There was a flash of hope there for one second. Adrian Wojnarowski appeared on the screen to announce a trade with the third overall pick and for a fleeting second you thought “maybe he’ll say the Denver Nuggets.” Alas, that was not the case as the Atlanta Hawks ultimately traded the third overall pick to the Dallas Mavericks who land the European superstar. For the Nuggets and their fans its another fleeting dream gone in the wind.
There was one player I advocated giving up either Jamal Murray or Gary Harris to get and that was Luka Doncic. I’m a huge Garris fan, and ask anyone at Stiffs and they’ll tell you how hard I stan for Murray, but Doncic is special. His playmaking ability paired with the playmaking ability of Nikola Jokic would have created one of the best offenses the league has ever seen and probably the most fun too. The Nuggets are still left with a hole on the wings but there will be plenty of prospects that could be there. Denver now has to look to prospects like Miles Bridges, Kevin Knox or perhaps Michael Porter Jr to be their wing of the future.
Doncic meanwhile heads to Dallas where he will help Dennis Smith Jr to move forward from the Dirk Nowitzki era. With DSJ a score first type of point guard I expect Doncic to compliment him nicely (and vice versa). Mark Cuban shows once again that he’s not afraid to pull the trigger on bringing in talent and you can’t help but be a little jealous. Ultimately, there’s nothing the Nuggets could offer (or perhaps wanted to offer) that could beat simply moving back two spots so Tim Connelly and company were fighting a losing battle from the get go. It’s fine, just got get a Bridges, they’ll be way more likely to be content coming off the bench behind LeBron James anyways.
