The Nuggets must trade for Bradley Beal, not James Harden

Bradley Beal scored 60 points in one game on Wednesday. A trade for James Harden could cost the Nuggets a pretty penny when Beal is the answer.

When it comes to trade talk surrounding James Harden and Bradley Beal, the Denver Nuggets are almost always mentioned. They have young interesting players like Michael Porter Jr. and they also have most of their future draft picks. However, the prospect of trading for James Harden is very different than potentially trading for Bradley Beal.

On the daily Locked On Nuggets Podcast, host Matt Moore explained why the Nuggets would jump at the chance to trade for Bradley Beal but might be hesitant to go all-in for James Harden.

Matt Moore: The Nuggets really wanted to make a big move, but then they lost Jerami Grant, and then they really want to get Jrue Holiday, but they couldn't get him and because the Wizards traded for Russell Westbrook. Bradley Beal is definitely off the table. However, if that goes south, expect the Nuggets to be back in that conversation. Tim Connolly and Tommy Shepherd are really close, Connolly has a lot of ties to the organization… I would expect that to happen if Beal ever wants out. For right now, that's off the table.

The James Harden thing, I honestly don't think happens for a number of reasons. One, Harden is not going to want to be in Denver. He's just not. He's traveling to Atlanta and Vegas because Houston isn't enough. If Houston isn't enough to whet your appetite then he probably should not go to Denver. It's a problem…

Nick Angstadt: Yeah, the Drake song is “Houstatlantavegas.” It's not “BoulderDenverColoradoSprings”…

Matt Moore: Exactly, so like one of the things that Denver has really done is they pride themselves on getting guys that love basketball but they have a bunch of gym rats that just want to go in and do their work, all the extracurricular stuff is not really all that important to them. Jamal Murray is not posing for a bunch of stuff, he's focused, he loves basketball. Nikola Jokic is the same way, he doesn't like doing media, and wants to focus on the games. Harden is a rock star, that fit doesn't work. Houston is also going to want Michael Porter Jr., Will Barton, or Gary Harris, probably Bol Bol and draft picks, and Denver is just never going to give up that much.