How Grant Golden — Nuggets’ “poor, poor, poor, poor man’s Nikola”

How Grant Golden — Nuggets’ “poor, poor, poor, poor man’s Nikola” — can help Denver in Summer League

Let’s get one thing clear from the top: There’s no Nikola Jokic playing in Las Vegas during the NBA’s Summer League.

Grant Golden of the Denver Nuggets during Denver Nuggets media day at Ball Arena on Monday, September 26, 2022. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Sure, San Antonio rookie Victor Wembanyama, the league’s next European unicorn, might someday breathe the same rarified air, but the only place to find Jokic’s level of basketball wizardry this month is whatever random court he’s playing pick-up hoops on in Serbia.

Why even bring it up? When the Nuggets open Summer League play Friday against Milwaukee, they’ll do so with G League big man Grant Golden doing things that in ways might look somewhat similar to the NBA Finals MVP.