What is Kraka Lakin or With Knox listeners, I am Dance Valley coming at
you once more without my fantabulous co host Adam Prommel. I am continuously excited
to keep our team look ahead, train plowing onward. We are up to
the Denver Nuggets on our list, and I will be speaking with Adam Madez,
the VP of Creative Production at d n VR Sports. He's also co
host of the Locked On Nuggets podcast. Follow him at Adam Underscore Madez.
That's at A D A D A M Underscore M A R ees. He's
a great follow I'm not sure anyone covers the Nuggets specifically better than him.
He is awesome. We had a fun conversation covered a lot of ground in
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will come up subscribe to that channel. Not as I've sped through this intro
and am sufficiently out of breath, let's get to loads and loads and loads
of Denver Nuggets talk with Adam Madez from d NVR and the Lockdown Nuggets Podcast.
Adam, thank you so much for hopping back on the Hardward Knox podcast
to talk some Denver Nuggets with me. Before we get started, of course,
the most important question that I ask every guest, how are you doing?
I'm doing great, Dan, It's good to be on. Man.
It's gonna be talking nugs and maybe hyping them up a little bit. I'm
curiou your questions. I think you know there's some good topics. I'm excited.
Yeah, one topic is probably not so excited to talk about those.
It does start with Jamal Murray recovering from that ACL injury. His absence obviously
looms large, and the timing of it last season is just so bizarre because
it happens April twelve, thirteenth, whoever that day was, and it makes
sort of predicting a timeline of whether he'll play this season or not very difficult.
Do you have any sense of whether that would be the plan or a
realistic ballpark of when we could expect him to return if he does. You
know, I've always thought and been talking to doctors and sports physiologists and this
or that that March early March is probably a realistic target date. But we
don't know, and that it's entirely possible that he's just not back this year,
you know, not back to the playoffs. It's possible maybe he's a
couple of weeks ahead of that schedule, but for most people, kind of
the consensus central part that people estimated somewhere around their first week of March.
I do like that we've gotten away from when it first happened. Everyone was
like, it's Jamal Murray, so he's just gonna beat the timeline and come
back early early. It's like he's he's like part he basically one half one
third of the Nuggets timeline out. They would rush it. How do you
see and I'll put if people are watching this, I'll put point guard in
air quotes. But how do you see like the point guard rotation shaking out
without him? Like? Who are they relying on most in that spot this
season? I gotta think it's Monte Morris. He's the one that's been around
the team the longest, has the most familiarity with the starting unit. You
know, he's played a lot of minutes with those guys in the playoffs last
year, he was the guy that they threw in that starting lineup. Faku
was there for a while, but mostly I think because Monte was coming back
from injury, and once the going got tough, they went with Monte in
the starting lineup, and I think he's a good fit there. He's not
dynamic like Jamal Murray. He's not going to punish teams and create something out
of nothing in isolation and off of switches. I think that's the thing you
look at that say where do they get weakest going from Murray to yoke Well
teams. Denver is very good at punishing teams that try to switch against them,
more so than I think maybe any other team in the NBA. And
so now you look at it and say, Okay, if a big does
get switched out onto Monte Morris, is he cooking them the same way that
Jamal Murray would. Probably not, But for everything else, you know,
just the continuity, being able to run pick and rolls and dribble handoffs get
them into their sets, chemistry with all of the main players. You know,
Monte has that in spades, as well as being an extremely low mistake
guy. And I know you know this, but the fewer mistakes you make
in the half court when you have Yokich on your team, the more likely
you're going to find a good shot within twenty four seconds. So I think
Monte will be a very steady and probably a high floor replacement for Jamal Murray,
a lower ceiling replacement, but a high floor replacement for him. Yeah.
Look, my co host Adam Fromwald thinks that Monte Morris is like the
greatest player of all time. So you preaching the choir over here? Is
there any like sense of are they going to rely on fak who more than
Austin Rivers? Because because aust River seemed like he played a fairly important role
when he signed with them. But then you look at like, just this
roster is still so freaking deep, and so it feels like someone's gonna get
squeezed somewhere, And so was there like a tug of war between those two
at all? Well, what I love is, first of all, I've
never heard anybody pronounced the emphasis on the second syllable fako, But I kind
of like it. And it's not like I get to say it a ton,
So fako is actually a much better It's an improvement on the name.
So I'm gonna start calling him fako. So I think that Monte is almost
certainly, you know, the starter and locked into that role. I'd be
a little bit surprised if if that changed. You know, they'll be injuries,
they'll be differ things that happen. But the second unit is really interesting.
Question. You didn't ask me about Bones Thailand. But I have to
get into him here to answer this, to answer your question, and that
is that Bones Thailand, Denver's rookie has looked outstanding in the Summer League and
then looked equally as outstanding in the preseason. And typically I would say,
you know, rookie's not really gonna count him. You got veteran players.
You have to show that. But I look at Bones Thailand and what he's
done CONCEPTI he has not had it, but he has yet to have a
bad game, either Summer League or preseason. And I look at that and
I think he provides scoring. He's been pretty steady, a little turnovers a
little high, and that's probably one of the things that might keep him on
the bench. But he runs to pick and on credibly well, very advanced
field. And I think if you look at Denver's second unit right now,
without Bones, it would be Faku, it would be Austin, Austin Rivers
and PJ. Dozer. None of those guys are liable three point shooters.
