Believe it or not, the NBA season is about 20% of the way completed already. It feels like things just started but separation is being created and some teams are digging themselves into holes they may not be able to climb out of.
The Nuggets aren’t quite in that category; they haven’t had the best start, but it hasn’t been a bad start either. The team sits at 10-7, good for 7th place in the Western Conference. But they’re just a game out of the 4 seed, and just a game up on the 10 seed. The West is crowded and competitive, and that will likely be the case for this entire season.
Now that we have a bit of an establishment across the league, teams are starting to adjust and trying to look at how they may improve, or if improvement is even the best option. As the calendar is about to flip to December, that means the trade market will heat up.
Clear buyers and sellers will emerge and there will be a crunch for teams to make moves for the stretch run. The Nuggets are in a fairly tough spot when it comes to trades; the roster is very expensive and most of the rotation players are engrained. But they do have needs and they do have a few movable contracts.
Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz wrote an article titled, Imagining Every NBA Team's Top 3 Trade Targets Right Now. He tried to keep it realistic for both sides and focus on players who are at least somewhat available and attainable. For the Nuggets, he kept it simple and reverted to some familiar faces.
Target #1: Bogdan Bogdanovic, Hawks
Bogey has been brought up many times on this site as a possible target. His Serbian connection with Jokic is obvious, plus his offense and shooting would be an amazing boon for the team. The only problem that we keep coming back to is Bogey’s contract. He’s making about $17.2 million this season which makes salary matching extremely challenging for the Nuggets.
As much as I would love to get Bogey in town and see what he would look like on an NBA court with Jokic, the team would need to almost gut the roster, or trade Michael Porter Jr. to make it happen. If things go south and the team decides to move on from MPJ, then Atlanta would be a good place to start, but at the moment it doesn’t seem very realistic.
Grade: C+
Target #2: Dorian Finney-Smith, Nets
DFS will be one of the hottest names on the trade market as his combo of size and shooting would be desired on any team. He’d be an ideal 3&D wing addition in Denver who could start or come off the bench and play with almost any lineup combo. He would bolster the team’s ceiling on both ends of the floor.
But the problem is that the bidding will almost certainly get too rich for Denver’s blood. DFS makes just about $15 million this year so matching would be tricky again. The Nuggets could conceivably get there without MPJ on some package including Zeke Nnaji, Dario Saric, and more.
However, that is not an inspiring package in any way. The Nets would want the Nuggets to add in young players and draft picks, and the Nuggets aren’t exactly flush with either. I love the idea of Finney-Smith on the Nuggets, but if the bidding begins, it’s very hard to imagine the Nuggets landing him.
Grade: C-
Target #3: Vasilije Micic, Hornets
Much like Bogey, Micic has been rumored to Denver due to his connection to Jokic from Team Serbia. But unlike the previous two players, Micic actually seems somewhat realistic. He’s not a part of the Hornets’ longterm plans and hasn’t done enough in the NBA to warrant a major trade return.
For the right price, I’m sure Charlotte would be willing to part with Vasilije and he makes under $8 million this season. That’s a very workable number and if the Nuggets really want to make this happen, they should be able to.
But would Micic actually help the team on the court, or would this simply be a case of bringing in a buddy for Jokic to hang out with? That’s a fair topic of debate, but it definitely couldn’t hurt to have an extra ballhandler around, and there’s nothing wrong with trying to keep your most valuable player in franchise history happy.
Grade: B-