Good news: the Denver Nuggets currently have a pick in each of the two rounds of the 2026 NBA draft! The Nuggets currently have the 26th pick in the first round, as well as the second round pick from the Atlanta Hawks which is 49th overall. Will they use them? Will they trade them? Will they actually play anyone even if they do draft them? Burning questions all, but let’s at least talk about the possible draft picks who might be available to Denver – both at their current positions and if they happen to move up via trade.
Next up: Dailyn Swain
Swain is a two-way wing who can handle the ball and be a handful as a defender. He showed off his isolation skills this year and the he could be the lead dog on a good team, but there are still questions about whether his outside shot will hold up with his slow release and if he’s more of a glue guy than a primary weapon.
The Nuggets could use a glue guy who can get it done on both ends, but is it just more of what they already have? Or could he be a Peyton Watson replacement if Watson departs this offseason?
Dailyn Swain, Small Forward, Texas
Vitals
Height (w/o shoes): 6’6.5″
Weight: 211 pounds
Wingspan: 6’10”
Age: 20 (7/15/2005)
College Statistics
2025/2026 Season Stats
| MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | FG% | 3PT% | FT% | BPM |
| 32.8 | 17.3 | 7.5 | 3.6 | 1.6 | 54.2 | 34.4 | 81.5 | 10.5 |
Highlights
Strengths
Downhill grit and finishing
Swain will come at you with the ball in his hands. Whether it’s driving from the perimeter, finishing in transition or coming off a screen he has a nose for the rim and finishes well in traffic. He has a sturdy frame that can take contact and still make a bucket, and as a career 81.5% free throw shooter in college he will get his points from the stripe if you put him there. His handle is good, and he has a quick first step and explosion to get by the initial defender. The control of the ball lets him thrive going into traffic, and the body control makes sure bigger NBA bodies won’t disrupt his approach. He was the most efficient isolation scorer in basketball this year for a reason.
Defensive potential
He has great hands, with 1.5 steals a game in his college career. He’s a heads-up player on both ends, using his body on defense to cut off driving lanes, and getting blocks from behind on players that get past him or as a helpside defender. He starts transition opportunities well off his disruptions, and he moves his feet well enough to be a switchable perimeter defender 2-through-4. I don’t know if he will hold up against some of the bigger 4s in the NBA trying to force their way to the hoop but he doesn’t back down in college and has worked on his strength to make sure he can give effort against bigger men while staying quick against slighter wings. He’s a gambler, but that will work better once he gets to pro coaching – it’s not an effort thing, his motor is hot.
Basketball IQ
He plays with his head up. He has good assists for an off-ball wing because as he drives he’s playing with his head on a swivel. If he gets into trouble he knows where his teammates are. If someone flashes to the rim he can find them from the perimeter. He knows when to drive because it’ll be a blocking foul, and when to change it up to avoid a charge. He had a few more turnovers this year than last but he was also given more to do when the ball was in his hands and he did it well. He gambles based on what he sees, whether going to the hoop to exploit and opening or diving for a steal because he sees a pass happening before it does. When it pays off it’s great, but it’s the fact he sees and reacts to these things that is very promising.
Improvement Areas
Passivity as the best player on the court
Swain doesn’t always demand the ball. He plays in the flow of the offense, and if the offense doesn’t get to him then it doesn’t. He has a tremendous first step but doesn’t always put the pressure on. In fact, he plays in second gear a lot of the time, not because he’s tired or lazy but because he is not yet called to action. When he sees something he should be doing, he does it at 100%, but there will be times he’s jogging up and down the court because the action is facing away from him and he is not demanding the ball. More assertiveness would serve him well I think, but it will be a work in progress.
Shooting
Swain is not an eager outside shooter. His three-point shot has a long windup and you can tell he doesn’t like doing it, but he will – and he made a decent percentage. Teams will leave him open from deep in the NBA until he proves he can get that long shot off consistently and hurt them with it. It’s the sort of thing a team can correct with enough reps, however. The bigger issue is that he doesn’t have much between driving the hoop or lobbing up a tentative three. He has a great cross-over but he can’t filter it into a step-back. He doesn’t have a free-throw level rise-and-fire in the arsenal. He will shoot the three, or more likely he will drive. He’s great at driving. But when teams know that’s your first, second and third preference it will be harder to make it happen. He won’t be one of the biggest guys on the court any more. The three-point shot is going to have to be a threat before teams will let you drive on them from the perimeter – even Will Barton knew that.
Big Board (Nuggets draft 26th)
The Athletic: 21 (as of 5/10 mock)
CBS Sports: 26 (as of 5/21 mock)
The Ringer: 13 (as of 4/29 board)
ESPN: 26 (as of 5/19 board)
Verdict
Dailyn Swain is getting mocked to Denver by a couple of outlets already at this point – if Denver is going to lose one or even two of its current wing players this offseason (depending on what decisions they make about Peyton Watson and Cam Johnson) then Swain is an easy plug-in for what the Nuggets have to be looking for. He reminds me a bit of OG Anunoby out of college honestly, with an atheticism that doesn’t jump out at first blush because he’s not always showing it off, but he has a dog in him as a wing that I just admire. Swain is not as strong as Anonoby unfortunately; he will not be playing the four, and he doesn’t have OG’s startling wingspan. But he’s built like Cam Johnson with a similar handle, and if he could figure out how to shoot like Cam (the free throw shooting is promising in that regard) then that would be a terrific addition for the draft slot.
Denver is going to eventually need a wing who wants to shoot, though. Cam Johnson finally figured out he should be doing that a handful of games before the end of the regular season, and in the playoffs looked like a piece Denver could really use in the postseason tournament. Watson didn’t get a chance to show anything because he was hurt the final two months, and when he was an active offensive force it was partly because most of Denver’s other rotation players were on the shelf. Can he do that with a full lineup even if he does come back, something that is far from guaranteed? And then Christian Braun, the king of “but I don’t want to shoot this right now” fills a lot of the same role that Swain would have, just as a shooting guard rather than likely a small forward. I can see there being issues playing both of them together if neither wants to take the open shot they are given.
But as far as a good fit for Denver with upside to grow into while nailing an immediate rotation role, it does feel like another stab at a Christian Braun type: someone who can play immediately off the bench and work himself into a starting role as a hustle defender, rim-attacker and transition force. They’d have to cut down on his gambling tendencies that allow for easy buckets when he misjudges, but I have always preferred players whose defensive aggression you have to curtail rather than ones you have to try to ramp up.
Swain is an athletic player who can become a plus defender and plus rim attacker, which is very nearly everything Denver wants as they try to get their perimeter play to function better around Jokic. If he can learn to be a three-and-D guy he’ll be perfect – but perfection takes time and the Nuggets might have to settle for “pretty good” at this point in the draft. It’s a pick I would definitely get behind.
