Juancho, in a match with the Timberwolves.
DNP is the abbreviation for Did Not Play, translation of 'He has not played'. It is different from Inactive, referred to a player absent for injury. A 'DNP' means that you are ready to play a game, but that your coach has decided not to take you to the court. Three letters, three words that have accompanied Juancho Hernangmez during his years at the Denver Nuggets. 17 'DNPs' in 50 of the games this season, 21 last year, including the Playoffs, 19 in 2017-2018 and 18 in his rookie year. An irregularity that has been accompanied by significant injuries that have not allowed him to be 100% during his time in Colorado.
A mononucleosis separated him from the team in October 2017, as soon as he started his second year in the league, in full need of 'explosion'. The whole campaign was between cottons, but Denver waited for him. He found his hole in the first half of the 2018-2019 academic year, but in full demonstration of all his faculties, he was reduced by some discomfort in the abdomen that made him play with pain since Christmas and forced him to go through an operating room before the World Cup that It is disputed in China.
Gold with Spain did not change its situation in Denver. In a team aspiring to the ring with one of the deepest and most talented squads in the league, Juancho never finished finding his place in the rotation. It linked weeks of consistent minutes and stable production with others in which it did not appear on the Nuggets track. A somewhat desperate situation also at the contractual level: free agent in summer 2020, Denver could have matched any offer they made, but at 24 years old the body and his career began to ask for a new destination before entering the summer market. It is not a good season. I shoot well in training, but without continuity, without minutes, it is difficult to get rhythm, I recognized at the beginning of the year.
On February 4, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Hawks and Rockets announced a transfer that resulted in Juancho's trip to Minnesota, his new home. He said goodbye to the fight for the Playoffs, but he won the chance to start from scratch on the team with the third worst NBA balance and the option of winning a good contract this summer: being a restricted free agent and Minnesota could match any offer that perform it. And according to the first rumors, they will.
He has started every game averaging 29 minutes per game. It fits perfectly into the current system of the workforce, led by D'Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns. Juancho minutes of '4' open, providing intensity in the rebound in both areas, defense and amplitude in attack. In summary: 14 points and 6.9 rebounds since your arrival. It has also averaged 46.5% from the line of three, the eighth best mark among all those who have tried more than five pitches of three in that period. In 34 meetings with the Nuggets this year he had scored only 25% of them.
In Minnesota you will have the opportunities you deserve, acknowledges Mike Malone, a Nuggets technician, when his transfer was announced. Said and done.
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