With the whirlwind of trade activity going on this evening and promising to extend to tomorrow afternoon, I’m sort of surprised that the Nuggets haven’t made any big moves yet. Or any moves, really. They’re just sitting there amidst the chaos like the whole NBA isn’t being ripped down and rebuilt around them.
You might be thinking, “B-b-but DEE TEE BEE, the N-n-n-n-Nuggets are in a great p-p-position right now! They d-d-d-d-don’t need to make any m-m-moves!”
Thinking that the Nuggets don’t need to make moves just because they’re good is a simpleton’s pattern of thinking. Every team should always be looking to make trades that either improve the team’s current iteration or promise to improve the team for future iterations.
That’s why I’m thinking that the Nuggets can trade Nikola Jokic to the Sacramento Kings for eight first-round picks, sixteen second-round picks, and Willie Cauley-Stein (who sometimes gets assists). This will achieve the ultimate purpose of forming the Serbian Superteam in Sacramento (SSS). They can also simultaneously trade Jokic to the Los Angeles Clippers for five first-rounders, thirteen second-rounders, and Corey Maggette, who’s now an announcer but could still totally suit up if he wanted to. There are probably rules about trading a player to two teams at the same time, but there’s one important rule in the CBA that trumps all others: no take-backsies. That means once the Nuggets have those pick stockpiles in their possession, they don’t have to give them back even if the Clippers don’t really end up with Jokic.
The plan for Nuggets after these trades would be to draft Jokic-equivalent players with every pick. They would soon have an entire roster, plus an entire G-League roster, full of Jokic equivalents. The only thing they wouldn’t have is the real Jokic, but that’s a small price to pay for the promise of a decade of guaranteed championships.