Nuggets' development strategy fizzles out with Peyton Watson departure

After trading for Aaron Gordon, the Denver Nuggets committed to supplementing their expensive core with affordable young talent. Five years later, there's very little to show for that youth movement.

The Nuggets sent 2022 first-rounder Peyton Watson to the Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday, losing one of the few young contributors the team developed in the five years since that deal.

Peyton Watson was rare Denver Nuggets draft hit

The Nuggets had both Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray on maximum contracts when they traded for Gordon and gave him a four-year, $86.6M extension. That didn't leave a lot of money to fill out the rest of the roster, so the Nuggets decided to look for affordable young talent in the draft.

They drafted Bones Hyland with the No. 26 pick in 2021, Christian Braun with the No. 21 pick in 2022 and traded a future first to get Watson at No. 30. Following their 2023 title, they traded another future first and the No. 40 pick to get Julian Strawther, Jalen Pickett and Hunter Tyson at Nos. 29, 32 and 37. In 2024, they traded three second-round picks to move up from No. 28 and draft DaRon Holmes at No. 22.

Some of the Nuggets' problems came from former coach Michael Malone's reluctance to trust his young players. Some problems came from injuries. Some came from the players simply not being that good. 

The Nuggets traded the ineffective Hyland at the 2023 deadline. Holmes ruptured his Achilles tendon in his first Summer League game and has played only 25 games in two seasons. Tyson averaged 2.2 points, while the undersized Pickett never learned to play defense and was cut this summer.

Denver Nuggets chose young players poorly

Perhaps hoping to get players who would be ready to contribute earlier, the Nuggets focused on older draftees. Tyson was a 23-year-old rookie, Pickett was 24 and Holmes turned 22 a month after his injury. Older players simply don't have as much room for improvement, especially before NIL money made it more lucrative to stay in college longer.

The Nuggets also let undrafted Collin Gillespie leave after he played one season, only to see him become a starting point guard for the Phoenix Suns. Pickett left for a two-way contract with the Clippers, and Tyson is out of the NBA entirely, playing in Puerto Rico.

After Braun became a starter in 2024-25, the Nuggets gave him an ill-advised rookie extension, which defeated the purpose of getting cheap young players in the first place. Watson also got too expensive after four seasons. Strawther remains, but he played only the 11th-most minutes on the team last season.

Watson is gone and the Nuggets are still expensive and lack depth. Their youth movement was a bust, and their pivot may be to sign one of the oldest free agents possible, 37-year-old DeMar DeRozan. It's a disappointing result for an ambitious, poorly executed Nuggets master plan.