Denver Nuggets: Emmanuel Mudiay Summer League Progress Report

It was only a year ago when Emmanuel Mudiay was widely regarded as a surefire consensus top-two pick of the 2015 NBA Draft.

But somewhere along the 365 days in between, the 6-foot-5 Congolese guard became the forgotten man of his draft class.

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More specifically, while Mudiay decided to turn pro a year early by taking his talents to Guangdong, China, his rivaled contemporaries — such as, D’Angelo Russell, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Jahlil Okafor — took advantage of the national spotlight and leapfrogged Manny in the eyes of many NBA scouts.

Sure enough, by the time draft finally arrived, Mudiay would plummet out of the top five; in fact, when the night ended, he found himself as the seventh overall pick and the newest member of the retooling Denver Nuggets.

However, as his NBA journey began in Las Vegas last weekend, the slithery floor general has already made a distinct impression, and concurrently, causing the handful of teams who passed him up prematurely remorseful with their respective decisions.

In particular, while he only has three Summer League games under his belt, Mudiay has the look and feel of an NBA veteran, as well as the unflappable nature of an infallible starting caliber point guard.

Most notably, Emmanuel’s poise when serving as the pick-and-roll ballhandler immediately catches your undivided attention. He has an inherent penchant of negotiating the PNR with pace and control — bending the defense, attacking the seams, before whipping a pinpoint pass to the weakside shooter or his diving big.

Such a trait is only possessed by the most gifted of passers; LeBron James and John Wall are two distributing savants that come to mind.

He may not be the nuclear athlete that the two established All-World superstars are, but Mudiay has already shown a knack of attacking the paint at will through his ability to manipulate screens and change speeds. When combined with his elite vision when the defense collapses, you can see why his future teammates are so excited to play their newly acquired pass-first lead guard.

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Playing in a spread pick-and-roll system — a system in which 95 percent of NBA teams utilize in some capacity — Mudiay is nearly unstoppable in the Summer League’s unstructured setting.

His advanced understanding of the PNR game, in conjunction with his ability to finish at the rim — with both hands no less — and nail the occasional pull-up jumpshot, gives Manny, a ball dominant point, the luxury of dominating the tempo of any given game.

Pundits will quickly point to the statistical struggles the likes of Chris Paul and Derrick Rose endured during their respective Summer League stints; however, the duo did manage to flash their immense potential while acclimating to the speed and style of the NBA game.

For Mudiay, despite his fine play, he is only shooting an anemic 37.2 percent from the field and has converted on only two of his 14 3-point field goal attempts (14.3 percent) thus far. In addition, the composed rookie is also averaging over 4.3 turnovers a contest, per NBA.com.

The skills he has showcased routinely, though — namely, the insane vision, developed court awareness, and elite size for his position — are all transferable when the real games start in less than four months.

Additionally, Mudiay is beginning to receive reps of how teams will eventually play him night-in and night-out.

Explicitly, after breaking out against the Sacramento Kings on Sunday, the Miami Heat the very next night– in an effort to mitigate the 19 year-old phenom’s strengths — made a concerted decision of going under on every screen and staying within an arm’s length of the Nuggets’ battalion of shooters.

Not surprisingly, he struggled initially to adapt to the Heat’s conservative coverage; and as a result, he committed a couple of unforced turnovers and over-penetrated on a handful of occasions.

However, Mudiay would impressively adjust — specifically, he took and nailed an uncontested pull-up 3 while rubbing off a side PNR, he kept the D on their heels by rejecting the screen and creating chaos with his penetration, and once he regained his comfort, he began to toggle Miami’s scheme with a bevy of hesitation and change-of-pace dribbles, got his defender on his hip, and protruded the teeth of their D to unleash a flurry of fear with his drive-and-kick expertise.

The Nuggets’ Summer League coaching staff also lend their hand in aiding Mudiay’s early game struggles by going small; taking their starting center Nikola Jokic out of the game, and going with a five-out lineup surrounding Manny with Eric Green, Ian Clark, Gary Harris, and Joffrey Lauvergne.

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When the real games commence, look for Denver’s newly-instated head man, Mike Malone, to employ a similar strategy to ease Mudiay’s transition into the NBA.

Defensively, Emmanuel is a work in progress. At 6-foot-5, equipped with a 6-foot-8½ wingspan, Mudiay has all the tools to become an upper-echelon defender at the point guard position. His length and quickness alone should present tangible problems for the majority of the league’s contingent of point guards.

His motor, however, runs hot and cold on the defensive end — which is to be expected considering the offensive load he is carrying in Summer League play. As with the rest of his game, when engaged, Mudiay has given glimpses of his pestering play defensively.

Physically, he’s NBA ready; thereby, giving him the capability of fighting through screens in a timely manner. He is also a terror in the passing lanes, given his size and awareness.

Likewise, his shooting is terribly inconsistent at this point. His mechanics, however, is not particularly broken. His release is a little slow at the moment — as is Wall’s — but with the way defenses will play him for the foreseeable future, namely, going way under on the PNR and daring him to shoot, he will have ample room and time to wind up and measure his long ball.

Looking forward to next season, his ability to grasp and execute the Nuggets’ defensive scheme — while playing under a defensive-minded coach in Malone — in conjunction with the refinements he makes as a jumpshooter, will determine the type of impact and playing time Emmanuel Mudiay will receive come opening night.

Next: Orlando Magic: Youth Gives Glimpse Into Future At Summer League

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