Speaker 1: Is up, Fella, sickos, I am Damp Valley coming at
you with another twenty twenty five twenty twenty six NBA
season look ahead. We are onto the Denver Nuggets, which
means I have the distinct pleasure of being joined by
Adam Addez. He is a co he's a host of
the All City NBA podcast with Tim Legler, and he
is also over at DNVR Nuggets VP of Content and
Strategy and growth at All City as well, and you
should check out all the DNVR sports content your guys.
Nuggets post game shows are like when I'm trying to
check in on the Nuggets. They're a lifeblood for me.
So you do great work over there.
Speaker 2: How you doing, Adam, I'm good. I appreciate that intro.
We do have a lot of fun over there, and
the Nuggets give us a lot to talk about, which
is always nice, especially this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, so I listened to a few of
the most recent podcasts in prep of this show, and
I even watched the preseason game against the Clippers, the
first half of it. Anyway, I when I found out
we were doing this, But I want to start with
just last season really quickly. It was kind of like
the perfect ending for the team that the Nuggets were
because they fire Calvin Booth and Michael Malone like way
or way too late in the season, it felt like,
and then they put they pushed the Thunder to seven
games they end up doing, so it kind of just
didn't make a ton of sense. What were just some
of your biggest overarching takeaways or lessons learned that are
sticking with you as you were journeying through the off
season but also heading into this year.
Speaker 2: Well, it's it's so funny, so over on the DMVR
Nuggets podcast. You know, I'm an ex collegiate player. I
like analytics. Yeah, I like to break down tape. I
like to do all that stuff. This is my twelfth
year covering the NBA, and people think I'm joking or
think I'm being ridiculous. Vibes are such a more important
part of basketball than people think. It's funny because we
always talk about the vibes of the team over there,
and I've had people in the various front offices and
coaching staff and always tell me, hey, man, you guys
are right. It's about the vibes. It's about the vibes.
The vibes were horrible last year, and culture in an
organization or in a lot locker room, it's hard to build.
It's even more hard to sustain. And I think if
you ask about lessons, the Nuggets made a move on
Michael Malone and Calvin Booth, who I think we're at
the heart of the culture disintegrating, and they moved too late,
and that just that move was able to turn a
very mediocre team around with three regular season games to
prep to make it all the way to Game seven
of the second round against the eventual champs. So that's
the lesson is that the Nuggets, when they have Nicoli Jokich,
are going to have a very high floor as long
as you can have a culture that can compete and
stay together.
Speaker 1: What type of power do you have to get the
Nuggets to create, maybe like a vibes metric. I feel
like we need to figure out a way to quantify vibes.
Speaker 2: Now, there's got to be something that you can observe
that's like, yeah, this is actually what it is. Like,
there's some way to observe it. You know, you see
it when you're covering a team. You can just tell
how a team's doing but there's probably one thing you
could point out and say, does this team do this?
They have bad.
Speaker 1: Vibes And look, you've talked to your credit. You talked
about a lot on the DNBR show. I think you
talked about last year when we were doing the Denver
Nuggets look Ahead, just about the Michael Malone Calvin Booth dynamic.
So you were in front of that, and then you know,
with four games less than the season or three games
less in the season, they finally acted on it, whatever
it ends up being. Yes, the Cam Johnson trade. You've
been adamant too from listening that it was not just
a cost cutting move. I one hundred percent agree with that.
When you're looking at his fit on this team, specifically offensively,
what is going to be the biggest difference for Denver
going from Michael Porter Junior to him?
Speaker 2: I think, without question the biggest difference is that you
now have in your starting lineup five guys who know
how to solve a variety of problems on the fly.
