Denver Used the Deal Primarily to Cut Its Tax Bill
Denver sent Steven Hunter, a protected first-round pick and cash to Memphis for a future second-round pick and a $3.796 million trade exception. ESPN reported that the Nuggets were about $6.7 million over the luxury-tax line and that moving Hunter’s roughly $3.7 million salary was expected to save about $7.4 million in salary and tax. Hunter had missed the entire prior season after knee surgery, so Denver was paying a first-round pick to turn an injured reserve salary into immediate financial flexibility.
Memphis Monetized Cap Space Into a First-Round Pick
The Grizzlies were using available cap room as an asset. Hunter played only 21 games for Memphis, all off the bench, and averaged 2.5 points and 2.0 rebounds, so his on-court contribution was minimal. The real return was Denver’s protected first, which conveyed in 2010 at No. 25. Memphis selected Dominique Jones and sold his draft rights to Dallas for cash considerations on draft night. Jones’s later Mavericks career therefore should not be credited to Memphis, but the cash generated from selling a first-round slot was a realized return from the original deal.
Denver’s Future Second Had a Real but Shared Downstream Use
The second-round pick Denver received was originally top-55 protected and ultimately became the 2016 No. 45 pick, Demetrius Jackson. Denver did not keep the pick until 2016. In December 2011 the Nuggets sent that future second to Dallas in the transaction that brought Rudy Fernandez and Corey Brewer to Denver. The pick was only one component of that later deal, so the full value of Fernandez and Brewer cannot be assigned to this 2009 trade, but the second did survive as usable transaction currency rather than expiring worthless.
Both Teams Accomplished the Job They Were Trying to Do
This trade is unusual because the best value on each side was not a long-term player. Denver bought immediate payroll and tax relief while retaining a smaller future asset; Memphis rented cap room in exchange for a first-round pick it later converted to cash. Hunter’s 21 games and the eventual Demetrius Jackson selection were minor compared with those financial and transactional goals. The equal A- grades make sense because each side successfully converted a resource it valued less into something it valued more, without one franchise capturing a clearly dominant basketball return.
Final Verdict
Even Trade — Denver A-, Memphis A-. Denver paid a protected first and cash to move Steven Hunter’s salary, generating major luxury-tax relief plus a future second-round asset that later remained useful in another transaction. Memphis absorbed Hunter, got only 21 low-minute games from him, but converted the attached first-rounder into the No. 25 pick and then sold Dominique Jones’s rights for cash. Neither side produced a major long-term player from this exchange, but both achieved the specific financial and asset-management goals that drove the deal.