According To ESPN,s Report, Denver Nuggets Has Completed The Contract With…

Less than a day remains until the NBA trade deadline, which is scheduled for Thursday, February 8 at 3 p.m. EST. Fans are anticipating an inevitable flurry of last-minute deals, some of which could potentially alter the competitive landscape of the league and sway teams’ fates, so the tension is rising as usual.

However, it’s definitely better to keep your expectations down if you’re hoping for spectacular, celebrity-studded trade movement as the Denver Nuggets won’t create any major ripples at the deadline.

In the final hours before the trade deadline, it seems unlikely that Denver will do anything more than make very small movements around the periphery of their rotation for a variety of reasons.

The most significant and primary factor in all of this is that Denver’s starting five, which is captained by two-time MVP and Finals MVP Nikola Jokic, is already a championship unit that has been tested and proved. Head coach Michael Malone should be expected to limit them to just eight or even seven players in his postseason rotations, tightened up from the nine or ten he often puts on the court during the regular season. This is assuming he again follows his rotational patterns from last year’s playoffs, which is a safe assumption given the winning results.

The utility and urgency of adding new players is thereby limited by this reduced rotation, as it is unlikely that they will be good enough—given what Denver is willing to and can give up—to surpass the Nuggets’ starting bench players, Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, and Reggie Jackson, or even deeper reserves like Juilian Strawther and DeAndre Jordan.

The midseason acquisition of center Thomas Bryant by Denver in the previous season is a helpful reminder of this relationship. Bryant struggled to fit in with Denver’s style of play, and even though the Nuggets had limited resources, the idea of having him on board seemed reasonable on paper. As a result, he played no minutes in the playoffs, with Zeke Nnaji and DeAndre Jordan both receiving spot stints ahead of him. Additionally, even if the Nuggets add any players before the deadline this season, they will most likely serve mostly as injury insurance rather than becoming significant players on the court.