They can knock down a shot, but they're not spacing the floor. Nobody's
running over top screens to keep those guys from launching it off the dribble three
pointer. And I look at that, and I go, can you win
in the NBA even with the bench unit? Can you win if you don't
have that threat the one, two or three? And so Bones, who's
a very big threat from deep, might replace one of those guys. It's
not going to be PJ. Doger, so let's count him out. He's
more of a small forward anyway. With the Nuggets figuration. So now you
look at Facu and Austin Rivers, I would not be surprised if, either
right out of the gate or at some point in the early go of this
season, one of those guys gets bounced in favor of Bones, both because
he might just be better overall, but also because he provides there's a little
bit of a redundancy between those other three that Bones might kind of create a
little bit more spacing, a little bit more dynamic playmaking. And yeah,
he's been fantastic. I just you know, I feel like we're not that
far removed from wanting Michael Malone to play Michael Porter Junior more and so it's
hard for me to really envision him leaning semi significantly on a rookie. Do
you think that's something that he would actually be open to given how like better
and heavy the rest of the roster is. So we joke all the time
here at d NBR about there being Malone guys and not Malone guys. And
Malone guys are tough, they're smart, they're very low mistakes, so they're
dialed in so they don't make a lot of mistakes. And then I would
say even there's a little bit of there's just like Michael Malone was a point
guard in college, right, he's a point guard's mind. So guys that
maybe favor just seeing the game from a point guard standboy, Michael Porter is
none of those things, right. He's an incredibly talented player, but smart.
No, he came in missing a couple of years, he had to
catch up. He was behind the curve from a basketball sort of and you
know, feel for the game intelligence standpoint low mistake. Well, Michael Porter
is not that easy defensively, especially he makes a lot of mistakes. So
I think when you contrast that to bone to one of the surprises out of
him and their early go in the preseason so far has been how much more
of a point guard he is? I think he was thought of as the
score who comes in, is always looking for a SHOT's been a great passer
both in summer league and in preseason, and so I think he's more of
a Malone type guy. The mistakes. So the one thing you know,
the over is this or that or the one thing that could keep him on
the bench, Because to your point, that is a thing that I think
all coaches, but especially Malone, look at and say, I just need
I'd rather have somebody I know is not going to make mistakes than somebody that
I know is going to make shots. But I think he's low enough mistake
that he'll get over that hump pretty pretty quickly, if not right out of
the gate. So to answer your question shortly, yes, I think that
I think that he has a much better chance of getting early minutes than Michael
Porter did just because of that low mistake and his ability to slot right in.
He wasn't not so guilty pleasure of mind leading into the draft, just
watching like his you know, his shooting with its cantortions around the rim.
So I'm hoping minutes. I love, I would love to see that.
Did you know, real quick, did you know he was a playmaker,
because that's the thing. Every every scouting report I saw said two things.
One handled not very good. Well, that hasn't been accurate. In fact,
the nuggets were pulled who has the best handle on the team. They
almost all said Boat has the best handle on the team. So that part
of the scouting report was out. And then the other part was, you
know, he's a score as a gunner, but I'm so impressed with how
well he reads the court and how willing he is as a passer. Does
that part surprise you at all? Yeah, that that actually floors me.
I think it was the handle, And then it was wondering would he'd be
able to get those tough shots off at the NBA level just looking at I
don't know his sometimes his motive operations felt a little slow, but seeing him
in preseason specifically like that part looks fine. But the playmaking is absolutely a
surprise. And so I guess that makes easier for a lot easier for him
to get minutes if he's actually able to fill that table setting role. Michael
Porter Junior's role after Michael Porter Junior was largely fantastic after Jamal Murray went down.
Just how does his offensive rollo change heading into this season a little bit,
because it still felt like he wasn't necessarily operating a ton on the ball
without Murray last year. Is that's something we should expect to see him doing
more in the half quarters? He's still going to be that guy that's predominantly
I guess the best way for me to describe it is he scores all these
points and it just feels like most of them are just coming entirely within the
flow of everything else that's happening around him. So I am sure that he
will just get more shots, and you know they'll they'll be a little bit
more. The ball will find him a little bit more. But I'm a
bit surprised he's only played two preseason games at the time of recording this,
the offense hasn't really looked any different with regards to him. I don't know
that they're necessarily running more actions to him. He maybe has a little bit
more of a green light to be aggressive once the ball finds him with the
natural rhythm. But I think the thing about Michael Porter's game that people probably
don't realize just yet is that he's mostly an off ball player, meaning he
catches the ball off of screens or off of cuts or off of rebounds,
and he goes up with it. And that's part of what makes him so
great as a scorer, is he's always ready to shoot. But he's not
necessarily a guy that you kind of give the ball to a whole lot and
just say makes something, you know, dribble at six times, run off
a pick and roll whatever, And so far in the preseas I thought maybe
he would add a little bit of that. I don't know that he's added
that, or that Denver is interested in having him add that. He's really
just more. He took a lot of shots last year. I mean he
scored I think twenty four points per game after Jamal Murray went down, so
it wasn't like he was had a shortage of shots. But I wouldn't be
surprised if he gets two or three more just from you get to be a
little bit more aggressive once you catch the ball, attack one dribble, move,
attack and get it off one or two times more per game. But
honestly, I think his game is more or less what last year is more
or less what it will be this year, just hopefully a little bit better.
