How the September NBA blockbuster trade affects the Nuggets

The offseason of the NBA overacting and trying to stop Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets continued on Wednesday, when a massive three-way trade between two recent playoff foes and a recent champion went down.

The Portland Trail Blazers sent disgruntled franchise face Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks in a three-deal that includes the Phoenix Suns, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Portland gets All-Star Jrue Holiday and former No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton as well as Toumani Camara, Milwaukee’s 2029 unprotected 1st-round draft pick, and unprotected Milwaukee swap rights in 2028 and 2030.

The Suns add former Nuggets center Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson.

The Blazers just had the second pick in the NBA Draft, selecting guard Scoot Henderson, who they’ll pair with young guards Shaedon Sharpe and Anfernee Simons. The youth movement and players at the spot means Holiday is likely on the move again. So Portland gets its rebuild into full gear and will stay waning in the west but the pickup of the still young and athletic Ayton could be huge for their future.

Ayton was also very publicly not happy with his situation in Phoenix and wanted to move. He signed as a restricted free agent with Indiana last offseason before the Suns matched. Of course, Denver just beat the Suns in the second round of the playoffs this past summer and while Ayton was hurt and struggled through the series, his contributions in 2021 were key to the team’s sweep over the Nuggets where they went to the NBA Finals.

DenverSports’ sister in Arizona reported the Suns interest in Nurkic last week. One of the notes was a supposed help to the Suns’ defense particularly on the inside, a hint at where Denver pounded Phoenix in the playoffs. Nurkic is the same size as Ayton but has about 50 pounds him, still, the outgoing center’s defense is better than the incoming’s. Ayton may fit well in Portland and with the Suns previous core but Nurkic’s fit in Phoenix is questionable

Nurkic, 29, averaged 13.3 points, 9.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game while shooting 51.9% from the field across 52 games. He signed a four-year, $70 million extension with the Blazers last summer.

The 25-year-old Ayton has been actively involved in trade rumors for the past two offseasons. He is coming off a 2022-23 campaign in which he averaged 18.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 1.7 assists per contest and shot 58.8%.

This is the third major trade the Suns have made in the past few months and the second of the offseason. Phoenix added Kevin Durant at the trade deadline for Mikal Bridges then sent out Chris Paul for Bradley Beal earlier in the offseason. If this third trade doesn’t work out for the Suns it very well could mean Phoenix helping the Bucks win yet another ring. The two teams met in 2021, where the Bucks won and now with Holiday gone, that core is broken up.

The Bucks take that chance to add Lillard, 32, who scored a career-high 32 points a game this past season while keeping his historically good shooting in form. The guard has averaged more than seven helpers a game the last five seasons and pairs with one of the league’s best players in Giannis Antetokounmpo. While Lillard’s defense is in question, Antetokounmpo is awesome on that end, as is two-time All-Defensive team player Brook Lopez and three-time two-way All-Star Khris Middleton.

How does the Lillard trade impact the Nuggets?

First off the Milwaukee Bucks are now title favorites, surpassing the Nuggets. In the past hour, they’ve shot up from +750 to +375. Denver is second at +425 and Boston is third at +500.

The Bucks lost depth but gained some celling. Milwaukee was the best team in the NBA’s regular season last year and won the title in 2021, this very well could be the team the Nuggets meet in the NBA Finals, if Denver can get there. But this isn’t just about getting better for now in Milwaukee, it’s about keeping Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee. The incredible forward has yet to sign a contract extension and was unhappy with how the team around him was being built. With Lillard and a new coach, this may satisfy Antetokounmpo—or this could blow up and slightly lead to a bigger chance of the Greek Freak leaving the Midwest. And Antetokounmpo loves Nuggets star Jokic.

Meanwhile, Lillard, a former Nuggets killer, is finally out of the west. Denver ethered Portland into their rebuild but that was only after a tough Game 7 loss at home in the 2019 playoffs. The Blazers can be seen as rebuilding and a team Denver won’t have to worry much about during their championship window.

The biggest impact on the Nuggets comes in what the Suns added and lost. As covered above there’s no doubt Phoenix took a step back at center but they did add even more depth. This summer the Suns have quietly done a great job of adding pieces around their All-Stars to supplement the roster. Veteran Eric Gordon, young shooter Yuta Watanabe, and mobile backup big Drew Eubanks as well as interesting former Pac-12 players Bol Bol and Chimezie Metu have been added to the team. With this trade, the Suns added pesty guard Grayson Allen, who will likely be the team’s sixth man—young wings Nassir Little and Keon Johnson, either of which could replace Josh Okogie in starting at small forward.

Without a known Holiday landing spot, he could be a giant pickup for another of the Nuggets rivals—and quietly Jrue was better than Dame the last year or so.

So Nikola Jokic will roll into 2023-24 with a steady roster while nearly every single one of the game’s best players aside from him will have to deal with a major roster shake up that took place this summer.
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