Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic have already joked about what it would look like to share the same NBA locker room. More than two years later, that old conversation has picked up another unexpected voice.
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The idea has never been much more than a fun hypothetical, but the latest suggestion comes from someone who knows what it takes to play in the NBA and compete for a championship.
Former NBA All-Star Jeff Teague brought it up on the Club 520 Podcast, saying, “Jokic will be like Steph Curry or Harden. Even if they lose, he’ll still be on the team. Jokic is not like other people. He’s not thirsty to move and chase a trophy. He will stay with the team.” He then turned to Doncic with a much more direct message: “Come over and play for the Nuggets.”
The suggestion is not completely new. Jokic and Doncic have been close through their shared European basketball roots, and their 2024 All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis produced one of the clearest public references to them playing together.
Asked by Serbian media about the possibility of playing with Doncic, Jokic replied, “I don’t know, it’s possible. I don’t want to leave Denver, I like being there and it’s a great organization. But if Luka gets tired of Dallas, he can come.”
At the time, Doncic was still with Dallas. He would be traded to the Lakers in February 2025, turning what sounded like an All-Star Weekend joke into a much more interesting hypothetical.
Jokic’s commitment to Denver has remained clear, even as the roster around him has changed. The Nuggets have since lost key contributors such as Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, while questions about their depth and secondary creation have continued into the current championship window.
That was especially evident in Denver’s latest move. The Nuggets sent 23-year-old wing Peyton Watson to Cleveland in a multi-team sign-and-trade, receiving an unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a 2032 second-round pick in the deal. Watson was coming off a season in which he averaged 14.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 54 games, but hamstring issues limited his availability.
Denver also finished third in the Western Conference last season before being eliminated in the first round, giving some weight to the questions around the supporting cast. But Watson’s trade was a roster and financial decision, not something that has been publicly connected to Teague’s suggestion.
Still, there is one major obstacle to the idea: Jokic has made it clear that he has no desire to leave Denver. After Serbia’s FIBA World Cup qualifying win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 6, he said, “My idea and desire is to stay in Denver. I’ll probably sign next year. My desire is to play with the Nuggets for the rest of my career / for the rest of my life. It’s up to them whether they’ll offer me that or not.”
For now, there is no indication that Doncic is headed to Denver. But the idea has a little more history behind it than a random offseason fantasy: Jokic once joked that Luka could come to Denver, and now Teague has made the same suggestion while Jokic continues to say he wants to stay there for the rest of his career.