The Denver Nuggers were included on a short list of teams interested in trading for Philadelphia’s young center Jahlil Okafor in a recent rumor sourced by Alex Kennedy:
David Aldridge, among others, reported that Okafor was held out of tonight’s game between the 76ers and the Miami Heat as a precautionary measure due to a reasonably imminent trade.
Of course, this begs the question: why would Denver be interested in Okafor? As a three-way facilitator in a deal it’s possible they’d be involved; the Nuggets have a lot of pieces that can be appealing to either rebuilding squads or more established teams.
What they would get out of this is completely unclear until more particulars are leaked, but one thing they almost certainly can’t use is Okafor himself. As an offensively-oriented big man who has appeared out of shape for most of the season and had the dreaded “attitude issues” label attached to him at various points in his NBA career already, he’s a mirror version of the problem Denver already has with Jusuf Nurkic.
Okafor is not going to play next to Nikola Jokic, and is not going to be happy playing behind him, so the Nuggets really have no use for the former Duke star. Whatever role the Nuggets might play in Okafor leaving Philadelphia it’s hard to envision him donning a Denver uniform. But since the deal is apparently moving swiftly toward its conclusion, stay tuned to Denver Stiffs for more updates as the trade deadline approaches. It seems unlikely that all of Denver’s current players will still be on the team after the deadline, but then again trades in the NBA are awfully tough to pull off. We’ll know soon.
