The Denver Nuggets have been one of the least active teams in the entire trade market. With DeMar DeRozan and Marvin Bagley coming in as the most noteworthy additions, Colorado’s response to their recent first-round playoff exit has been quite poor, further worsened by the reluctance to re-sign Peyton Watson, who had just finished a very promising year and now leaves a substantial void in the roster. Nevertheless, there was a plan in Denver to fill that gap. One that ultimately did not come to full fruition.
And according to Bennett Durando, a reporter for the Denver Post, the franchise kept discussions with the Clippers while negotiating Watson’s exit via a sign & trade, discussions in which there was a strong interest in one of the Los Angeles club’s players: Kris Dunn. His profile as a perimeter defender and a energy guy is exactly what Adelman’s roster badly needs, but, despite his clear effort to land him, management ultimately placed more importance on other aspects.
Durando notes that the Nuggets weren’t content with merely receiving the guard, and they demanded some draft capital from the Clippers that the Californians were unwilling to offer, a key point in the negotiations. Thus, the forward ended up heading to Cleveland in a move that granted Denver a first- and a second-round pick in 2031 and 2032 respectively, signaling that, despite their initial intent, the franchise ended up favoring the picks over filling one of their major needs.
A Complicated Plan
Nevertheless, it isn’t as if the operation to bring Kris to Colorado was straightforward. If any salary had been involved in the sign & trade, Denver would have exceeded the second apron, meaning they would have needed to involve another player to offset Dunn’s $5.7 million salary. Perhaps that part caused the Clippers to hesitate or led them not to include any draft picks in the move, effectively ending the Nuggets’ plan to reinforce an outside defense that, at present, raises many questions.
