It is funny how we forget.
The skywalking J.R. Smith wasn’t drafted by Denver. For that matter, he didn’t even arrive via a trade of marquee names. He came to town thanks to the Nuggets’ assiduous collecting of trade assets — future draft picks — some of which Denver used to acquire the sky’s-the-limit Smith.
In that spirit came Wednesday’s trade, when the Nuggets dealt their lone pick in tonight’s draft — No. 20 — to the Charlotte Bobcats for a future first-rounder.
Denver vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien, whose analogies take you from Wall Street to the Wild West, compared the acquired pick to both an “asset” and “ammo.” Any way one looks at it, the Nuggets now have a commodity to trade, and they know full well this is a weaker draft in the nonlottery range, and that if they did select a player, he would have trouble making their roster.
“We’re stockpiling assets to do other things,” said Warkentien, who also used future picks in the 2006 trade for Allen Iverson. “The player personnel department has used the draft as assets very effectively.”
This acquired first-round pick is now the Nuggets’ possession. They could trade it today if they wanted to. But the actual selecting of a player with the pick is protected by Charlotte in this regard: If the pick is a lottery pick next draft (2009), it still belongs to Charlotte. But if Charlotte makes the playoffs next season, and the pick thus isn’t in the lottery, Denver can make the selection.
The following year, if the pick didn’t become Denver’s in the previous draft, the pick still belongs to Charlotte if it falls amid 1-12.
It’s protected by Charlotte if it’s 1-10 in 2011, 1-8 in 2012 and finally 1-3 in 2013. If for some reason the Nuggets have yet to acquire the pick, in 2014 it’s theirs, regardless of where Charlotte falls in the draft.
And so, as Warkentien said, the Nuggets enter tonight with “two firsts to play with” — next year’s first-round pick and the one acquired from Charlotte.
Nuggets coach George Karl has said repeatedly the team is looking to improve this offseason. Karl said during one of the draft workouts that every player has the possibility of being moved. Team officials made it clear they won’t trade 24-year-old all-star Carmelo Anthony.
The Nuggets have lost in the first round of the playoffs in each of the past five seasons. Warkentien was asked, if a trade isn’t made, how good he felt about the current roster.
“You can look at it as the glass is half-empty, but we prefer to look at it as the glass is half-full,” he said. “We had our best record since Reagan was president. We won 50 games in the West. You look at a two-year period, it’s our best two-year record.”
If the Nuggets don’t trade the pick acquired Wednesday, worst comes to worst, they’re in the same situation next June that they were in this June — holding a nonlottery first-round pick.
By then, perhaps the draft field will be stronger. Or, if it’s not, they draft a guy with similar upside to the guy they would have taken tonight — except then, he might have a better chance of making the team.
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
