The Nuggets have made their first move ahead of Thursday afternoon’s trade deadline. Denver is trading for Los Angeles Lakers center Thomas Bryant in exchange for Davon Reed and three 2nd round picks.
The trade fills what’s been the biggest hole on the Nuggets’ roster all season: Backup center. First, Denver tried DeAndre Jordan, an experiment that lasted around two months. Since then, it’s been Zeke Nnaji, who has played well and given Denver a switchable, athletic, defensive-minded big man on its second unit. But even though Nnaji had his moments over the last several weeks, I never got the sense that he sold Nuggets brass on being Denver’s guy at backup center in the playoffs.
Bryant is a 6-foot-10 offensive-minded big man who’s averaging 12.1 points and 6.8 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per game and is a clear upgrade at the position. The 25-year-old is athletic, a rim runner, and a lob threat.
He gets most of his work done in the paint. Byrant has 70 dunks this season, the 21st-most in the NBA. He’s the only player in the NBA who has at least 60 dunks and has played under 900 minutes. Bryant isn’t a high-volume 3-point shooter but has good form and can hit a catch-and-shoot triple out of a pick-and-pop. He’s shooting 22-50 (44%) from 3 this season.
Bryant torched Denver for 21 points on 9-11 shooting and 6 rebounds in a 21-point Lakers win over the Nuggets in December. Bryant then had 17 points and 10 rebounds against the Nuggets in January.
Bryant isn’t regarded as a good or versatile defender, though. That’s what the Nuggets could be losing at backup center if/when he takes Nnaji’s place. We’ll see if this move further entices the Nuggets to move Nnaji ahead of the 3 pm MT deadline.
Bryant is a free agent after this year. If his second half of the season in Denver goes well, I’m sure the Nuggets will look to retain him.
Acquiring Bryant for Reed, who’s out of the Nuggets’ rotation and wasn’t in Calvin Booth’s plans for the roster going forward, along with three 2nd round picks is good business. Bryant is the athletic, lob threat that the Nuggets have wanted to back up Nikola Jokic. It’s a solid move that improves Denver’s bench ahead of what the Nuggets hope is a long playoff run.