Defensively, it feels like he can be sort of a playmaker there where
it's like, I don't you don't trust me to defend one on one when
you're watching him, like if he's going to make plays around the basket or
something, do you think that there's another level or that there's a league average
or better defender in there, or is sort of those high points last season
like kind of his his peak. So, Michael Porter, I think that
his highs will be really high defensively because he's so athletic. He's really light
on his feet, and you know, at six ft ten six eleven,
he covers a lot of grounds. So every now and then he comes across
the court and makes a block shot that you go, wow, that's a
Draymond Desk rotation or something like that. The problem with him is that,
and there's slow progress on this every year, although I think slower than average
progress for a player of his skill set. He still doesn't read the court
well. He's late to react, he misses assignments, he misses switches,
or doesn't communicate properly, and so I think the problem with him isn't just
what does the average possession look like, it's what does the lower ten percentile
defensive possession look like? And for him, there's a lot of open dunks
given up because he just didn't read his rotation in time, and of course
those look the worst and they also count for the worst. If you give
up, you know ten percent of your possessions are a terrible mistake. That
that's gonna weigh down your average quite a bit. So I progress has been
slow. He's much better than he was two years ago, but I still
think he's going to be a guy that is a weak link from a do
you make mistakes every you know, every every so often on the defensive end?
I think I think he still does that. I'm sure you've been asked
this a ton. Did you have any thoughts about his extension where it felt
very much like a no brainer? But there's also just in the back of
my mind at these the back issues that is just such a very substantial investment
to go into someone that could have problems staying or still has like a question
mark there. Yeah, you know what's interesting about that is I've actually spoken
with some some sports medical experts, doctors, even surgeons who work on backs
in particular, And the number one thing I hear about the back issue is
that he's not any more likely to reinjure his back, but that his career
is likely to be shorter. And Michael Porter himself actually talked about this on
the JJ Reddick podcast, where he said, I probably plan on playing just
for about ten years, and after ten years, I'll probably have to retire
because then I extend, you know whatever. So it was the first time
I've ever publicly heard him say that. But again, I don't know that
it's going to be one of these things where you should expect back tightness ever
so often. It's more just not to further damage it. You probably get
a ten year run before you start to risk things. That being said,
his family as also has a history of some other injuries. You know.
I think his brother had two ACL injuries. I think he's got a couple
of sisters that have had ACL injuries. I don't know if there's a genetic
thing or if you should read into it. He's really really tall and really
really skinny, so you can imagine there's some torque on those knees. That
is unique to players like a Yannis, like Kevin Durant and Siakam and those
types. But I don't really think about the injury more than I do for
most players who are just sort of athletically unique. What did you think about
the Aaron Gordon extension. I was surprised, to speak to my part first,
at how many people were just like shocked by it, because I don't
know, when your team as good as the Nuggets like that, you weren't
spending that money on someone else, and so the reaction to it was a
little bit surprising to me. The reaction, I think because you always look
at contracts in the vacuum right and think, oh, is he worth this
on the open market? If there was just this draft or you know,
you just paid all the players this joined rosters by what their market value is,
it wouldn't make sense. But Aaron Gordon is the perfect was in a
perfect spot where Denver had their roster in place. He was the final piece,
and the question for the Nuggets was not how much is Aaron Gordon worth?
It's do you want Aaron Gordon? Or do you not want Aaron Gordon?
And if you wanted him, you had to pay a little bit of
a premium to get him and to keep him. And I think Denver's at
a point now where they've saved on money, to be honest, Let's be
honest with the Cronkies. They haven't gone into the tax for a decade.
Over a decade, they've saved on money in the past. Maybe it's catching
up to him a little bit, but I think they still come out ahead
quite a bit in this equation. And yeah, it's maybe a little bit
over priced. But when that roster was fully healthy for that glorious ten day
stretch or whatever it was, Aaron Gordon looked absolutely incredible andre iguodala esque in
the way he tied everything together on the defensive end. And then it wasn't
that he was dynamic on offense. It's just that he fit into the offense
so perfectly, that what he provided athleticism, cutting, rebounding fits so perfectly.
So he's a perfect piece, and sometimes you have to pay a premium
for the perfect piece. What is the Is there a different path to optimizing
him on offense without Jamal Murray into the fold? In the fold? Excuse
me? Yeah, that's such a great question, and that was The thing
about him last year is he looked great right for the playoffs, and I
think the playoffs they just needed something out of him that he wasn't able to
give, you know, a little bit. He went back to Orlando where
it's like, hey, can you take this guy half the drill or can
we post you up? Can you do this? Like he can do that.
Every now and then he does something you're like, that was that was
gorgeous. But most of if you just one hundred times he has to post
up. Yeah, those numbers aren't going to be great. I think the
thing that they've done in the preseason I actually expected it. But the thing
they've done a lot that I'm encouraged by is using him as the entry point.
