3 trades the Denver Nuggets were right to avoid this offseason

1. Kevin Durant

After months of speculation as to where Kevin Durant would end up, he and the Brooklyn Nets appear to have mended the situation. With the team announcing just a couple of weeks ago that members of the Nets front office, including GM Sean Marks, head coach Steve Nash, and Nets owner Joe Tsai, all met with Durant’s business partner, Rich Kleiman, and have agreed to “move forward” heading into the 2022-23 NBA season.

While this seemingly ends the Durant sweepstakes, it’s hard to guarantee that the feud between KD and the Nets front office has completely dissipated. That being said, I think Denver Nuggets fans should be looking at this from a positive lens for various reasons.

With the return of Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., the Nuggets could easily contend for a top spot in the Western Conference as early as next season. Backed by the reigning MVP of the league, Nikola Jokic, and a solid supporting cast that consists of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Aaron Gordon, Bones Hyland, and Bruce Brown. So, the mere thought of adding KD to the mix is downright scary, to say the least.

Brooklyn’s asking price would not have made sense for Denver

However, a deal of this magnitude was never going to happen given how much Denver would’ve had to part with. Realistically, any trade for KD would have had to involve one of (if not both) Porter Jr., and Murray. Particularly since they’re both in that $30-35 million price range that would need to be met to match Durant’s salary. Although, even then it would have been very difficult to pull off.

The Denver Nuggets have just a single first-round draft pick for 2029 that they could use in a trade and very few moveable pieces outside of that. Past Bones Hyland and Zeke Nnaji, the only other option would be to include one or two of their recent draftees, Christian Braun and Peyton Watson. Although, what interest would Brooklyn have in two unproven rookies?

For the Denver Nuggets to legitimately make a move to acquire Kevin Durant, they would have had to trade both Michael Porter Jr., and Jamal Murray along with a couple of their young assets as well as their sole 2029 first-round draft pick just to make up for their lack of draft picks.

Not only would Denver be essentially gutting half of their roster, but it also wouldn’t even be possible unless the Nets also traded away Ben Simmons. Since Simmons is still on his rookie extension, Brooklyn can’t acquire another player currently on a rookie extension as well. Which means that both Murray and Porter are off the table completely.

Being that there were so many moving pieces, Denver would’ve had to part ways with just about everybody not named Nikola Jokic. This was the biggest trade discussion of the offseason, and one the Nuggets were right to completely avoid.