Nuggets Make HUGE Trade...

We're not going to waste your time. Guys, we do have Nuggets videos every day though, so if you are not subscribed yet, make sure to go ahead and subscribe. We're closing in on 4,000 subscribers. 70% of viewers are currently unsubscribed and there's a lot of stuff that's coming after this deal too because there is so much to go over on the Denver Nuggets. But jumping into it, I'm not going to dance around it. We knew the Peyton Watson saga was coming to an end soon. and a trade kicker. There it is. The deal we have been waiting to see. What's going to happen with Peyton Watson? Are the Nuggets going to foot the bill and decide to keep him around? Are they going to find a sign and trade for him? Who are they going to get in return for him? Who would end up with Peyton Watson? So many teams are interested. What are they going to do? We now saw what happened. He got traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a second round pick that's coming up and a 2031 first round pick that if it does not work out, oh boy, there's going to be a lot of upset fans. Now look, I am going to go into my own feelings on this in a minute or so, but I do want to talk about this logistically on what has happened right now. The Nuggets traded away a player who was a restricted free agent. The Nuggets did not want to pay him more than the four-year, $70 million contract that they offered him because of fear of going into the second apron. The second apron 100% causes problems to teams, and teams are afraid of going into it. Every team is afraid of going into it. Teams do frequently try to stay out of it for as long as possible, and every team has avoided it like the plague this offseason. The Nuggets were looking like the one team that would go into it to retain Watson. And Watson was not loving the deal, and he was getting ready to become a unrestricted free agent next season by taking the qualifying offer with the Nuggets, playing out his deal there, and not wanting to re-sign with the team that didn't pay him unless they'd following that year overpay him to stay around. And he could decide his fate more clearly. Well, now Watson did get a little bit of fate that he could decide, and he chose the Cleveland Cavaliers, which I do think many people, myself included, would say was the best exterior destination for him. He joins a team with James Harden and Donovan Mitchell, meaning he will get his shots off the dribble or his shots off catch and shoots in the corners. He does give much-needed shooting to Cleveland, and he does give much-needed perimeter defense to Cleveland. Now we're done talking about the Cavaliers, because there's a lot to go into on the Nuggets right here with this deal. The Nuggets now lose a player who was great last year. 14.6 points per game, which was a career high, along with shooting 41% from three, putting up 22 points per game when Jokic was missing a little bit of time, as well with an injury that he never fully recovered from, but mainly did. He also was getting a steal and a block per game. Watson was great last year. He became the best on-ball defender on the team, one of the best defenders on the team in general. I mean, because of the lack of playing that we saw from Aaron Gordon, you could argue Watson was the Nuggets' best defender last year. The Nuggets knew they might lose him and signed Alpha Diallo, an overseas defensive player of the year last year, and someone who does have NBA potential. They also signed other wings like Lonnie Walker, for instance, to replace Tim Hardaway Jr. off the bench. Walker can play a bit of defense, also has had some good NBA moments, but none of these guys are Peyton Watson. Now, because we're four minutes into an eight-minute video, we're going to talk about how I feel about this trade. Now, first of all, I get why people are all right with the deal, considering that Watson had potential to leave next offseason, but I blame the Kroenke family more than anyone else. I think this is an atrocity of a deal. I do not like this trade at all. Look, here's the deal. Ben Tenzer and John Wallace went in there, gave offers that they knew Watson was going to decline, so I don't even understand why they would make that offer and why they would do it twice moreover and re-offer him the same deal, except with a team option on the last year. I mean, are they nuts? If anything, give him the player option, you lunatics. Don't be so scared that the Christian Brown deal didn't work out, and instead of us having a guy who looked like a nice player, yeah, a little bit of an overpay. Shot 30.1% from three last season, on or out, to a poor year, and Watson, he wanted the money that Brown was getting. He wanted $25 million a year. Did he get that out in Cleveland? No, but he did get $22 million. When you do the $70 million, take away the $18 million or add to it from what the Nuggets offered. Want to know what we're looking at? We're looking at a deal where now Watson makes $3 million per year less than Christian Brown on average annual value. It's not said what the deal is. If it's front-loaded, back-loaded, a flat-loaded contract, so obviously we will see about that as time does go on, but what a disaster of a deal this is. Here's the problem. Here's the problem with this deal. I don't see how a 2031 first-round pick helps a team that wants to win now. Oh, we're a win-now team. We're not going to trade Nikola Jokic under any circumstances. We're a win-now team. Look, I wouldn't trade Jokic either. The man's the best player in the NBA. I'm not saying ship him out. I'm saying try to win. It was three years ago. It was not that long. It really wasn't. I mean, yeah, the Celtics won. They were due to win. They had been great for a while. Overall, the