During the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft, the Denver Nuggets opted to trade down from their No. 26 pick on the board for three second round picks–– one that was in this year’s draft at No. 35 that would be used to land Arkansas forward Trevon Brazile, and two more future picks to be utlized down the line.
However, it seems like the Nuggets at least had some conversations about doing the opposite in the first day of the draft; potentially trading up the board from where they sat at the 26th pick.
That’s because they had their eye on one particular position: point guard.
Nuggets Tried to Move Up for a PG–– But Were Unsuccessful
During the Nuggets’ post-draft press conference, executive Jon Wallace had made mention of the front office’s attempt to try and move up deeper into the first round in order to get their hands on a point guard.
Those efforts, however, would end up falling short and would lead to the Nuggets inevitably making their move down to the second round to acquire extra draft capital.
“It was a heavy point guard draft. Sure… There were a lot of guys we liked. But, they just didn’t fall to our area,” Wallace said on Wednesday. “We tried to make some moves to get up. It just didn’t work. We’re not the only team that wants elite point guards.”
Wallace’s comments tends to match the buzz that had surfaced around the Nuggets’ potential draft plans earlier in the week regarding interest in moving up the board.
And while we don’t know exactly who Denver might’ve had their eyes on specifically, it does seem like adding depth in their backcourt within a point guard-heavy draft was a direction they had squarely on their minds.
Which Guards Could the Nuggets Have Been Targeting?
When surveying across the back-end of the first round, you could start to speculate who Denver might’ve been keeping close watch of with hopes of moving up based on how the board fell.
Four point guards inevitably went from the range from 16 to when the Nuggets were slated to pick at 26: Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz, Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie, Texas Tech’s Christian Anderson, and Alabama’s Labaron Philon Jr.–– inevitably going to the OKC Thunder, Detroit Pistons, Charlotte Hornets, and Philadelphia 76ers, respectively.
And based on how far down the board the Nuggets were picking, it would’ve taken a pretty appealing package to move up the board as far as they would’ve needed to secure one of those four guards.
The most likely of those to land would’ve been Philon, who got scooped up at pick 22. But even that jump could’ve been tough to swing with the lack of assets that Denver has to play around with.
It’s typical for teams in any draft to keep all of their options open and call up and down the board to see what moves may or may not be available.
The Nuggets are no exception and made sure to do their due diligence from where they were picking to see if they could swing for a new guard into their rotation to fill in behind Jamal Murray; an area of the roster that was lacking dating back to last season and could still be on Denver’s radar this summer.
But when it comes to finding another piece for their backcourt in the draft, they were forced to turn in another direction, ultimately landing on both Brazile and St. John’s forward Bryce Hopkins as their pair of new rookie contributors to fill in their frontcourt.
Add us as a preferred source on Google