Hunter Tyson’s tenure in the Mile High City is winding down.
With Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline, the Denver Nuggets moved the former Clemson star and 2032 second-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets. Denver gets the least favorable of Brooklyn’s 2026 second-round picks in exchange for this pick (via Clippers or Hawks), according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
For Denver, the maneuver represented an amputation cutting across our balance sheet. By shedding Tyson’s $2.2 million salary on the team, the Nuggets got out of the NBA punitive luxury tax line, giving them the elbow room and breathing room to bring two-way wonder Spencer Jones into a regular-trade NBA deal. If the trade marked a financial cut for the defending Western Conference contenders, it also marks a career key for Tyson.
Three seasons later on the offensive side of the Denver front he had been struggling against head coach Michael Malone’s rotation, which favored a multitude of veterans. Tyson has averaged only 7.7 minutes per game over 21 appearances this season, largely relegated to mop-up duty.
He joined a Nets roster in Brooklyn, a team undergoing a drastic mid-season rebuild.
As Brooklyn is recently passing on high-volume scorer Cam Thomas in favor of a more developmental-centric rotation under head coach Jordi Fernández, Tyson should find a "runway" that Denver could not find elsewhere.
Tyson stands 6-foot-8 with a proven stroke from deep and still plays a stretch-4 game, his skill set still a prized commodity in an NBA obsessed with spacing. Tyson’s ascension to the pro level came in the wake of one of the most glamorous careers in Clemson history.
A five-year fixture in Tigertown (2018-23), he would go on to become the program’s record leader in games played. Last season on the Tigers was a game of efficiency, when he averaged 15.3 points and 9.6 rebounds and made 40.5% from beyond the arc.
He was first-team All-ACC hero in doing so and became one of just 17 players in school history to reach the 1,000-point and 600-rebound milestones.
The Oklahoma City Thunder picked Tyson 37th overall in the 2023 NBA Draft. However, in a draft-night trade, Tyson was routed from Oklahoma City to Denver.
Brooklyn is a low-pressure position where he can bring to the table that special “3-and-D” end of your league game – and this is an area no one has ever had.
For a player who used his grit and longevity to make his name at the collegiate level, this move to the Eastern Conference might just be what the doctor ordered to put him in an assured position for long in the league.