It's not just about drawing up plays or drying up
a scheme or drawing something together. It's when you get
into a playoff series, teams are going to test you
in a variety of ways. And Jokic is the world's
greatest problem solver, but he's a collaborative problem solver. You
need everybody else on the court to be on his level,
you know, thinking through when to cut, when to space,
what's what's happening so you can read everything. Michael Porter
Junior was just not very good at that. He was
very skilled and he could do things, but he limited
Denver's collective ability to problem solve on the fly. And
I think Cam Johnson is a very good one. I'm
an above average problem solver or a guy that just
kind of understands what's going on, what's the team trying
to do to us, and what's the pressure point. He's
very good at that. So now you have Christian Brown,
who I think is very good at this. He's really
developed into this over the years. Aaron Gordon who's become
a very smart player, Jamal Murray obviously, Nicolaijokich, and now
Cam Johnson. It gives you five people to work together
to solve problems, which, in my opinion, is what the
playoffs are all about.
Speaker 1: When you look at the Cam Johnson minutes, do you
expect him to be mostly tethered to Nicole Jokich, or
could he be more of a part of those some
of those stagger units, especially because like he ran, maybe
not conventionally ran, but he ran a lot of offense
for the Nets last year, and the Nets, like the
players on their team were probably worse than the players
that are going to be in the Denver Nugget second
unit at this point, and so I'm just curious how
you expect them to use him in that way.
Speaker 2: That's a good question that I don't have the answer for.
I would say the early returns or that he will
be pretty tied to Jokich. I think Denver wants to.
David Adaman has said he wants to run a ten
maybe eleven man rotation this year, which is a huge
departure from Michael Malone, who I think would run an
eight man rotation in the regular season if he could,
but a ten or eleven man rotation maybe doesn't. You're
probably only staggering one or two guys. In this last
preseason game, it was Jamal Murray primarily with a little
bit of Christian Brown playing with the second unit. But
I also could see a world where I don't think
Denver knows the answer to that yet. I think they
want to try a couple different looks with their second
unit and see what works, figure out what the personality is.
So my hunch would be I think he mostly is
tied to Yokich, but Denver's gonna experiment and see how
that goes.
Speaker 1: One of the other things that's been talked a lot about,
and then you guys over at deem Your were talking
about it coming out of that Clippers game, is the
defensive like schematic changes that the Nuggets are going to employ.
Do you have any sense of what that's going to
look like or what are the biggest changes that you're
going to be tracking for this team on the defensive end.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I actually have a video out here, a
little film breakdown of some of the stuff that they
did in this last game. Should be up here shortly,
probably by the time this is published. But there's a
couple things. First and foremost, it's the three quarter court pressure,
the pickup points. Denver last year did not apply a
lot of full court pressure, in part because they didn't
have the bodies that can do it. They didn't have
the depth. So first of all, you're looking at six
guys who you sort of trusted, Russell Westbrook being the sixth,
and you didn't want to wear your guys out with
that because you didn't have anybody to spell them. This year,
ten to eleven man rotation, they're going to use a
lot of full court pressure and just try to get
the ball out of the other team's primary ball handlers,
and then they'll have certain configurations where they're trying to
pick them up at half court, so it's not three
quarter court press, but they're still trying to make their
pickup points higher. Then the second thing is they want
to get more physical, and they've talked about this in
their media availabilities that they look around the league and
they look how the playoffs were, how they were defended
in the playoffs, and they say, hey, the league allows
the defense to set the physicality of a game, and
we're going to try to really test what that is.
And you've seen that in that last game, Bruce Brown,
Christian Brown, even Jokic just getting physical and trying to
initiate contact to establish a higher baseline, trusting that they
have the bodies that if a guy gets in foul trouble,
it's not as damning as it would have been last year.
But the third and last thing, it's a mixture of
both zone, which I think they're going to try to
play a lot of zone. The league is moving more
and more towards zone, more teams are playing it. But
the zone principle in particular of rather than having Jokic
play high up in the pick and roll and then
you're vulnerable to that pocket pass and that's we're behind
that type of high show. Instead, what they're doing is
they're bringing the defender, the guard defender from one pass away,
really far away from his defender to be the guy
that kind of keeps the ball handler from turning the corner.
That allows Jokic to play drop a little bit more So.
