Nuggets Expect Peyton Watson Back After 6-Week Absence

It's a long-awaited return for the Nuggets and their fourth-year wing who's missed the last 19 games of Denver's season— a stretch in which they've put together a record of 10-9— and can now get their depth in the frontcourt completely healthy for the first time in months.

In fact, barring any unforeseen changes, the fourth-year wing's return to the Nuggets' rotation will be the first time that Denver has had all of their starting five and Watson healthy and in the lineup since November 12th against the Los Angeles Clippers––a game that took place over four months ago.

So getting the core pieces of this rotation healthy and on the floor has been a long time coming for Denver. And now, they have a chance to get adjusted with everyone back in the mix, standing just under one month away from the postseason.

What Peyton Watson's Return Means for Nuggets

Watson has been out of the mix since going down with a Grade 2 hamstring strain against the New York Knicks, the same injury that took out Aaron Gordon for a significant stretch of time this season, and thus left the Nuggets' frontcourt notably shorthanded than things looked at the start of the year.

However, now that Watson's health has finally turned around, it'll allow the Nuggets to have their strong depth completely filled out as they were projected to initially have entering the year, and brings back one of Denver's best two-way performers of this season, especially with the production he had while Nikola Jokic was sidelined with his knee injury in January.

As he returns from his extended injury absence, he shouldn't be expected to shoulder a heavy dose of minutes until he has a few games under his belt to ramp up in minutes and get back to game speed, or put up close to those same numbers while this Nuggets roster is fully healthy from top to bottom.

But when Watson does officially get back to 100%, and can show some of the same flashes he presented earlier in the season, it could make for an interesting decision to be had for David Adelman and the Nuggets staff as to who starts and closes out games within the spots in-between Jokic and Jamal Murray.

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