After the Denver Nuggets traded rising stud wing Peyton Watson to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, Los Angeles Lakers fans instantly started fantasizing about Nuggets superstar center Nikola Jokić making his way to the Purple and Gold in the near future.
Jokić has won three NBA MVP awards and one championship, and he averaged a triple-double in both of the last two seasons. He can opt out of his contract next summer, and while he has stated his intention to wait until then to agree to an extension, people will be keeping an eye on him until then and watching for any signs of discontent.
Brian Kamenetzky, who co-hosts the “Locked on Lakers” podcast along with his brother Andy, gave everyone a reality check during a recent episode of that podcast by illustrating how the franchise will, in all likelihood, not be positioned to trade for Jokić if the future Hall of Famer wants out soon.
“The front office really shouldn’t be spending any time thinking about whether or not this could happen,” he said. “It’s because they really can’t. They can’t make it work. Nothing is ever impossible. If Nikola Jokic says, ‘… I want to be traded. I’m gonna go sign with the Lakers. You want anything of value, you trade me now.’ He does that thing; let’s just say he does that.
“The Lakers would then need to engineer a trade or figure out a trade that actually would be worth Denver taking. As opposed to perhaps just letting him walk, and getting the space and blowing the whole thing up or whatever might be. The Lakers would need to figure out a way to rope in second teams, third teams, possibly fourth teams. If you want to put together a package, that would be tempting to the Nuggets.
“It’s not going to be Walker Kessler, a pick swap, three second-rounders, and Jarred Vanderbilt, who’s probably still under contract at that point. That’s not going to get it done. They have so little to offer that short of tearing down what they have to get there, which is a colossally bad idea, and a path they won’t walk down.
“They don’t even have the stuff to pretend to make this work, at least in terms of draft capital and things like that. Maybe if [Cameron] Carr turns into a star real fast or [Adou] Thiero blows up. But likely, there’s just not a trade package the Lakers can put together without a lot of help.”
Los Angeles only has three second-round draft picks and a first-round pick swap in terms of tradable draft capital to offer in a potential trade for the foreseeable future. It decided to go almost all-in this summer by giving up two future first-rounders and two pick swaps for Kessler, and it has brought in numerous other promising complementary players to give Luka Doncic support.
With LeBron James departing, Doncic is the Lakers’ unquestioned franchise player. But the franchise has always been infamous for chasing superstars and arguably valuing star power over quality depth and balance. If Jokić does want out later on, perhaps L.A. will try to make a play for him.
Then again, it didn’t make a real play for Giannis Antetokounmpo in recent months before the Milwaukee Bucks sent him to the Miami Heat, so perhaps it has changed its team-building philosophy just a bit.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers reporter gives reality check on pursuit of Nikola Jokić
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire | USA TODAY Network
