‘I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else’ — Nuggets introduce Holmes in Denver

Five days after the Nuggets selected Holmes with the No. 22 pick in the NBA Draft, they introduced him to fans in a 13-minute press conference in Denver on Monday. He said it was his first trip to Denver since he was much younger and reflected on the experience of draft night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., last Wednesday.

“It was surreal,” Holmes said. “To be able to spend that moment with family, friends, coaches, teammates, it was second to none. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was amazing.”

Holmes wore a Phoenix Suns hat on stage even though ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski had reported minutes before the Suns had traded the No. 22 pick to the Nuggets for Denver’s No. 28, No. 56 and two future second-round picks. The trade was still unofficial when he posed for a photo with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on stage.

In a back room at the Barclays Center, someone from the NBA gave Holmes a Nuggets hat.

“I was just every excited,” Holmes said. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

The next step for Holmes is playing in the NBA Summer League. Denver plays the Los Angeles Clippers in its first game on July 12 in Las Vegas, Nev. That’s the first of five games.

“These next couple weeks it’s just time to get to work,” Holmes said. “After a lot of this stuff settles down, I’m just ready to get in the lab and just see what I have to do next.”

Assistant General Manager Tommy Balcetis joined Holmes at the press conference and spoke about why the Nuggets drafted Holmes.

“He’s a hell of a player to begin with,” Balcetis said. “He’s somebody that kind of embodies our M.O., our DNA — all the other acronyms as well. He’s a winner. His team won a lot. (He was) fourth in the nation in free-throw attempts. Some of that stuff was really attractive to us because we didn’t really get to the line too much. He has the ability to stretch the floor, to get to the rim, to play both ends of the floor, and at the end of the day, just as importantly, he’s a great human being.”

During the draft process, the Nuggets called everyone close to Holmes to get an idea of who he is.

“Everybody was very positive,” Balcetis said. “These are the kind of people we try to bring into our organization. We know that they succeed with us here.”

Nuggets General Manager Calvin Booth talked about the importance of Holmes’ improved 3-point shooting in his draft night press conference. Holmes was asked how he lifted his percentage from 31.6 to 38.6 while taking four times as many shots.

“It was really simple for me,” Holmes said. “My first two years, I didn’t shoot as many 3s because I wasn’t confident. The reason I wasn’t confident is because I can honestly say I wasn’t working as hard as I was in my junior year on it. The summer going into junior year, I was with this (student) manager), and all we did every single day was the same drill. We just drilled, even during the season, the same drill. So me working hard on that and really trying to improve helped my confidence. And since my confidence was high in the game, I wasn’t afraid to take the shots.”

Holmes then explained the drill in more detail. He would take 10 shots at different spots, moving from one side of the court to the other. Then he would come back the same way. He would also try to replicate game situations in other shooting drills.

The Nuggets ranked 11th in the NBA in 3-point shooting percentage (33.2) last season. That might not be how Holmes helps the team the most. He said his most valuable asset is being versatile, selfless and a team player. He wants to make winning plays, be vocal and be everywhere on the court.

“I think that the biggest thing is to get better at everything,” Holmes said. “You could always get better at something. So I’m not going to sit up here and say I’ve made it.”