First-round pick Julian Strawther fills need for champion Nuggets: “They play the right way”

Maybe Nuggets first-round pick Julian Strawther knew something the rest of us didn’t.

If nothing else, maybe his agent did.

Moments after the Nuggets selected the 6-foot-7 sniper out of Gonzaga last Thursday night at No. 29, Strawther was sporting a Denver Nuggets championship hat.

Strawther, speaking at his introductory press conference on Monday afternoon at Ball Arena, was diplomatic about how the headgear arrived.

“I was head down, crying, looked up and the championship hat was in front of me,” he said.

Seated to Strawther’s right, Nuggets GM Calvin Booth interjected.

“He had like three hats,” Booth joked.

Booth had identified Strawther for his size and marksmanship. As a junior last season, Strawther shot nearly 41 percent from 3-point range on over five attempts per game. Booth also said he appreciated how Strawther processed the game. And with the Bulldogs, Booth knew Strawther had the pedigree to impact winning.

“He’d been in high-pressure games,” Booth said.

Asked whether there were any players he watched or modeled his game after, Strawther mentioned Golden State’s Klay Thompson, who’s also about the incoming rookie’s size. But even though Thompson’s 3-point shooting has distinguished him among his peers, Strawther mentioned it was his commitment to defense that kept him on the court early in his career.

The Nuggets, specifically under Booth, can’t ever have too many two-way players. Booth said that the targets Denver’s landed — Strawther, Penn State guard Jalen Pickett, and Clemson forward Hunter Tyson — were all archetypes of players he thought they’d have a hard time landing in free agency or the trade market. It was the same philosophy Booth employed when he drafted Peyton Watson last season, when numerous pundits felt he reached for him.

In Strawther, Booth tried to address Denver’s 3-point shooting off the bench. He said he’d made a concerted effort to balance the roster and not to cannibalize too many positions.

And what’s fair to expect of the 21-year-old?

“Get comfortable making shots,” said Booth, who suggested Strawther might play some G League minutes if Denver’s roster stays healthy.

“But I think it’s just another option, another tool in the toolkit for Coach (Michael) Malone,” Booth said. “There were times in our playoff run where I felt like we might be one shooter short, and he’s a shooter. It’ll give (Malone) another option even though he is a rookie.”

Strawther didn’t take long to get with the program.

Of joining the defending champion Nuggets, he said he’d already deduced their preferred style of play.

“They play the right way, they play for each other,” he said.

Of watching from afar, as Nikola Jokic dissected defenses en route to a historic playoff run, Strawther didn’t have any apprehensions about calling him the best player in the world.

“It’s like magic’s happening,” he said of watching Jokic.

But Strawther, perhaps intent on endearing himself to a fan base or perhaps eager to please his new head coach, earned the most praise for a tweet he sent out of Malone. From the championship stage, with his hat cocked to the side and his sunglasses on, Malone flashed a chain in an image that turned into one of the iconic photos from the parade.

The day after the draft, Strawther sent out the picture to his followers without any caption.

“Legendary photo,” he said on Monday.

Seated on the side of the press conference, Malone looked on and smiled. He joked he’d left the chain at home.

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