SAN FRANCISCO — For a first-round draft pick, DaRon Holmes II didn’t have a prototypical path to the NBA.
He was a three-year college player in the Atlantic 10, not one of the premier men’s basketball conferences. He wasn’t always a certainty as a big-shot prospect growing up. He wasn’t always the best player on his team. In fact, he got cut from multiple AAU teams.
The sum of those experiences might make Holmes well-suited for navigating what’s next: G League basketball in what was supposed to be his second year in the NBA.
The Nuggets are planning to send Holmes down to their minor-league affiliate, the Grand Rapids Gold, throughout this season for him to focus on his development after missing last year with a torn Achilles, he told The Denver Post on Thursday.
“They don’t want to rush me right now,” Holmes said. “So they’re going to have me come up and down, back and forth, to build confidence after my injury.”
The 23-year-old big man said he’s had conversations with Denver’s front office, which is led by Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace, about establishing expectations for the season. Holmes was a notable absence from the second unit at Nuggets training camp early this month, and his preseason playing time was limited to fourth quarters, when starters and top reserves were typically done for the game.
On paper, Holmes projected as a potential backup power forward who could crack the rotation as a 10th or 11th man. But Nuggets coach David Adelman urged patience going into the season.
“He’s competing against (Jonas) Valanciunas and (Nikola) Jokic, Peyton Watson and Aaron Gordon,” Adelman said. “This is the best thing that DaRon could be doing, playing against high-level NBA players.
“… I can only say this: DaRon has been nothing but positive. Great attitude. Good learner. Good in the locker room, not just on the court. Just a great kid overall. Can really shoot the ball. And you’ve gotta remember, he’s coming off an Achilles (tear). It’s not like he had a sprained ankle last year. He’s playing basketball again for the first time (since college) in the last four months.”
Holmes returned to action this July in Las Vegas, at the same gym where he suffered the injury a year earlier in his Summer League debut. Former Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth drafted him 22nd overall with an instant plug-and-play goal in mind. The torn Achilles derailed those ambitions.
But Holmes looked solid at Summer League in his second try, highlighted by a performance against the Clippers in which he amassed 19 points, 17 rebounds, five assists and two steals.
Transitioning from that environment into an NBA preseason with a contending team had its inherent challenges — the speed of play, the information to process.
“It was my first time just being in training camp,” he said. “So for me it was more just like, ‘Wow, this is like my first day.’ It was a lot going on.”
When Holmes is playing for Gold coach Ryan Bowen in Grand Rapids, he’ll be learning the Nuggets’ offense at a more comfortable pace and focusing on a role Denver hopes he can eventually play in the NBA — power forward alongside Jokic.
“I think it’ll be a little bit of everything,” he said. “Mainly just being able to learn how to play around Jok. Learning that dunker spot, learning how to pick-and-pop efficiently, learning how to guard this way and that way. Just little things they want me to keep developing on and work on so that when next year rolls around, I’ll be in perfect shape.”
Tenzer has said he can see Holmes playing the four or five, and there is still a chance Adelman might want to resort to the Dayton alum as a backup center at some point this season if Jokic or Valanciunas ever miss time. The same could go for the four if Gordon or Watson deal with injuries at any point.
But primarily, the organization’s plan for Holmes is beyond 2025. Denver picked up the third-year team option in his rookie-scale contract this week, a source told The Post. With the Nuggets continuing to face a second-apron crunch in future years, his affordable salary through 2028 could be crucial if he can show real signs of development.
In the meantime, the front office has given Holmes fair warning: It gets cold in Grand Rapids, which is a five-hour drive north from his alma mater.
“They said that’s the only negative,” Holmes said. “But they said everything else is perfect. The city’s great. The people are great. … They’re gonna show me things on film that they want me to work on, that will translate to when I am playing with the team next year.
“Keep getting stronger. Bigger. Just developing. So that’s their whole plan for me right now. Also, staying ready. I never know when my name’s going to be called to be (in NBA games), to be ready. But I’m always all-in, team-first. So I’m very happy for this plan. I just want to trust what they give me.”
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