Denver's Late-Round Luck Now Owes Its Future to Oklahoma City
The same front office that found a champion with the 41st pick in 2014 has spent the years since mortgaging first-round picks to the team that ended last season.
Nikola Jokic remains the franchise's proof that value hides in the least likely draft slots, taken 41st in 2014 and now a three-time MVP. Denver has since traded away three future first-round picks to Oklahoma City, the team that eliminated the Nuggets in seven games last postseason.
A Steal Denver Still Leans On
Nikola Jokic went 41st in the 2014 draft, a slot NBA teams mine mostly for camp bodies. He is a three-time MVP and the reason Denver won its first championship in 2023, still regarded as the biggest draft steal in league history. That history is why nobody in Denver worries about finding talent in strange places. It is also why the fringe of this roster looks the way it does.
The Cost of Staying Built Around Him
Denver owes Oklahoma City protected first-round picks in 2028, 2029 and 2030, plus a protected 2027 first of its own. Payroll sits at $221.1 million, above the $200.4 million luxury tax line and the first apron, with Jokic, Murray, Gordon and Cameron Johnson accounting for most of it. Denver spent its draft capital and its cap space to keep the Jokic-Murray core together rather than restock through the draft.
Oklahoma City Is the Rival Now
The Lakers were Denver's old measuring stick, a rivalry the Nuggets flipped in 2023 with the first sweep in franchise history. Oklahoma City is sharper: the Thunder eliminated Denver in seven games in last season's second round on their way to a championship of their own, and Denver's mortgaged first-round picks land in Oklahoma City's hands for years after. Beating that team again, not just meeting them, is what the picks were spent for.
Finding Value at the Edges Again
With high picks gone, Denver is still working the margins the way it did in 2014. Emanuel Miller, Coleman Hawkins and Dane Goodwin joined on camp deals September 25, after three other fringe additions came and went within days. None of them will be what Jokic was. But the habit of searching the bottom of the roster for something usable is the same one that built the team Denver is now trying to keep together, apron and all.
How many first-round picks does Denver owe to Oklahoma City?
Protected first-round picks in 2028, 2029 and 2030, the return on trades made to build around Nikola Jokic.
Why has the Oklahoma City rivalry passed the Lakers as Denver's sharpest?
The Thunder eliminated the Nuggets in seven games in last season's second round on their way to the championship, and they now hold several of Denver's future first-round picks.
