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Are the Nuggets going to trade for Zach LaVine? Plus, how to fix the NBA Cup

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Are the Nuggets going to trade for Zach LaVine? Plus, how to fix the NBA Cup

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Before the broadcast last night, Mike Breen let us know Doris Burke was out because she’s sick. He then said, “I think it’s important to state that her absence has nothing to do with the amount of money she lost on the blackjack table in recent days.” I haven’t stopped laughing.

NBA Cup Final

Bucks win the Cup as Ham remains undefeated

If you want to win the NBA Cup, you hire Darvin Ham to your organization. Last year, the Lakers won the first-ever In-Season Tournament with Ham as their head coach. This year? He was an assistant coach for Doc Rivers, and the Bucks went undefeated. Even more impressive, Taurean Prince has made $1 million off the NBA Cup, winning it with the Lakers and the Bucks.

We went into last night’s NBA Cup final expecting an epic battle between the Bucks and the Thunder. And we got that … for 24 minutes, with a 51-50 Bucks lead at halftime. In the second half of the game, Milwaukee made it a laugher. The Bucks forced turnovers and watched the Thunder clang 3-pointer after 3-pointer. And Milwaukee ultimately continued its impressive stretch, now having won 13 of its last 16 games (even though this game doesn’t count in the record books).

The Bucks used a massive second half to win 97-81, completely shutting off the Thunder’s water. Giannis Antetokounmpo won the NBA Cup MVP with 26 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists. Damian Lillard hit five 3-pointers, which matched the Thunder’s total on a brutal 5-of-32 shooting performance from deep. Thus concludes the second NBA Cup in league history, and I’m curious if there will be any changes to the format — or the seemingly reticent crowd in the arena during the games in Las Vegas.

I asked Jason Concepcion of the “Six Trophies” podcast and “X-Ray Vision” if he had suggestions for improving the NBA Cup. Jason is one of the smartest and most creative people I know, so it was a lock he’d have great suggestions. This is what he said:

1) It should happen later, maybe up to a month later, and Christmas Day games should be part of it.

2) Since the league is copying soccer with the format, teams and the league need to make it easier for fans to go to Vegas to juice up the environment. In Europe, teams have official and unofficial supporters groups. The official ones coordinate with teams to make it easy for hardcore fans to go to away games. The NBA should do the same thing.

3) Make point differential easier to grasp in real time. This is more of a broadcast partner thing, but I don’t want to be on the NBA app following differential. And, in my opinion, the NBA should be trying to keep fans off their phones during games. Put the point differential on the screen somehow.

See? I told you he was smart! I love these suggestions.

The Last 24

Shaq, Kenny and Chuck to draft All-Star teams

🏀 All-Star format tweak. The NBA announced the new All-Star Game format for this season. Will it fix things?

🏀 NBA Trade Board! Sam Vecenie has dropped his 30 names to know during this trade season. Who could be on the move?

🪣 Trade Jimmy? James Jackson has the pros and cons of the Heat making a move that severe. Should they do it?

🏀 Midrange excellence. Giannis is money from the midrange now. How’d he do it? 

📺 Ratings down, fans up? Adam Silver knows TV ratings are down, but isn’t worried. Streaming to the rescue?

📺 Watch this tonight! The NBA calendar is empty tonight, so fire up the old MAX or Hulu account and watch “Christmas Vacation.” ‘Tis the season!

Mining For Trades

Are the Nuggets going to trade for LaVine?

The Nuggets are trying to get back to contending status after losing to Minnesota in the second round of last season’s playoffs and letting Kentavious Caldwell-Pope walk this past summer. They’ve been looking for young role players to step up and find more offensive punch so things don’t become dire when Nikola Jokić is on the bench.

Well, Sam Amick and Tony Jones reported last night Denver is trying to take a big swing with a trade. This was the part of the article that really caught my eye:

“As a result, the Nuggets have either expressed interest in, or have had preliminary trade discussions on the following players: Chicago’s Zach Lavine, Washington’s Jordan Poole, Utah’s Jordan Clarkson, Atlanta’s De’Andre Hunter, Brooklyn’s Cam Johnson and Washington’s Jonas Valančiūnas.

League sources say the focus on LaVine in recent discussions is significant, with the Nuggets interested in the 29-year-old who is averaging 21.7 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists this season. LaVine, a two-time All-Star, is owed $43 million this season, $45.9 million next season and has a player option worth $48.9 million for the 2026-27 campaign.”

