Denver Nuggets
Trade target: Serge Ibaka (sign-and-trade)
The Denver Nuggets are coming off an incredible run that carried them all the way to the Western Conference Finals. They may have run out of gas against the Los Angeles Lakers, but this is a team that showed plenty of promise for the future.
The one area where you can make an argument that they need to improve is when it comes to their interior defense. As great of an offensive player as Nikola Jokic is, he’s not a good defender. He lacks the necessary foot speed and rim protection that you’d hope to have from the center position.
Adding a player like Serge Ibaka (and it’d have to be via sign-and-trade) is one way that they could take the next step as a contender in the Western Conference. Ibaka is a good rim protector and could stretch a defense with his 3-point shooting – the exact qualities that every team looks for in a modern big.