The pocket pass isn't there either, but instead of turning
the corner and going downhill towards jokicchen drop, it's the
guard coming one pass away. It leaves yourself vulnerable to
that quick pass one pass away and the guy knocks
down a shot. But I think Denver would rather that
than get themselves into rotation where they're giving up everything.
Speaker 1: Two five questions on that do you think they have? Now?
I know they're deeper but do you think they have
the personnel or maybe the better way to phrases the
athleticism to really increase their pickup points when you're looking
at three quarter court pickups.
Speaker 2: It's a great question. And I think the teams that
have success with this, they have athleticism in length and
speed and those types of things. I think Bruce Brown
can be this. He's not going to be playing a
ton of minutes, so I think you talk about being
able to go all out a little bit more. I
think Christian Brown has the strength to do this against
certain types. I think Peyton Watson probably has the length
to do this against certain types. Outside of those guys, no,
I don't think there's anybody else that you're really counting on.
It's not Tim Hardaway Junior. It's not going to be
Jamal Murray. Cam Johnson's not going to be in that role.
So I think you're really looking at those three guys.
And and by the way, Spencer Jones, which I maybe
we'll get to the Spencer Jones person of the show.
Speaker 1: You were extolling the virtues of Spencer Jones. So I
have a question about Spencer Jones. Tell you what, But
so the other question I would have is when you're
talking about them even just varying their schemes, or when
you're talking about like if you have to be the
person that's gonna cheat off of the one pass away guy,
how much of that was Okay, we don't think Michael
Porter Junior can be in a bunch of varied setups.
Now we have Cam Johnson, who we might think is
going to be better in those circumstances. Is that a
factor at all? Or is this more about maybe trying
to make life easier on Jokich.
Speaker 2: Well, they started to do this a little bit more
actually in the playoffs under David Adaman, So I do
think this was a little bit of like already in
the in the works. But I absolutely think part of
why Michael Porter got traded this offseason was David Adelman
looked at it and said, we're not athletic enough or
just defensively talented enough with our core ross the core
of our roster to be able to just play like
most teams do. We're gonna have to be smart, we're
gonna have to have complex rotations. And yes, Michael Porter
offensively he limited Denver because there was only so much
he could do, you know, so much he could read
the court in real time. He was a slow thinker,
you know, he just wasn't that type of guy. But
defensively is where I think it really showed up. He
was a guy that made a lot of mistakes, and
teams took advantage of that. Out of timeouts, I always said,
people would be like, where are they going to attack?
What are they going to try to do? It was
always the same. Put Michael Porter Junior as the low man,
run something up top and make him be the rotation
guy that has to like rotate and read what's happening.
And that was Denver's vulnerability. So yes, I think this
scheme is more complicated. It probably requires more behind Jokich,
you know, in terms of like quick early reads. It's
a lot about meeting the defense higher up the court
as opposed to waiting and reacting to what they have
what they do. And yeah, I think that they look
at it and say, hey, we have maybe the smartest
starting five in the NBA, so we're going to lean
into a scheme that requires more intelligence.
Speaker 1: They ones Salentuns trade still insanity that the Kings put
themselves in position where they need to make it. But
how how much do you actually think that he is
going to give nikolea Jokic your breeder, Like, how much
of an emphasis is it going to be, like we
have a backup five that can actually play real minutes now.
Speaker 2: I think it's one hundred percent of the plan. Whether
it works or doesn't work, they're going to go with it.
I don't think this is a thing like Dario Sarich
last year, where it's you get a couple games into
the season, say that didn't work, let's pivot. I think
they're going to sink or swim with the onus Valentunas
being there sort of the anchor of that second unit,
and I think he can do it. I mean part
of it is Denver's building in the zone schemes, So
even with Jokics, they're trying to play a little bit
more zone. Well that translates to Valentunas as well. You're
teaching everybody how to play the zone. So when you
go to your second unit, your hope is you can
spell them with that. You're playing this drop but one
pass away help help scheme that again allows your bigs
to be a little less mobile, And it's really trying
to cover for them. So I think there's a I
think that the plan is to just go with it
until it works, and I think it will work. But
the big thing is Jamal Murray staggers with the second unit,
so that's just like your starters. Bruce Brown is kind
of like Christian Brown, where he's not that great of
a shooter, but he can do it. He can slash
a little, he plays hard, he plays defense. Tim Hardaway
Junior is a floor spacer like Cam Johnson, the CE
version of him. But you know somewhere there Peyton Watson
defensive rangeye a little bit of an ag and then
Valentunis obviously you're five. They're trying to use him a
little bit like Jokic, mostly the on the block version
of Jokich, and I think that that's like close enough.
