The Denver Nuggets are leaning hard into the margins this offseason, and the setup feels a lot like a basketball version of “Moneyball.” With the NBA’s second-apron restrictions squeezing what they can spend, they’ve gone hunting for value wherever they can find it: in the draft, in Europe, and on minimum deals.
That approach started in the 2026 NBA Draft, where Denver turned the 26th pick of the first round into the 35th pick in the second round plus two future second-rounders by dealing with the San Antonio Spurs. It’s the kind of move that matters when every dollar counts.
The 26th pick would have carried a $3.45 million cap hit in 2026-27, while the 35th pick led to Trevon Brazile signing a four-year, $9.3 million contract. A rookie minimum salary this year would have hit the cap for $1.35 million, so the Nuggets saved roughly $2 million and added future draft capital in the process.
They also dipped into the EuroLeague for another low-cost swing, bringing in Alpha Diallo. Diallo is the current Defensive Player of the Year in the EuroLeague, and the hope is that he can help cover much of the defensive loss that came with the Peyton Watson sign-and-trade.
There’s risk here, naturally, because he hasn’t played in the NBA. But at $1.35 million against the cap, it’s exactly the kind of bet a team boxed in by the second apron has to consider.
Denver’s roster now includes five minimum contracts, with the two rookies included in that count. The veteran additions are DeMar DeRozan, Marvin Bagley III, and Tyus Jones. DeRozan and Bagley are expected to be important pieces of the rotation, while Jones is the one that raises the most questions, since he is not viewed as a true backup point guard the Nuggets should be comfortable leaning on for big minutes.
The Nuggets are still just a small salary-dump trade away from getting under the mark.
In Other News...
Nuggets Roster Shuffle Suddenly Feels Like More Than Bookkeeping
What looked like a routine roster move for Denver quickly became part of a larger summer reshuffle. Julian Reese, a 6-foot-9 forward-center who spent last season on a two-way deal with Washington and saw action in 13 NBA games, was brought in as part of the Peyton Watson sign-and-trade before the Nuggets decided to move on from him.
The waiver clears the way for Denver to keep working the back end of its roster, and the timing matters with the two-way market still in play. It also leaves the Nuggets with an open two-way spot, another small but meaningful piece of business as they sort through how they want the rest of the group to look. [Read more 🡒]
Bruce Brown's Next Move Feels Stranger After Nuggets Changed Course
Bruce Browns place in Nuggets lore is secure after he helped drive the 2022-23 championship run, but his offseason has taken on a stranger feel as Denver has moved on without him. The Nuggets have remade the back end of the roster by bringing in Tyus Jones, DeMar DeRozan and Alpha Diallo to replace Tim Hardaway Jr., Jalen Pickett and Brown, a clear sign that the bench the team is trying to build now looks different from the one Brown fit so well.
Brown remains on the market, even with reported interest from the 76ers, and the longer he waits, the more his next stop starts to feel like a lingering mystery. Denvers choice of Diallo as a defensive specialist says plenty about the direction of the roster, too, with the Nuggets leaning toward a different kind of answer for the bench minutes Brown once covered so well. [Read more 🡒]
Nuggets Face A Real Jokic Lineup Debate After Last Year's Defensive Issues
The Nuggets kept their core intact this summer, but the most interesting changes came around the edges, where the bench got a fresh look with DeMar DeRozan, Marvin Bagley III, Alpha Diallo and Trevon Brazile. With Denver still trying to solve the defensive problems that cropped up last season, the front office and coaching staff are clearly open to different lineup wrinkles, especially ones that add more size without sacrificing too much of the offense that runs through Nikola Jokic.
One of the ideas worth watching is how much the Nuggets lean into bigger combinations, since the team has been searching for ways to make life easier on that end of the floor. Bagley gives them another option to pair with Jokic, and the intrigue is less about whether the Nuggets can create a different look than whether that look can hold up when the games tighten and the margins get smaller. [Read more 🡒]