{"id":91107,"date":"2024-08-19T09:45:42","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T13:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=91107"},"modified":"2024-08-19T09:45:42","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T13:45:42","slug":"how-nuggets-can-add-vasilije-micic-for-nikola-jokic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/19\/how-nuggets-can-add-vasilije-micic-for-nikola-jokic\/","title":{"rendered":"How Nuggets Can Add Vasilije Micic For Nikola Jokic"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to The Stein Line insider Marc Stein, the Denver Nuggets are interested in acquiring<\/a> Charlotte Hornets point guard Vasilije Micic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How Nuggets Can Add Vasilije Micic For Nikola Jokic<\/h2>\n

The 30-year-old veteran may not be as close with Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic<\/a> as is being said. However, the two hold a mutual respect for one another for how they represent their home country. With the two also routinely forces on Serbia\u2019s national team, there\u2019s also a certain familiarity that they have with each other. Lastly, Jokic made an appeal to Denver in 2022 in an attempt to<\/a> get Micic on the Nuggets, per NBA insider Jake Fischer.<\/p>\n

“I cannot say that I am such a close friend<\/a> with Nikola [Jokic] because he lives in his own world,\u201d says Micic, per BasketNews. He is so unique person, first of all. He is such a humble guy and I cannot understand how he manages that, how he handles that attention that he has because he is the best player in the world.<\/p>\n

He makes such a small country like Serbia so recognizable and so famous and I am just trying from the shadow to support his achievements and make it even bigger.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These factors will contribute mightily to the how hard Denver pursues Micic. Nonetheless, there\u2019s a big obstacle that the Nuggets have to clear; they have limited options to acquire him.<\/p>\n

What Would A Trade Look Like<\/h3>\n

Micic is due $7.7 million next season, so Denver may have to move Zeke Nnaji<\/a> in order to match salaries in a trade. Nnaji is due $8.9 million in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t problematic for the Nuggets in the sense of being forced to give up a highly valuable player. Though Nnaji entered the NBA with expectations to be an impact player in Denver, he\u2019s not even a regular rotation player. However, unless the Nuggets believe that the 23-year-old can breakout in Charlotte, he\u2019s not a very attractive trade chip.<\/p>\n

Flipping Russell Westbrook<\/h3>\n

The most feasible option is to trade Russell Westbrook<\/a>, Jalen Pickett<\/a>, and DaRon Holmes<\/a> for Micic. In this scenario, they may be able to acquire a draft pick for Holmes. Though he\u2019ll miss his entire rookie season with an injury, he looked like a solid role player prior to.<\/p>\n

In any case, Westbrook is the headliner. Yet, it\u2019s not just because he\u2019s a high-profile player. Westbrook could be a spot-starter if LaMelo Ball suffers another injury or offer leadership off the bench. After averaging 11.1 points, 4.5 assists, and 1.1 steals per game in 2023-24, the high octane lead guard ranked seventh in Sixth Man of the Year voting. He\u2019s still a valuable commodity, even if he\u2019s no longer in MVP form.<\/p>\n

A former EuroLeague MVP, Micic\u2019s experience and body of work speak for themselves as well. After all, he averaged 10.8 points and 6.2 assists per game after being traded to the Hornets last season. Nonetheless, it\u2019s hard not to imagine that the largely American roster will follow the words of Westbrook a little more closely.<\/p>\n

All of that being said, he can\u2019t be traded until Dec. 15 since he joined the Nuggets as a free agent<\/a>. In other words, Denver won\u2019t be trading for Micic this offseason if that\u2019s the route they have to take.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to The Stein Line insider Marc Stein, the Denver Nuggets are interested in acquiring Charlotte Hornets point guard Vasilije Micic. How Nuggets Can Add Vasilije Micic For Nikola Jokic The 30-year-old veteran may not be as close with Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic as is being said. However, the two hold a mutual respect for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":91216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1608,62,22,4721],"tags":[4807,4774,72,53,49356,2834],"class_list":["post-91107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nuggets","category-basketball","category-nba","category-thunder","category-trade-rumors","tag-daron-holmes-ii","tag-rumors","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-russell-westbrook","tag-vasilije-micic","tag-zeke-nnaji"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}