It seems like the Nuggets and Bones Hyland have had a falling out and are now looking to trade him. It seemed like everything was all good
until this happened, whatever this was. Prior to that incident, Bones was playing 21 mpg averaging 13.5 ppg and 3.3 apg and shooting 41% from the field and 41% from three. Since that game, he's averaging 16 mpg, 8.3 ppg, 2.1 apg and shooting 34% from the field and 25% from three. Last night he played just over 4 minutes and looked almost like he was purposely sand bagging it so it seems like a forgone conclusion he is gone in the next couple weeks.
The Nuggets are apparently shopping him for a rotational two way wing. He's making $2.2m this year, which limits matching salary BUT the Nuggets do have a $9.72m trade exception from Monte Morris if ownership was willing to dip further into the tax... what is possibly out there that the Nuggets could get for less than $9.7m and available for Bones and a couple second round picks (Denver has a 2023 second rounder that should be in the top 15 of the second round, and their own 24, 25, 26, and 29 seconds)? I'm assuming this player would need to be bigger and better than Christian Braun or it make no sense.
- Kyle Anderson and Naz Reid for Bones and Ish Smith? Bones gives Minnesota some shooting they need. Anderson would be a sneaky good fit with Jokic and Reid gives them a backup center who should be superfluous with KAT and Gobert.
- Saddiq Bey? A Bones-Bey trade seems reasonably fair straight up. Bones fills a shooting/guard need for Detroit, and Bey is a theoretical 3-D wing (big enough, a decent defender, a decent shooter).
- Kenrich Williams, Nassir Little, the Martin twins, Naji Marshall, Gary Payton, and Kenyon Martin Jr are all guys they'll look at but they are either too old to make too much sense, not good enough defenders, or not good enough shooters.
I think they should hold on to Bones unless they can get somebody better than the above and hope somebody like Eric Gordon gets bought out and wants to come.