Denver Nuggets: Complete grades for the 2019 NBA offseason
By Phil Watson
Trading for Bol Bol
The Denver Nuggets entered draft night in June without a pick, having dealt their first-round selection to the Brooklyn Nets in July 2018 as the cost of moving the contracts of Kenneth Faried and Darrell Arthur, with the lottery protection not entering into play when the Nuggets made the playoffs.
Their second-round selection was surprisingly gone, as well. The heavily protected (top-55) pick conveyed to the Milwaukee Bucks when Denver finished with the NBA’s fourth-best record and settled in at No. 57 in the second round.
That pick had been traded in 2017 for Roy Hibbert, the former All-Star center who played a total of six games and 11 minutes for the Nuggets before fading into NBA oblivion the following summer.
But Denver landed a draft pick with a trade, sending a 2022 second-round pick (their own or the Philadelphia 76ers’ pick, whichever is worse) and cash to the Miami Heat to secure the rights to the last man standing among the players invited to the green room on draft night, Bol Bol.
Bol, the son of the late Manute Bol, doesn’t quite have his father’s length at 7-foot-2 (the elder Bol was 7-foot-7), but makes up for it by growing up with the game. Bol is highly skilled, but slipped on draft night amid concerns about both his effort level and his health.
Bol plays in only nine games as a freshman at the University of Oregon before an ankle injury sidelined him. That injury morphed into a stress fracture in his foot.
But Bol put up some numbers in those nine collegiate games — averaging 21.0 points, 9.6 rebounds and 2.7 blocks in 29.8 minutes per game while shooting 56.1 percent overall and going a sizzling 13-for-25 (52.0 percent) from 3-point range.
Bol told ESPN at the draft he was recovered from his foot injury.
"“My foot is 100 percent healed. I just recently started to get back on the court about a month ago.”"
Despite that, the Nuggets held Bol out of Summer League play, so the first time we’ll see the No. 44 overall pick on the court will be in training camp, health permitting.
This is a player who had been as high as the top five in some mock drafts early in the college season last year before sliding.
If Bol is healthy and motivated, Denver landed a lottery talent in the middle of the second round. If he isn’t, they didn’t give up the farm to get him.
Bol has yet to sign a contract with the Nuggets and based on his situation, Denver may pony up a bit of guaranteed money. Denver is currently just $3.16 million below the luxury tax apron for this season, per Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights, so there isn’t a lot of wiggle room to be had.