Ponder this: The Nuggets have never been closer to the first NBA championship in franchise history than they are right now. Makes you smile, doesn’t it?

But the reality is: Even in a league so wide open that any of 10 teams could win it all next season, Denver needs to add one more piece to give center Nikola Jokic a legit chance to wrap his mitts around the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Please, let it be Washington guard Bradley Beal.

Make a deal for Beal, and the Nuggets have not one bona fide all-star, but two in their starting lineup.

Trade for Beal, and he could form a one-two punch with Joker fully capable of trading blows in the playoffs with the Warriors’ Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard and Paul George or the Lakers’ LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

RELATED: Kiszla: Here’s major reason Avs are more likely than Nuggets to bring championship to Denver

Add Beal, a 26-year-old shooting guard in his prime, and Denver pries open its championship window for the next five years.

It all makes sense, doesn’t it? So much sense that if the Wizards move Beal anytime between now and the trade deadline in 2020, and basketball ops president Tim Connelly doesn’t bring him to town, then maybe Denver’s talent isn’t as attractive to the rest of the league as the Nuggets like to brag.

Now, it’s far from a guarantee Washington is going to part ways with Beal. In fact, our old friend Tommy Sheppard, who has risen from babysitting ink-stained wretches like myself in Denver during the 1990s to his current very respectable gig as the Wizards general manager, has taken great pains of late to say he regards Beal as a cornerstone in the team’s future plans.

At the same time, with Wizards star John Wall probably out until at least February while recovering from an Achilles injury, smarter basketball analysts than myself have suggested trading Beal is the most logical way for Washington to get on with a major rebuilding project.

Denver finally joined the great NBA arms race of 2019 by picking up power forward Jerami Grant from a back table at Oklahoma City’s garage sale. It was a good get, though in return for their first-round pick in 2020 the Nuggets obtained a versatile 25-year-old player who can test the free-agent market after only a single season in Colorado. Connelly can use this time to decide if Grant is a viable long-term replacement for Paul Millsap.

After being properly chastised for my lack of appreciation for the mighty worth of Millsap as a player in the final year of a $30 million contract, could his expiring deal and multiple future draft picks be sufficient to convince Washington to trade Beal? And if not, Connelly could again use Gary Harris as the centerpiece of a trade proposal, which is a tactic the Nuggets have tried so regularly in recent years it’s a wonder Harris hasn’t developed an inferiority complex.

No matter how many games they win, the Nuggets can’t quite get a seat at the NBA cool kids’ table with LeBron and CP3 and the gang. A bond as powerful as the bro-mance formed by Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge is unlikely to happen anytime soon in the Rocky Mountains. So the best way for the Nuggets to add a legitimate top-25 talent is not through free agency, but via trade for somebody like Beal, whose current contract extends until 2021. Related Articles Keeler: How special is Jamal Murray? Just ask LeBron James, who’s got the bruises to prove it.

Nuggets’ Michael Malone will go through “proper channels” to address officiating, stealing Lakers’ ploy

WATCH: Jamal Murray shows off his inner Jordan in Game 4 with acrobatic layup off the glass

Lakers hang on late in Game 4, force Nuggets into third 3-1 deficit this postseason

Nuggets vs. Lakers live blog: Real-time updates from Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals

I’m certainly not the first to suggest Beal appears to be a perfect fit for the Nuggets. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if this topic generates more buzz during the remainder of this year. So let me start right now by pounding my Size 9 Jordans on the table to exhort Connelly to git-r-done.

As we all heard when Connelly stealthily slipped away in late May to interview with Washington for its top front-office job, he has deep ties to the D.C. area and the Wizards organization.

So put those contacts and that goodwill to good use, Mr. Connelly.

Of course, there might be this little issue of Connelly interviewing with the Wizards only to spurn the interest of franchise owner Ted Leonsis.

Telling a billionaire “no” wouldn’t stop the Wizards from saying “yes” to making a trade with the Nuggets for Beal, would it?