Denver Nuggets discussing deal with Los Angeles Clippers for Blake Griffin?

Forget heating up, the trade rumors involving the Denver Nuggets are now on absolute fire as Mitch Lawrence of the Sporting News and Forbes tweeted the following rumor between the Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers surrounding injured super star Blake Griffin. If you’d like to read Lawrence’s story on who called who and more click here.

The Clippers have talked to the Nuggets about trading Blake Griffin to Denver, per NBA sources.

— Mitch Lawrence (@Mitch_Lawrence) February 5, 2016

Any time there is an unhappy or disgruntled star player, you can probably expect the Nuggets name to be brought up in trade talks. It’s no secret that the Nuggets would love to get their hands on a franchise type player to build around with youngsters like Emmanuel Mudiay, Nikola Jokic, Jusuf Nurkic and Gary Harris.

Griffin, who is currently out with a broken hand after punching a team employee, who just turned 26 years-old in March, is under contract until the 2017-18 season — but he has a player option for that season of $21.3 million. This season he is making roughly $18.9 million and next season he’ll make $20.1 million.

Coming from small town Oklahoma City, OK it’s not believed that Griffin would take major issue with where he plays, but could playing in Los Angeles and being a mega-star have affected those feelings for the past six years? If the Nuggets did make a move for Griffin, what would they have to give up?

A deal centered around Danilo Gallinari would make the most sense for the Clippers, who could use help stretching the floor around Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan. A deal like the one below would work, but would it be enough for the Clippers star? Almost certainly not.

It’s tough to see the Clippers wanting to center a deal around anyone else on the Nuggets’ roster and that includes Kenneth Faried. Darrell Arthur drew some interest from the Clippers this summer, so he could be on their radar as a capable backup big man after they traded Josh Smith back to the Houston Rockets.

This is all just rumor for now and probably the Nuggets kicking the tires on what the Clippers might want in order to part with their star — no matter who called who first.