While it was already known that the Golden State Warriors made a push for Paul George during the offseason, there was another Western Conference contender that also tried to get the nine-time All-Star.

Per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, the Denver Nuggets made an inquiry with the Los Angeles Clippers about George before he opted out of his contract to become a free agent.

Shelburne noted talks between the Nuggets and Clippers “never escalated” because Denver refused to discuss Christian Braun, Peyton Watson or Julian Strawther. The Clippers had no interest in a deal that would only involve them taking back salaries Denver didn’t want to pay.

It’s unclear exactly what salaries the Nuggets would have offered, but Shelburne noted it “likely” would have been Michael Porter Jr. and Zeke Nnaji if talks had gotten that far.

Another thing that’s unclear is if George would have wanted to play in Denver. This scenario would have been contingent on him opting in to his $48.8 million salary for 2024-25.

We know that scenario was in play if the Warriors had been able to work out a trade with the Clippers because George acknowledged such a deal was “close to being done,” but it fell apart when Golden State declined to include Jonathan Kuminga in a package.

George ultimately exercised his opt-out and signed a four-year, $211.6 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers as a free agent.

The Nuggets’ decision to bet big on their young, unproven talent around Nikola Jokić is not yielding great results so far. They are off to a 2-2 start and rank 13th in offensive rating, despite the reigning NBA MVP averaging 31.5 points, 12.3 rebounds and 9.3 assists per game.

It’s not entirely the fault of struggling young players like Strawther and Watson. After a summer worrying about how he ended last season and looked in the Olympics, Jamal Murray still doesn’t look right with a 37.9 field-goal percentage. Porter is shooting 29.6 percent from three-point range.

Russell Westbrook is minus-38 in 79 minutes played off the bench. He has been better in the past two games because he was minus-37 through 41 minutes over his first two games.

George wouldn’t be helping things right now because he is on the shelf with a knee injury, but his ceiling when healthy is higher than anyone on the Nuggets roster after Jokić.

Instead, the Nuggets are staring down the possibility of wasting a year of Jokić’s prime because they wanted to try the two-timeline thing that nearly derailed the Warriors.