If you look at years past Russell Westbrook, DeAndre Jordan,
that's nothing like Jokich. So even if you say that
VAL's not really like Jokic, he's much more like him
than DeAndre Jordan was. And I think that's kind of
the idea of this this nugget roster.
Speaker 1: What is the closest they've come to not deviating too
far from the Jokic principles in the second unit as
the backup five, is it Maason Plumley.
Speaker 2: It's for sure Mason Plumley. I mean they basically were
able to run the same thing. Obviously he's not as
much of a threat from outside, but it was all
the same actions delay and elbow intry and those types
of things. And I will say, actually, what I think
this one reminds me of with Valentunas is less like
Mason Plumley and more like DeMarcus Cousins. If you remember
the brief stint DeMarcus Cousins was Denver's backup center. It
went well where it was something like the Jokic offense.
As if Jokic shot ten times more than passed, you know,
ten times less.
Speaker 1: I would be curious to see if they're gonna use
Jonas and at least some of the same situations around
the block more. Is that someone who in the past,
like he's been able to draw in the past, maybe
not so much less he's a ton of fouls and
that adds to the time that Jokic gets to rest
if he's just not on a court court for the floor,
like all of a sudden, he's on the bench for
what four minutes? And that turns into how many extra
if there's pauses for free throws or fouls? And I've
always wondered if that's av It's the same thing we
talked about this my cost and I with Jimmy Butler
during the non Stephen Curry minutes in Golden State. It's
a little bit different for Denver because like yonas Valentun
is gonna be that high volume of a guy. But
anything to just get Jokic to not have to play
like thirty seven thirty eight minutes a night would be incredible.
Speaker 2: I this is why I love doing this show. As
you think of angles on things that I haven't thought
of yet, the I don't You're right he does draw fouls.
First of all, he's a very physical guy, so he's
either gonna foul you. I think he's gonna foul a lot,
but he's also going to, you know, draw a lot
of fouls. Yeah. I don't know if it's going to
mean anything towards like Jokic actually got of real time,
not clock time, but just of real time. He got
an extra three four minutes because there were free throws
and stuff like that that could make a meaningful impact.
But what I really think it makes an impact on
is Jokic is really good at drawing non shooting fouls,
and he is actually one of the guys who is
significantly more impactful as a player when the team is
in the bonus. He's just not good at getting into
the you know, into the bonus. So if you help him.
This is actually a thing that Russell Westbrook brought to
the team last year, as he drew a lot of fouls,
and so to start the second quarter he would be
on And if you're if you draw three four fouls
in the first four or five minutes of the quarter,
Yoki checks in and draws all those other ones and
now they're free throws. So it actually could It's crazy,
but I could see that being a case where val
accelerates you getting into the bonus so that when yok
checks in, all those off ball fouls become free throws.
Speaker 1: I made a note of it, and I stopped exactly
what I was doing. So I was trying to work
during the Nugget Clippers game, but they played Valencunis and
Yolkic together for a hot minute were they just experimenting,
or do you think that that could become a tool
in their belt, especially like you said before, if they're
gonna try and implement these zone defensive principles.
Speaker 2: David Adalman said at media Day in no uncertain terms,
they will play together. I do want to play them together. Now.
