Oh. Em. Gee.
In a totally sensible, and therefore unforeseen, twist of events, the Denver Nuggets may be willing to trade Ty Lawson and Kenneth Faried. This is not to say they are actively shopping them, though.
Grantland’s Zach Lowe explains:
he more interesting questions surround Ty Lawson and Kenneth Faried. Denver isn’t shopping those guys, but Jusuf Nurkic is the only true untouchable on the roster, per several league sources who have dealt with the Nuggets. The sense around the league is that you could land Lawson or Faried with a Godfather offer. They are gettable. Boston and Denver have had exploratory talks about Lawson, per several sources.
This is both a good move and further proof the Nuggets still have no idea where they’re going.
Unloading Faried certainly makes sense. His salary is set to balloon next season, and his skill set has become rather outdated at a power forward position that values things he cannot do: space the floor, create his own shot and score off the catch.
Lawson’s deal is more digestible. He’s a mid-end point guard who will put up points and drop dimes in a hurry. He’s tied for the league lead in assists with John Wall, and if he had better teammates he would probably lead the NBA. This is actually a fact. He’s second in the Association with 20.3 assist opportunities per game, according to NBA.com, so imagine what he could do as the primary ball-carrier for, say, the Houston Rockets.
Keeping him, then, isn’t a bad idea. Though, if you’re the Nuggets, and you know Lawson is approaching the latter part of his prime, and you also know Lawson could net a lucrative combination of picks and prospects, you make him available.
Faried is the more interesting case study. The Nuggets are looking for value in return, but if he can be used as a buffer to pawn off the contract of JaVale McGee, do you say no? You most certainly don’t.
Then again, this is all coming together rather quickly. If there was any serious traction here, it seems like we would have heard about the Nuggets’ willingness to part ways with just about anyone. More likely than not, this is just an attempt to put feelers out and get a sense of how much Faried and Lawson are worth. Maybe things heat up more this offseason. We can’t really be sure. Anything could happen at this point.
Still, we do know one thing: Jusuf Nurkic is a god.
