Imagination achieves things that reality does not allow. How many fans have ever thought about how far a team with Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic together would go? If the Kings hadn’t messed it up, that could be very real.
Nikola Jokic gives a masterclass against Brooklyn Nets
Mike Singer, for many years a Denver Nuggets expert and now a member of the Colorado team, revealed on the Hoop Collective podcast that Denver had designed a trade to be able to select Luka Doncic in the 2018 Draft and join him on the team with its emerging star, Nikola Jokic.
The Nuggets had the 14th pick, far from the options to go for the Slovenian, and that’s why they tried to involve the Sacramento Kings, who had the second pick. The first was reserved for DeAndre Ayton by the Phoenix Suns.
Denver offered that number 2 to Gary Harris or two first rounds of Drafts. With the benefit of hindsight, the offer, which does not seem excessive, was better than what Sacramento finally did: to choose Marvin Bagley III with that number 2. Bagley left the Kings in 2022 on his way to Detroit and since last season he plays in Washington. He is a player with an average of 13 points. In that Draft, the Kings not only passed on Doncic, but also on Jaren Jackson and Trae Young.
Young was precisely the player the Mavs chose with the 5th pick and immediately traded to the Hawks for Doncic. Harris’ offer, in this case, was indeed inferior, because Atlanta not only got Young, but with the first round pick that went in the package they chose Cam Reddish in 2019.
In his revelation, Singer also talks about the possibility of including Jamal Murray in the negotiations. He even talks about how in 2019, the Nuggets refused to trade the Canadian in exchange for Anthony Davis, an offer made by the Pelicans. Denver ended up winning the 2023 championship with Murray playing a stellar role, especially in the postseason.
But Singer‘s words have surely fired the imagination of many and almost salivated at the thought of what the Nuggets would have been like if they had had two of the world’s greatest stars together. Perhaps we would be talking about a long hegemony in the NBA. The Kings denied that this would happen.
