Well, Andy and Brian Kamenetzky of trade is very realistic.
“The front office really shouldn’t be spending any time thinking about whether or not this could happen,” Brian said. “It’s because they really can’t. They can’t make it work. Nothing is ever impossible. If Nikola Jokic says, ‘… I want to be traded. I’m gonna go sign with the Lakers. You want anything of value, you trade me now.’ He does that thing; let’s just say he does that.
“The Lakers would then need to engineer a trade or figure out a trade that actually would be worth Denver taking,” Brian stated. “As opposed to perhaps just letting him walk, and getting the space and blowing the whole thing up or whatever might be. The Lakers would need to figure out a way to rope in second teams, third teams, possibly fourth teams. If you want to put together a package, that would be tempting to the Nuggets.
“It’s not going to be Walker Kessler, a pick swap, three second-rounders, and Jarred Vanderbilt, who’s probably still under contract at that point,” Brian continued. “That’s not going to get it done. They have so little to offer that short of tearing down what they have to get there, which is a colossally bad idea, and a path they won’t walk down.
“They don’t even have the stuff to pretend to make this work, at least in terms of draft capital and things like that,” Brian added. “Maybe if [Cameron] Carr turns into a star real fast or [Adou] Thiero blows up. But likely, there’s just not a trade package the Lakers can put together without a lot of help.”
The Lakers really can’t put together a good enough package. They and . The only reason there is even chatter about the three-time MVP going elsewhere is that he isn’t signing a four-year, $278 million extension this offseason. Why is that the case?
Well, Jokic will likely opt out of his $62.8 million player option for 2027-28 to become a free agent and then sign a five-year, $359.5 million deal with the Nuggets. Could a disastrous 2026-27 campaign change his mind? Maybe, but if he’s healthy, the Nuggets are not going to collapse. So, expect Jokic to remain in Denver for years to come.
