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At the 20218 NBA draft, the Denver Nuggets attempted to trade up to the No. 2 overall pick with Luka Doncic their target selection. The Sacramento Kings held the No. 2 pick that year and picked Marvin Bagley while the Atlanta Hawks did trade down from No. 3, sending the draft rights for Doncic to the Dallas Mavericks for the No. 5 pick that became Trae Young and a first round pick in 2019 that became Cam Reddish. 

"The Nuggets knew that Vlade Divac was not particularly high on Luka Doncic," said Mike Singer on The Hoop Collective Podcast. "And they had designs on pairing Nikola Jokic with Luka Doncic. On draft night in 2018, they tried. There was a call placed. There was a proposal and the Nuggets attempted to get the No. 2 pick for Gary Harris and two first round picks was what I was told.

"You can roll your eyes at that price tag, but look in retrospect. The Kings ended up taking Marvin Bagley with the No. 2 pick. I'm not saying this trade was imminent. All I'm saying is this trade was discussed and considered because the Nuggets knew Vlade Divas was not particularly high on Luka Doncic and they tried to exploit it.

"The wrinkle in this is if the Nuggets had ever been willing to part with Jamal Murray, we have a hell of a what-if in the annals of NBA history, but that did not happen."

The story told by Signer, a former Denver Post reporter and current employee of the Nuggets, is also from his upcoming book on Jokic title 'Why So Serious?'

"I was not in the room," added Singer. "I was not in the front office at the time. All I know is it was considered, explored, vetted, and I have somebody saying anonymously 'For 30 seconds, we thought we had Luka.' Which is a gargantuan statement."

Via Mike Singer (via The Hoop Collective Podcast)

Lol at the headline of this article. The Nuggets were not 'close'. That package would never have got you the number 2 pick in the draft. You can hindsight all you want, and yes, Bagley turned out to be a bust, but this package they would have got wouldn't have been any better. They should have just used the pick better.

Has there ever been a definitive accounting of why Divac was so lukewarm on Doncic? All I ever heard was that Divac didn't get along with Doncic's father, so for personal reasons, which seems like a crazy reason to pass on a prospect that had that much buzz.

Too bad so sad. Now the Nuggets have surrounded Jokic with a bunch of injury prone bums and the worst bench in the L. I won't be surprised if he demands a trade in a few years

Effigy wrote:Lol at the headline of this article. The Nuggets were not 'close'. That package would never have got you the number 2 pick in the draft. You can hindsight all you want, and yes, Bagley turned out to be a bust, but this package they would have got wouldn't have been any better. They should have just used the pick better.

Probably right but Gary Harris did have a ton of value that year, he'd just averaged 18ppg on 50/40 splits and was seen as a great defender too. And he was just 23. He wasn't super valuable before or after but that was in the brief window he was a true blue chip trade asset.

Danny Ainge also said he had the deal almost done. Just missed it by a hair.

The Kings drafting Bagley over Doncic blows my mind. It doesn't get more obvious, yet they still botched it.

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circa70 wrote:Too bad so sad. Now the Nuggets have surrounded Jokic with a bunch of injury prone bums and the worst bench in the L. I won't be surprised if he demands a trade in a few years

I don’t even think he cares enough about basketball to do so

JJ_PR wrote:The Kings drafting Bagley over Doncic blows my mind. It doesn't get more obvious, yet they still botched it.

With hindsight, everything is easy. More or less Bagley was rated higher than Doncic in every predraft rankings. I think it happens a lot though that a player who goes to a big name college (Duke) gets rated very high predraft but doesn't pan out. Happens a lot in college football too. But quite a number of big stars didn't go to the top college programs.

GQ Hot Dog wrote:Has there ever been a definitive accounting of why Divac was so lukewarm on Doncic? All I ever heard was that Divac didn't get along with Doncic's father, so for personal reasons, which seems like a crazy reason to pass on a prospect that had that much buzz.

Vlade said that he and Luka’s dad are good, no beef, but that he viewed Luka as a PG, and with Fox already there, he didn’t think it would work. This would be fine logic if he didn’t draft Halliburton two years later to create the exact same problem with an inferior prospect.

As Demarcus Cousins once said, “Lord, give me strength”.

