Trevon Brazile grabs 12 rebounds in NBA debut as Nuggets fall to Thunder
The Arkansas product played 18 minutes off the bench, missed all four three-point tries and still led Denver on the glass in a loss to Oklahoma City.
A rough shooting night, a big rebounding night
Trevon Brazile made his NBA debut Thursday and immediately showed up on the stat sheet, grabbing 12 rebounds in the Nuggets' 96-84 loss to the Thunder, the number driving searches on his name. The second-round pick out of Arkansas struggled to find his shot, going 1 of 6 from the field and missing all four three-point attempts, and finished with four points on 2 of 2 free throws. NBC Sports' recap on the game called the rebounding effort encouraging despite the shooting struggles, and it was the headline takeaway from an otherwise quiet shooting night.
Brazile checked into the game for Aaron Gordon with 5:16 left in the first quarter, and he started crashing the glass right away. He grabbed seven rebounds before the first quarter was over, three of them offensive boards, and kept pulling them down the rest of the night on his way to a team-high 12. He played 18 minutes total.
Why he got the minutes
Brazile was filling in as the backup forward behind Gordon because Spencer Jones was out with a hamstring injury. That opened a spot in coach David Adelman's rotation for the rookie's first real test, and Brazile used it to make his presence felt on the boards even while his jump shot was off. It was Brazile's first official NBA game after an offseason that included Summer League and the preseason slate, so the minutes he got were his first true audition in front of Adelman's staff.
The read on Brazile going forward
Nugg Love, a site that covers the Nuggets, wrote that Brazile's debut was strong enough that he has put himself in position for a regular spot in Adelman's 10- or 11-man rotation. The site said his athleticism stood out the moment he stepped on the floor, and it compared his shooting stroke to Rashard Lewis, the 6-foot-10 forward who shot for the Seattle SuperSonics and Orlando Magic in the 2000s. That comparison is built on Brazile's track record from before Thursday, not his debut line. He shot 6 of 9 from three in the preseason and went 9 of 19, good for 47 percent, in the Las Vegas Summer League. None of that showed up against Oklahoma City, where he missed all four of his three-point tries.
What's next
The Nuggets have already played their next game since Brazile's debut, beating the New Orleans Pelicans 141-135 in overtime. There is no word yet on how Adelman will divide minutes among his forwards once Jones is healthy, and Jones' hamstring timeline isn't in the record yet, so it's unclear how long Brazile keeps this look at backup minutes behind Gordon. For now, Brazile has given Denver a reason to keep him on the floor.
Facts per NBC Sports, Nugg Love, ESPN box score. Opinion is the taproom's.