On a recent episode of the Hoop Collective, Brian Windhorst was joined by former Denver Post reporter and now part of the Denver Nuggets front office, Mike Singer. The Nuggets hired Singer to be director of intelligence and strategy, as the team made several front-office hires before the 2024-25 NBA season. Talking on the Hoop Collective, Mike Singer promoted his upcoming book, “Why So Serious,” in which he talks about Nuggets history but also NBA superstar Nikola Jokic. However, the most interesting part was when Singer talked about trades that almost happened.
Denver Nuggets Almost Drafted Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
The main point of the episode was the 2018 NBA draft. In it, Mike mentioned how the Nuggets were close to creating a superstar duo, one that NBA fans rave about nowadays. That is Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic. But he also mentioned that the Nuggets had other players marked in the 2018 NBA draft. One of them is now a perennial MVP candidate, Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Singer said,
“Some of the good stuff um what happened in the 2018 draft with the Nuggets that would have impacted the NBA. The Nuggets are sitting on Number 14 pick, and they end up with Michael Porter Jr that night. Everybody is happy, he has been incredible for the Nuggets. But going into the night, there were two prospects that the Nuggets were high on. One was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and he ends up going 11th to the Clippers.”
We can only imagine that if the Nuggets had the 10th pick, they would surely get up Shai. The interesting part is that at the time, the Denver Nuggets already had their point guard of the future, Jamal Murray. He was drafted two years before, and he played 81 games for them during the 2017-18 season. Murray averaged 16.7 points on 45% shooting during his first season he was already seen as an up-and-coming player.
How the Clippers Blocked Teams from Drafting Shai
Brian Windhorst shared an interesting story about how the Los Angeles Clippers, namely their advisor Jerry West, basically blocked teams from drafting Shai. He said,
“The Clippers were on board but promised Shai and like convinced Shai, and his agent that he wanted to be a Clipper and got him to shut down all other workouts and, you know threaten do whatever agents do to try to guide a player.”
Shai was good at Kentucky, but he wasn’t a top-three or top-five guaranteed pick. But because he shut down all other workouts, he slipped down.
How Would the Nuggets Have Looked with Shai?
With news and reports like these, it is always interesting to play the “what if” game. In this case, what if the Nuggets drafted SGA instead of Michael Porter Jr. At the time, the Nuggets had Jamal Murray on their roster as an up-and-coming point guard. They also had Gary Harris and Will Barton at the second guard spot. Shai would probably get the backup point guard duties.
But the more interesting part of this what-if story is about the Clippers. Without Shai, the Clippers wouldn’t have the assets to make the Paul George trade and get Kawhi Leonard in the process. Who knows where Kawhi would be if the Nuggets drafted Shai.
