The defending NBA champions are doing everything in their power to bulk up ahead of Thursday's NBA Draft. According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the Denver Nuggets have just acquired the No. 29 and 32 overall picks from the Indiana Pacers in exchange for the least favorable of their two 2024 first-round picks and the No. 40 overall pick in this year's draft.
Denver owns its own first-round pick next year as well as the least favorable of Oklahoma City's, who, in turn, own picks from the Rockets, Clippers and Jazz next season, so in all likelihood, the pick the Nuggets are sending the Pacers will be relatively low.
This trade makes plenty of sense on both sides. The Pacers entered this draft with five selections: No. 7, No. 26, No. 29, No. 32 and No. 55. No team ever has enough roster spots to bring in five rookies, and even if they did, there certainly wouldn't be enough minutes to go around. By making this trade, the Pacers avoid some of the roster-crunch issues they would have dealt with and get themselves a future asset to work with.
Denver, meanwhile, has far more immediate concerns. The Nuggets just won the championship, but with the new CBA making it harder than ever to keep expensive teams together, they are looking for ways to maintain their depth during this window without breaking the bank.
Adding two solid rookies should help them do that, especially after they picked up key rotation player Christian Braun at No. 21 overall a season ago. The Nuggets have been incredibly aggressive when it comes to adding upcoming picks, as they only got the pick from Oklahoma City that made this trade possible a few weeks ago, during the Finals, in exchange for their own 2029 first-rounder.
The Nuggets are facing the very real possibility of losing sixth man Bruce Brown, who opted out of the final year of his contract Wednesday. They can only offer him $7.8 million next season, whereas other teams are expected to offer him the full mid-level exception or more. If they do lose Brown, these picks will help ease that pain by bringing in replacements with several years of team control. And if they somehow manage to keep Brown? Those picks just make them even deeper as they prepare to defend their championship.
