Though the NBA regular season is almost over and has been filled with jaw-dropping surprises, the Denver Nuggets decided to drop one more massive surprise before the end of the season.
The team announced on Tuesday that they have fired head coach Mike Malone and general manager Calvin Booth.
The Nuggets are getting ready for a playoff run and they have just three games left in the regular season. Anything is possible but it does feel like ownership has decided to punt on the season.
That may not sit well with superstar center and three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. He’s not one to stir up drama and it’s difficult to see a scenario where he pushed ownership to make this move.
If he’s unhappy and the Nuggets get knocked out early in the playoffs, it’s possible that he could seek a trade. Denver could also just decide to rebuild and trade Jokic for a haul.
While the Nuggets likely don’t want to do anything to help the Los Angeles Lakers, the purple and gold are the early betting favorites to trade for Jokic. He has a close relationship with Luka Doncic.
FanDuel Sportsbook pitched a trade that would send Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, Dorian Finney-Smith, Dalton Knecht, a 2031 first-round pick and a 2028 first-round pick swap to the Nuggets for Jokic.
Would Nuggets Make This Trade?
This trade would involve the Lakers giving up a ton for one player. Reaves is the team’s third-best player while Hachimura and Finney-Smith are important rotation pieces. Knecht isn’t making much of an impact now but he’s a rookie and has a bright future.
That said, Jokic is the best player in the world, and pairing him with Doncic for the foreseeable future would keep the Lakers in the championship mix for several seasons. For the Nuggets, this would have to be an appealing offer.
Reaves is a budding star and is only 26. All the players the Nuggets would get are under 30 outside of Finney-Smith. If the plan is to rebuild, these are some good pieces to build around. It’s going to be difficult to get equal value for a player of Jokic’s caliber but this package of players could at least keep the team competitive while they try to find their next superstar.
Nuggets Likely Aren’t Trading Jokic
It’s fun to speculate but there’s no reason to believe the Nuggets are shopping Jokic until they’ve found a new head coach and general manager. He also doesn’t seem like he’d want to uproot his life to move somewhere like Los Angeles.
It would have to come down to him simply wanting to play with Doncic. Now, as we saw with the Dallas Mavericks trading Doncic to the Lakers, it’s impossible to know how every general manager feels about every player.
The next Nuggets general manager may prefer to tear the roster down to the studs and start from scratch. The problem with that for the Lakers is that there are other good teams with more draft capital that could have interest in Jokic. The Oklahoma City Thunder would be able to offer a massive package to the Nuggets if Jokic is put on the market.
