The Denver Nuggets are a rare franchise, especially in this day and age. The Nuggets have always attempted to build a homegrown team rather than buy a championship. This is ONE of the reasons I love this franchise so much, but it’s also a reason that has kept Denver from reaching the mountain top. Until… it paid off. Murray, MPJ, and, of course, Jokic, to name a few of the most important “homegrown” players, along with the trade additions of KCP, AG, and others, saw themselves hoist the Larry OB. Jokic, the unknown prospect, has become the league’s most valuable player for what seems like the 4th official time and the most talented center to ever play the game. I understand that having a player like Jokic comes with a responsibility to ensure you do him and the game justice by surrounding him with the right pieces. The thing is, we already have them. In my opinion, there’s a solution to our problems that doesn’t involve breaking up our talented, championship-experienced, still very young core.
As I mentioned in my write-up before the 12/13 game vs. LAC, I expected this team to go on a winning streak after bouncing back vs. ATL, following a loss to the league’s worst team, the Wizards. We won that LAC game and then again vs a very talented Sacramento Kings team. Coming off of three straight wins, we are now faced with massive trade rumors involving a player we've waited to perform at this level for six seasons. Go look at tape of our championship run. MPJ did things not many players can do to help our team win Larry 🏆
In case you missed the players the Nuggets are RUMORED to be shopping for:
Main:
Zach LaVine
Cam Johnson
Brandon Ingram
D’Andre Hunter
Role player:
Jae Crowder
Bojan Bogdonavic
The real solution:
In my opinion, the main issue is that we struggle in the non-Jokic minutes (obviously) and need a 3-and-D player. Trading our best shooter for “scoring” makes little sense and doesn’t make us any deeper, which we will need to compete with Boston.
Westbrook
Murray
MPJ
AG
Jokic
^ in my eyes the lineup above 👆 is elite. I think we should be trading for a guard similar to Garry Harris, KCP, or Dyson Daniels, as well as a backup center like Big Val. Again, we need a deeper and more defensively dominant team to compete with Boston.
Imagine:
Westbrook
Murray
MPJ
AG
Jokic
Monte Morris
Braun/Gary Harris
Tyson
Watson
Big Val
I don’t see trading MPJ for LaVine, Johnson, or Ingram etc making us any deeper or more likely to compete for a championship.
Thinking about the long term, we’ve already won a championship with this very talented and young core. We know we can do it. I believe Jokic’s window for being this dominant is 1-5 more years. There’s no reason to make major changes this season. Ride out with this core and go get pieces to fill the holes that have been there since we won the championship. Don’t worry about draft picks and be open to trades over the summer if things aren’t working out.
Jokic’s own words: "If you want to be successful… you need to be bad, then you need to be good. Then, when you’re good, you need to fail, and you’ll figure it out." We were good and then failed. Now it’s time to figure it out. As a team. "There are no shortcuts, it’s a journey."
Video link 🔗
Tweet link 🔗https://x.com/coachajkings/status/1869185309893931028?s=46
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