He has also said there's a lot of ideas we
have and we're gonna try him. Not everything will work,
and that's okay, and so that might fall into the Yes,
we gave it a real try and it didn't work
out the way we hoped. But I think it is
one hundred percent a part of their plan this year
to make that work. And I understand why Denver is
a team You always go into these playoffs series and
you think about this team wants to do what they
want to do. We want to do what we want
to do. Who can force teams to kind of put
down one of their weapons. Valenciunas is such a big
bodied guy that if it works, if they find a
way to defend somewhat adequately with it, He's such a
big body that he would alter your rotation. You wouldn't
be able to just say we go small and oh yeah,
to start the end of the first quarter, we go
with our real small lineup. He's the type of guy
that would say, no, you need a real power forward
at minimum on the court, because you need a center
for Val and you need at least a John Collins
sized player to guard Yokich. You can't go with a
Jalen Williams or a mere coffee type guy for Yokich.
You're gonna have to alter your rotation to match us.
We'll see if it works. I'm somewhat optimistic. I'm more
just intrigued. I like when teams find like David Adams
or Steven Adams and Shngun last year was cool because
it wasn't something I would have thought would have worked,
but it did. And I always like when teams find
something that seems like it wouldn't work and it's like, hey,
this is a whole new type of way of playing,
and now you have to blink or not.
Speaker 1: It does feel like we've come a long way in
a very short time from just like it almost feels
like if it was yesterday, were wondering could Evan Mobley
and Jared Allen play together? To now? How many double
big from like now it's oh, Jonnis and Jokich will
play together. We're just not gonna bat and eye like
we want to see it. But it's just like, yeah,
that makes sense.
Speaker 2: What was interesting with Denver, I mean one hundred percent right. Usually,
first of all, ten years ago, it was like Robert
Covington can play the five. I mean, who cares? He
might have been a three in two thousand and eight,
but now he's a center. And then yes, in recently,
it's even Mobley and Allen. They're both mobile and can
do thing. They're defensive minded, so it kind of makes
sense Valan Jokich are not. Neither one of them is
defensive minded, very slow, and it's like, hey, well, who knows,
Maybe there's a way to cover for that because they're
so good offensively. What I think is interesting is if
you think about double bigs, typically you want spacing around them.
Denver yesterday put out Christian Brown, Julian Strather, and Peyton
Watson around him. Not exactly an elite three point shooting group,
but they're all enormous, and I think if you're gonna
play zone, one of the things you need is as
much wingspan as you can get, and Denver put you know, all,
Christian Brown's the smallest guy that was out there. I
think he's six y six, So it was just a
big lineup to try to cover him defensively, hoping that
those two guys would just grab like six offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: Is that the direction you would go in fleshing out
a double big lineup for them, or is they're like, well, like,
what would be your ideal three from this team around?
Speaker 2: I think it's at this moment a low leverage lineup,
so it's not when you're gonna alter everything else. You'd
probably fit in whatever's remaining pieces around it, as long
as there's length. But Cam Johnson seems like he could
give one of those guys a spell because he also
has length and can play the three or one of
those spots. So I think I would experiment a little
bit with that. You probably will need a little bit
more shooting on the court overall, so maybe Cam Johnson
in for like a Peyton Watson or a Christian Brown.
Speaker 1: So I was going back and watching basically all of
Peyton Watson's preseason possessions, which I really try not to
do before I do shows like this because I don't
want to be like in f did with like the
good preseason just vibes. But Adam, the ball's in his
hands a lot. I like it, is this like is
this going to be a thing or are they again
my same question or is it just like preseason experimentation
that maybe won't get busted out in the regular season
that much.
Speaker 2: I think that the style of play, So just to
take people back who don't follow Peyton Watson, defensive player,
very athletic, very long built, like Jaden McDaniels, and I
think the hope is that he can become a Jaden
McDaniels type defender. But offensively, what is he under Michael Malone?
He basically was a corner three point shooter who can't shoot,
So it's you know, he didn't really have that skill.
I have always thought he handled the ball well and
he passes surprisingly well. He makes these very good reads
when he has the ball in his hands. So I said,
give him the ball. I know it sounds counterintuitive this
guy who's not an offensive player will give him the ball,
but I actually think that's the way you use him.
