With Bruce Brown departing in free agency and sizable role expansions seemingly on the table for Christian Braun and Peyton Watson, the Nuggets have a potentially uncomfortable amount of their repeat-championship hopes tied to largely unproven players. It's possible Denver has enough concerns with its depth to be interested in a swap like this.

While the Nuggets would be sending out the best player, they could walk away with more production. Bogdanović just upped his output to a career-high 21.6 points per game last season, while Burks contributed 12.8 points per outing. While you can question the substance of those stats since they came on a 65-loss Pistons team, you can't accuse Bogdanović and Burks of chucking. Not when Bogdanović posted a pristine 48.8/41.1/88.4 shooting slash, and Burks converted 41.4 percent of his threes and 81.4 percent of his foul shots.

Denver could reasonably conclude its 2023-24 roster would be in better shape with the Bogdanović-Burks tandem than it would be with Porter Jr. alone. Plus, this might make the future easier to navigate for the Nuggets. They'd owe Burks nothing after this season, and Bogdanović has only a partial guarantee on his 2024-25 salary, plus they'd gain a first-round pick to keep or flip in a down-the-line deal.