Instant analysis on Denver Nuggets draft pick Emmanuel Mudiay

The Nuggets have done it again. With their second lottery selection in the last two years they’ve come away with a steal. Last year it was Jusuf Nurkic and this year it’s Emmanuel Mudiay.

In my Draft or Pass article on Mudiay I wrote the following:

I’ll be the first to admit Mudiay has never really intrigued me the way other top prospects in this draft have. Though he’s drawn comparisons to superbly athletic point guards like Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook and John Wall, I’ve always thought those analogies to be a bit overwhelming. Is Mudiay athletic? Of course. But in likening him to Westbrook and Rose, you’re talking about placing him on par with perhaps the two most athletic, offensively gifted point guards the NBA has ever seen. And that’s just not who Mudiay is.

Though Mudiay is a fine prospect — and one I’d still lobby for the Nuggets to select if available — it’s also important to view him in context of the era he’s playing in. The NBA is currently a wing-centered league predicated on stretching the floor and defending the perimeter. Pass-first point guards (or those like Mudiay who’s greatest strength is passing), regardless of their physical brawn, just don’t win you titles. For as much as we all love to fawn over point guards like Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving or the aforementioned Rose and Westbrook, the fact is only one of those guys finished top 10 in assists per game this past season. Their lethality lies not in their ability to get others involved, but in their absolutely insatiable appetite to score the rock.

Though the above may ostensibly frame my opinion of Mudiay as lukewarm, I’m here now to say that couldn’t be further from the truth. Honestly, for much of the draft process I just didn’t think Mudiay would drop to the Nuggets at seven, which is exactly why he was the second to last prospect I analyzed in BSN’s Draft or Pass series. I was also enamored with Justise Winslow over the last three months and assumed with Mudiay off the board the Nuggets would surely target him with their highest first-round selection in over a decade.

But I’m ecstatic the Nuggets were able to land Mudiay. And if I had to make a prediction now, I’d say there’s a really good chance Mudiay not only outshines Justise Winslow in his NBA career, but also a few other prospects who went ahead of him on draft night.

To be clear on the type of talent the Nuggets landed with Mudiay: Chad Ford had him ranked as the fifth best player in the draft while DraftExpress.com had him ranked fourth overall — ahead of Nuggets fan favorite Mario Hezonja and Willie-Cauley Stein, both of whom went before him in the draft.

In fact, all year long scouts have touted Mudiay as a premier player in this year’s draft — a draft most consider to be extremely talented up front. Coming into the season he was ranked as a top-three prospect by many scouting websites prior to his decision to play overseas, which appears to have damaged his stock a bit.

But whatever impairment was done to his stock clearly benefited the Nuggets. Because in the end, even though they failed to move up on lottery selection night the Nuggets still ended up landing a player with the talent to be a top three pick in nearly any draft.

Great pick.