Does a Zach Lavine Trade Help or Hurt the Denver Nuggets?

[@DammitBobby]

I agree with all of your takes. Good to have a level headed fan like yourself. Feels like I'm going insane seeing the level of panic from fans that I've seen. People seem to forget we won a championship with this core barely a year and a half ago. At the end of the day the team will be as successful as Jamal Murray can make them. If Jamal sucks, then we never had a chance, if Jamal is good, then we have a good chance, If Jamal is great, we have as good of a chance as we've ever had.

[@jaccturdman]

Are people forgetting that MPJ didn’t close games for most of the championship run? The point of getting Zach Lavine is so we don’t have to rely on Murray. Lavine would be far and away the best player talent wise Jokic has ever played with. He would draw so much attention from defence that Murray would be able to do more, Jokic will be able to do more and so would everyone.

[@DammitBobby]

@jaccturdman you are overrating Lavine to such an extent it's making my head spin. Lavine has almost no post season experience and is even more Injury prone than Jamal.

[@guiwhiz]

Agreed. You look at Braun's numbers vs KCP and it turns out there wasn't really a drop-off whatsoever on either end of the floor per minutes played. It is looking more and more like the Westbrook pickup by Denver may just have been the move of the off-season in value add. Westbrook brings you serious energy running the 2nd rotation and mixed in with the starters is just getting more and more comfortable. Murray is the wildcard. If Playoff Jamal shows up for at least 5 games the Nuggets can beat anyone in a 7 game series. I don't get the haters though. The kid isn't playing poorly at all. Just disappearing at times. Get him to shift gears mentally bringing up his game like playoff level and the Nuggets are a top 3 team in the West (making them top 5 in the NBA). We'll just have to see. A lot of basketball left to play.

[@jaccturdman]

@ And MPJ hasn’t ever had injury concerns? You clearly don’t know ball Lavine is a premiere on ball creator and a better shooter than MPJ. Just say you don’t watch basketball

[@DammitBobby]

@jaccturdman yes mpj has injury concerns, Lavine's are still worse. Think about that!

[@exiledknight3961]

Man i think a big problem people arnt seeing right now is Gordons defense has not been up to par

[@rrrrr_456]

As well as the rebounding… sad to see this..

[@cheddacheesechess]

Its this simple: MPJ is a role player without Jokic. LaVine will be completely unleased with Jokic. This trade is a no brainer. In the playoffs, you need shot creators when offense slows down. MPJ skills are replaceable with cheaper players. You can't find an elite shot creator like LaVine. If you pull the trigger, Nuggets are the favs to come out of West

[@DammitBobby]

@@cheddacheesechess it's not that simple. The nuggets lose a ton of size making this deal. The nuggets have worked really hard with Porter and Gordon to create good help side defense for Jokic, taking that away makes our defense worse than the kings. You say porter is replaceable with smaller contracts but that's not what the nuggets would get back in this deal, they'd be giving up a forward to get another guard when they are already extremely shallow up front. Getting rid of Mike means you only have 2 serviceable bigs, Jokic and Gordon.

[@zhongxina9832]

If you want to count statistic with MPJ do it without Jokić in play, since he gives 80% boost to any player he plays with.

[@junseo_han]

the Nuggets are 5th in offensive rating so far this season. I dont think we really need a trade just to gain a bit more shot creation offense but lose defense and rebounding, which is already an issue. The starters have not been the issue for the Nuggets since the championship year. its always been the bench and Booth messed up so bad that we lost all flexibility to make marginal trades to fix the bench (salary dumping Reggie with three 2nd round picks, extending Nnaji who's not even a rotational player the past years, paying Dario too much as well, giving Pickett and Tyson guaranteed deals when you could've signed Jay Huff, who the Nuggets actually needed for years). Its always been the bench, defense and supporting the starters' weaknesses

[@VVzxc]

Acting like MPJ is some good/great defender is laughable. He's not even decent.Lavine would be an upgrade overall

[@TheDropstepNetwork]

To say he hasn’t grown into a decent defender, especially as a back line helper, is kinda crazy. I never said great, or above average. He’s very decent now compared to his earlier days. That’s like saying he hasn’t grown as a passer.

[@aaronesquivel1504]

If they get LaVine, they need to start PWat or get a lengthy defender like Dorian Finney Smith. LaVine's offense would be such a big upgrade to the bench scoring and offense in the playoffs. It's just terrifying to think that there's a good chance it'll fail, and ruin Jokic's prime years with his contract.

