The Nuggets had reason to keep an eye on Jaime Jaquez Jr. while the Peyton Watson chatter was swirling this offseason.
According to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post, the Bucks explored Watson but never put a formal offer on the table. Had Milwaukee been willing to include Jaquez, Denver at least would have had something real to chew on. Instead, the talks stayed in the conceptual stage, and Jaquez never actually became available in an official sign-and-trade framework, league sources said.
That matters because Denver was intrigued. Jaquez, who finished second in Sixth Man of the Year voting, would have given the Nuggets another young, productive wing to plug into a win-now roster. He also would have softened the blow of losing Watson, who had become a valuable piece for Denver.
Milwaukee, though, chose not to go that route. The 25-year-old was acquired this summer as part of the Giannis Antetokounmpo deal, and he could open the season in the starting lineup after the Bucks failed to land any of the forwards they were connected to, including Jonathan Kuminga. The team apparently wasn’t ready to move him, even in a deal for Watson.
Jaquez’s profile helps explain why Denver would’ve been interested. The No. 18 pick in the 2023 draft posted a career-best 15.1 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 4.7 assists in 28.3 minutes per game over 75 games with Miami last season while shooting 50.7% from the field. That production pushed him to second in Sixth Man of the Year voting.
He wasn’t a regular starter in Miami, though. Over three seasons with the Heat, he never locked down a primary starting job, and his 20 starts in 75 games as a rookie were his most in any season. A move to Denver could have put him in position to build on that bench success while playing for a contender, but Milwaukee looks like the place where he’s most likely to get the starting role he hasn’t had yet.
There are obvious fit questions, too. Jaquez is not known as a plus defender or a three-point shooter - he hit 31.7% of his 2.4 attempts per game last season - but he brings physicality and downhill pressure. He also showed real passing chops for his size, and that 4.7 assists per game would have been a useful skill in Denver, especially with Nikola Jokić around.
The contract situation is the wrinkle. Jaquez is in the final year of his deal and is set to become a restricted free agent next summer, which could have created another issue for the Nuggets down the line. Even so, if Denver had been able to land him, it’s fair to think they would have accepted that risk - particularly if it also meant moving Zeke Nnaji’s contract.
Milwaukee, meanwhile, wasn’t willing to gamble on losing Jaquez before seeing what he can become in a new Bucks direction.
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Jokic May Already Hold Denvers Answer To Its Spacing Debate
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The fit gets even more interesting with DeMar DeRozan in the mix, because another elite mid-range scorer can ease some of the burden on Jokic and create a different kind of pressure on defenses. The bigger question for Denver is how much of that soft-touch game should become a larger part of Jokics own diet next season, especially after his shot from deep lost some of its usual bite late in the year. If the Nuggets are looking for an answer to their spacing debate, it may already be sitting in plain sight around the paint. [Read more 🡒]