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.
Tuesday is the first round of the draft, and you can read the first round rundown of some potential draft candidates HERE.
But Wednesday night is the second round and whether Denver keeps its pick, moves up, maybe trades back from 26 depending on how Tuesday goes, just know that there are future NBA players that will be available in the second round. Nobody knows this better than the Denver Nuggets, who famously picked Nikola Jokic 41st overall as it flashed on the screen during a Taco Bell Commercial. All hail the mighty Quesarito.
Denver is not likely to find its next MVP on Tuesday, but they could they still get a good NBA player, and Denver needs to add talent however they can, whether to develop for the starting rotation or with a high enough floor to help the bench mob soon.
Here are some options they might consider at 49 in the second round.
Felix Okpara, 6’10 C from Tennessee. Okpara has good size and strength for the NBA 5, and is athletic enough to handle off-ball defense in space and get some highlight blocks. He has a good motor for a big man so he can get up and down the court. Partly because he would hedge out as a pick-and-roll defender, his rebounding numbers are not what you would expect from a 5, but he’s not always clogging the paint under the basket. He sets good screens and uses that 7’2 wingspan well.
Unfortunately he’s mostly a dunker and rim-runner at this point, with a barely-above-water free throw percentage that makes it dicey to let him get fouled in close situations. There’s no handle or passing in this package either. As a bench big though, he can commit athletically to what Denver would need and could potentially play some 4 in big lineups despite not really having a shot, simply because he can move and dunk, and get some put-backs or bunnies in the paint. He has a limited but defined set of skills and expectations, and for a second rounder that gives him a real path to some playing time after 4 years in college. I worry about his hands and processing in the paint in the NBA, but that’s an adventure for most college players. The Nuggets have worked him out for a closer look, so he’s also on their radar.
Tre Donaldson, 6’2 PG from Miami. Donaldson isn’t a standout in any one area. He can run an efficient offense as he showed this year, and he hits a decent amount of threes (36% on 4.2 a game, 37.7% for his career). He’s a decent-but-not-great free throw shooter. He is shorter but with an acceptable 6’5 wingspan and quick hands to snag 1.4 steals a game. He can get hot but he doesn’t really stay really hot – he simmers more than explodes.
But if you wanted a third/emergency PG like the Nuggets probably do, then Donaldson starts to have some appeal as somebody with 4 years of college experience who can shoot or assist, and is solidly build so the pro contact shouldn’t be too much despite his height. He plays heads up, will happily dunk in transition or feed others inside, and uses his body well in the paint to create space. He also has the floater and touch necessary at his height to get rim buckets. He just does a lot of things that say “professional” – the question is whether it will be in the NBA or overseas. I don’t know whether he can supplant Curtis Jones or whether Jones might be on the roster (or gone) while Donaldson would get a 2-way deal, but he also worked out with Denver as they examine their options.
Trevon Brazile, 6’9 Combo F from Arkansas. Brazile is an incredible athlete, NBA-level for sure. He can make some highlight level plays on both ends of the court: incredible transition dunks, switchable defender with a 7’3’5 wingspan, jumps out of the gym (41″ vert), and just looks the part. When he is playing hard and engaged, he looks like a first round talent who can spot up for 3 or kill you at the rim while hounding ball-handlers on the perimeter.
Unfortunately his motor idles a lot of the time. He’s 23 and doesn’t always look like he wants to do the work. He’s skinny with a high center of gravity, which makes it hard to project him as the 4 against true size, but he doesn’t have the handle to break guys down off the dribble really. He can run the floor and spot-up but the in-between stuff isn’t really his game. It’s not even like Michael Porter Jr. on his rookie deal because he’s absolutely not That Dude as a shooter (just 35% from deep for his 5-year college career and just 66% career from the charity stripe). The bet is on his athleticism and defensive potential, but the serious questions about his want-to are why he might fall out of the second round, unless some team like Denver wants to take the risk that they can motivate him to put all those athletic traits to use more consistently. He did play a year in Missouri though before heading to Arkansas so Josh Kroenke would have some inside scoop available to him.