And David Adaman seems to agree because so far, through
three preseason games, he's bringing the ball up, he's running
pick and rolls, he's initiating the offense, and I actually
think he has He might be more like a Men
Thompson than Jaden McDaniels. I mean, the B or C
version of him. He's not a superstar type, He's not
as strong and obviously a skilled but he might have
more of that skill set. And what I'll say is,
I think David Adelman is going to stick with this
for a long time, putting the ball in his hands.
I'm not sure how he'll do. I am betting on
him because I think he's a good player. But if
you told me it didn't work out, wouldn't I wouldn't
be wholly surprised.
Speaker 1: Does maybe like the lack of a conventional backup playmaker
bode well for them? Like, well, yeah, we're gonna see,
really if this thing works well.
Speaker 2: The thing I think is going to evolve over time,
and we already saw this in the preseason, is if
I'm guarding Denver, I just look and say, okay, whenever
Jamal Murray's out of the game, we are full court
pressing whoever has the ball. Because I think Peyton Watson
has a good handle, he doesn't have a point guard handle.
If you put Lou Dort or Cason Wallace on him,
he's going to struggle to bring the ball up to
the court. And I think teams will slowly come to
that realization. Even if they don't have a Lou Door
to Cason Wallace on their team, I think they're still
going to say, yeah, but just get into him, because
I don't think he's going to be able to beat
you consistently up the court.
Speaker 1: Christian Brown, So last year you called your shot on
the Jamal Murray extension. He got one like three days
after you did the show. I remember messaging you about it.
You want to call your shot for Christian Brown. How's
that situation going to end?
Speaker 2: It's going to end with him getting an extension, and
my hunch is that it will be. If I were
to try to take a guess, I'm going to say
it's going to be four years, one hundred and five million.
You know, it's about twenty six million. I wouldn't be
surprised if it was more than that. I think Nuggets
fans will be. I think he's really a valuable player
and has made himself even in this preseason. It looks
like there's more to his game. Twenty six million a
year feels about right to me. If he got thirty
million a year, I think Denver would have to sort
of take it, you know, they'd have to agree to it.
But my hunch is there's a little leverage about going
into this year without a deal that they can get
it for about one hundred and five million.
Speaker 1: I think that's a good number. I don't restrict a
free agency is weird now, Paul. He's the last guy
to get an offer sheet from another team, but he
seems like something like he's the archetype of player, even
with the maybe the iffy shooting that, I think teams
would come in and say they have cap space or
they're really trying to push for like a sign and
trade scenario. So I think it's smart. One oh five
over four feels like I'd probably pounce on that. If
I'm Denver, I'm not gonna lie, but I tend to
get his offense than a lot of people. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think the other thing you think about, though, is
if Denver didn't want to offer that, if Denver really
wanted to play hardball, it's just tough for a guy
like Christian to go to a full year without a deal,
So there's a little bit of leverage from just the Yeah,
it's a little discount. You probably can get one hundred
and ten one hundred and twelve next year, but come on,
sign the paper and it's locked in.
Speaker 1: Man. If I was his agent, though, I'd be like,
look at what I shot on two pointers with Nikoliokic
off the floor last year, Like who else do you
have on this team that is going to do that?
Which leads me to the actual question for him, like
what is the more important area of offense continued offensive
development for him? Is it doing more on ball things
outside of transition, or is it, Hey, we it was
cool that he shot thirty nine percent or whatever from
three last year, but that volume needs to tick up
beyond there.
Speaker 2: It's a great question because I think it's both, and
so you're asking me to pick. If you look at
the playoffs, it just came down to scoring the three
point shot. I mean it was Oklahoma City is gonna
do And this, by the way, I just talked about
denver scheme helping one pass away to stop the pick
and roll. What Denver's really doing there is trying to
force the ball into like last night it was it
was Chris Dunn or John Collins for three or Derek
Jones Junior said hey, you guys are going to take
ten shots today and Kawhi Leonard you we're gonna try
to limit your shots. That's exactly what Oklahoma City did
last year is they said, guess what this quarter, Christian
Brown's taking eight shots because we're going to not guard
him and force it and so in that regard, his
handle doesn't really matter. He has to be able to
punish him there. So I think ultimately it's the three
point shot, and I'm not even sure if it's on volume.
