Jalen Pickett has been gaining momentum in Michael Malone’s rotation
Mar 11, 2025, 11:34 AM
When Julian Strawther went down with a knee injury against Boston earlier this month, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone knew he would need someone to step up on his bench.
Jalen Pickett has been that guy.
In the three games he’s played in since the Strawther injury (DNP against Phoenix), Pickett has played just over 17 minutes per game. In those three games, he’s shot 40% from 3-point range, run the offense smoothly (he only has two turnovers) and played solid defense.
In last night’s victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, Pickett was a +9 and made some important plays early in the fourth quarter without Nikola Jokic on the floor.
While the sample size is small, as Pickett has been on the floor for just 358 minutes this season (2787 off the floor), the Nuggets are in an entirely different world defensively with him out there, per PBP Stats. The defensive rating for Denver jumps from 117.12 all the way to 104.07 with him on the floor. The team’s net rating also jumps from 4.78 to 10.57.
The Nuggets’ offense will always be fine as long as Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic are healthy, what really matters is the defense. For a Denver team that has been average on defense all season long, Pickett’s presence is that the Nuggets need to step up their defense.
The 25-year-old out of Penn State has been waiting for an opportunity like this to come his way since being drafted by Denver in 2023. He had been spending time with the Grand Rapids Gold, Denver’s G-League affiliate, where he put up 17.5 points per game last season. In this year’s Tip-Off Tournament, Pickett averaged 21.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game in eight games, stamping himself as an NBA player.
An interesting aspect of Pickett’s game is his ability to create his own offense. However, he does it in the post, unlike a lot of other 6-foot-2 players in the NBA. Post isolation is how he scored so many points in college, and can be a great tool for him off the Nuggets’ bench.
Three games isn’t enough to earn a spot in Michael Malone’s playoff rotation, especially for a guy like Pickett who doesn’t have a plethora of NBA experience under his belt. With 17 games left in the regular season for the Nuggets, Pickett has a month to show Malone that he’s a guy who can be trusted come playoff time.
