Up until the NBA draft on June 23, the BSN Nuggets staff will review first-round prospects the Nuggets may target. We’ll look at their skill set, the role they will play in the league and how they could potentially fit in Denver.

Timothe Luwawu, F, Mega Leks

There’s currently no titillating a name floating about Nuggets Nation than Timothe Luwawu — and for good reason. The 6-7 international wingman has most everything you want from a lottery selection: size, length, defensive prowess, shooting ability, and of course, athleticism. But like many overseas imports Luwawu doesn’t come prepackaged without his fair of question marks, like whether he’s worthy of the Nuggets’ first-round pick at seven or if he’ll ever amount to anything more than a flashy role player.

Strengths

What jumps out (quite literally) about Luwawu is his athleticism. He’s this year’s Zach LaVine, Mario Hezonja, Giannis Antetokounmpo — a freak athlete with countless YouTube dunk reels (see above) who’s set the Internet afire before even taking a single step onto NBA hardwood. The good news for Luwawu is athleticism is without question a prerequisite for surviving at the next level and one can never quite have enough.

Despite the rim-rattling dunks, Luwawu will likely pay his bills on the defensive side of the floor once he becomes established in the NBA. With excellent size and length to pair with elite athleticism, he figures to be exactly the type of “3-and-D” player so highly coveted in recent years. Furthermore, though still young and improving, Luwawu has shown flashes of high IQ in terms of distribution and floor presence — skills that are not easily taught and are all the more valuable when paired with the physical tools Luwawu already possesses.

Weaknesses

As shown in the video above, courtesy of DraftExpress.com, Luwawu still struggles mightily in many facets of the game. He’s inconsistent on both ends of the floor, somewhat stubborn, careless, streaky and so on down the line. In other words, Luwawu is young and inexperienced. He commits the same type of mistakes typical of most underclassman at the collegiate level in the States. The good news is Luwawu will get older, wiser, smarter and more experienced, and with the tutelage of the best basketball coaches in the world and these mistakes will likely fade into the background as he matures.

Potential Fit in Denver

Luwawu doesn’t exactly “fit” anywhere in particular in the Nuggets lineup, but then again, who does? In fact, Luwawu is basically in the exact mold as Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari: long, athletic, two-way small forwards who are streaky but can still shoot at a respectable clip from downtown. Luwawu does, however fit exactly the type of player the Nuggets have targeted in the draft during the Tim Connelly epoch (young, international, defensive minded, etc.) which makes his chances of landing in Denver on draft night seem all the more likely.

Current Projection

According to ESPN.com’s Chad Ford, no player has a wider range than Luwawu. Some mock drafts have him going in the top 10 while others have him slated in the late first round, all the more cementing his status as a mystery prospect. Luckily for Connelly, the Nuggets will have three opportunities to decide whether they want to gamble on Luwawu given he falls as far as some have predicted on draft night.

However, given the nature of his innate strengths and improvable weaknesses, it’s hard to envision Luwawu slipping past the Nuggets second first-round pick at 15. In fact, it’s quite difficult to imagine he’ll even be available at 15 knowing teams like the Magic, Raptors, Bucks, and Bulls — all of which pick before the Nuggets second selection in the first round — have a history of taking guys like Luwawu.

If the Nuggets indeed desire Luwawu the way most fans do then they’ll be faced with a tough decision of whether to take him at seven, ahead of safer picks, bet on him slipping to 15 and potentially missing out on him altogether, or combining assets to trade up to to picks 12-15 to grab the versatile wing. Then again, I’m not so sure playing it safe has ever been a sound strategy when it comes to a crapshoot as unpredictable as the NBA Draft.

Luwawu’s versatile skill-set and high basketball IQ check two of the most coveted boxes for incoming NBA prospects.