LAS VEGAS — Richard Roby is still long and lean. And he still makes scoring look easy.
But increasingly, the journey is chipping away at him. For many who watched the 6-foot-6 Roby when he starred at Colorado, breaking the Buffaloes’ career scoring record in the process, the NBA seemed a given.
What Roby has come to find out is getting to the NBA is anything but. For him, it’s been a long and winding road with seemingly no end. This is his third shot at it since graduating from CU in 2008, and it might very well be his last. Roby is ready to ditch the old “try, try again” adage and is fine with settling into a full-time basketball career overseas.
“I think I want to give it one hard push,” Roby said. “One hard push, and if I don’t make it, then I can just say I gave it my all and make a living overseas. I have no problem being overseas. I have my family. I’m good. Maybe one more year after this. Maybe. I want to enjoy my summers when I come back. It’s a quick turnaround going from over there to over here.”
He chuckled about the summers. But, yeah, he would like them back.
So far, they have been long on disappointment and short on rest. And none have gotten him to his ultimate goal. This one has a longshot look to it as well.
And yet Roby is not unlike so many former college stars who have taken time to adjust their game to a completely different style of play. He had the ball in his hands most of the time at CU. The offense ran through him. The NBA is asking him to be a bit player — and thrive. Very few can.
“It’s tough,” Nuggets assistant coach John Welch said. “In some ways, that’s what made Arron Afflalo so good for us last year. His job was to stand in the corner, and if it comes to you four times you’ve got to make two of them. It is very tough.”
Roby is averaging 11.5 points after two summer-league games. He shot well in the Nuggets’ first game but struggled from the field in the second game, going just 2-of-9 from the field Saturday in Denver’s 92-74 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I have to knock down open shots, make the right decisions while I’m out there, continue to work on my defense,” Roby said. “Close-out defense is probably the hardest thing to do. I have to improve on that.”
Roby played in Israel each of the last two years, reporting lukewarm results.
“It was OK,” he said. “It was up and down out there. But I learned a lot.”
He’s continuing to soak in as much as he can with the Nuggets. Summer-league games showcase a player not just for his team, but for every team present.
“It’s a great setting,” said Nuggets assistant coach Chad Iske. “You’re going to have representatives from all 30 teams here watching. The wing position is a very hard position. Sometimes that takes talented guys like Richard a while. Hopefully he figures it out.
“I think everybody has been really impressed with him so far. I think it’s just a maturing process for most guys when they don’t get that initial luck of getting into the league right away. There’s so many guys that have the talent to make it if they just figure out what kind of role they need to play.”
Roby has pinpointed his role to becoming a guy that is a specialist at something — anything that’s not scoring — while working on his defense.
“In the NBA they are looking for a guy that can do one thing really well,” Roby said. “When I was at Colorado I did a lot of things good, but I didn’t particularly do one thing well. I thought I did well at scoring, but a lot of teams have scorers already, so they want you to come in and play defense. So I just want to show I can play defense and all of that.
“I feel good out there. I’m still getting comfortable, still getting adjusted from the overseas game to this game. And more on the defensive end, trying to be in the right positions and just trying to learn while I’m out there and trying to listen to my coaches.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
