Contrary to what most Denver Nuggets followers assume, the team does have a first-round pick in this year’s upcoming NBA Draft. Former general manager Calvin Booth didn’t trade all of them. The draft process hasn’t meant much around here in recent years, but if Denver is going to (a) continue to contend, and (b) continue to try to fit under the salary cap, they desperately need an inexpensive and difference-making young talent.
Can they find such a player with a first-round pick projected to be at number 26 overall?
Recent history says perhaps. In this decade, they did select Christian Braun with the 21st pick back in 2022, and before that, they got “Bones” Hyland (who has had a checkered NBA career to date) with the 26th pick the year prior. In 2020, Zeke Nnaji was Denver’s top pick at No. 22, and in 2024, they picked Ryan Dunn with the 28th pick before immediately sending him to Phoenix (where he remains employed.) The trade with the Suns essentially brought DaRon Holmes II to Denver, so in essence, Holmes was Denver’s last first-round pick (since they didn’t have a pick last year – that pick was sent south as the final part of the Aaron Gordon trade with Orlando.) He was supposed to be that badly needed and valuable front-court addition to play with Gordon and Nikola Jokić. But a serious injury – along with a tendency to want to stay out near the three-point line since he’s returned – should send a clear signal to anyone watching that when/if Holmes finally earns playing time, it will be as another of the Nuggets’ many wing players, rather than as a bang-under-the-basket kind of guy.
This time around, the Nuggets need to find a hidden gem in the draft to perhaps replace – at least fill in for – Gordon and help take some of the pressure off of ‘Joker.’
Make no mistake: the Nuggets’ most dire roster need is in the front court. Jonas Valančiūnas has one year left on his contract at $10 million, but Denver has a team option, and could release him with little or no impact on the salary cap. If they cut ‘Big Val’ loose – and they might – the Nuggets will be right back where they were in 2025 – minus a viable backup for Jokić.
This draft isn’t loaded with centers and power forwards, but there’s a chance center Henri Veesaar, a junior out of North Carolina, might still be there when it’s Denver’s turn. Same goes for physical Morez Johnson Jr., a power forward out of Michigan. Santa Clara power forward Allen Graves might be available, too. The last candidate is center/power forward Koa Peat, out of Arizona – he’s another physical player with plenty of upside.
None of these guys project as an immediate starter. Those types of players will be lottery picks. Could Denver’s dynamic front office duo pull off another big trade on draft day? Send Cam Johnson or Christian Braun, or some other tradeable asset, get shipped to a team that needs veterans rather than another lottery pick? Could the Nuggets somehow move up into the lottery to land a day one starter?
That’s pretty unlikely, even if it’s enjoyable to talk about. Trade scenarios like that aren’t often based in reality. Instead, if Denver does what’s being projected by at least one NBA draft site, and opts for a wing player like Dailyn Swain out of Texas at No. 26, the organization will have wasted another opportunity to take a big step forward for 2027, and will instead be looking at another season where “small ball” is their best option when Jokić’s off the floor.
That would be equal to pretty much slamming the Joker-and-Jamal title window shut.
The Nuggets famously made what’s now considered to be the greatest draft pick of all time when they selected Jokić out of Serbia in the second round (No. 41) of the 2014 draft. A dozen years later, it might take some similar skill/luck on draft night on the part of the new Denver front office to find another standout player late who could help get this franchise back to the upper levels of the NBA.
