The NBA's second apron claimed its latest casualty on Wednesday when the Denver Nuggets shipped Peyton Watson to the Cleveland Cavaliers in an $88 million sign-and-trade that yielded the Nuggets nothing in the way of actual players. They got Cleveland's 2031 first-round pick and Sacramento's 2032 second-round pick, but no Watson replacement. They could potentially pivot to DeMar DeRozan.
In 2026, Watson to DeRozan is a downgrade. If you believe otherwise, as the kids say, you don't know ball. The Nuggets will have to shed even more money if they're going to sign DeRozan and still get under the second apron, which is clearly their priority.
They're not alone in this endeavor. The Knicks won last year's championship and immediately let Mitchell Robinson walk after owner James Dolan deemed any trip into the second apron as "suicidal." Robinson went to the Celtics, who have moved off of Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porziņģis, Al Horford and Luke Kornet since winning the 2024 title. Oklahoma City won the 2025 championship and just lost Aaron Wiggins, Lu Dort and Isaiah Joe this summer.
The Warriors are currently driving their fans insane by playing it so tight to the vest since their 2022 title. The Bucks won in 2021 and have since blown up. All of this is to say, if the second apron has arguably made it easier than ever to put together a contending roster as talent has been spread more equitably across the league (I would argue no fewer than 13 teams will enter this coming season with conference-finals-caliber rosters).
It has also made it harder than ever to keep these rosters together for the same reason. Through this lens, the Nuggets having lost Bruce Brown, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Michael Porter Jr. and, now, Watson from that 2023 title team is no great sin. It pretty much happens to every team, barring some sort of one-off salary advantage like Jalen Brunson giving the Knicks a discount, or Stephen Curry signing a clearance-rack contract in 2012, or the Spurs having Victor Wembanyama (who has since also given San Antonio a long-term discount), Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper all on rookie contracts at the same time.
The key, then, lies in the margin replacements. It's an extremely tight needle to thread, but fans look at a team like OKC -- which has nailed everything from adding Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein to drafting Cason Wallace and developing Ajay Mitchell, which has in turn afforded them the talent cushion to lose a starter in Dort and a two-way wing in Wiggins that every other team in the league would kill for without skipping a beat -- and expect their front offices to follow suit. This is where the Nuggets have fallen short.
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