[@GeriFN1]

Booth and coaching staff made some mistakes but now i think now they know what they're doing. In my opinion any kind of MPJ trade will happen only if it can be huge and big value trade. This trade should include Lavine, Ingram or Johnson so the Nuggets can replace MPJ, then 1 or 2 more players for the bench. Those players may be Clarkson, Valanciunas, Poole, Hunter or Finney Smith, according to the latest rumors. I don't really know how trades works, also why any team may trade for Nnaji, or Saric, but in NBA in the past no sense trades happened; this may be a big trade with more than 2 teams and including players, future picks. Personally i prefer finishing this season with roster we have, but if there is no way to avoid this trade i would like to see in Denver Lavine or Johnson, then Clarkson or/and Valanciunas.

[@effingtheineffable6827]

If I trade MPJ, it is to increase the number of rotation players. Adding Zeke, Saric or both to get back LaVine and another guy who Malone will trust is the impetus for the trade. So LaVine and Torrey Craig does that. LaVine replaces CB in the starting lineup. Watson replaces MPJ. The length remains close. Then you have CB, Russ, Craig off the bench with one on-ball creator staggering.

[@DammitBobby]

@@effingtheineffable6827 we got rid of Torey Craig for a reason. He was barely playable and sucked at Jokic ball.

[@effingtheineffable6827]

@ not true. He was in the regular rotation and one of our top 3 defenders. He just couldn't shoot.

[@DammitBobby]

@effingtheineffable6827 he was in the rotation because we didn't have anyone better. If he were to join the nuggets today, strawther would be ahead of him in the rotation. And it wasn't that he just couldn't shoot, he literally couldn't play Jokic ball. Jokic would constantly get frustrated at Craig not reading the court, not making the right cut, he sucked at passing to Jokic from the wing too.

[@effingtheineffable6827]

@ my point was that he was one of our best defenders. He would do that as a backup small forward. Julian is a guard. Craig would be there over Hunter Tyson. If we trade MPJ, we need a rotation small forward.

[@DammitBobby]

@@effingtheineffable6827 getting rid of a guy Jokic likes playing with to get a guy that Jokic doesn't like playing with. Makes perfect sense.

[@senpai_sake3276]

We need to ADD someone to what we currently have not trade what we got for similar play style and no chemistry…

[@DuaneMondragon]

What ever the nuggets do hopefully it works if it doesn't work blame the management the bench has to get better

[@modbyarturo]

Makes no sense. It would be a downgrade if we traded MPJ for Lavine. It’s still early in the season and all we need is a quality backup big man.

[@slobodanmatic4918]

What's in it for Bulls? Denver would have to offer much more then just MPJ and Zeke

[@guiwhiz]

Overall, at least as far as what he brings on the court, I think this one would be a wash. Is Zach a more dynamic scorer with the ball in his hands? Yeah. Outside shooting both are lethal outside. Defensively and rebounding I give the nod to MPJ. I just don't see where this is a good idea overall. MPJ is dialed in 100% with Joker and the Nuggets roster and rotations as well as their offensive scheme. If we were to get some real contractual relief and Zach is 100% healthy? Okay, but still not 'oh definitely'.

[@Krazyabe]

I love Junior but you are being very generous when you talk about his defense. He can be just terrible sometimes.

[@TheDropstepNetwork]

I understand that. That’s why I said it’s the length that we will miss the most. His “ability to end opposing team possessions with rebounding”. It’s more than just “is he a good individual defender”. He has grown as one, but I never called him a great one or above average one

[@allydea]

If you get LaVine you would end up playing Russ even less minutes (assuming you prioritize minutes for Murray and Braun), so you're losing MPJ and some part of Russ for LaVine.

[@fentanyljones6956]

Make some small moves for a backup big and scorer. They should not touch Russ, Payton or their starters

[@RaisinBran135]

I feel like they should target Franz Wagner. See if the Magic are willing to sell high because Wagner and Paolo haven’t really shown to be super compatible with each other.

[@TrillBuckets]

YESSSIRRRRR ❤❤

[@aquamarine56]

No!

[@Thundercougarfalconbird27x]

Mpj is much better.

[@alexlindbjerg]

The consequences of that contract just isn't worth it. Jimmy Butler would make more sense financially.

[@junseo_han]

Jimmy Butler is 35 and on the decline. MPJ for Butler is a step backwards

[@alexlindbjerg]

@junseo_han financially Jimmy Butler makes more sense than Zach Lavine. Do you just answer without reading what you're answering..

[@140acresretired7]

Has to be Murray for him. Give us a call next year. There's also that 15% salary increase he gets if traded. That's stupid GM's. That's a worse contract then Potters for sure. Bad trade so sure Booth will do it.

[@DammitBobby]

@@140acresretired7 Lavine is more Injury prone than Murray is. I don't want him on the team period. He's not an upgrade.

[@bachnguyen7411]

You think Murray’s contract is bad, but want to trade him for a dude whose playoff career and stats are none existent, and who’s more injury prone?

[@acikusej]

No trade.

[@Dashstash]

MPJ is A Nugget

[@mikeperalta760]

👎

[@ryanmahon1]

Only source I trust 🫡