NBA Draft Lottery 2017: Who each team should take with the No. 1 pick
By John Buhler
Denver Nuggets: Jonathan Isaac, power forward, Florida State Seminoles (0.6 percent)
With Tim Connelly running the Denver Nuggets’ front office, his methodical moves to this rebuild have been pragmatic, but haven’t always worked. While the Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray draft picks look to be swell, the Jusuf Nurkic trade with the rival Portland Trail Blazers was a disaster. Then there’s the Emmanuel Mudiay draft pick. That doesn’t look all that great in hindsight either.
Denver only has the 13th-best odds to win the 2017 NBA Draft Lottery at only 0.6 percent. In the parallel universe where the Nuggets leapfrog 12 teams to get the No. 1 pick, we have to assume that Connelly will use that selection as leverage to move back to acquire more assets.
Being that Mudiay will only be entering his third year in the league, now is not the time for the Nuggets to draft his replacement. The sample size is not strong enough just yet to prove that he’s never going to figure it out. Connelly knows that Jokic is a star, but has to find a player that could work alongside him in the frontcourt.
Drafting power forward Jonathan Isaac out of Florida State could be the choice Denver does make with their first round pick. Obviously, the Nuggets would have to dump Kenneth Faried to whichever team trades up to No. 1 to presumably draft a point guard. Denver taking Isaac could also indicate that Denver is open to parting ways with talented, but always injured small forward Danilo Gallinari in free agency.
The Phoenix Suns would be a team that could trade up to get the No. 1 pick from the Nuggets. They already have all the Kentucky Wildcats point guard they could ever want, but they still want more. If Phoenix trades up to No. 1 to draft Lonzo Ball out of UCLA, Eric Bledsoe or Brandon Knight could be interesting fits in Michael Malone’s Denver offense.