The NBA trade deadline has officially come and gone and the Denver Nuggets didn’t make a single deal. They had clear goals and clear needs ahead of this deadline and they accomplished none of them.
The Nuggets needed to upgrade the roster. It was very clear they lacked depth, they had no backup bigs, they didn’t have enough shooting and spacing, and they didn’t have a strong enough defense. This team needs to be competing now in the prime of Nikola Jokic and yet, they didn’t make a single upgrade.
Even in the last few days, reports have come out about the Nuggets having interest in multiple players that would have helped a lot, including Jonas Valanciunas, Cody Martin, Chris Boucher, and Terrance Mann.
Landing any of those players would have bolstered depth in an area of need, but the Nuggets got none. And it’s not like they weren’t available, three of them got moved for very affordable prices. The Nuggets tried and failed badly because they completely wasted all of their assets.
Nuggets blow it: strike out on every single move at NBA trade deadline
The Nuggets have let key veteran players walk in past years like Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope while ensuring the fans they wanted to keep their flexibility. Yet, they seemingly have no flexibility.
They’ve blown any potential flexibility with every move they’ve made. Extending Zeke Nnaji was a disaster, signing Dario Saric was terrible, and dumping Reggie Jackson with three 2nd-round picks was atrocious.
Those weren’t the only bad moves along the way, but they are the most obvious ones at the moment, as they prevented the Nuggets from being able to make competitive offers for marginal upgrades at this trade deadline.
It’s infuriating and it’s not something that’s likely to change any time soon. Nobody around the league wants any of the Nuggets bad contracts. They have no in-between contracts to make a deal, and the lack of proven young players and draft picks is making trading almost impossible for a team that needs to win now.
There were players available, but the Nuggets had to sit by helpless while those players were moved to other teams - many of them competitors in the West. Denver has continually failed to bolster the rotation on the margins since Calvin Booth took over and the moves are slowly lowering the overall ceiling of the team.
As long as Nikola Jokic is around, the Nuggets should still be a good team and they’ll have a chance to compete as long as they have the best player in any playoff series. But they are asking too much of him and failing to surround him with a roster that gives him and the Nuggets the best chance to win.