So rather than have him off ball or in the dunker or in the
corner where maybe his gravity isn't as strong as it can be, have him
bring the ball at the court and initiate it, and then he's the first
cut. It's not that he's doing anything crazy. You're not running pick and
rolls, but you at least make his man have to guard him, you
know, bringing the ball at the court and at the entry point, and
you create a lot interesting things off of that. The other thing that Denver's
doing now that I think will be interesting to watch is I mentioned one of
the things that makes Denver special offensively is that teams the best defenses really like
to switch. Denver is sort of a switch breaker. And I think when
you add Michael Order Junior and Nikola Yokich and Aeron Gordon in your front court,
if you switch any of those things, Aaron Gordon's really strong. So
if you get if you if you have a small undersize three and you want
to put a better defender who's maybe bigger on Michael Porter. Now you have
a small undersized guy guarding Aaron Gordon in the post. Can he post him
up? Can he get grab rebounds? And then even just running double pinned
down actions with him and Yokich, you generate a lot of guys just switching
a bunch of different things. And if Aaron Gordon gets a point guard switched
onto him, he should he should be either posted up or more likely just
go go rebound. Just get ready for the rebounding position because he should have
an advantage there And Denver's done a lot of that using him as the first
on double stagger screens. That creates a lot of switches for him, and
I'm interested to see how he takes advantage of that. His rebound numbers were
not great last year. I think this year that's going to be an area
where he can really contribute to Denver's just pounding the offensive glass, and he
should have a lot of switches that make that easier for him. How do
you see sort of that secondary four five rotation behind Yo Kich and Gordon shaking
out? Is it maybe not? You know, on the outline, I
made it out to be an issue because I'm assuming maybe you want to play
MPG eight to four a little bit. You have both rains Jamichael and Jeff,
and then Zeke Nagi is in there. Again. This team is just
so deep, and so I'm curious how you see like that sort of secondary
front court rotation shaking out. Well, I think you end up throwing out
the Zeke Naji Bull Bowl, Black co Chan Chart trio. Those guys all
somebody gets injured, I think they're gonna step in, But I think you
throw out those guys for your regular ten man rotation even before Jamal Murray gets
healthy. I agree with you that I would love to see Michael Porter play
a little bit more four, especially it's staggered lineups. Maybe you have lineups
to have Barton or Dozer at the three and Michael Porter at the four.
But I think the base for Denver on staggered units is going to be Jeff
Green and Jamichael Green as your four five, and really it's just two fourths.
I mean, we know how it is with second units. Jamichael Green
probably guards the bigger of the two players. But those two guys in your
front court, and I expect them both to play a decent amount of minutes,
maybe twenty minutes or so, which kind of covers most of those minutes.
I'm curious to see where Michael Porter at the four fills into all of
this, because if that happens, you're you reduced the minutes for a Jeff
Green origin Michael Green, who I think both expect to play about twenty minutes
or more and probably are good enough to play twenty minutes or more. So
if you slide Michael Porter down there, it cuts into those minutes. But
outside of that, I think that's where it goes. And then PJ Dojer
off the bench as the backup small forward, and he's been fantastic and both
when he was healthy last year and in the preseason so far. I guess
the other question, if you're playing MPG at the four, like they don't
have a lot of as Davis, this roster's true wings, it's like Dojer
and then Michael Porter Jr. And that, but you know, really might
be it. And so that's if you move him to the four, you
kind of have to fill those minutes with You mentioned Barton at the three,
or are you're playing Austin Rivers up at three or something like that. Michael
Malone last year played PJ Dojer at four more than you would think. I
mean he that was like not a lineup he was afraid to go to.
And maybe some of that was injuries, but I don't know. But so
playing him as a small forward almost feels natural now. It's like it's his
second biggest lineup. He's used me, he's been too, so he's probably
more of a traditional two. He plays three primarily for the Nuggets, and
he's even played four in the past. So I could see Michael Malung going
to lineups like that. Again, that gets Michael Porter at the four.
So Nicole Yokich. Well, actually, let me ask you this question first,
between Zeke Naji Chasar and then bow ball. If there was one of
those guys that played by a semi meaningful role on this team this season,
who would you guess that that it would be? That's such a hard question.
I think Black co chanchar Is by is far and away the most reliable
player there. He's the highest floor lowest ceiling by by a mile. In
fact, those two things are almost touching. He's gonna give you, you
know, low mistakes. He'll probably knock down thirty five percent of his wide
open, you know, his open three pointers. He'll rebound a little bit.
So I think it's him just because of if you're talking about a guy
that sneaks in because somebody's hurt, you're probably going with a guy who's not
going to stick out for any bad reasons, not gonna stick out for any
good reasons. But he's not gonna stick out for any bad reasons. And
in fact, Ver has done that over the last two years. One of
their most memorable regular season games over the last two years, we refer to
it as the Seven, when they went into Utah with just seven healthy players
Blackgo was one of them, and they beat Utah in large part because he
did everything he's supposed to cut, defend, rotate, all that stuff.
So I think he's the guy that most likely to play. Zeke Naji had
so much momentum coming into this summer, so much moment at forty point five
percent from three defends really really well, he thought, Okay, there's something
to this guy. He couldn't have had a worse summer league and pre season,
so much so that if you ask me this, you know, four
months ago, I would have said I would see Glagi by a mile.
It's his spot to lose. I think he lost it. That's how that's
how poorly things have gone. So I would probably put him in Bowl deep
behind black goat chant Chard, just in that at the moment, I mean,
everybody kind of knows Bowl Bowl. He does some awesome things. The
highlight reels are great, but he makes a mistake every third possession. And
so how mistake prone Zeke Naji and Bubble have been. I've got to think
Michael Malone has them sort of at the back end of that rotation. I'm
not one to bang that this superstar is underrated or underappreciated drum but ever winning
MVP is NICOLEA. Yok being like underrated in this season's potential to repeat as
MVP When the names are mentioned, I don't feel like I'm reading or hearing
a lot about his potential to win a consecutive award. I think the only
reason it's not underrated is because, let's be honest, the MVP is a
narrative award. We learned this. There's never a year this was more true
than last year. When you just saw how people were talking about it.
