“It’s a great opportunity here,” said newest Denver Nuggets forward JaKarr Sampson. “I’m just ready to get to work.”
The first thing one notices about Sampson is his smile, it’s rarely not worn on his face. While he plays the game with an aggressive nature on the court, he appears to be quite content off it. He possesses an engrossing personality that leads to GIFs like this one from his rookie season, where his teammate is pretending to hold defibrillators to pump life into Sampson.
“I feel like I’m going to be playing all over the place,” said Sampson. “My ability to defend multiple positions, that’s what I do.”
Sampson was on a plane bound for Denver early Tuesday morning, signed his deal with the team and participated in his first practice this afternoon. Head coach Michael Malone expects to have the youngster available for the Sacramento Kings game on Tuesday, Feb. 23rd — the same team trade deadline acquisition D.J. Augustin debuted against.
“He’s still young,” said Malone of the 6-foot-9, 22 year-old. “Excited to have him, we’ll throw him out there tomorrow night (against the Kings) and see what he can do.”
After practice on Denver’s main court, as Kenneth Faried shot free throws with assistant coach Ed Pinckney, Malone sat in a courtside seat just a few yards away chatting with Sampson.
“The message is just come in here and do what I do: bring that energy, bring that defense and that toughness that I bring,” said Sampson of his conversation with his new coach. “That’s easy because that’s me.”
Newest #Nuggets forward JaKarr Sampson. He’s got a big personality. Malone happy to add versatile defender. pic.twitter.com/QdGlXzRmOB
— Nate Timmons (@NateTimmonsBSN) February 22, 2016
Sampson played two seasons at St. John’s, where he averaged 13.9 points per game, before declaring for the 2014 NBA draft. He worked out for the Sacramento Kings ahead of that draft, where at the time current Nuggets Senior Vice President of Business and Team Operations, Pete D’Alessandro was the general manager and Malone the head coach.
“When I was in Sacramento we worked JaKarr out for the draft. What I like about JaKarr is that he has toughness and he defends, and I think we need more of that — a very welcomed addition,” said Malone. “We have not had a backup small forward in quite a while, been playing some of our guys way too many minutes.
“So, that should alleviate some of that; just adding somebody of his size, his length, his athleticism and most importantly, again, his defense and toughness. He’s versatile on the defensive end. He can guard one through four. Very good on ball defender and obviously that’s been a problem for us – just getting beat off the bounce so easily.”
Tim Connelly was able to sign Sampson to a two-year deal (the second year being non-guaranteed) and away from the Philadelphia 76ers, where he was in his second NBA season after signing with Philly as an undrafted free agent. The Sixers waived Sampson to make room for veteran Joel Anthony (a trade that has since been rescinded), and it’s believed the team wanted to re-sign Sampson after he cleared waivers. But in stepped the Nuggets to get Malone another defensive minded player and a backup to Danilo Gallinari for the remainder of the season, and perhaps beyond.
With the Sixers, Sampson was a jack of all trades playing power forward, small forward, shooting guard and even point guard in some cases over 121 career NBA games. It’s hard not to see some similarities between Sampson and Will Barton; while Sampson is the bigger player, they both play the game with reckless abandon with their slender frames and both possess more skill than given credit.
“Not so much this year, but last year he played backup one for them,” said Malone. “He has an aggressive mindset. I think he’s a solid ballhandler and solid playmaker, but everything he does he does with aggression. So, if he’s playing the one he’s going to try to put his head down and get to the basket and make plays. With Jameer (Nelson) hopefully coming back soon, I don’t see him playing any backup one, but if we put the ball in his hands, he’ll try to get to the rim and finish. Very strong right hand driver. But again, the biggest thing for me is adding his toughness and his defense because I don’t think you can have enough of that.”
Here is Sampson’s entire interview from today’s practice as recorded by Jeff Morton for ColoradoSportsGuys.com with a couple of questions from myself as well as Paul Klee of the Colorado Springs Gazette.
