A trade built around a Jamal Murray-for-Jaylen Brown swap makes sense for Boston – not for Denver.

Brown’s situation in Boston is bordering on untenable. Coming off a season where he led the Celtics to the two seed in the Eastern Conference as the team’s lone star for most of the season, the 29-year-old’s name was heavily floated around in trade talks for Giannis Antetokounmpo before Boston got outbid by Miami. That certainly didn’t help matters between the wing and the team that drafted him with the third pick back in 2016.

Brown, a five-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA selection and the 2024 Finals Most Valuable Player, is a great two-way talent, but he doesn’t answer enough of the questions that have stumped Denver in recent postseasons, especially when including Murray is the easiest way to make the trade work. If he wants to be the No. 1 option somewhere, Denver certainly isn’t the place.

For all that Brown does well, he’s a lesser ballhandler, creator and shooter than Murray. After the Nuggets declined to exercise Jalen Pickett’s team option Monday, Denver started free agency with a need to add supplemental ball handling. Murray was the only real point guard on the roster in a free-agent class short on established point guards.

The salary situation also doesn’t provide much relief for Denver. Brown signed a super-max extension after earning second-team All-NBA honors in 2023. He’s due $183 million over the next three seasons. Murray signed his max extension before he became an All-Star and All-NBA third-team selection this year and will make $161.4 million over the final three years of his current contract.

The trade wouldn’t be a simple one-for-one. Including Cam Johnson and Sam Hauser is one of the most popular iterations. Hauser would help add some shooting but not enough to offset the losses of Tim Hardaway Jr., who signed with the Heat on Tuesday afternoon, and Johnson. The savings, roughly $5 million, for next season wouldn’t make a meaningful difference in Denver’s pursuit to retain Peyton Watson, whose new contract could increase by roughly $20 million to keep the young talent in Denver. Additionally, the Nuggets would be capped at the second apron after aggregating salaries to make the trade work in the first place.

Such a trade would leave the Nuggets with three wings – Brown, Watson and Christian Braun – vying for two starting spots, no real lead guard and few assets to address the biggest need heading into next season.

Pairing Murray and Jayson Tatum alongside Derrick White, Neemias Queta and an addition at power forward makes sense for Boston. Combining Brown, Jokic, Aaron Gordon, Watson and Braun leaves Denver with more holes.

The Nuggets are better off shedding Johnson’s salary to retain Watson and seeing if they can once again strike gold on minimum contracts like they did with Hardaway and Bruce Brown. The track record of getting Murray’s and Jokic’s complementary players significant raises after a short time in Denver should entice others to take a chance on Denver, even if it means sacrificing some dollars in the short term.

Trading Murray for Brown doesn’t address the biggest Nuggets’ needs, and that should be the primary objective this offseason.