Denver Nuggets: 3 reasons to make a trade approaching deadline

3. Free up future and present money

Next season, the Nuggets are expected to be over the cap, and there is just under $12 million in space between them and the luxury tax. While they will likely be declining Paul Millsap‘s team option, which will open up $30 million, there are some moves they can make at the deadline that can help in regards to those future money concerns. One popular name that has been floated is Tyler Lydon.

Lydon only has a salary of $1.9 million, which isn’t much for this year, but it does give them more space this season for pursuing a player on the buyout market after the deadline to help their playoff push. The team has the trade cache to pay a team to take Lydon for the remainder of the year. Another player that could be traded is Trey Lyles. Lyles is making more money this year and he’s in the rotation, which could drive up the price, but his regression from last year doesn’t help.

The Nuggets don’t really have any expiring contracts that most teams use to cut salary, and they don’t have any bad salary they could get off of by trading away a future asset. If they are able to find a taker for either Lyles or Lydon, they should take the offer just to guarantee themselves as much freed up money as possible. Lyles is in the rotation, but he isn’t hitting 3-point shots at an efficient enough clip to keep him.