In some ways, the recent resurgence of the Denver Nuggets has quieted many of the trade whispers. Following Tuesday night’s blowout win over the 76ers, the Nuggets are 27-16 on the season, just one game back from the 2 seed in the loss column.
They’ve been creeping up the Western Conference standings and now they find themselves in a great position to get a top 4 seed and home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. It’s a pretty remarkable and fast turnaround after an incredibly slow start that saw the team struggling to stay over .500 out of the gate.
The consensus opinion was that the team wasn’t good enough and needed to make movies to upgrade the roster. While those talks have cooled off along with the team’s hot play, there is still some truth to those sentiments.
Sure, they are playing well, but if they truly want to position themselves to win a championship this season, the Nuggets are still a player or two short. They’ve proven enough lately to show they’re within shouting distance, but a tweak or two ahead of the deadline could have this team in a great spot to chase their second title in three years.
It may seem like the Nuggets don’t have a lot to deal, but we just saw the Suns turn one pick into three to give themselves more assets to work with. Anything is possible if you’re creative and the Nuggets owe it to themselves (and especially to Nikola Jokic) to go all in and exhaust every possible resource to make the team better.
Nothing is imminent, and there is no clear target at the moment. But if the Nuggets are looking to make any kind of deal before the deadline, there are three obvious players that could get moved in a deal.
#1 most likely Nugget to be traded: Zeke Nnaji
The clearest path to upgrading the roster still involves dumping Nnaji’s albatross contract. Calvin Booth gave Nnaji a four-year, $32 million extension last offseason for zero reason, and in year one, that contract has already proven to be crippling.
Nnaji has shown that he’s completely unplayable even on a team desperate for frontcourt depth. His $8.8 million salary this year is a complete drain on the Nuggets’ cap sheet. It won’t be easy, but turning that salary slot into a useful role player should be objective A, B, and C at the trade deadline.
#2 most likely Nugget to be traded: Dario Saric
Saric falls into a similar category as Nnaji except his contract isn’t quite as detrimental. He makes about $5.3 million this year with a player option for the same amount next year and the Nuggets need to get that off their books immediately.
Like Nnjai, Saric is unplayable and has no value around the league. But his salary being more than a minimum is somewhat useful and Calvin Booth needs to find a creative way to entice a team to take on Dario’s contract and send back a role player who can actually see the floor.
#3 most likely Nugget to be traded: Michael Porter Jr.
With how well MPJ and the team have played recently, this one is looking less likely than ever. But the fact remains, if the Nuggets want to trade for a star player, or any player making anything north of $15 million or so, Porter Jr. and his $35.86 million deal have to be included.
Again, I don’t think this one is particularly likely. MPJ has played very well, he’s still just 26, fits great in Denver, and likely has more value than any player the team could get back. Yet still, there is always a possibility that a star becomes available and the Nuggets can’t resist. If that’s the case, it’ll be Porter Jr. heading out of Denver.