The Nuggets weren’t being petty by letting Nikola Jokic wear No. 15 after Carmelo Anthony

No. 15 belongs to Nikola Jokic now. Sorry, Melo.

Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes

Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you have an excellent weekend ahead of you. We’ve got lots of MLK Day hoops on Monday, too! Should be fun.

Let’s talk about Carmelo Anthony for a second. And, actually, Nikola Jokic, too.

These two Denver Nuggets legends are linked by a single number: Fifteen. Both of them wore No. 15 during their time in Denver. Anthony’s time is over. Jokic is still carving out his illustrious career while gracing the number they share.

For whatever reason, though, the fact that they share this number seems to bother Anthony just a tad bit.

Most recently, Anthony was asked about it on his “7 pm in Brooklyn” podcast by his co-host, The Kid Mero. He thinks the Nuggets were being “petty” and just gave Jokic No. 15 after he left.

“It was a petty maneuver. It wasn’t like ‘yo, we’ve got numbers to choose from.’ It was like ‘here, you’ve got 15’,” Anthony said. “He could’ve wore it just because he wanted to pay homage. I don’t know. But what I believe is that they gave him 15 to try to erase what I did.” 

I’ve got to be honest. I just don’t buy that. It doesn’t logically make sense when you think about it.

Nikola Jokic has worn No. 15 with the Nuggets for his entire career. Don’t forget, folks: He was drafted as a mid-second-round pick by the Nuggets in 2014. I can’t fathom the Nuggets thinking that he’d be this good. I don’t know if they thought he could “erase” Anthony’s history in Denver, as he says here.

Now, did they show a lack of concern for Anthony’s time there by allowing someone else to wear it? Sure! I can buy that. I mean, even before Jokic wore it, the Nuggets allowed Anthony Randolph to wear it. The number just wasn’t a big deal to Denver.

And why would it be? Denver wasn’t thinking about extending a courtesy to the guy who forced his way out of the city. To be honest, that’s totally fair. Anthony wasn’t owed that. He still isn’t.

It’s clear, though, that he’d like the number retired in his name. He said as much back in 2019 in The Athletic. “This is where it should be retired, to be honest with you,” Anthony said. “Just my opinion, man. The history is here. This is where it all started. Maybe not because Joker’s got 15 now. We’ll see.”

The number certainly will be retired someday, but it certainly won’t be in Anthony’s name. Jokic is a two-time MVP and a champion. He’s been a better Denver Nugget with a better overall career. That’s his to own now.

Carmelo will always hold a special place in a lot of NBA fans’ hearts. But that’s something he’s going to have to accept.

Draft Day(s)

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Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.

Well, folks. The NBA has done it. The NBA draft will reportedly be two days this summer. The league will do the first round on one day and the second round on the next, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Here’s more:

“Among a number of reasons for the expansion of the event, including the programming for television rights partners, the NBA and teams are hopeful that the hours between Wednesday night’s first round and Thursday’s second round will give teams more time to make trades and plan out strategies for the second night.”

As our Bryan Kalrbosky writes here, not many fans were thrilled about this news. That second day is probably not going to be very interesting.

There are some ways the league could potentially spice this up moving forward. For example, what if the NBA did the lottery on Thursday and then knocked out the rest of the draft early on Friday? That might give the second day a bit more juice while also keeping the first day spicy.

We’ll have to wait and see how this works. Hopefully, the NBA can find a way to keep things interesting.

Shootaround

— LeBron James and Jungkook are a combo that I never knew I needed to see. Thank you, Usher. Meghan Hall has more here.

— Paige Bueckers might not be so quick to make the jump to the WNBA folks. We’ll see.

— Here are the players to keep watch on this WNBA offseason. Here’s Meghan, again, with more.

That’s all, folks! Thanks so much for rocking with us today. Have a fantastic weekend and enjoy the basketball! Let’s chat again next week.

-Sykes ✌️