It was never about the merits. It was always like, well this guy's
heard that. Guys right, I don't know what's what's the story we can
conjure up and look, Yokich was swept last year? Was it should have
been expected that a very good and healthy Phoenix Suns team beat a very banged
up and an unhealthy Nuggets team. It probably should have been expected. I
think we should be more looking at the fact that you could drag that team
to whatever see I can't even remember what were they a three seed and then
they and then upset Damian very healthy and prime Damian Lillard. That should be
more the emphasis. But it's not and to get it back to back MVP,
it should the narrative is going to have to be so overwhelming. Would
they have to be a one seed out West? Would he have to average
a triple double? Would he have to I think he's gonna put up numbers
very similar to the ones that we saw last year, which were historic numbers,
and I think Denver has a chance to be a three or four seed.
I don't think either of those things make the narrative in his favor unless
they somehow get the one seed or he somehow averages a triple double, or
if the narrative just goes against so many other guys who are also great players
and might have a better story on their side, like a Janis, like
Kevin Durant and maybe even a Lucadanchig. See I'm just wondering where If Jamal
Murray really doesn't return until March and they're still the three seed, then that's
probably a larger narrative bump that he had last season to happen to lead this
team to a three seed without your second best player, But the narrative wasn't
with him last year. It was a begrudging MVP. It's it felt at
least this course online. I know the voters came from pretty heavily, but
I think the the the fallout from last year is largely well, he won
because everyone else got injured, and I don't think that's fair. I don't
even think it's true. I think with everybody healthy, he had a very
strong case against Lebron, against against any of the other guys that were that
were candidates. But I think that's what they're going to look at them to
say, oh, are we giving it to him again. It's it's just
gonna be tough again, unless they're a one seed or one of those crazy
number like a trip. It's funny he averaged but almost nine assists, so
we're so close to a triple w average one more assist and then the narrative
comes to him. So I think he's gonna be fantastic, might even be
better than last year, honestly, But I just I don't know if voters
are going to go for it again. I did love his response to missing
training camp about how he knows all the place he's not worried about missing him.
He is a he is a treasure. Yeah, whether it's if you're
looking at a specific position or skill set void. What is this team's biggest
weakness setting into this season, And that's a good question. I still love
their starting lineup. I think it's gonna be pretty dynamic. It's gonna They
had the second best record in the NBA after Jamal Murray went down, so
to twenty games stretch, they were fantastic. The second unit is a big
mystery to me, and I think that there's a lack of guard play scoring
on that second unit. Again, that's why Bones has an even better chance
than you might think to get in the rotation. But to me, that
second unit is got absolutely murdered so far in the preseason by everybody. They've
looked even worse in the clutch time, and Michael Malone joked this week about
I'm not closing with my second unit to get into preseason because of it,
which is kind of crazy to say for a preseason game. That's kind of
how disgusted he was with it. So I would say maybe a little bit
of that. I'm curious to see how their defense shakes out without It's weird
to say without Jamal Murray, but if their offense takes a little bit of
dip and they're playing in transition that that could be an issue as well.
So I don't know. I guess those two things would be would be what
I look at. Defense is a big question mark for me. They didn't
finish eleventh outside garbage time, points, loud per possession is that? Do
you think they're built to match or see that this year? Should we expect
somewhat of a drop off there? Well, One thing that happened last year
is they ran out of steam. I mean that Phoenix Sun. That Phoenix
series was a lot about them just being exhausted and they pressed down the Murray
got hurt. They rallied around that and played really hard. I think defense
for some teams comes easy, and you get to be a top five defense
because you have the pieces in place. And for some teams you get to
be the eleventh defense because you worked, you played playoff intensity all season long,
and you wore down because of it. I think Denver's the ladder.
The question for good defensive teams is can you defend I don't want to say
easy, but do you have to play fourth quarter defense for forty eight minutes
to be good? And I think Denver does. Are they going to do
that. This year they lost Wilbarton has been unhealthy three seasons in a row.
I think he knows that he needs to pace himself. Yokich played all
seventy two games. He was very proud of that. I think he also
knows how tired he was in the Phoenix series and probably scales back a little
bit. Michael Porter's going to play the longest seasons he's ever played, so
he'll probably scale down a little bit. PJ. Dozer has been hurt,
Monte More's been hurt, so I think those things might lower Denver because it's
not easy for them to defend. And I don't know that they're going to
split through the marathon like they did last year. You're you're thought about the
second You made me think would there be a chance that maybe they move will
Barton out of the starting line up to play for I know you can stagger
and the starting lineup designation, but it does get a little bit easier if
he's with the bench. If he's healthy, it feels like he could sort
of be the engine of that offense. Is that something that they might consider
it? You just think he's penciled in as a starter I think it's absolutely
something they could consider. I don't know if they'll do it, the reason
being, you know, it was important to Will Barton for the last few
years that he start, And is it worth it if you if you ruffle
some feathers. I mean, look, he's good enough to start. He's
one of the five best players, he's the best shooting guards who you slot
him in there? But is it worth it to try to move him over
there, even if it's better for the team slightly? Does it upset him
in a way that that ruined some of the juju? I don't know,
so I wouldn't necessarily expect that to happen, other than maybe it happens in
a playoff series, like maybe there's a playoff series where that's the counter movers
or something over this or that. But the first unit has been so good
together for three seasons with Will Barton, and he's one of the control pieces
that you take him out and the numbers kind of change, but you put
him in there. The first unit has been great, and I think they're
going to stay with that sledgehammer first unit and the second unit might have to
figure things out as they go. And do you think's workload is like at
the forefront of what this team is thinking about giving. He plays almost thirty
five minutes per game last year, like you said, didn't miss a game.