Dillon Mitchell, 6’6.5 F from St. John’s. If you want a stopper with good basketball IQ in the 2nd round, then Mitchell should be on your radar. He’s very athletic and switchable, and strong enough to hang with bigger players while being able to shift down against guards also. About 6’7 with a 6’11 wingspan, he can get his hands on the rock on either offense or defense. He has a pretty strong handle and attacks the rim on offense with a great first step, comes in with the weakside blocks and rebounds (7 boards per game the past 2 years despite doing a lot of perimeter defense). He’s not an egregious fouler and he is a willing and heads-up passer with the ball in his hands. There’s a lot to like.
The problem is he can’t shoot. Like, he can’t now and probably not ever. He doesn’t have a three point shot, his free throw percentage through 4 years is 48.8%… He’s another stab at getting a Jarred Vanderbilt, just hopefully without the fouling problem. He has good touch around the rim, has some finger rolls and soft hands. His lack of a real jumper is offset by a terrific motor and he can cover up for some sins on defense. He won’t start because teams can too-easily play 5-on-4 defense by leaving him alone, but he would fill that niche of bench energy defender and sparkplug who can jumpstart fastbreaks when he’s in and be a good teammate on the bench. Sometimes you need a player who knows he’s a bench player and will embrace his role whole-heartedly.
Summary
The one type I didn’t really drop was the point-guard defender, but it’s because the range is weird for that, but Ja’Kobi Gillespie as a short PG who can really shoot it and also provide defense despite needing to wear his hair high in order to cross 6 feet. He set the Tennessee single-season record for steals and he has great hands while also fighting through screens, but I don’t know if that will translate at his size. It’s hard to be the pesky defender at not-quite-six-feet with a 6’4 wingspan, but I would still keep an eye on him if he’s available.
I expect Denver to keep its second-round pick no matter what. It would be really useful a half-dozen picks sooner, but there should be somebody in this draft they want to lock down before the free-agent period starts for 2-way players and G League contracts. Whether they want to invest in a big they can coach up to be playable either behind or next to Jokic, a point guard who can ditch the training wheels quickly (like Monte Morris did) to be able to handle a rotation-level load, or a defensive wing who can be inserted into the rotation specifically to slow down some of these guards and wings that were causing us so much trouble this year, somebody will be there.
Denver has the option to bring back PG Curtis Jones and PG KJ Simpson, as well as to retain Jalen Pickett for another year, so perhaps they won’t be looking for a point guard after all. But I don’t expect the Nuggets to hand a guaranteed contract to any second round pick they might take, considering how badly the 3-guaranteed-years that former GM Calvin Booth handed to PG Jalen Pickett and SF Hunter Tyson hamstrung this team when it came to available roster spots who could get real minutes. The Nuggets will almost certainly be offering a two-way deal, and I don’t expect that to be an issue drafting at 49.
If Denver absolutely must get an immediate rotation-capable player on Monday Night in the first round, then the second round is more about depth and long-term planning. The Nuggets did not draft Spencer Jones, but being able to convert him from a two-way deal and keep his rights for the following year is a big deal. Denver is hoping to follow the Spencer Jones Method with this second-rounder and get a two-way player who can show them in practice that he belongs in the NBA and allow them to make sure his G League time is put to good use before he returns to the big club to help them win real games in the Association. Expect some development time to be necessary, but also for the Nuggets to be looking for a player who can keep their floor high in case they do wind up being needed.
A huge problem for Denver the last couple of years has been players on the bench who couldn’t scale up to real minutes. Whether that’s a coaching problem is a fair ask – the Nuggets didn’t let much of their deeper bench play real minutes, which makes it hard to be ready for real minutes when the need arises – but Denver has to find ways to save its rotation for the playoffs and get them there healthy. In a perfect world, that means two-way callups and end-of-bench guys who can punch above their weight-class to help get the regular season wins and rest that Denver needs to keep its starts healthy and pointed toward success in April, May and June.
