Does This Trade Make Sense For The Denver Nuggets?
The Denver Nuggets are already a really good basketball team, but they could become elite like the Lakers, Clippers and Jazz by adding LaVine to their roster. Outside of Murray and Jokic, this team has a lot of talented players, but they are all very inconsistent at times. Michael Porter Jr. was supposed to be the third scoring option for this team this year and step up into a bigger role, but with him missing almost a month due to COVID-19 related issues, he is still trying to get back up to speed.
Will Barton has stepped up into a bigger role this year for the Nuggets, but again, he can only do so much offensively for this team. They really need that third, reliable scoring option if they are to make it back to the Western Conference Finals, which is why leveraging a bunch of assets now for Zach LaVine makes a ton of sense.
As stated before, the Nuggets would not need Gary Harris if they were to receive Zach LaVine and while both R.J. Hampton and Bol Bol give the Nuggets a future in terms of young talents with a lot of potential, Zach LaVine is the now and can potentially help this team win a championship.
Losing Jerami Grant really hurt the Nuggets and it has shown this year. There has been a void on this team on the wing and they really have not been able to fill this void with any players that are currently on their roster.
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Michael Porter Jr. and Will Barton would still have huge roles with the Nuggets if they were to make this trade, but neither guy has shown the ability to be that third, reliable scoring option for Denver this year, which is why trading for Zach LaVine makes a lot of sense.
Acquiring Zach LaVine makes the Denver Nuggets a true championship contender instead of a championship pretender and while they would be giving up a lot to get him, players like Zach LaVine do not become available in trades every day, which is why the Nuggets should be very willing to execute this trade.