Let’s get one thing clear from the top: There’s no Nikola Jokic playing in Las Vegas during the NBA’s Summer League.
Sure, San Antonio rookie Victor Wembanyama, the league’s next European unicorn, might someday breathe the same rarified air, but the only place to find Jokic’s level of basketball wizardry this month is whatever random court he’s playing pick-up hoops on in Serbia.
Why even bring it up? When the Nuggets open Summer League play Friday against Milwaukee, they’ll do so with G League big man Grant Golden doing things that in ways might look somewhat similar to the NBA Finals MVP.
“He’s like a poor, poor, poor, poor man’s Nikola,” Nuggets assistant and summer league head coach John Beckett said Thursday before breaking into a laugh. “Obviously, we know how good Nikola is, but (Golden) does have some characteristics of him. The way he can catch the ball at the elbow, the way off (dribble hand-offs) he can pass the ball. Sometimes he can keep it and go to the hoop. He’s skilled down on the block, as well.
“So he kind of reminds you in the way he plays of Nikola a little bit.”
And that could have practical benefits for Denver’s young group beyond this coming week.
Golden is 6-foot-10 and 255 pounds and averaged 17.3 points, 10.8 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game for Grand Rapids last year after going undrafted in 2022. In a tweet hailing his four games of 10-plus assists last season, the G League called him a “dime-dropping extraordinaire.”
Grant Golden is a DIME DROPPING extraordinaire! The 6’10” center averaged 17.3 PPG, 10.9 RPG, and led all centers with 5.2 APG for @NBAGrandRapids. ????
Golden had four games with 10+ AST including 12 AST/1 TO vs. the Raptors and 11 AST/0 TO vs. the Blue Coats. pic.twitter.com/zoAk2Vn027
— NBA G League (@nbagleague) May 15, 2023
So did the 25-year-old always fancy himself a facilitator? Or did playing in this organization’s farm system cause him to try to sprinkle a little Sombor spice into his game?
“I went to the University of Richmond, and we ran a very similar offense, a lot of similar actions that these guys do, so I’ve got five or six years of it from Richmond,” Golden said. “It’s something that I was comfortable with, and I think that’s kind of why they brought me in last year to be part of Grand Rapids.
“The system just kind of fits me, and I’m just trying to get better each and every day.”
Just like the Summer League won’t fully prepare Julian Strawther for NBA regular-season play, reeling in a pocket pass from Golden won’t fully replicate minutes on the floor with Jokic. But Beckett said having Golden in the organization both this week and in Grand Rapids can help train players for what the top-level experiences will be like.
“Even in Summer League, having a guy out there that kind of plays like Nikola so maybe when some of the rookies start playing with Nikola, they have a better idea of how that feels,” Beckett said.
As for Golden himself, he knows the Nuggets have a couple of two-way contracts out there for the taking, but he said that’s not really a motivating factor.
“With my passing ability, that’s just something that has to show up every day,” Golden added. “Whether it’s 20 minutes or five minutes, I’ve got to make the people around me better, get guys open shots and play good basketball.
“For me, if I play the right way and we’re able to do those things, that’s a good week for me.”
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