DENVER â€" The Denver Nuggets want their top pick to get more seasoning overseas. Evan Fournier is ready to start his NBA career this fall.
Fournier, a 6-foot-6, 190-pound guard from France, was the 20th overall pick in Thursday’s NBA draft. The Nuggets drafted him with the idea of having the 19-year-old play one or two more years in Europe, but Fournier said he wants to stay here.
‘‘I want to play next season,’’ he said. ‘‘I don’t want to go back to Europe.’’
Fournier averaged 14.1 points and 3.2 rebounds playing for Poiters of the France Pro A League.
The Nuggets selected Fournier as well as Baylor forward Quincy Miller (38th overall) and Turkish big man Izzet Turkyilmaz (50th) with an eye to the future.
The Nuggets have 12 players under contract for the 2012-13 season. They have two restricted free agents, guard Rudy Fernandez and center JaVale McGee, and unrestricted free agent guard Andre Miller also is on the current 15-man roster.
Because of that, and the unexpected success the team had in 2011-12 despite an unsettled rotation during the lockout year, the team’s plan is to keep the roster intact.
‘‘It wasn’t a great year to evaluate your players and you have to give them more of a chance,’’ said Masai Ujiri, Nuggets vice president of basketball operations.
Denver got off to a strong start and finished 36-30 to grab the No. 6 seed despite trades and significant injuries to the core of the rotation. The emergence of rookie Kenneth Faried, their first-round pick in 2011, and a youthful roster focused Thursday’s draft strategy on the future, not next season.
‘‘With the way our team evolved and the way our guys responded down the stretch, it was a position we didn’t have to do anything unless it was going to make us better,’’ Nuggets President Josh Kroenke said. ‘‘It was something we wanted to give a chance to develop. The existing roster deserved a chance to compete together.’’
Fournier and Turkyilmaz join an organization that already has three foreign-born players on the roster â€" center Timofey Mozgov (Russia), forward Danilo Gallinari (Italy) and Fernandez.
The three selections make a young roster even more youthful. Denver was one of the youngest teams in the league last season and the second youngest behind Philadelphia to reach the postseason.
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