3 Nuggets on hottest trade candidate seats entering 2026-27 NBA training camp appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Denver Nuggets were one of the second apron’s biggest casualties this offseason, as the presence of that dreaded tax threshold basically prevented them from re-signing Peyton Watson. They let Watson go in a sign-and-trade, and all they have to show for it is an unprotected first-round pick from the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2031 — an asset that doesn’t help them in their hunt for another title next season.
Advertisement
At first glance, one can make the judgment that the Nuggets’ depth is suboptimal. They lost key contributors such as Watson, Tim Hardaway Jr., Bruce Brown, and Jonas Valanciunas, and they didn’t exactly make huge moves to replace what they lost.
Sure, the Nuggets did get DeMar DeRozan, and he should be an incredible scorer for the team off the bench. They also re-signed Spencer Jones, a homegrown talent who started to come into his own last season. But their signings of Tyus Jones and Marvin Bagley III are rather uninspiring, and they are hoping that some of their low-cost moves, such as the signings of Alpha Diallo and Cam Whitmore, bear fruit.
Watch sports LIVE with fuboTV (free trial)
However, even if the Nuggets manage to cobble together a solid rotation for next season, their cap sheet remains problematic for the long haul. Nikola Jokic is up for a huge extension that could pay him up to an average of $70 million per season — a contract that would basically make it impossible for Denver to add depth pieces without crossing that dreaded second apron.
Advertisement
To that end, the Nuggets have to be proactive in clearing future cap space and dangle these players in trades even with training camp looming (training camp starts on September 29).
Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images
The Nuggets rewarded Christian Braun with a five-year, $125 million contract extension after a breakout 2024-25 campaign in which he averaged 15.4 points on 58/40/83 shooting splits. He looked like the perfect shooting guard in a Jokic and Jamal Murray-centric offense. He is a transition demon, a relentless mover off the ball, and he cherishes doing the dirty work for the team as well.
At the time, that already looked like a huge gamble. Paying an average of $25 million per season for someone who hasn’t yet established himself as a consistent starter was always going to be a risk. But it was worth taking for the Nuggets anyway considering how well he had performed.
Advertisement
Alas, last season proved to be a disaster for Braun on all fronts. He was injured for nearly half of the season, suiting up in just 44 games, and his numbers and shooting efficiency declined (12 points on 52/30/78). What complicated matters was that Watson’s stock was rising.
He was flashing shot-creation skills that he had never displayed in the NBA before, and he was blossoming as a two-way weapon that Denver could not pay handsomely in free agency.
Basically, the Nuggets’ decision boiled down to which player they’d rather keep between Braun and Watson. In the end, Denver decided to stick with Braun and let go of Watson with the hope that his 2024-25 season is more of the norm.
However, once the Nuggets sign Jokic to a supermax extension, they will have nearly $160 million already committed to three players (Murray and Aaron Gordon being the other two). Gordon could also be traded, but when healthy, he’s a far more important piece of Denver’s roster than Braun is.
Advertisement
Having Braun on the books for around $23.3 million in the 2027-28 season means that Denver will already have around $180-ish million committed to just four players.
Suffice to say, this is an untenable situation for Denver. As much as developing Braun was a huge win, having the rest of the team’s depth suffer all while the roster remains top heavy is not a recipe for success in today’s NBA — not when Jokic, Murray, and Gordon are aging. Gordon, in particular, hasn’t been very durable himself, so they will need quality depth to keep them fresh until the postseason.
Of course, the Nuggets won’t just trade away someone who’s penciled in as a starter just for the sake of doing so. Considering that his contract is only kicking in this upcoming season, Denver suddenly won’t find suitors lining up to trade for the 25-year-old.
But they should at least keep on listening on potential offers and pull the trigger when a reasonable one arrives.
Advertisement
Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images
Johnson disappointed a bit in his first season with the Nuggets. After averaging nearly 19 points per game as the first option for a bad Brooklyn Nets team during the 2024-25 season, Johnson was expected to fill in Michael Porter Jr.’s role without much fuss. However, Johnson, in addition to missing 28 games due to injury, saw his average points per contest drop by nearly six points, and it took him some time to get into the rhythm of playing in the Denver system.
Now, Johnson is in the final year of his contract, making $23.1 million. There have been plenty of rumors floating around suggesting that Johnson could be on the move, but the Nuggets are at least willing to enter the 2026-27 season with the same starting lineup they had last campaign.
Advertisement
However, Johnson will be up for a new contract soon. The Nuggets, as mentioned earlier, have well-documented cap sheet troubles. Can they re-sign Johnson to a reasonable extension? Because if not, trading him away might be best to at least recoup some assets before they lose him in free agency.
Play Rewind
This time around, they won’t have the safety net of restricted free agency to leverage into a sign-and-trade, which they did in the Watson situation. In the event of a Johnson trade, they at least have Jones, someone who started 37 games last season, as a ready-made replacement.
Petre Thomas-Imagn Images
It’s hard to argue otherwise that the Nuggets’ cap sheet troubles began the moment they inked Zeke Nnaji, their first-round pick in 2020, to a four-year, $32 million extension. While that is not a huge amount per se, Nnaji hasn’t been good enough to warrant that kind of space in their cap sheet.
Advertisement
Nnaji has two seasons left on his contract (he has a player option for next season worth $7.5 million, which he will most likely accept), and at this point, it’s a matter of simply running down his contract in the Mile High City.
In 303 career NBA games, he’s averaging 4.1 points and 2.3 rebounds per contest. In today’s salary cap landscape where every dollar matters, this has all been nothing but a waste for Denver. Maybe this year is when they can finally find a suitable salary dump for him.
Related: Nuggets rumors: The honest truth about Nikola Jokic’s future in Denver
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
