When Jokic and Doncic almost became teammates: “For 30 seconds we thought we had Luka...”

The 2018 draft is still the most successful of the past decade. The list includes four names that are already undisputed stars of the league, which is not easy and does not always happen. Above all, two of them, Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, third and second respectively in the last MVP vote. But also Jalen Brunson and Trae Young, key players in today’s NBA.

The Class of 2018

And they are joined by a list of important names on their teams to a greater or lesser extent: Jaren Jackson, Wendell Carter, Mikal Bridges, Michael Porter, Donte DiVincenzo, Kevin Huerter, Grayson Allen, Mo Wagner, Mitchell Robinson, Jarred Vanderbilt, Bruce Brown and De’Anthony Melton are some of them.

A good batch that also had its stumbles, as happens in any draft. In this case, they are being talked about for the positions they occupied. The 1st was spent by the Phoenix Suns on Deandre Ayton and the 2nd by the Sacramento Kings on Marvin Bagley. Neither of the two are still with those teams and their careers have not taken off far from their first destinations. Quite the opposite.

With the passage of time, everything is judged better, but with the previous list of players it seems evident that both Suns and Kings were wrong that night in June 2018. The case of the Suns was to a certain extent understandable. Ayton was an absolutely dominant center at the University of Arizona, the state of the franchise itself and, therefore, an idol of many Suns fans before he even got to pose with the team’s jersey. And he had his moments of importance in the first few years he was in Phoenix. So we can’t really call it a complete failure either.

The case of the Kings and Bagley is different. That choice, unlike Ayton’s in Phoenix, was not a given, nor did circumstances force them to select him with the number 2. The Californian franchise did it because they really thought he was the best option ahead of any other player other than Ayton. And that included Luka Doncic.

It’s important to remember that the general manager of Sacramento at that time was Vlade Divac. Yugoslavian by birth, Balkan and European. Who better than him to trust in the greatest talent to arrive from the Old Continent in a long time?

However, Divac did not want Doncic. Much has been said about that decision, pointing to a possible bad relationship between Divac himself and the Slovenian’s father, who he would see as a bad influence on the point guard’s future.

Who knows what went through the Serbian’s head. Perhaps it all comes down to the fact that at that time Doncic did not convince him as a player as much as Marvin Bagley. The fact is that Luka ended up in Dallas after the Mavericks traded their number 5 (in which they took Trae Young) and a first round pick the following year, for the number 3 of the Atlanta Hawks, where the former Real Madrid player was selected.

Jokic-Doncic, what could have been and wasn’t

But the Mavs weren’t the only team hoping that the Kings weren’t going to select Doncic at No. 2. The Denver Nuggets also tried a similar move to Dallas’s to land him.

Here’s how Mike Singer, who now works for the Colorado franchise and was a Denver Post reporter at the time, put it in a podcast: “The Nuggets knew Vlade Divac wasn’t particularly thrilled with Luka Doncic. And they had plans to pair Nikola Jokic with Luka Doncic. On draft night in 2018, they tried. There was a call, there was a proposal, and the Nuggets tried to get the second pick in exchange for Gary Harris and two first-round picks. That’s what I was told.”

Specifically, the Nuggets' first-round pick in that draft was the 14th pick, which is the one they ultimately selected Michael Porter with.

“You can roll your eyes at what they were trying to give away, but look back. The Kings ended up taking Marvin Bagley with the second 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 Divac wasn’t particularly thrilled with Luka Doncic and they tried to exploit it,” added Singer, who wonders what would have happened to Jamal Murray had Doncic ended up playing for the Nuggets: “The issue here would have been whether the Nuggets had ever been willing to separate themselves from Jamal Murray. It’s one of the great What Ifs? in NBA history but that didn’t happen.”

The mere possibility of Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic being teammates is so thought-provoking that the imagination runs wild. Would they have grown as much as they did? To become two of the best players in the world (maybe the two best), together? Would the Nuggets have the ring they already have? Would they have won more?

And what would the Mavs be like today? It’s a lot of what ifs, as Singer says, that will remain unanswered. “I wasn’t in the room, I wasn’t in the front office at the time. All I know is that it was considered, explored, vetted, and someone anonymously said, ‘For 30 seconds, we thought we had Luka. Which is a gigantic statement.”