By the end of Hunter Tyson’s freshman season, it was clear that he could be given a hard time and not take it personally. Clemson coach Brad Brownell admired how coachable the teenager was in a peripheral role at the time.
So during a practice early in Tyson’s career, after he had chucked some ill-advised shots, Brownell teased him in front of the team.
“Hey man, you’re not Larry Bird,” Brownell remembers saying. “Pass the ball.”
Tyson was sufficiently ribbed by his teammates after practice. But it wasn’t until years later that he earned back the comparison in earnest. The marquee performance of Tyson’s five-year college career — the one that helped catapult him toward first-team All-ACC honors and the second round of the NBA draft — was a 31-point, 15-rebound display against North Carolina State. Brownell was in awe during a second-half timeout, enough to announce to the huddle: “Fellas, maybe he is Larry Bird tonight.”
So Brownell couldn’t help but chuckle when he heard about a quote from Nuggets coach Michael Malone last week during Tyson’s first NBA training camp. “Hunter Tyson, he’s like Larry Bird, man,” Malone proclaimed. “The way he’s shooting the 3-point shot is just tremendous, and he plays so hard.”
That hyperbole about sums up how highly the Nuggets have regarded the No. 37 pick since his outstanding summer-league debut. “He can shoot the cover off the ball,” Aaron Gordon said. “Flamethrower.”
Larry Bird, Tyson most certainly is not. This preseason and likely throughout his rookie season of professional hoops, he’ll be battling for second-unit minutes on a defending NBA champion roster. But Tyson has already surprised basketball evaluators plenty before, including his own coaches. Denver may be content to sit back and monitor whether steady growth can continue to be the flamethrower’s forte, like it was at Clemson.
“Here’s a kid who nobody thought would (be drafted), probably before last year,” Brownell told The Denver Post. “I would be one of them. I didn’t know that Hunter Tyson would get middle of the second round of the draft and then go to the summer league and play great. I knew he was going to have a really good senior year because his preparation and his work, and it was kind of his turn if he could stay healthy. Previous two years, he had been hurt and hadn’t been able to put it all together. But to go to first-team All-ACC and do all that, that’s pretty significant.”
Clemson was one of very few major-conference programs to show interest in Tyson, a three-star recruit. Even after he signed with the Tigers, Brownell’s first assumption was that he would redshirt the forward from Monroe, N.C. But Tyson’s self-confidence outweighed his perceived talent. Brownell was impressed by it. “He was just kind of good enough that you thought, ‘Eh, he might help us win a game or two,” the coach said. “He’s one of those guys that we knew would probably need a bit of time to develop, just physically as much as anything.”
Tyson was a minor contributor as a freshman. He went on to become Clemson’s all-time record holder in games played.
The Nuggets have seemingly placed an emphasis on drafting older, more experienced players. Tyson, especially, stands out as a rare college player in the transfer portal era to spend five years at the same school, through low playing time at first and injuries later on. Brownell was struck by the realization that the NBA teams contacting him before the draft about Tyson were all current title contenders, looking for a rookie who could be a positive locker room presence.
“He was by far our voice; he was the one that not only echoed the messages I said, but he was not afraid to confront players on our team and challenge them when we weren’t playing as well as we should,” Brownell said. “No one worked harder. … Those last couple years, he took it to another level.”
Now Tyson is in pinch-himself mode as a result, practicing with players he grew up watching. In Denver’s training camp scrimmage last Friday, he located a rolling DeAndre Jordan with a one-handed alley-oop pass.
“It was cool. Two days prior, very similar play, I bounced it to him and he ended up getting fouled or something,” Tyson said. “He was like, ‘Man, throw me the lob.’ I was like, ‘You are DeAndre Jordan. I probably should throw you the lob.’ So this time, I saw the opportunity, so I was like, ‘I’m gonna at least try it.’”
“Just explaining to him that whoever’s out there, whether it be Nikola (Jokic) or Zeke (Nnaji) or me or Jay (Huff), we all have different games,” Jordan said. “Nikola, every once in a while, will catch a lob, but for the most part he’s a pocket guy. … Obviously he’s a very smart player. He picked it up.”
Tyson is the type of player who may have to shoot his way into NBA minutes, at least at first. He averaged 15.3 points and shot 40.5% beyond the arc his senior year. He outdid himself in the summer league, averaging 20.8 points on 12.2 shots across five games (50% from three). The 23-year-old had an 0-for-6 dud in Denver’s preseason opener — a reminder that becoming Bird ain’t that simple — but nonetheless, his hard work has caught Malone’s attention enough for the NBA champion coach to make the sweeping, maybe slightly over-dramatic statement.
“Well, he’s heard that before,” Brownell thought when he saw Malone’s Bird comp. “I don’t know about the real Larry Bird. I’m from southern Indiana, so I hold Larry in pretty high regard. I don’t know that you want to be going into that.”
But when he thinks about the time Tyson dropped 30 and flashed his pro potential, Brownell can’t help but think: “He played like it a bunch last year. Our version, anyway.”
