be on with those guys, but I was able to get a few stops.”

Strawther was able to spend his rookie season learning from Denver’s veteran players, adjusting to the speed of play and settling in to the NBA lifestyle without the expectations and pressure of contributing as a rotation member to a team with title aspirations.

That won’t be the case in year two with a Nuggets team expected to lean heavily on its young core – especially at the wing position – after reshuffling its roster this offseason.

Strawther entered training camp as one of two candidates to replace veteran shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a key role player on Denver’s title-winning team in 2023. The former Gonzaga standout ceded the starting role to third-year wing and former Kansas star Christian Braun in all three preseason games, but Strawther continues to build a solid case for himself, averaging 16.3 points off the bench in the preseason compared to Braun’s 8.0 points per game.

“I feel like I’ve been able to completely round out my game mentally and physically,” Strawther said. “When you come out of college and you see the NBA, everyone’s so talented so you’ve got to find a way to find an edge on guys. So something our vets have taught me is just to think the game and understand guys’ tendencies. It’s things you have to find an advantage. Everybody’s so talented here, your talent isn’t going to be an advantage anymore.”

Braun’s strengths as a defender, particularly in a starting lineup that features three of gifted offensive players in Jokic, Murray and Porter Jr., could give him an upper-hand in the competition with Strawther. If so, the former Zag would likely become a go-to offensive option as part of a second unit led by Westbrook, the 35-year-old point guard and nine-time All-Star who joined the Nuggets in free agency.

“One of the things I want to do is push the ball and get Julian open looks from 3,” Westbrook said, according to The Athletic.

Strawther’s impressive preseason numbers – he’s made 6 of 13 shots from the 3-point line – come on the heels of an even better showing at NBA Summer League, where the Las Vegas native was essentially given the keys to Denver’s offense and encouraged to create shots for himself and attack the rim, as well as spot up from the perimeter in the role he’s more accustomed to.

Before the Nuggets shut him down in Vegas, Strawther was leading all Summer League scorers with 28.5 points through two games while shooting 40% from the 3-point line and attempting 10 free throws per game.

“I feel like for me it’s just seizing the opportunity,” Strawther said. “There’s things that have been in my game that I’m comfortable with, but I’ve never been one to step outside my role and here that is my role. So I’m going to go out there and attack it. Obviously during Summer League it’s my opportunity to try new things without penalizing your squad and I think I’ve been able to find some good success.”

Strawther averaged 4.5 points and 1.2 rebounds in his limited opportunities as a rookie, and claims he learned almost as much in his time away from the court – a monthlong stretch spent recovering from a back injury – as he did on it.

“It was kind of my first major injury,” Strawther said. “I had been pretty clean before that, so it was obviously a mental hurdle just not being able to be out there and having to sit back and do my rehab and lock in on that.

“But like I said, I was able to think the game and watch NBA basketball up close and watch what players are thinking and coaches are thinking. So it’s kind of a different lens, it’s kind of the coolest version of viewership, kind of being a fan of the game is being courtside, watching guys and being in the huddle.”

Strawther still had time to follow Gonzaga and watch his former college teammates navigate a rocky regular season that culminated with a 25th consecutive NCAA Tournament and ninth straight trip to the Sweet 16.

“I was just super proud of how they handled everything because I knew how it felt to be a Zag on that team,” Strawther said. “My junior year we kind of dropped a few games and dropped down to 18 in the rankings or something like that and fans had gave up on us a little bit.

“So I’m just happy they were resilient and being able to be mentally strong and lock in and know that you don’t get trophies for winning games in November and the best basketball needs to be played in March.”