The Denver Nuggets are in the midst of the NBA Finals and they are just two wins away from claiming their first title in franchise history. However, the 2023 NBA Draft is quickly approaching and Denver's front office continues to have their eyes set on the future and how they can maintain their potential championship success.

Ahead of Game 4 of the Finals on Friday, the Nuggets made an unexpected trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Trading away a protected 2029 first-round pick, Denver acquired the rights to the 37th pick in this year's draft, a 2024 second-round pick and the least favorable of the Thunder's many 2024 first-round picks.

This is a very interesting deal for the Nuggets, especially given some of the new rules coming into play with the league's new CBA deal. Higher payroll teams are going to be penalized heavily moving forward and with Denver looking to remain a championship favorite, they have a chance to add onto their talented core with low-cost, high-potential prospects.

Now owning the rights to the 37th and 40th overall selections in the draft, as well as two first-round picks in the 2024 NBA Draft, the Nuggets are expected to be aggressive. According to Mike Singer from The Denver Post, the Nuggets are going to explore options to move up in this year's draft by potentially utilizing this new 2024 first-round pick they acquired from Oklahoma City.

Maximizing their championship window around superstar Nikola Jokic is the main priority of this franchise right now and the Nuggets have options on how to go about doing so in this draft. Keeping both second-round picks gives them the ability to add two new, young pieces to their rotation. Should they look to move one or both of these picks though with the selection they just acquired from the Thunder, Denver can potentially move up into the back-end of the first round and take a versatile, promising prospect who may have fallen in the draft.

Denver selected Christian Braun in the first round of this past season's draft and Peyton Watson in the second round. Watson is a young talent they are especially high on and Braun is already proving to be a factor in terms of adding depth to this roster at 22-years-old.

General manager Calvin Booth and the Nuggets continue to stay one step ahead of the rest of the field and with the NBA Finals in their grasp, Denver continues to build up their championship organization via the NBA Draft.