HotelVitale wrote:

Effigy wrote:Lol at the headline of this article. The Nuggets were not 'close'. That package would never have got you the number 2 pick in the draft. You can hindsight all you want, and yes, Bagley turned out to be a bust, but this package they would have got wouldn't have been any better. They should have just used the pick better.

Probably right but Gary Harris did have a ton of value that year, he'd just averaged 18ppg on 50/40 splits and was seen as a great defender too. And he was just 23. He wasn't super valuable before or after but that was in the brief window he was a true blue chip trade asset.

I’m guessing that’s what they came to the table with initially, but that 18-19 Nuggets squad had a lot of depth to trade. I’m betting they’d have parted with some mix of 23 year old Monte Morris, Trey Lyles, Juancho and a 22 year old Malik Beasley. I’m guessing that they probably just ran out of time.

As far as including Murray, 17-18 was the year that Houston had just taken a 3-2 lead on the KD Warriors in the WCF, before CP3 got hurt. I’m sure someone in the front office had visions of Murray-Luka-Jokic being an even better version of Harden-Paul-Capela, at least offensively.

Onlytimewilltel wrote:Danny Ainge also said he had the deal almost done. Just missed it by a hair.

The long running joke of Danny Ainge missing out on trades was the first thing to come to my mind as well.

Doesn't feel like that package would've been one of the better packages for the #2 pick in that draft. That was, even at the time, seen as one of the strongest drafts in some time.

Quotes from Divac before he got fired

"I still believe Marvin has big upside. But I needed more time to prove it. I’m sure Marvin is going to prove everybody wrong"

"Luke will be a great coach,” Divac said. “If they give him a chance, he’ll be just fine."

Would this have been draft guru Tim Connelly in Denver trying to make the trade for Doncic?

Toine85 wrote:

Onlytimewilltel wrote:Danny Ainge also said he had the deal almost done. Just missed it by a hair.

The long running joke of Danny Ainge missing out on trades was the first thing to come to my mind as well.

Great minds think alike

xchange55 wrote:

JJ_PR wrote:The Kings drafting Bagley over Doncic blows my mind. It doesn't get more obvious, yet they still botched it.

With hindsight, everything is easy. More or less Bagley was rated higher than Doncic in every predraft rankings. I think it happens a lot though that a player who goes to a big name college (Duke) gets rated very high predraft but doesn't pan out. Happens a lot in college football too. But quite a number of big stars didn't go to the top college programs.

those predraft rankings were trash if that is what they claimed , Luka was the clear cut best player in the draft by a mile

gabri3l3 wrote:

xchange55 wrote:

JJ_PR wrote:The Kings drafting Bagley over Doncic blows my mind. It doesn't get more obvious, yet they still botched it.

With hindsight, everything is easy. More or less Bagley was rated higher than Doncic in every predraft rankings. I think it happens a lot though that a player who goes to a big name college (Duke) gets rated very high predraft but doesn't pan out. Happens a lot in college football too. But quite a number of big stars didn't go to the top college programs.

those predraft rankings were trash if that is what they claimed , Luka was the clear cut best player in the draft by a mile

This was not the consensus in 2018 (although of course there were many people who projected Luka best, almost no NBA media was putting Luka at the top of their draft). ESPN is the only one to even have Luka going 2nd among the usual search's top results.

The mock drafts are still avail.

ESPN
Ayton/ Luka/ JJJ/ Bamba/ Bagley
https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/23794672/2018-nba-mock-draft-perfect-picks-every-team

The Ringer-- Bill Simmons vocally/publicly loved Luka most, but he & his staff still projected him drafted 3rd:
Ayton/ Bagley/ Luka/ JJJ/ Bamba
https://nbadraft.theringer.com/2018/

Sports Illustrated
Ayton/ Bagley/ JJJ/ Luka / MPJ
https://www.si.com/nba/2018/04/19/nba-mock-draft-2018

CBS Sports
Ayton/ Bagley / Luka/ MPJ/ Bamba
https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/2018-nba-mock-draft-final-look-and-projection-of-both-rounds-before-teams-pick-thursday-night/

NBADraftRoom.com
Ayton/ Bagley/ Luka/ Bamba/ JJJ
https://nbadraftroom.com/2018-nba-mock-draft/

NBADraft.net final mock from June 21
Ayton/ Bagley/ Luka/ JJJ/ MPJ
https://www.nbadraft.net/2018-extended-mock-draft-5-2/