If Jalen Pickett needs help adjusting to life as a reserve, he can ask his fellow rookies.

In his five-year college career that started with three years at Siena and finished with two more at Penn State, the 6-foot-4 guard started 142 of a possible 144 games. He came off the bench once as a freshman and once more as a sophomore.

“Some games you’re going to play. Some games you’re not,” Pickett said of his upcoming rookie season during Monday’s media day. “I’ve always played basketball. I never really sat, so this might be my first time not getting as many minutes as I would like.”

Hunter Tyson and Julian Strawther have a better idea of what to expect as they contend for minutes on a team that returns its starting five for last year’s championship squad and a few established reserves.

“When I arrived at Gonzaga my freshman year, the first thing coach (Mark) Few did was put me on my butt. I feel like I’ve been able to go through that, and I know how to deal with it mentally and how to attack it,” Strawther said. “There’s ways to go about it, just attacking it, getting better every day. You don’t have to have pressure on you to perform every single game because the minutes aren’t there. All that means is you got to use your practice as your games.

“I feel like I’m more prepared for that than when I was coming into college. I’m just ready to attack it.”

After coming off the bench for all 25 of his appearances as a true freshman for the Bulldogs, Strawther started 68 of his final 69 collegiate games. Tyson didn’t become a regular starter at Clemson until his junior season when he started 12 of 19 appearances. He closed his college career with 58 starts in his final 59 games.

“Well, that wasn’t my journey. Maybe that was his, but I was on the bench quite often early in my college career,” Tyson said. “Honestly, I think that’s help prepare me for maybe the role I’ll have this year. I’m just going to do whatever I can to help the team win no matter what my role is.”

Vlatko Cancar’s torn anterior cruciate ligament, which is expected to cost him the entire season, could leave Tyson with the clearest route to regular playing time among the rookies. With Zeke Nnaji expected to play as a back-up center, the 6-foot-8 forward gives the second unit a good blend of size and scoring. Pickett has Reggie Jackson, who’s been credited with having a great summer to pick off for back-up point guard minutes, while Strawther has a group featuring Christian Braun, Peyton Watson and Justin Holiday to beat on the wings.

The playing time might not come immediately for any of the three, but their development is especially important to the Nuggets in light of the new collective bargaining agreement, which increases penalties on teams paying the luxury tax. With Nikola Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. already on max contracts and Jamal Murray due for a big payday at the end of the season, the Nuggets will need to find value in the draft.

“As the CBA is concerned, when you throw a lot of the attributes that are valued like positional size, skill, toughness and character … athleticism, if you take a few of those things and put them together into a player, that player becomes really expensive. So, what we did is we tried to acquire some of those players in the draft, and we got a discount because of experience. They don’t have any yet. We’re going to have to grow with them and allow them to get some experience,” Booth said.

“If you look at a general theme, especially from our draft picks, it’s trying to bolster our 3-point shooting,” Booth said. “I felt like we got two of the best wing shooters in the draft, and I felt like in Jalen Pickett, we got one of the few guys in the league that can generate 3-point shots easily. He’s been a surprisingly good shooter to this point, as well.”

Each of the three rookies showed promise during different stretches at Summer League and received praise for the rest of their work in the summer, which carried into training camp. While that might not mean playing time right away, Pickett already appears to understand how to approach the uncertain minutes that come with being a rookie on a contending team.

“Just stay the course, stay positive,” Pickett said. “My time will come.”