Can Peyton Watson save the Nuggets' bench?

Facing a 2-0 deficit with the series shifting to Phoenix for Game 3, Monty Williams took a bulldozer to his go-to bench lineup.

Torrey Craig? Done. Damion Lee? Hasn’t been heard from again. Jock Landale, Terrence Ross, and TJ Warren? Get ready for significant playing time. Landry Shamet? He’s back. It was a mid-series, second-unit renovation that saved Phoenix. The Suns have won the last two games largely thanks to their bench and how much they’ve outscored the Nuggets by in those minutes.

Michael Malone is currently facing a similar dilemma to the one Williams dealt with earlier in the series. After crushing the Timberwolves in the bench minutes and playing well in Games 1 and 2 vs. the Suns, the Nuggets’ second unit has faltered. Mightily. Denver got outscored by 19 points (45-26) in the 15 minutes that Nikola Jokic was on the bench in Games 3 and 4.

Following the Nuggets’ 129-124 Game 4 loss in Phoenix, Malone hinted at potential upcoming changes to his second unit.

“Can Reggie Jackson give us another ball handler, a guy that can play downhill, get to the basket, make a play,” Malone pondered Monday. “Peyton Watson, he played well against them during the regular season when he played a lot of minutes in those last two games in Phoenix.”

“Right now everything is on the table.”

Even I was a bit thrown off by the mention of Jackson. We remember how sketchy Jackson’s minutes were in his short, nine-game rotation stint after Denver signed him off the buyout market in February. Jackson was bad — offensively and defensively — but he did play well in a few games late in the regular season and after he was already firmly out of the rotation. “Mr. June” also has a rep as a big postseason performer.

The Nuggets will have another guard in their rotation when they return on Thursday.

Ish Smith knows all about what Denver’s getting.

“He just takes it to another level.” @HarrisonWind has more on Reggie Jackson: https://t.co/AI79jzThGE pic.twitter.com/BldTo5rOm0

— DNVR Nuggets (@DNVR_Nuggets) February 21, 2023

Best-case scenario with Jackson is that he juices the Nuggets’ bench offense and gives Denver another ball-handler who can take some of those responsibilities off Jamal Murray’s plate. It could help keep Murray fresher. In Games 3 and 4, the Nuggets’ bench was awful defensively, but maybe just as bad offensively. With Jokic on the bench, the Nuggets shot 41.7% from the field in Games 3 and 4.

But Watson feels like the more realistic and likely option Malone would go to. And it just so happens that some of the last memories that we have of Watson in the Nuggets’ rotation were against Kevin Durant and these Suns. With the Nuggets resting most of their key pieces, Watson played 27 minutes and then started and logged 26 minutes respectively in two late-season matchups with Durant and the Suns in Phoenix.

He flashed defensively when guarding Durant too.

Watson would bring more defensive versatility to the second unit, but there’s of course a risk factor to throwing a rookie — and a rookie who spent pretty much the entire season in the G League — into a playoff rotation. There’s a reason that’s just not done too often, but the Nuggets are searching right now when it comes to their bench.

“If I have to use Peyton Watson in a playoff series, I will, if the situation calls for it,” Malone said on the final day of the regular season.

Game 5 against the Suns, tonight, at Ball Arena, could be that situation.