Hasn't really missed that many games throughout his entire career. Is that something
they're thinking about it or is it just he's twenty six. He'll be fine.
He dictates the pace at which you play a lot of the times too,
so it doesn't have to be that large large of a concern. Well,
one of the things that happened last year down the stretch after Murray went
down, but also especially in that Phoenix series was they didn't have another entry
point for the offense. Usually it's Murray. So there's plays. And we
know this from watching Lebron even in his prime. One of the values of
a Dwayne Wade or a Kyrie Irving was Lebron got to play take off ten
possessions a game where he just got to say, hey, you do this,
let me catch my bro I'm a little tired. You do this.
I'm gonna take this one off. Yoke didn't get any of those because they
you know, you don't give Michael Porter the keys and say just could make
something out of nothing. You did do that with Jamal and with Will Barton,
both of whom missed the playoffs for the most part. So I think
this year that's got to be one of the things on Michael Malone's mind of
where does offense come from? With Yok on the court once or twice a
stint where he gets to just kind of be in the corner or be at
the top of the key and take a possession off, and that alone should
hopefully allow him to play like he normally does, which to your point,
he plays at a very nice slow pace and he paces himself throughout the game.
But you still need that guy to take the burden for him. And
I'm not sure where that's coming from this year. If you're looking at this
roster, and this is something that can clearly change the season goes on,
But as of right now, who would be the player most likely to get
dealt before the deadline. I've been thinking about this one a lot, and
it's a little crazy. I think there might be a world in which Monte
Morris gets moved for them, and you look at it and you say,
when they're fully healthy, Jamal Maury's the starter Okay, now you have a
backup, and you have Monte Morris, You've got Bones Highland, and you've
got PJ. Dojer, all of guys who can sort of handle being lead
or secondary playmakers. Monte Morris in that equation does mean fac Wu's not playing,
doesn't mean Dozer is not playing, doesn't mean Bones isn't playing. I
look at his contract and I look at Denvers. I'm very high on PJ.
Dojer. I think he provides something for Denver that nobody else on the
roster does. Lank He's six seven, he's a great defender, he can
play pick and roll. I look at him and think he's up for an
extension. Denver's already so high over the luxury tax. Did you get an
extension worked out for PJ Dojer here in the next week that allowed you know,
maybe it's not as high as Monte Morris. But then you have the
plan of trading on Monte Morris and relieving some of that future salary. And
is does he become redundant enough that, okay, you can move on from
him? And what does that look like? I mean, Monte Morris makes
a lot of money. You're probably trading him away, but not trying to
get back like equal value. You're trying to get back maybe an asset,
regain a first round draft pick, something like that. I just think it's
a little more likely. I haven't seen anybody discuss this. The team certainly
hasn't discussed it, but I think to me it makes a little bit of
sense that, hey, he might be a guy that's expendable. I guess
a lot of that will like depends on how well Bones looks as a rookie,
and then what you're expecting, like if and when you're expecting Jamal to
come back this season. But that's a I didn't even really think about that,
So that's a that's a great way to frame it. This could be
for them to some extent matchup dependent, But what do you think should will
be or should be there? There go to crunch timeline up? Is it
just going to be the starters? I think? So you're talking about Monte
and Will Barton alongside Michael Porter, Aaron Gordon, and Jokich, that's probably
it. More often than not, that's probably the default one. When Murray
comes back, of course, Marie slides into that slot. The guy though,
that to me make is most intriguing to fill. One of the guard
spots is PJ. Dojer. If Denver's up, say ten points with seven
minutes to go, I wouldn't be surprised if Dozer was the guy you throw
in there. You think our offense might not be great, but the numbers
with Dozier on the court defensively have been fantastic. You put Dozier in Aaron
Gordon on the court and you sort of have a defender at the guard spot,
at defender at the forward spot, and it just elevates your defense so
much. And even the numbers with Dozier in Yokis defensively have been fantastic.
I think best two men pairing alongside Yokich on the team. So he's the
guy that I think you would slot in. And maybe it's alongside Monte or
I mean, yeah, alongside Monte. Maybe it's alongside Will Barton. I'm
not sure. Can Barton become a little bit more of a point guard in
the final five minutes. I think he has it in him. But Dozier
would be the guy I'm most interested in. And think about this, Dan,
those are six seven, Will Barton six seven. If your backcourt is
two six seven guys to go with six to eleven, six nine and seven
foot that's a really, really long and athletic lineup. Might you might make
up for whatever shooting and point guard play you get from Monte Morris. Is
there a quirky outside the box, out of left field lineup you want to
see Michael Malone try this season? Anything with Bones is just pure adrenaline.
If if you talked about the most fun lineup you can throw out on the
court with the Nuggets, you do that exact lineup you just talked about,
but swap Monte and Dozer. You swept those guys out with Bones Highland,
And now you're talking about I don't know who that defends in a clutch time
lineup, but boy do they score every single time down court. You're talking
about Bones Highland. I think is a you know, a forty percent volume
three point shooters that has that in him. Will Barton's probably a thirty eight
percent three point shooter. Michael Porter's like a forty five percent three point shooter.
