Most NBA players will be eligible to be traded starting this Sunday, December 15th. That means all players who signed as free agents this offseason will be available to be dealt; this should kick off the unofficial trade season and get the wheels in motion for deals around the league.
For the Nuggets, this means everyone on the roster outside of the recently extended Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon is now eligible to be moved. The newly signed players who can now be on the market for Denver include Russell Westbrook, Dario Saric, Vlatko Cancar, and DeAndre Jordan.
Westbrook got off to a rocky start but has proven to be a vital part of the team and one of their only reliable players. His energy and veteran leadership have been huge, and his ballhandling and playmaking have really helped the Nuggets to stay afloat early in the year.
DeAndre is the definition of a guy on a vet minimum deal. His playing days are almost behind him, but he’s a great veteran leader and can give sparing minutes at center in a pinch; he has no real trade value. Cancar suffered another knee injury and will be out for months; he’s not going to be movable around the league.
The Nuggets need to find a way to get rid of Dario Saric
That leaves just Dario Saric; one of the worst signings of the summer - by any team. The Nuggets gave Saric the full taxpayer midlevel exception, plus a player option for next year. That’s just an absurd waste of money for a guy who took all of one week to prove unplayable.
Even as badly as the Nuggets need help at center, Saric cannot stay on the court. So, now a team that is scrapping and clawing for any rotation players or financial flexibility is on the hook for $10.6 million over this year and next for a complete nonentity.
Calvin Booth and company need to be as active as possible to find a way to get rid of Saric. Trading draft assets to dump Dario would be a disaster, but I’m not sure what options they are going to have. Nobody is going to want to take on that contract without some sweetener coming with it.
Luckily, the money is small enough, that he could be dumped to a team that isn’t contending. This isn’t going to be easy, by any means, but the Nuggets’ front office got into this mess and they need to find a way to salvage the situation.
Maybe that means identifying a cheap veteran role player on a rebuilding team and trying to swap Saric and a future 2nd round pick, maybe it means something even more creative. I don’t have the answers, but I didn’t create this problem either.
The Nuggets can’t be wasting that money, they can’t be wasting that roster spot, and they need to start working on a solution as soon as this Sunday.