Inside the Denver Nuggets secret weapon for these NBA Playoffs

The Denver Nuggets had lost but there in his tiny visiting locker room cubby Peyton Watson had a right to be excited.

He stood up, turned around and swiped over on his phone to Instagram. He turned back to me said, can you hold on a second?”

He snapped a picture of the purple jersey sitting in his locker; Durant, No. 35, signed with a personalized message to the Nuggets rookie.

“To P-Wat, Love 4 L” — Durant

He looks over at me and notices my Kevin Durant Nike sneakers, he says, “for real that’s the GOAT right there.”

You won’t remember Peyton Watson’s breakout game, frankly, nobody but the Denver Nuggets rookie will. In fact, many may say his breakout came two nights later. But during Denver’s moral victory seven-point loss to the Phoenix Suns, Watson and a crew of deep bench players pushed three future Hall of Famers to the brink on their home floor.

Watson had not even played 10 minutes in a single NBA game yet, and suddenly he was closing as the primary defender on the four-time NBA scoring champ. In a newly deployed tactic by Michael Malone, suddenly the 6-foot-8 forward was switching and flying around, wreaking havoc on the Suns high-powered offense.

“Just making people uncomfortable defensively, all the God-givens, my length, athleticism… for me this year was getting in the mindset of being a defender and coming in and doing what you could do and just maybe shutting the guys water off,” Watson told Denver Sports after that March game. “Obviously tonight some guys hit some shots and their pros and superstars on that side but just moving forward just getting this experience is huge… this is my opportunity. I wanted to go in there and do some good things for us.”

The 27 minutes Watson played was not only by far the most he played in an NBA and still is his career game-high, but it’s also more than he played in any single college game. Despite being the eighth-rated prospect in the nation coming out of Long Beach Poly, he joined a UCLA team who had just gone to the Final Four. Returning nearly everybody, Watson was just the last man in the rotation and only scored 105 total college points before declaring for the NBA Draft.

The Nuggets selected Watson with the final pick of the first round and many thought he would be a long-term project. And maybe he still is, but there are roaring signs that Watson is ready to contribute now.

Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth said in late February that the team pulled Watson from the G League to work on his body in hopes of keeping Watson ready for the playoffs to guard somebody. It was more of a break glass in case of fire preparation but clearly, Booth had a vision.

And it’s that type of foresight that could see a near-universally lambasted draft selection, who only scored 75 points in his first NBA season become a game-changer in the postseason.

“Peyton has been in the G League, he’s played a few minutes throughout the season, and for him to go out there and for 27 minutes provide really good defensive possession, seven rebounds, two blocks, he’s got a really bright future ahead of him,” Malone said after that March game, “It’s tough for anyone to notice because you’re not behind the scenes, but from day one to today, he’s gotten so much better. He’s gotten stronger, and he’s improved tremendously and that speaks to his hard work.”

That hard work, huge frame and quick feet could turn Watson into a monster defender, capable of stopping players at the point of attack or the rim. It’s part of Booth’s obvious strategy of surrounding back-to-back MVP Nikola Jokic with athleticism and size. In Booth’s first season in charge of the Nuggets roster, the club went from lacking a real small forward to getting two high-upside rookies at the position to couple with two veterans on the other wing.

“For me, it’s just been a compliment to my work. I think my progress has been way more rapid than anybody would have ever thought,” Watson said. “I went down to the G League, treated it like business handled it, and coming back up here to get stronger. Plans change, so they wanted me to come and get stronger, get ready for the playoffs if I needed to be in for an emergency. But for me, it’s just a compliment to my hard work, I’ve consistently been able to prove that I belong here. And just with the plan changing and everything come in all at once, just continuing to keep my head straight.”

The confidence of the 20-year-old shouldn’t be confused with ego. He has a real bravado that’s earned in his drive which has impressed his much older peers.

“He’s been working his butt off the entire season and every time he comes up here, he’s been working on his body. I commend him for the work he’s put in,” 14-year NBA veteran and three-time All-NBA player DeAndre Jordan said. “He’s had an opportunity to play and he’s taken full advantage of it. His offensive skill set is still developing, but I think defensively he’s been great, on and off the ball.”

Behind the curtain, like Booth, Jordan sees something we’ve only seen a few glimmers of in Watson.

“He’s a sponge, I don’t want to compare him to a player because he’s going to be like, ‘I’m going to be better him,’ so I don’t want to do that,” Jordan jokes. “He does so many great things and we haven’t scratched the surface of how good he’s going to be which is scary and I’m very excited for him.”

And Watson has been this way for several years, carving out a relationship with Durant who he long admired as a fellow member of the tall and skinny club.

“He’s a student, he wants to get better, he loves to play, so he has everything right now,” Durant told the Denver Post. “I’m rooting for him, he has a bright future.”

“With a player like him and just being a rookie I try to keep as much humility as possible,” Watson who has known Durant and played against him since he was a teenager said. “I’m confident in guarding anybody, I don’t back down from anybody. He’s all-time great, but I’m not scared of anybody. Where I’m from if somebody thinks they can score on you, that’s disrespect regardless of who it is.”

“Just liked the type of dude he is, man, and we just built the friendship,” Durant said in the Post’s story. “Just love his demeanor, love what he brings to the game, his enthusiasm for the game.”

Two days after his matchup with his idol, Watson was again closing for the shorthanded Nuggets and his assignment was stopping Durant’s former teammate: the greatest shooter who has ever lived, Steph Curry.

Three dunks on the defending champs’ defense and two swats of Curry at the rim all in the fourth quarter and the Ball Arena crowd got their real first taste of Watson.

“I couldn’t be more blessed with this opportunity, I have a great relationship with our front office, my general manager, the coaching staff, and they’re all supporting me in my journey towards getting better and they don’t put me in a box, they don’t say ‘just run to the corner and play defense,'” Watson said. “They say ‘Go out there play as hard as you can do what you can do offensively but defensively always be locked in and come in and change the game.’ So I just come in and try to play the right way on offensive in and be a menace defensively.”

Whether Watson plays or doesn’t is still up in the air. He certainly won’t star for the Nuggets in these coming NBA Playoffs and who knows if he can ever become that rare singular guy. But in a sport consistently decided by a possession or two, don’t put it past this driven first-year player with oodles of size and heart from flipping a game into the Nuggets favor. And if Watson comes in clutch with a stop late in the game, you won’t be able to say it came out of nowhere because the Nuggets planned for that exact moment and it’s what Watson has been working toward for months.

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