Woody Paige: Nuggets' GM turning Denver in wrong direction

The Joker and The Shark. The Ballin’ Balkeneers, Nikola Jokic and Dario Saric. Serbian and Croatian centers are united in Denver.

Can the pair of former Adriatic League stars a decade ago – Saric, 3,0 and 6-foot-10, Jokic, 29, and 6-11 -- combine for 48 minutes, 35.2 points, 16.8 rebounds and 11.2 assists a game? Will they occasionally be the Twin Centerpieces and double up on court?

Jokic once publicly picked Saric to his all-European starting five; in January Saric did his Jokic impression with a pick-and-roll no-look pass down the lane for an assist. They are not Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in Colorado, but they are teammates for the Nuggets.

At last. It seemed as if for a week that Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth would be the last to complete a notable acquisition in the free agent-trade world of the NBA. But he finally did find a backup for Jokic in Saric – a former first-round draft pick (12th) of the 76ers, a veteran reserve mostly for five previous teams (the Warriors last season) and a sharpshooter from beyond the ark (hitting 39.1 percent in three consecutive seasons and 37.6 (2023-24). He’s not Bill Russell, Bill Walton or Nikola Jokic, but “Super Dario” (another nickname) could give good minutes when “The Joker’’ takes timeouts, and Jokic can teach him new tricks on the picks. Saric is not an outstanding rebounder or triple-double threat, but he has scored 32 in a game, pulled down 17 rebounds in a game and recorded nine assists once.

Saric didn’t break the Denver Mint with a $10.6 million, 2-year contract.

The signing was reported Saturday afternoon by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who praised Saric’s “versatility, experience and superior basketball IQ.’’

Now the Nuggets need a No. 2 point guard. Let’s hope it’s not someone who is being prominently mentioned.

Booth is the tallest NBA GM, but he lately appeared to be the league’s most short-sighted too.

The 6-foot-11 Booth spent July 4 in a gym near Athens when he could have been at the beach on the Greek island of Santorini.

Instead, Calvin should have been where he belonged in Denver signing free agents or making trades for a veteran guard and a backup center.

Booth was busy watching an Olympic qualifying game between Slovenia and New Zealand. Because Luka Doncic already is taken, the Nuggets’ GM obviously was checking out Vlatko Cancar. But, then, the Nuggets have seen the 6-8 utility man play (rarely) over five years. Although he missed the entire 2023-24 season with a torn ACL, he has a career below-average average of 3.5 points and 1.7 rebounds. Against New Zealand he finished with one rebound and zero assists. Impressed, Calvin?

Booth was far away from the fray and the feeding frenzy of The Association as at least five Western Conference teams improved with acquisitions. The Nuggets, ranked No. 2 overall at the conclusion of the regular season, had fallen from grace to join the Lakers and the Clippers as inactive participants. The Nuggets lost Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in free agency and Reggie Jackson in a ludicrous trade and have only signed DeAndre Jordan, the team’s head cheerleader and quasi-assistant coach.

Meanwhile, a principal positive for the Nuggets has turned into a potential problem. The Nugget offered Jamal Murray a four-year max $209-million contract. You’d think that Jamal would be jumping on the deal as if it were a loose ball. Yet, he’s been hesitant as if the proposal was loose change. While training for the Olympics he has not signed.

Then, there’s the Russell Westbrook matter.

The Nuggets seem to be chasing Westbrook, an 11-year veteran who has been with five different franchises in the past six seasons. But nobody else – especially the Clippers, his present team – wants him.

Although Westbrook would give the Nuggets two MVPs (Westbrook 2017), he also would give them a declining 35-year-old dilemma.

Why would the Nuggets even be interested? Because Westbrook is available cheap – at Saric’s level.

The Nuggets already were eighth in the Western Conference in three-point shooting accuracy (37.4). They are without KCP and RJ, two of their best long rangers. Westbrook has the all-time NBA record for worst career 3-point percentage for players who have attempted 2,500-plus. He’s 30.4.

Booth can do better, as he did with the Jokic-Saric combo.