Knicks winning in 2026, they had been making the conference finals for a few years now. They had been making good playoff runs. They had a good team. That one was also kind of expected. The Thunder were a great team. No surprise they won, even though the Nuggets, with still a good bench, took them to seven games, but Aaron Gordon's injury had a big impact on them losing. The Nuggets are still a contender. And instead of bringing back a 23-year-old who was good, who was getting better, they shipped him out for a pick that's going to have no impact on Nikola Jokic's career unless they ship that pick out for someone else using the Cameron Johnson contract to get someone who's actually good. That is what's going to happen. And by the way, just so we're clear, I know that none of us are high on Cameron Johnson, but he shot 43% from three. Peyton Watson was kind of the factor where it's like, oh, if we trade Cameron Johnson, Peyton Watson shot 2% worse, was over 40% anyway. Now, we don't have that. Jamal completely sucked it up from shooting from behind the arc in the playoffs. Jokic shot 16%. Christian Brown forgot how to shoot a basketball. Do we see the reoccurring theme between all these players right now? Aaron Gordon, yeah, 39% from three, that's great. I'm thrilled for him. Didn't shoot as well in the playoffs whatsoever, though, in the three games he played when he was hurt. So perfect right there. No, no, this is not a good deal. Yeah, we could argue, oh, well, the 2031 Cavs pick, that should be good, right? Hopefully they blow a fuse and Evan Mobley never turns into a great player like he would be when he'd be 31 years old in 2031 or whatever it is. I think he'd be a little younger, in fact, if I'm being completely honest. So when Mobley's in his prime and Peyton Watson's in his prime, because he will be, let's hope they suck and have to trade those guys away so that 2031 pick looks good. So after Jokic is gone, we can just be like, well, we got a first-round pick. Nice. Bruh, like, I don't care about the argument, well, we should have done this, we should have done that. No, what we shouldn't have done was trade away Peyton Watson, even if it meant going into the second apron. Look at these numbers. The first Western Conference player to reach 50-plus steals, blocks, and 53s made last season, and he only played 54 games, and we still screw this up. And then, as Legion Hoops mentions right here, when you look at it, what is this package, dude? A 2027 second and a 2031 first. As I've said, the team that trades away the player who gets signed and trades never gets a good deal. But this is awful. This is a terrible conference. Why? I would have rathered Max Struess. Max Struess and a first, we can't do that. He's making around this, holy voice crack, the same amount of money that we offered Peyton Watson. At least he's a role player we can put off the bench. I mean, now we can cross Watson off this depth chart right here. We see our starting five. It's good. I like the starting five. I like Jamal, even though I trust him a little bit less after these last couple of playoffs. He's still the best player in the NBA. When Aaron Gordon's healthy, he's great. Cameron Johnson hits his threes. Christian Brown better have one bad MF year after this season. Off the bench, we got Tyus Jones. Julian Strother better break out. Ron Holmes better be good. Marvin Bagley better have the best season of his career. Alpha Diallo better be real. Lonnie Walker better be coming back to the NBA with a point to prove. Our rookies, Trayvon Brazil, better be great instantly because this Nuggets bench is ass. It is not good. It's not going to win us a championship. I don't know if it gets us past the second round if we get there. And by the way, last year, we didn't get there. Look, Sam Quinn put it excellently regarding the Kroenke family and everything they've done and the atrocities. The Nuggets have Nicola Jokic in his prime. It might be 50 years before they had someone this good again, and that might be a stretch because 50 years ago, the Nuggets had David Thompson, and, well, frankly, David Thompson is nowhere near as good as Jokic ever was. I know he was great. I'm not hating on David Thompson. I know Alex English was great. Again, I'm not discarding away other guys who aren't as good as Jokic but are our all-time players. Melo, Alex English, AI for a year. I get it. I'm not hating. David Thompson, of course. But no one's ever been as good as Jokic. He's one of the best centers of all time. Screw that. He's one of the best players of all time. What a terrible, terrible deal. And they traded it, in their opinion, in his opinion, their fourth best player, I would agree, without getting a player back because the family that also owns the Los Angeles Rams, who are the favorites for the Super Bowl, the Colorado Avalanche, who have been great, Arsenal, who's having a tremendous run of it, they were afraid of a huge tax bill. All three of those teams are great, but no, the Nuggets, we're just going to middle out from now on. If I were Jokic, I would understand why I might request a trade-down. If Jokic is pissed and next season doesn't go well, and he does, I wouldn't blame him. I'd be crushed, but I'd get it. I hate this deal. This is a disaster. They have to flip. They have to find a way to make a flip with this pick because you can't say, well, in 2031, we'll be good again. We don't know that. We don't know who's going to be on the team, but Jokic won't. If he's still there, which would be impressive, he's not going to be Jokic anymore, so this is a disaster. I hate this deal. Let me know what you think in the comments down below. Like this video, subscribe, turn on post notifications. Have a great day. I'll talk to you all later.