After suffering a premature playoff exit at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves, an epiphony slapped the Denver Nuggets right in the face: if they want to maximize the rest of Nikola Jokić's prime, they need to find a way to get young and more athletic.
For most of the summer, the Nuggets have been relatively dormant. Yes, they re-signed Spencer Jones and Tyus Jones, while also taking flyers on Marvin Bagley III and Lonnie Walker IV. However, those are minimal moves that don't significantly alter the tenure of the team.
On Wednesday, the Nuggets finally broke their silence by engaging in a massive five-team deal that saw them part ways with Peyton Watson in exchange for a 2031 first round pick (via the Cleveland Cavaliers) and a 2032 second round pick (via the Sacramento Kings).
The good news is that the Nuggets saved themselves millions in luxury taxes -- a huge win for one of the wealthiest families in America! The bad news, though, is that the Nuggets -- who are clearly in win-now mode -- traded away one of their only young and athletic players for nothing but savings and future draft capital.
Don't worry, they have a plan, though! If you're a fan of the Nuggets, you'd better keep reading, because you're going to love this (I pray that you sense the sarcasm here).
The Nuggets' master plan to replace Peyton Watson
Shortly after trading away Watson, NBA Insider Marc Stein reported that the Nuggets now have their sights set on DeMar DeRozan.
Now, before we start to rag on DeRozan. I want to point out that he is one of the best available players left in free agency, he's had a fantastic career, and there are still some situations where he could be helpful.
Unfortunately, the Nuggets are not one of those teams. When you're two best players are Jokić and Jamal Murray, you want to surround them with as much spacing, secondary creation, defense, athleticism, and secondary rim protection as possible.
Outside of the spacing element (which was actually trending up for him), Watson gave the Nuggets all those things. Meanwhile, this version of DeRozan (who is entering his age-37 season) can't give you any of those ingredients outside of secondary creation. Heck, even Russell Westbrook, who was dishonorably discharged from the team after one season with them in 2024-25, gave the Nuggets more of what they were looking for than what DeRozan can right now.
After being a top three team in the West last season, the Nuggets are in serious danger of slipping down the standings. You could argue that the Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz, and, heck, maybe even the Golden State Warriors (depending on your mileage on Yaxel Lendeborg) made improvements that could allow them to usurp the Nuggets.
This is all without mentioning the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs, who looked like they were a clear tier above the Nuggets before the team lost Watson.
The bottom line is that adding DeRozan isn't going to save them here. The Nuggets may have just ruined their chances of winning a title with Jokić any time soon.
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