Denver has a history of finding gems outside the lottery picks, notably Ty Lawson (drafted 18th in 2009) and Kenneth Faried (22nd in 2011).

But the reality is, whomever the Nuggets draft, it’s possible it will be a Jordan Hamilton-type situation — a player the team can develop and use in later seasons.

“I don’t want to burst anybody’s bubble, but I don’t think the 20th pick in this draft is going to be better than Jordan Hamilton or Julyan Stone, and they didn’t play this year,” Nuggets coach George Karl said this past week. “I mean, I’d be shocked. If Jordan is in this draft, he’d be in the top 10. And if Julyan goes in the draft, he’d be going right around where we pick. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to draft a guy and work hard on making the pick work out, but we are a team where it’s hard to get minutes.”

via Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post