Nuggets wanted to trade up for a point guard, GMs say

Plan A for the Denver Nuggets wasn’t to use their first round pick at No. 26 to trade down into three second rounders, which is what they did. Nope, the front office’s first thought was actually to trade up in the first round and to target a point guard.

It’s unclear how the Nuggets would’ve gotten there as not a single player with an active salary was dealt during the 2026 NBA Draft as part of a swap for a selection. And the Nuggets didn’t have any future firsts to offer outright, just first-round pick swaps and second rounds. So Denver’s best offer was likely to package starting small forward Cameron Johnson, who is about to be in the final season of his contract, with their pick to move higher.

But very few teams have cap space in the range that likely would’ve gotten the Nuggets. And again, nobody did a trade like the one we’re talking about during this year’s event.

“There were guys we liked in the first round that went higher than we expected,” co-GM Jonathan Wallace said. “Anytime that happens, you see how important those picks are and it got a little expensive to move up. We saw an opportunity to re-stock the war chest a bit with things we’ve been missing and once we replenished that a bit we saw some guys that addressed some needs.”

The Nuggets turned No. 26 and No. 49 into forwards Trevon Brazile (No. 35) and Bryce Hopkins and two future second-round picks.

“We got two extra seconds we feel good about and you can look around the league and see what seconds can get you,” co-GM Ben Tenzer said. “It’s tough to not have as many things as other teams but through the years we’ve given assets for other options at the times and this is what is and we’re comfortable with that.”

Instead of going forward, had the Nuggets somehow pulled it off, their target was a point guard.

“What we did tonight was try to plug a few holes with toughness, defensive ability and rebounding but now it’s about seeing what we can do with creativity and ball handling,” Wallace said. “It was a heavy point guard draft, there was a lot of guys we liked but they just didn’t fall to our area and we tried to make some moves to get up but we’re not the only team that wants elite point guards.”

Who the Nuggets were targeting isn’t known for sure but the morning of the draft Alabama’s Labaron Philon Jr., who fell to the 76ers at No. 22, was mocked to Denver by ESPN. There was also a lot of smoke around Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie, who went No. 17. Eight of the top 22 picks could be considered lead ball handlers, with the Nuggets just missing the end of the batch.

“The feel, the resources in this draft, that’s what you had to look for,” Wallace said.

The Nuggets will now have to turn to the trade and free agent markets to address ball handling, something that’s been needed since the 2024 playoff loss.

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