We all know what Yoki does to me. That's the lineup that if
fits on the court. You're talking. It's not quite a death lineup.
Because it can't defend, but offensively. It's one of those ones where it's
like we're getting in a track meet and I think we're gonna win this track
meet every time. The only other guy I would look at is anything with
bowl bowl is is I think other people find it more fun than I do.
Maybe I'm just becoming a little crotchety because he makes so many mistakes.
But nonetheless, if you can throw a Michael Porter ball bowl out there with
Yokich, that's three guys nobody knows what to do with physically or skill set
wise, and those lineups become really fun. I would love to see,
and I'll cap the cabot is this. Every lineup is less fun without Nicola
Yokich. But if Nicol Yoki is catching a breather, I want to see
Gordon, Jamichael Green, Michael Porter Jr. PJ. Dojer and then bones
just at the one like put him next to like all those kind of biggest
wing type players and see what happens. But I'm with you. Watching him
is just like an acid trip right now. It's so fun. It really
is. Man. I mean, I think this might be who he is.
He has a very I don't know if this week makes sense. He
has a charismatic style. It's just he's just fun to watch do his thing.
And it's just like the sidestep I don't remember who they were playing,
but the sidestep three he hit this preseason just like so nonchalantly, just so
like calm and collected on that. I'm just I was sold already, but
I'm just I'm sold. I hope he's a part of their rotation to their
their current win totals we record this over under is set at forty seven point
five. Would you take the over or under on that? And where do
you see them falling? In that larger Western Conference discussion, I would take
the over. I've taken the over every year for seven years, and I
think I'm seven to zero. For the reason the Nuggets always get this like,
uh, you know they're they're over under gets a little depressed. I
don't know that it's gonna be massively over. I could see them having a
forty nine fifty win season. I could see them having a fifty three fifty
four win season. I just don't think it's that likely. But I think
I think that they're going to surprise people. I mean again, Murray went
Murray raises their ceiling to title contender. Without him, they're not that this
year, and I don't know if they will be going forward. But he
doesn't necessarily lower their floor so much, I don't think, And that's the
thing that happened last year after he went down. They still have the second
best rank. I think only the Brooklyn Nets had a better twenty game stretch
in the season, and the Nuggets did, and well, I don't think
they're going to repeat that. Have the second best record in the NBA.
I do think they're going to surprise people with just how much they don't skip
a beat without him outside of the final three or four minutes of a game.
But how often does you know? How much does that lower their projected
win total if they had Murray, maybe by three or four games, but
by not by eight or nine. I'm with you. I would take the
over on this too, Although when I go through all these team look heads
that I'm doing, I've been quite generous with my over predictions. I might
need to correct some of them. They're all going to come from the Pelicans.
That's what it is. We would just pick off twenty wins from the
Pelicans fire that's going on right now and disperse them. Do you see what
do you see there? You've already mentioned that you don't think they're a title
contended without Murray, What do you see their ceiling as in the West,
Because I think I would put Utah, the Lakers, and Phoenix as the
teams that are definitively ahead of them, but after that, And it wouldn't
surprise me, by the way, if Denver was like top three, if
you told me Denver was two in the West the season, I wouldn't be
that shocked. Do you tell me they're one, It wouldn't necessarily for me.
It feels like they might still be the best of the rest, even
if you're you know, Portland Golden State is there, the Clippers are missing
Kauly. It seems like to me they're like very clearly in like the four
five range, and to me, like I even see fifth is like might
be their floor. Actually interesting, there's a lot of teams that are jumbled
up, and the over unders kind of bear this out that Portland, Golden
State, den they're all within Dallas, They're all within like two wins.
So I think there's reason to think that anything can happen with all of those
teams. But if you ask me regular season, I think Utah and Phoenix
are clearly one two. I'm surprised so many people are so high on the
Lakers. I don't know, just defaulting to Lebron. I don't like it.
I don't love the fit, but that's just my default at this point.
