With just over 24 hours to go until the NBA’s trade deadline, it’s crunch time for the Denver Nuggets and other teams around the league. The Nuggets have tough decisions to make as they strive to improve the roster before Thursday by 3 pm Eastern time.
At different points in the season, the Nuggets have shown weaknesses in shooting threes, defending threes, defending dribble penetration, defending the rim, and basically all aspects of defense. They’ve also been hurting for depth, specifically in the frontcourt as they haven’t found a consistent backup center behind Nikola Jokic.
With those issues in mind, the Nuggets should be targeting some improvement to their rotation on the margins. If they could add one or two playable role players to bolster the bench, that would drastically improve the team’s outlook.
Nuggets need to move Zeke Nnaji ASAP
One player who has been on the trade block all season (and beyond) is Zeke Nnaji. Nnaji was drafted in 2020 and had a solid first couple of seasons in Denver, showing potential to be a solid stretch big. He showed enough for Calvin Booth to invest in him with a four-year, $32 million extension that kicked in this season.
But Nnaji’s play fell off a cliff last season and he was dumped from Michael Malone’s rotation. He has been largely unplayable ever since and his contract has quickly become a stain on the team’s books.
Outside of the core four players, Nnaji’s $8.8 million salary this year is the highest contract on the team, yet he essentially doesn’t play. With every penny mattering in the new CBA and the Nuggets in financial hell, they need to capitalize on every roster spot and every dollar spent.
They simply cannot afford to have the fifth highest-paid player on the team being a net negative. The Nuggets have tried to shop Nnaji and throw him into deals to get him off the books, but his contract has already proven to be a sticking point for other teams (it was reportedly a big reason the team couldn’t get a deal for Zach LaVine done.
Nuggets shouldn’t let Zeke Nnaji heater change plans
Due to multiple injuries to rotation players, the Nuggets have been forced to call on Nnaji lately, and he has surprisingly played two of his best games in recent memory in consecutive outings. After barely playing all season, Nnaji played 22 minutes in the Nuggets’ win over the Hornets and racked up 5 blocks.
He followed up that showing with 12 points and 5 rebounds in a win over the Pelicans, hitting 2/4 threes and playing some incredible defense on Zion Williamson. It was extremely encouraging to see Nnaji jump into the starting lineup and play so well; it was badly needed.
But the Nuggets cannot be fooled by these two games. Nnaji’s contract is still a complete albatross and a couple of games against bad teams in February doesn’t change that. If anything, they should use these games as an opportunity. He has put some good play on film.
Maybe they can strike while the iron’s hot and get a team to bite on him based on this recent play. If so, they need to do it immediately. Some rebuilding team could convince themselves there’s something there and they can take a shot on Nnaji. If Denver can turn that $8.8 million deal into any semblance of a meaningful rotation player, they need to do it right away.
Thinking that this recent heater by Nnaji is sustainable and he can suddenly be relied upon as the team’s backup center. Buying into that would be a massive mistake and they absolutely can’t let these two games impact their trade deadline decisions.