Uh … Zach LaVine? The former dunk champ? That is kind of shocking for a few reasons. First and foremost, LaVine’s contract (as laid out in the excerpt above) is thought to be pretty tough to acquire in today’s CBA world, where the second-apron luxury-tax threshold acts like a roster construction guillotine hanging over any interested franchise. Second, the Nuggets just let KCP go, with the primary reason being that the Kroenkes are cheap. (But not broke! They’ve got money, but are quite frugal when it comes to this stuff.)

On top of all that, I’m not sure how that deal even begins to materialize with a pretty thin roster for the Nuggets to utilize. Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon can’t be traded. I’ll go out on a limb and say Jokić wouldn’t be involved. As Tony and Sam reported, any deal would likely have to include Michael Porter Jr., the 26-year-old scoring wing. Porter has been solid but never quite materialized into a star.

If the Nuggets do this, they’d be hoping LaVine can fix their offense’s tendency to fall off a cliff without Jokić on the floor. But they’d also be committing to a very expensive risk.

Frowns Upside Down

Three teams with potential for turnarounds

We’re roughly one-third of the way through the 2024-25 season, and there are plenty of teams off to great starts. Promise and potential are brimming for them. They have great fantasies dancing around in their heads. Well, the following squads are not those teams. These are the franchises who have struggled to fully establish themselves. But guess what? I think they are each headed for a turnaround!

Pistons (11-16): I know his departure has worked out for Cleveland so far, but I believe J.B. Bickerstaff is a really good coach. We’re seeing that with this Pistons team that made some changes from last season’s debacle, but mostly still has the same core. Detroit isn’t good … yet. But you can see the bones of its foundation. The East is so weak — maybe even weaker than we expected — and that affords the Pistons a real possibility to turn it all around. They won’t necessarily just squeak into the Play-In, either — they could actually challenge for a top-six spot in the process.

Detroit’s offense (23rd) has been pretty rough despite good seasons from Cade Cunningham (23 years old) and Jaden Ivey (22). The Pistons’ 18th-ranked defense is bordering on being good, as it’s not far from league-average right now. And there’s plenty of room to improve in-season. After starting 7-8, the Pistons lost seven of their next nine games. But they’ve won two of their last three, with the wins coming against New York and Miami. They’re going to dip again on this road trip (Suns, Lakers, Kings and Nuggets), but after that, we should see them start putting really good stretches together.

The Kings (13-14) have won four of their last six games, and they probably should have won all six of them. Like many teams this season, Sacramento has endured injuries to key players. The Kings finally look healthy, and, in their last six games, they have almost four 20-point scoring averages. Domantas Sabonis, De’Aaron Fox and DeMar DeRozan have been there, and Malik Monk isn’t far behind at 18 points per game over this stretch. The team’s defense has actually been pretty good, aside from the Nuggets lighting it up in stretches.

I also like what we’re seeing from Sacramento’s role players. The 24-year-old Keegan Murray is back to making 3-pointers (inexplicably made just 27.4 percent in his first 21 games, but he’s up 40.7 percent in his last six). Doug McDermott is contributing well off the bench. Keon Ellis has been incredible for them, and I love what Kevin Huerter and Isaac Jones are doing. The Kings seem to have figured it out.

Timberwolves (14-11): Three weeks ago, Minnesota lost to the Kings, dropping the Wolves to 8-10. It was part of a four-game losing streak and a stretch that saw them lose seven of nine games. Anthony Edwards spoke in the locker room after the game, saying his own team is “soft” because they can’t communicate with each other and follow the coach’s game plan. What happened next? That’s right. A turnaround! So maybe they’re about to graduate from this list

The Wolves have won six of their last seven games, including two wins over the Clippers, two wins over the Lakers and wins over the Warriors and Spurs. In the first 18 games of the season, Minnesota’s offense ranked 13th, and its defense was 12th. The latter was the troubling part, considering the Wolves had the NBA’s best defensive unit a season ago. Of late, their offense has actually been abysmal, ranking 27th in the league the last three weeks. But their defense is lapping everybody else out there. OKC has the second-best opposition in that stretch, allowing 103.5 points per 100 possessions. Minnesota is giving up an absurd 92.8 points per 100. I think the Wolves are finally communicating.

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(Top photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images )

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