Bones Hyland is going Hollywood. The Denver Nuggets will receive the Los Angeles Clippers’ 2024 and 2025 second-round picks in exchange for the second-year guard, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Hyland, 22, is a microwave scorer who will give the Clippers another source of offense. He averaged 12.2 points in 19.5 minutes in 42 games for Denver this season, shooting 37.8 percent from 3-point range (and, less impressively, 42.5 percent from 2-point range). Los Angeles had been reportedly looking for an upgrade in the backcourt, as the John Wall experiment had not been working out the way it had hoped.
In terms of floor spacing, Hyland is a much better fit than Wall. He’s also a decade younger, and talented players on their rookie contracts rarely become available like this. With Reggie Jackson headed for free agency in July, Los Angeles’ front office could envision Hyland as a cheap replacement with upside. It is unclear, though, how big of a role Hyland will play when this (extremely deep) team is in the playoffs this season. The Clippers switch a ton, and opponents will target him defensively.
Denver surely would have preferred to get a first-round pick for Hyland, but if that were available at any point in the last week, then he likely would have been traded already. Hyland has received DNP-CDs in the Nuggets’ last four games.
The picks could potentially help Denver acquire another two-way player with size, but it has less than an hour to figure that out. If nothing else, this recoups some of the draft capital the Nuggets gave up when they traded three second-rounders for Thomas Bryant earlier on Thursday.
