Longtime Nuggets fans already know this story. For everyone else, it’s a painful one.
OG Anunoby, fresh off one of the biggest plays in NBA Finals history, was almost a Nugget. He probably should have been one.
Instead, Denver got cute on draft night, helped deliver Donovan Mitchell to Utah and watched Toronto take Anunoby one pick before the Nuggets could fix it.
After helping the Knicks erase a 29-point deficit, Anunoby inbounded the ball to Jalen Brunson with New York down one and 5.7 seconds left. Brunson launched a deep 3 from the near-side wing. Anunoby, left wide open on the far side, crashed from the hash toward the paint. The miss bounced high off the front rim. Anunoby rose over two young Spurs guards, tipped it in with his right hand and gave the Knicks the lead with one second left. It was eventually the capper on what was one of the most incredible wins in basketball history as New York took a 3-1 lead on San Antonio.
ADVERTISEMENT
Anunoby finished with 33 points on 15 shots including seven makes from deep while adding four rebounds. He’s scored 17 points or more in all four games of the Finals and is the team’s second-leading scorer both in this series and in the playoffs while being known as one of the league’s better defenders – he earned NBA All-Defensive Second Team honors for the second time in his career this year.
But there’s an alternate history where Anunoby doesn’t have the Knicks on the brink of breaking their half-century-long title drought. The English forward from Indiana was very nearly a Nugget. In fact, he probably should have been. But Tim Connelly got too cute.
Four years after Masai Ujiri controversially left to become the big boss of Toronto, Connelly, who got the job because of the move — had a name circled on his draft board. In his mind, he could get him late in the first round. The problem — or maybe the opportunity — was Denver had pick No. 13.
ADVERTISEMENT
We talked about this on Shapiro and Piro last week but my co-host Anillo Piro actually wrote about Anunoby as a prospect for the Nuggets before the 2017 NBA Draft back when he worked for Mile High Sports. Prio wrote then, “OG Anunoby is one of the most exciting prospects in this year’s draft, boasting freakish athleticism and incredible defensive upside,” Piro wrote then. “If it weren’t for the injury, Anunoby would likely be a top selection… The Nuggets would be fools not to take a long, hard look at possibly drafting the player with arguably the biggest potential in the draft.”
It was widely known at the time that Connelly liked Anunoby. But because teams weren’t sold on him coming off the ACL injury, the belief was he could slide. So on draft night, the Nuggets made a deal with the Utah Jazz. Denver selected Mitchell at No. 13 for its division rival in exchange for the No. 24 pick and Trey Lyles. When the draft got to that number Ujiri had just picked Anunoby one selection before.
ADVERTISEMENT
So the Nuggets, instead of taking one of the heavily scouted Pac-12 stars in Kyle Kuzma, Dillon Brooks or the hometown Derrick White or even recent college champion Josh Hart, they panicked and took Tyler Lydon, who ended up playing just 26 NBA games. Among 2017 first- and second-round picks who played in the NBA, Lydon’s 26 games are the sixth fewest. Lyles was of little impact to the Nuggets but moved on to have a decent NBA career.
To recap the disaster: The Nuggets tried to get cute and recreate the Gary Harris trade from 2014. Instead, they sent a star to a division rival, missed their target by one pick and ended up with Lydon.
The player they wanted became the exact kind of two-way forward who would have fit perfectly next to Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic.
How different would the Nuggets be if they drafted OG Anunoby? | Shapiro and Piro w/ @Shapalicious @MediaByAP pic.twitter.com/mjMr7eMAs2
— Denver Sports 104.3 (@DenSports1043) June 4, 2026
ADVERTISEMENT
Obviously, the butterfly effect here is impossible to know. The Nuggets ended up with pick No. 14 the following year after just missing the playoffs in a Game 82 loss to the Wolves and drafted Michael Porter Jr. Anunoby actually played a ton his rookie year, but if he was worse than Lyles maybe the Nuggets get a better pick, even a few picks up the board, Mikal Bridges and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander were sitting there. If Anunoby was better than Lyles maybe the Nuggets make the playoffs and never get Porter, who was instrumental in the team winning a championship.
If Anunoby was in Denver, do the Nuggets ever trade for Jerami Grant? Do they ever land Aaron Gordon? Does MPJ become part of the title core?
It’s impossible to know the total cost of not drafting Anunoby. What is known: He could have been a Nugget. Denver overthought it. Anunoby won a ring in Toronto, became a Knicks playoff hero and is now 48 minutes from a second title.
ADVERTISEMENT