The Nuggets are one player away from winning the NBA championship.
When have we ever been able to say that with a straight face?
Never. Until now.
For first time since joining the NBA in 1976, the Nuggets are one piece shy of legit championship contention. Even better: Rather than being some crazy, fanciful, never-gonna-happen dream about adding a superstar named LeBron or K.D., what Denver needs to do is acquire a a high-quality complementary player to support center Nikola Jokic and point guard Jamal Murray when the going gets tough in the playoffs.
Trade for veteran guard Jrue Holiday and the Nuggets can win the championship in 2021.
The dalliance between Denver and New Orleans regarding Holiday has been a months-long affair. With the draft rapidly approaching and a moratorium on trades expected to be lifted early next week in an abbreviated offseason that will play out at hyper speed, now is the time for Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly to get serious with the Pelicans.
For a franchise that values cultural fit as much as stand-out talent, the Nuggets would be hard-pressed to find a more ideal player within their reach than Holiday. The 30-year-old veteran of 11 NBA seasons would be outstanding for Denver from the court to the locker room to the community.
For all the ways Holiday could help the Nuggets, let’s start with one bold assertation. Pair him alongside Murray in the backcourt, with Jokic, Jerami Grant and Michael Porter Jr. manning positions up front, and the strength of Denver’s starting five has the depth and versatility to match any team in the league.
Although he averaged 19 points for the Pelicans last season, the real strength of Holiday’s game? Defense, dimes and all the little things that sometimes get taken for granted by a young team that cannot fully realize how much everything matters until it is down 3-1 in the Western Conference Finals to LeBron and the Lakers.
Holiday is a beloved teammate often described as selfless, as selfless as the $5 million in salary he pledged to Black-owned businesses hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s a combo guard who can run the point, to relieve the court time coach Michael Malone puts on Murray’s shoulders during the playoffs. Holiday believes a winning culture is more than philosophy; he walks the talk in ways that would help Denver teammates grow.
Trading for Holiday is a no-brainer. Getting it done? Well, that’s a whole ‘nuther thing.
Let’s do the accounting first. The salary-cap math has to match up to allow a trade for Holiday. His current salary is on the glitzy side of $26 million. So for the trade machine to green-light this transaction, Denver almost has to include guard Gary Harris and his $19.6 million cap hit in the deal.
And that’s where things start to get sticky. Make any excuse for Harris you want, but after two seasons in which his jumper has gone clink, clank, clunk far too often, he’s an over-priced defensive specialist, either as a starter or a substitute.
So Connelly is going to have to part ways with players New Orleans values as much as Denver fans appreciate. Yes, I like the steady hand and steely competitive nerve of point guard Monte Morris as much as Malone does. The big upside of Bol Bol might just exceed his 7-foot-2 frame.
Do the Nuggets have the talent that can engage New Orleans in serious negotiations? There’s only one way to find out. If two players (Morris, Bol) that Denver acquired at rock-bottom NBA prices can be flipped to help land Holiday, Connelly can’t say no if he truly believes Denver’s time to win a championship is now.
While Connelly has been a masterful talent scout and the Nuggets were built with draft gems rival teams overlooked, his maturation as a wheeler-dealer in the trade market has been slower. We won’t mention swapping the draft rights of Donovan Mitchell to Utah, because that would be cruel.
But many of Connelly’s trades have off-loaded players that no longer fit in the Nuggets locker room, whether we’re talking Kenneth Faried or Jusuf Nurkic. Although to be fair, the acquisitions of both Will Barton and Grant proved to be sweet deals.
For seven years, Connelly has refused to skip steps in nurturing a contender. Is he ready to push his chips to the middle of the table and gamble the Nuggets are one player away from claiming the Larry O’Brien trophy?
Find a way to trade for Holiday.
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