Recent rumors have emerged that the Denver Nuggets could trade veterans Kenneth Faried and Danilo Gallinari to the Boston Celtics as the team wants a complete rebuild of their roster.
The Nuggets' roster is currently dominated by young players as point guard Emmanuel Mudiay and big men Jusuf Nurkic and Nikola Jokic continue to develop as the team's main men. Young shooting guards Gary Harris and Will Barton also prove their value on the floor with consistency and hustle.
Although Faried and Gallinari are still approaching 30, the emergence of Mudiay and company has somewhat made the two veterans an ill-fit with these young talents.
The two players had been regularly mentioned in a lot of trade rumors since the beginning of summer, but the Nuggets were keen on their stance that both of them will stay put.
Faried is relatively young at 26 years old. Entering his sixth year in the NBA this upcoming season, he is entering his prime, but his inconsistency and lack of size had been preventing him from becoming the All-Star player that he should be out in the very competitive Western Conference.
Fansided said, though, that he "looked certain to continue growing into a superb defensive player in the league", which means that his value as a trade chip is still high at the moment.
Faried moving to the Celtics will give him a much better chance of landing an All-Star berth, plus the bigs in the East are relatively smaller than the West, which will not highlight his disadvantage so much on a nightly basis.
Sportsrageous noted that trading Faried to Boston for young players and future draft picks would likely prompt the Celtics to ask for more than the former Morehead State standout.
That is when Gallinari's value comes in as he could be included in the deal to get Boston's approval.
The report suggested a trade scenario sending Faried and Gallinari to the Celtics in exchange for Jaylen Brown, Amir Johnson, Kelly Olynyk, Jonas Jerebko, and a couple of future picks.
Boston gets two more stars to join with Isaiah Thomas and new-signee Al Horford in the starting lineup while Denver gets even younger, faster, and deadlier on the break, something that head coach Mike Malone prefers.
The trade will benefit both sides as the Celtics add "star power" to their brand while the Nuggets create "more salary cap space next offseason" and gain much-needed future high picks.
