Hello CB,
I wanted to offer a thought on trading for Nikola Jokic, a player who is quickly making a name for himself in Denver. Jokic is averaging 11.4 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game this seasons on an average of 24 minutes a game. He has been a more prominent part of their offense over the month of December in which his numbers jump to 15/9/4, still on only 24 minutes a game on average. He is also shooting 80% from the line and has shown an ability to stretch the floor at 30% from deep.
Jokic is 21 years old (22 in February) and developing into a star. Needless to say, he won't come cheap, and Denver is realistically unlikely to entertain any offers for him. But that never stopped us before!
My proposal is just a suggestion, and I am not saying it is the route I would necessarily take. The trade is based around the following:
Nikola Jokic for the Nets '17 pick and Boston's 2018 pick. A few more pieces may be need to match any salaries as the Nets pick would project to be a larger salary, but this is the trade at the core.
One reason why I suggest this is that the Nets pick is likely to produce a guard (Fultz, Ball, Smith) or a wing (Tatum, Jackson). Boston has a need in the front court, much more so than the backcourt, though I would certainly not object to adding a guard if we think they will eventually replace IT, Bradley, Smart, or Rozier. As our roster currently stands though we do not have much room or need for another guard and with Crowder and Brown we don't need another wing either. Our front court is basically Al and well....Al. Denver on the other hand could use the pick to add a promising wing player (Tatum or Jackson) to their young core of Mudiay and Harris and would likely have two lottery bound picks in a loaded draft next year. As the standing currently stand I don't think Denver would be likely to land a top pick and would thus miss out on the top tier of the draft class. Obviously the lottery could say other wise, but this trade would give them a great shot at landing that top tier talent through the draft.
Adding Jokic would be a huge upgrade over Amir, and would make us a much improved team in the short term, helping us to maximize our current core without having to gut the team of the resources that would be required to trade for a Cousins, Davis, etc... (in the unlikely event that they even become available).
Furthermore Jokic is young and on a rookie contract. Looking down the road we would have two very promising young players in Jokic and Brown, plus the 2018 Nets pick. With Jokic still being on his rookie contract we would have continued flexibility for the next few off seasons as well. I think this trade would provide us with a great bang for our buck in both the short term and the long term, though I would fully understand if it didn't appeal to everyone.
At the very least it could provide us with another topic to discuss....thoughts?
Topic: Nikola Jokic trade idea (Read 1881 times)