What’s Julian Strawther’s Next Step?
Julian Strawther played 18 minutes in the Nuggets preseason opener, tied with Watson for the second-most minutes behind Jokic. He finished the game with seven points and three rebounds. Surprisingly, he took six attempts but only one from 3-point range. Keep in mind, he has a career 57.5% 3-point attempt rate.
This begs the question: was that a one-off or a sign of what’s to come?
Adelman on what he expects out of Julian Strawther
“Julian is a scorer. The next step is to make plays for others. When you find the paint it can’t always just be a shot.”
Went on to see that he’s gotten stronger this summer. pic.twitter.com/xtAfaKdpfa
— Duvalier Johnson (@DuvalierJohnson) October 3, 2025
Despite his high 3-point attempt rate, Strawther is a career 33.2% 3-point shooter. As he shot 38.4% from 3 after three seasons at Gonzaga, this was unexpected and could be attributed to sporadic minutes. Nevertheless, the numbers suggest that he needed to work on other ways to find success. That being said, Nuggets head coach David Adelman considers Strawther a scorer but wants him to work on getting in the paint and playmaking, per DNVR’s Duvalier Johnson.
