The Denver Nuggets had a quiet trade deadline, moving off of Hunter Tyson to save some money. Yet they are quietly one of the big winners of the deadline -- and specifically, they are huge beneficiaries of the surprising Ivica Zubac trade.
Each day of deadline week brought its own surprising transaction. Tuesday's surprise was Jaren Jackson Jr. going to the Utah Jazz. Wednesday, Anthony Davis became a member of the Washington Wizards. On deadline day itself, the Indiana Pacers swooped in and traded a lucrative package to the Los Angeles Clippers for veteran center Ivica Zubac.
From the transactional standpoint, Zubac was a highly-coveted big man around the NBA. He is an All-Defense level center with impressive interior scoring chops, underrated playmaking skills and the ability to set bone-crushing screens. He is also on a bargain contract over the next three seasons, a major factor in the era of tax aprons.
The Pacers got a two-way center to help them leap back up the standings next season when Tyrese Haliburton returns from his torn Achilles. The Clippers got a strong return and came to grips that the hole they dug themselves into was too great for meaningful playoff success.
While both teams likely feel good about the trade in the aftermath of the deadline, it's too early to declare which side "won" the trade. What we can declare right now is that the Denver Nuggets are quietly but certainly huge winners from the deal.
The Nuggets don't have to face Zubac and the Clippers
Over the last five seasons, Nikola Jokic has won two MVPs and a title and clearly been the best player in the sport. He has dominated the competition, and no one has had the perfect answer to slowing him down.
The closest anyone has come is Ivica Zubac. Over those five seasons, per Databallr, eight players have defended Jokic for at least 500 possessions. Zubac has held Jokic to the lowest field goal percentage among that group as 56 percent -- good, but not otherworldly elite. Names like Rudy Gobert, Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo are on that list and have done a worse job.
Zubac is a brick tower in the paint, able to match Jokic strength-for-strength, but with the agility to defend in space as well. And on offense, he is burly enough that Jokic has to defend him -- there is no cross-matching when the Clippers and Nuggets have faced off.
Lat year's playoffs are the prime example. A Nuggets team capable of pushing the Oklahoma City Thunder to the edge of losing needed seven hard-fought games just to make it past the Clippers, despite LA bringing a playoff dud like James Harden to the fight. Part of that reason was certainly Kawhi Leonard, but a major part was Ivica Zubac.
A star player has gone from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference, a boon for any West contenders. Even more so, the Clippers have the Nuggets' number and would have been a difficult playoff out even in a down season. And with the Clippers fighting their way up into the Play-In Tournament, it would have been very possible for the Nuggets to have to face them in the first round once again.
Now, Zubac and all of his mountainous size and strength is in the Eastern Conference, and the list of centers who have a prayer of stopping Jokic has been reduced even further. Denver has to get healthy, but things continue to open up for them to make a run this year in the Western Conference playoffs.