{"id":124239,"date":"2026-06-30T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/door-swings-wide-open-for-lakers-to-steal-nikola-jokic-away-from-nuggets\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T15:00:00","slug":"door-swings-wide-open-for-lakers-to-steal-nikola-jokic-away-from-nuggets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/door-swings-wide-open-for-lakers-to-steal-nikola-jokic-away-from-nuggets\/","title":{"rendered":"Door swings wide open for Lakers to steal Nikola Jokic away from Nuggets"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Both the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets are hoping to have a splashy offseason, but the latest news surrounding the Nuggets could forever change both franchises. According to NBA insder Mark Stein (subscription required), Nuggets star Nikola Jokic is unlikely to sign a max extension <\/a>this summer.\n<\/p>\n

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That means that he could become a free agent after next season, and the Lakers would certainly be interested in him if that were the case. Ironically, that news could dramatically impact their offseason plans.\n<\/p>\n

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While they have $52 million in cap space this summer, they won’t have any next summer if they sign players to multi-year deals. That means they’d only be able to land Jokic via a sign and trade.\n<\/p>\n

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The Lakers have to keep the door open to sign Nikola Jokic
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That puts the Lakers in a bit of a bind. They likely can’t go all out signing players this summer if the possibility remains that Jokic could be available next summer. Or they could use Austin Reaves as a centerpiece of a sign-and-trade with the Nuggets\u2014if Jokic wanted to join the Lakers next summer.\n<\/p>\n

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Even if Denver isn’t willing to take back Reaves, he could be traded to another team for assets that could be flipped to Denver.\n<\/p>\n

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In the meantime, the Lakers should be looking to improve their roster while maintaining flexibility for next summer. That can be a tricky balance, but they have done a fantastic job at that in the past.\n<\/p>\n

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The Lakers have an ace up their sleeve in Jokic sweepstakes
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Signing players to value contracts and holding firm by not offering multi-year deals is their best way to stay in the hunt for Jokic. It’s also important to note that Lakers star Luka Doncic is close friends with Jokic.\n<\/p>\n

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That gives Los Angeles a leg up in pursuing the three-time league MVP. It also potentially spells trouble for Denver, who looks like they’re reaching the end of their run.\n<\/p>\n

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Perhaps Jokic is simply putting pressure on the Nuggets to make big moves, including potentially acquiring Boston Celtics star Jalen Brown. However, if they can’t, the Lakers loom as a possibility to steal Jokic away next off-season.<\/p>\n

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Both the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets are hoping to have a splashy offseason, but the latest news surrounding the Nuggets could forever change both franchises. According to NBA insder Mark Stein (subscription required), Nuggets star Nikola Jokic is unlikely to sign a max extension this summer. That means that he could become a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":124240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}