Denver Nuggets: Complete 2018 offseason grades
By Max Carlin
Drafting Thomas Welsh
Denver rounded out its 2018 draft class with Thomas Welsh, a smooth-shooting center out of UCLA.
Over the last four years, many important basketball people and things have made their ways through the Pac-12; notably, two No. 1 overall picks in Washington’s Markelle Fultz and Arizona’s Deandre Ayton and a No. 2 pick in Welsh’s UCLA teammate Lonzo Ball.
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Amid all that basketball greatness, just two things have remained constant: the wonders of Bill Walton’s commentary and Thomas Welsh’s mid-range jumper.
I’m sure Welsh has, at some point, missed a mid-range jumper, but human memories are fallible, and I choose to believe Welsh is a 100 percent mid-range shooter — he has to be close.
Welsh is largely a throwback. He’s enormous and slow and doesn’t make a ton of sense in the NBA in 2018 (though he did extend his range behind the arc in his senior season). He was widely expected to go undrafted.
As far as 58th picks go, Welsh was probably a bad one, but he was the 58th pick — that’s essentially a throw-away.
Yet Denver followed up Welsh’s surprise selection with a surprise signing. Welsh will occupy one of Denver’s two two-way roster slots in 2018-19.
Unlike Denver’s two two-ways from 2017-18 (Monte Morris and Torrey Craig), who are both now signed to NBA deals with the Nuggets, Welsh doesn’t offer potential depth at a position of need. He does not project to be an NBA player at any point.
It’s not a huge deal, but Welsh’s whole tenure in Denver has been puzzling. He represents a bizarre usage of assets and it’s hard to see what the Nuggets are doing here.
Grade: D