Denver Nuggets: Who steps up in Michael Porter Jr.’s stead?

Denver Nuggets: Replacing Michael Porter Jr.’s production with a trade

This is the least likely of the options for the Denver Nuggets as this season isn’t what the team is focusing on. The Nuggets trading away tangible assets to be competitive this season is an exercise in futility.

If there is a trade out there that can help Denver right now, it’d have to be something that helps them next season as well, the season where everyone’s at full strength.

Earlier this season, I wrote about the viability of a Coby White trade, looking at how he could help Denver’s early-season bench issues but also fit in nicely with the team when Jamal is back in the lineup.

White hadn’t played thus far and Michael Scotto, The HoopsHype Podcast reported that he may be available this trade deadline. Whether that’s true or not now that he’s back in the Chicago Bulls lineup is a different question, but I’m struggling to think of any other trades like this one.

Coby is under contract for this season and the next, meaning Denver would get a cheap, rookie-scale deal on their books to help this season’s issues while also taking a look at how he’d fit in as a backup guard next season.

But after finding an ideal player for Denver to trade for, you have to ask if the other team would bother. A possible deal for White would be a swap for Zeke Nnaji and Facundo Campazzo and I struggle to imagine the Bulls doing that.

A trade is the least-likely way to replace Michael Porter Jr.’s production. It might suck to think about it this way, but this season’s a write-off. Denver is ready to compete in the 2022-23 season, this season is all about recovery.

Unfortunately, it was supposed to be all about Jamal Murray’s recovery, he now has to share that spotlight with several others.