NBA Rumors: Nuggets Eye Paul George Trade; Talks with the Clippers have not progressed | News, scores, highlights, stats and rumours

While it was already known that the Golden State Warriors made a push for Paul George during the offseason, there was another Western Conference contender also trying to land the nine-time All-Star.

On ESPN Ramona ShelburneThe Denver Nuggets made an inquiry with the Los Angeles Clippers about George before he opted out of his contract to become a free agent.

Shelburne noted that talks between the Nuggets and Clippers “never escalated” because Denver refused to discuss Christian Braun, Peyton Watson or Julian Strawther. The Clippers had no interest in a deal that only involved them taking back salaries that Denver didn’t want to pay.

It’s unclear exactly what salaries the Nuggets would have offered, but Shelburne noted that it would “probably” have been Michael Porter Jr. and Zeke Nnaji if talks had gotten that far.

Another thing that isn’t clear is whether George wanted to play in Denver. That scenario would have been contingent on him opting into his $48.8 million salary for 2024-25.

We know the scenario was in play if the Warriors were able to make a trade with the Clippers because George recognized such a deal was “close to being done” but collapsed when Golden State declined to include Jonathan Kuminga in a package.

George eventually exercised his waiver and signed a four years, $211.6 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers as a free agent.

The Nuggets’ decision to bet big on their young, unproven talent around Nikola Jokić isn’t yielding great results so far. They started with 2-2 and rank 13th in offensive rating despite the reigning NBA MVP averaging 31.5 points, 12.3 rebounds and 9.3 assists per game.

It’s not entirely the fault of struggling young players like Strawther and Watson. After a summer of concerns about how he finished last season and looked in the Olympics, Jamal Murray still doesn’t look good with a 37.9 field goal percentage. Porter is shooting 29.6% from three-point range.

Russell Westbrook is minus-38 in 79 minutes played off the bench. He has been better in the last two games as he was minus-37 in 41 minutes over the first two games.

George wouldn’t help matters right now because he’s on the shelf with a knee injury, but his ceiling when healthy is higher than anyone on the Nuggets roster after Jokić.

Instead, the Nuggets are looking down the possibility of losing a year of Jokić’s prime because they wanted to try working with two timelines that almost derailed the Warriors.