But they're another team that I wonder how hard they sprint. I think
last year Lebron wanted an MVP and it might have cost I'm not saying it
costed the season. A lot of things went wrong for from last year,
but I do wonder if he looks at that and goes, why was I
playing so many minutes in January and February trying to gun for this dumb MVP
award when I had no chance in the playoffs? So I wonder if it
also think they're gonna have to work harder than they have in the past to
get wins and to figure this out early. So I don't I just don't
pencil them into that top group if you asked me about the playoffs, though,
the Lakers still with having Anthony Davis, the ability to play him at
center and Dwight Howard, who's given the Yokas problems like that's still a matchup
I don't like for Denver, Phoenix and Utah being healthy and presumably going If
they're healthy going into the playoffs, it's hard for me to picture of Jamal
Murray being good enough to beat them. You know, if he's only back
for five weeks or so, so that makes all sense to me. I
would jumble him in the sec same spot, but it all The thing that
makes this hard, this year hard to predict for the Nuggets is who knows
what Jamal Murray looks like when he comes back? Who knows? I mean,
anything I would predict going into a playoffs is solely based on something I
have absolutely history tells me he's probably not going to be great, which tells
me the Nuggets are probably going to be good but not great. But if
he is ninety percent of himself, then they have a puncher's chance for sure,
and maybe even better than that. I am. I don't know if
the words excited. I was worried that maybe there was a chance we wouldn't
get to see the five man core of this team that made so much sense,
and signing the Gordon extension and Michael Porter Jr. Was never leaving,
like the restricted free agency and all that. It does seem like unless something
size make happens, like we will at least get to see this baseline of
them moving forward beyond this season. Yeah yeah, I mean one of the
Denver could do a couple of things that would really set them up for future
success even this year. And the number one thing they can do is figure
out a better synergy between Yokich and Michael Porter. To this date, Yokich
and Jamal Murray some of the best chemistry, probably the best chemistry in the
NBA one two. Not the most talented or whatever, but probably just say
those two guys have shaped operated on one wavelength, one wavelength, and it's
incredible to watch at its best. Michael Porter just kind of fits. He's
so talented, he just kind of fits in around it. Is there something
you can go to? Yokich was actually asked about this yesterday. I was
there at the practice for this and he said, I have no idea what
Michael Porter and I are going to do in the closing minutes of a game,
Like we'll have to all find out together, Like what that looks like
and it's just a Yoka answer With some of that asks like are you gonna
you guys gonna become a chemistry, He's like, I don't know, maybe
we're gonna try. And that's one of the big questions around him. If
they do develop some type of like action or chemistry with each other, then
Denver ceiling goes up, not just this year, but it goes up going
forward. If you have chemistry between Yokich and Murray, and Yokich and Michael
Porter, good luck trying to guard that even in the clutch time. But
if they don't, then you know, maybe things get a little bit clunky.
Without Jamal Untild, Jamal was back to full health. Is there anyone
on this team or anything about this team that I didn't ask you about you
think needs to be discussed? The only thing I mentioned it I'm really high
on PJ Dojer. I'm driving the PJ Dojer bandwagon this year. I just
injuries are a big question with him. He had some. I think he's
one of those guys that's missing a bunch of cartilage and the knees and those
types of things, so you always kind of I think that's one of the
reasons team he hasn't quite latched on is I think teams are maybe afraid to
like commit to him long term because you never know if a guy's going to
be there or not. But he's just such a good player and a player
in the way Aaron Gordon is that his skill set fits very nicely into what
Denver does. If you look at a lineup that has Murray, a healthy
Murray, Michael Porter and Jokich, he almost doesn't matter who you put around
him. Offensively, that's gonna be a good offense. So you need some
great defense, and you need guys on offense that aren't going to be total
ankers. And he's that. He can run, pick and roll, he
could pass really well, he can get to the rim, and then defensively,
he's so long, he's so dialed in. He's a very good off
ball guy's a very good on ball guy. So to me, I just
see a world in which he has a bit of a breakout year. In
fact, it's not a world. This is my prediction is he has something
of a The numbers aren't gonna pop, so it's hard to say breakout year,
but I think he might be a guy that just fits so perfectly into
what Denver needs, and that might really shine through as this season goes on.
Denver's ability to just find talent on the margins might be unparalleled throughout every
under team in the league right now. And part of that is the bones
Highland stuff right now. I know it's not really good preseason, but like,
to get him in the late twenties is just they found so many guys.
I mean even like ken Rich Williams and Terrence Davis and Tory Craig,
like not star players, but these guys who are really good are guys.
Denver added that we're undrafted and they just didn't have a spot from like,
yeah, we'd love to have Terence Dames, we don't have any roster spots
to give him. So the Denver's done such a good job of this and
PJ dojor fits, but I have a theory for it. Dan, this
is the thing I've learned from seven years of doing this. No GM and
no organization is willing to take risks that might not pay off until guys are
fired. And this has been Denver's m O. Yes we'll draft Michael Porter
Jr. Even though we know he needs a second back surgery, and even
though we know he's not going to be on the court for a year and
probably takes two more years of development, we'll do it. And Tim Conley
has just been for whatever reason, he has it in him that he's like,
yeah, I might be fired by the time this thing is ready,
but it's gonna be cool if it works out. And they've just done that
over and over. I mean the League Beasley they drafted, he had a
broken leg, couldn't play. They've done this so many times where they've drafted
guys where the payoff, if it hit, the payoff was going to be
so delayed. And just watching how teams team build right now, Guys don't
like one year projects, let alone two or three year projects. Devers taking
advantage of that. I think at this point Devers starting office has probably built
up enough goodwill to where it could be trusted when they when they make those
decisions. Adam, this was great, as always. Thank you so much
for taking the time to speak with me. Are you able to just tell
our listeners where they can follow you and all the work that you do?
Yeah, I mean obviously, i I'm on Twitter. I'm sure the description
will be there, Adam Madas. But you the number one thing we do
at DNBR that I think people find cool. They haven't seen it. We
do postgame shows for every show, so on YouTube, right after the game,
we do a really cool live post game right from our bar. We
own a DNBR also owns a bar, and those studios are right there in
it. And it's just a very unique way of covering a team. So
if you're ever watching the Nuggets and enjoyed the game, flip on over to
YouTube and search for DNBR Nuggets and I think you'll enjoy what you see.
And I'll just echo follow him on Twitter at Adam Underscore Madez. That's at
A D A M Underscore m A r E s once more. This was
great, Adam. Thank you so much for coming on to speak with me.
And I think you know by now that I will be pastoring you again
in the future. Can't wait for it. Damn't think so much.