Will Barton or Gary Harris, Denver Nuggets
Although both Will Barton and Gary Harris on the Nuggets are great fits, the Nuggets are already financially strapped paying Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray both $30+ million annually. With Michael Porter Jr and Monte Morris still on their rookie deals as well as Paul Millsap and Mason Plumlee‘s deals expiring after this year, the Nuggets have a chance to acquire a star in free agency. So perhaps they may be inclined to move one of the 2 to create that flexibility.
If they can move Barton for an expiring contract, it gives the Nuggets roughly $15 million in cap space, which they can get a complimentary 4 for Jokic. Or if they want to really shake things up, they could trade Harris and open up $20+ million in cap space.
That being said, I do think Barton is more likely between the two simply because Denver isn’t a destination for big-name free agents. So they could go conservative and try filling out their roster with that cap space instead.
Regardless, both bring are versatile 3-and-D players and would be perfect guards for a playoff contender. They are on relatively cheap multi-year contracts so it wouldn’t really be too tough to move their contracts. Teams like the Mavericks, Raptors (if they still want to be competitive) and the Pistons are good fits for either one of the two.
So they could trade them for cap space, but they could also go the other way. The Nuggets can use Barton or Harris as trade chips to get a big fish shooting guard or Power Forward like Bradley Beal, Kevin Love or maybe even Draymond Green.
Regarding Green, it’s a long shot, but if the Warriors don’t want to sign him long term, they could him in for assets.
With either option, I do think that the Nuggets will move one of the two to move up in the Western Conference’s arms race.