Timeline 25: A draft-night trade that the Nuggets never should’ve made
Jul 22, 2020, 6:29 AM
On March 6, 1995, The Fan was born. In the 25 years since, a lot has transpired on the fields, courts and ice in Colorado, giving the hosts and listeners who’ve been part of the station during that time plenty to talk about and debate.
During the course of the next few weeks, we’ll take a look back at that history, remembering the good times and the bad, the winners and the losers, the successes and the failures. It’s a series we’re calling “Timeline 25” and it continues today with a look at a remaining connection to one of the biggest draft misses in Colorado sports history – a trade the Nuggets never should’ve made.
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On June 22, 2017, the NBA gathered at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, for the league’s annual draft. Markelle Fultz was expected to go No. 1 overall to the 76ers, but Lonzo Ball – thanks in large part to his attention-seeking father – was the main story, projected to be the second-overall pick to the Lakers.
The Nuggets held the No. 13 pick that night, coming off of a 40-42 season that saw the emergence of Nikola Jokic as the team’s centerpiece. They also had Jamal Murray, the seventh-overall selection the year before, who paired with Gary Harris to make a formidable backcourt.
As a result, the Nuggets wanted to get younger at the forward position. Wilson Chandler and Kenneth Faried weren’t part of the franchise’s rebuilding plan, so finding replacements for those soon-to-be-departing pieces was on Tim Connelly’s mind when the draft rolled around.
The best player on the board when Denver’s selection came around wasn’t a fit. He’d create a logjam in the backcourt and would find playing time hard to come by.
That’s why Denver traded their pick to Utah in exchange for the Jazz’s first-round selection (No. 24) and Trey Lyles. The Nuggets drafted Tyler Lydon, a 6-foot-9 power forward out of Syracuse, adding a pair of forwards in one fell swoop.
Lydon spent two seasons in Denver, playing just one game in 2017-18 and 25 in 2018-19. He averaged 0.9 points, 0.7 rebounds and 0.2 assists during his Nuggets career.
Lyles was a better addition, serving as a role player during those same two seasons. All told, the forward averaged 9.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists during 137 games in a Denver uniform.
Today, Lydon is out of basketball, while Lyles is in San Antonio, having signed a free-agent deal with the Spurs prior to this season. The player the Nuggets traded away, however, has blossomed.
During his first season in Utah, the 6-foot-1 shooting guard averaged 20.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists, earning first-team All-Rookie honors. The next year, his averages increased to 23.8, 4.1 and 4.2. And prior to the stoppage of play due to the coronavirus, he had upped those numbers to 24.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists, earning his first All-Star Game invite.
Needless to say the Jazz got the better end of the deal. And somehow, someway, the Nuggets could’ve probably found a way to get the guard onto the guard.
No matter how hard someone tries to spin it, Denver made a mistake when the drafted Donovan Mitchell and then traded him away an hour or so later. He’d make a really good, young Nuggets roster one of the best in the NBA if he’d stay in town.
