It’s an exciting time to be affiliated with the Denver Nuggets. The team is in the middle of competing in the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, and as of right now, they find themselves up, 2-1, on the Miami Heat. They are overwhelming favorites to win the Larry O’Brien trophy and Nikola Jokic is erasing any doubt that he is the best player on the planet.
But guess what, folks: Despite all of this, Denver’s front office found time to make a trade in the middle of the Finals. Hours before Game 4 tips off in Miami on Friday night, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that the Nuggets and the Oklahoma City Thunder pulled off a deal that involves a bunch of draft capital moving around, with the most notable pieces of the puzzle being a pair of first-round picks moving in opposite directions.
NBA Finals trade: The Denver Nuggets are acquiring the least favorable of Oklahoma City’s first-round picks in 2024, the 37th pick in the 2023 draft and 2024 second-round pick for a protected 2029 first-round, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 9, 2023
The Nuggets are trying to maximize their championship window and this deal gives them some additional chances at low-cost contracts and trade tools. For OKC, another first-round pick deep into the future.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 9, 2023
Denver finds itself in a position where its core players — Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon — are all under contract through at least the 2024-25 season. It’s why there’s so much optimism about their ability to keep being a contender over the next few years, but as Wojnarowski pointed out, it’s important to them to do everything they possibly can to maximize their odds of winning as many championships as possible before their cap sheet becomes untenable.