Denver Nuggets trade 26th pick to San Antonio Spurs
The Nuggets were on the clock and elected against making a pick.
Denver’s turn to select with the 26th pick of the NBA Draft came up with Houston’s Chris Cenac Jr., Duke’s Isaiah Evans, Arizona’s Koa Peat, North Carolina’s Henri Veesaar, Arkansas’ Meleek Thomas, Iowa State’s Joshua Jefferson and Connecticut’s Tarris Reed Jr. among the best players available.
Instead, the Nuggets front office elected to trade the 26th pick to San Antonio for the 35th overall pick in Wednesday’s second round, Minnesota’s 2028 second-round pick and Sacramento’s 2031 second-rounder.
The Spurs went on to select Reed, continuing the trend of the Western Conference’s top teams getting bigger and better. Oklahoma City used its first pick, the 12th overall selection, to draft 7-foot-3 Aday Mara out of Michigan.
San Antonio returned fire by selecting Kentucky’s Jayden Quaintance, a 6-10 shot-blocker and adding Reed, a 6-11 center.
Since the trade had not been formally processed by the end of the first round, Denver’s executives were not able to talk about the transaction. The trade was finalized later Tuesday night.
Prior to the trade, the Nuggets were extremely short on draft capital. Second-round picks are frequently used to facilitate trades or move off of undesirable contracts, and the Nuggets were down to one after Calvin Booth’s front office used three second-round picks to trade away Reggie Jackson and three more to move up to select DaRon Holmes II in 2024.
Denver’s new-look front office led by Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace is yet to make a draft pick. The Nuggets did not have a draft pick last year. Denver’s most recent first-round pick, Holmes, was made by Booth.
The top five went as expected – BYU’s AJ Dybantsa to Washington, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson to Utah, Duke’s Cam Boozer to Memphis, North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson to Chicago and Illinois’ Keaton Wagler to the Clippers.
The trade market was quiet until Memphis traded back from 16 to 17, allowing Oklahoma City to select Iowa guard Bennett Stirtz. The Grizzlies moved back again to 21 in a move with Detroit, and the Pistons took Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie. The trend continued with the Nuggets on the 26th pick.
Boston picked Cenac at 27. Jefferson, the 28th pick, ended up with Brooklyn. Sacramento traded with Cleveland to select Connecticut’s Alex Karaban, and Phoenix struck a deal with Dallas to select Koa Peat with the 30th overall pick.
Evans, Veesaar and Thomas headline the list of best-available players heading into the second round. If those three are off the board, one of Cincinnati’s Baba Miller, Louisville’s Ryan Conwell, and German guard Jack Kayil will be available to become the first draft pick of the Tenzer-Wallace era.