It's just it's consistency. He took a low volume last
year because he was able to pass up open looks.
In the playoffs, they said, no, there's nothing else, we're
packing the paint, there's nowhere to drive. You have to
shoot it, and of course he didn't shoot him very well.
So I think it's that. But I will say I'm
more confident that he has more to who is off
the dribble game than what he has shown in years past,
and we've already seen it in the playoffs where he
might be kind of a nice little pick and roll
ball handler.
Speaker 1: I kind of hate boiling it down to this question,
but does Denver need to take more threes? Just when
you look at the way that other teams are like,
I know they have Jokic, I know the way that
they can generate their own shots. But as you just
mentioned with Christian Brown in the playoffs, it comes down
to make hitting or missing threes, and it's like math
starts to come into the equation.
Speaker 2: For me, I don't think so, and I'm I'm kind
of alone on this one. I think Denver will get
more threes this year just because they have better shooters
and so I think they'll make a handful more. But
Denver is so good at punishing you in the paint.
The three point shot is such a tension between your
threes and your shots at the rim. I'd be curious
to see if there was a metric that was because
everybody's like the three point attempt to rate or three
point shots. I'd be if you combined three point rate
and shots in the restricted area and then just combine
that into one number. I wonder where Denver would fall,
because my hunch is that they are just the rare
example of a team that is mostly at the rim part,
but they really work together. Denver puts pressure on the rim.
The three point shot is the release valve. A lot
of teams put pressure on the three point line, and
the rim is the release valve. Denver just has it
in reverse order.
Speaker 1: That's a good point. And so I'm looking now, so
PBP stats has the rim or three frequency and last
year Denver was I must be missing them because now
they're actually, let's let's do a search.
Speaker 2: Great man, I'm so curious. I'm actually very curious for
this number. I'm glad they have this.
Speaker 1: So they were eighteenth, which is about right right.
Speaker 2: So if they're the worst three point shooting team and
then they're right basically league average when you combine the two,
and I think that actually feels right to me.
Speaker 1: So the streets are saying that Jamal Murray's in shape,
that he's more of a leader. I know you some
of the guys at DMVR I have talked about his
defense during the preseason. Are we buying into the pre
I don't know what The last time we had preseason
Jamal Murray hype was maybe coming out of the twenty
twenty three title a little bit, but are we buying it?
Speaker 2: There was none coming out of the title, and I
think that year he kind of came in and said
as much at Media Day, like, yeah, man into shape,
that's why.
Speaker 1: Off of going on shows and they were acting like
is Jamal Murray a top ten NBA player now? And
so in my head I just have it that's like
everyone was really high on Jamal Murray after the title. No.
Speaker 2: I think Jamal has successfully been humboled over these last
handful of years. He's also had a healthy off season,
but he looks legitimately great. I thought at Media Day
was by far the best I'd ever seen him, and
all of the intel out of the summer was that
he had turned a corner on those types of things.
I think it's fair to be skeptical because when you know,
it's been nine years for him in the NBA and
nine years in a row, you come in out of
shape and then you work your way into shape. You know,
you kind of have to prove it. But what I
will say is he was around Denver all summer. He
organized team workouts throughout the entire offseason and team outings.
David Adaman credited him and said, yeah, but it wasn't
just getting Aaron Gordon and like the main guys together.
He reached out to the two ways. He was staying
with them. He was making the whole team feel like
they were part of it. The whole team went down.
I think they sent eleven guys to the Rico Hines
Run a couple weeks or a month and a half
ago in the offseason like this unofficial but organized team
workout that he put together. And so I think he's
taken on this leadership role. And yes, he looks great.
I mean his quick twitch is back. I will say
that before the injury. Before the ACL injury, he was
a dunker. If you remember, he had some like big
drive to the rim and dunks. I don't know that
we're gonna ever see that Jamal again. But the guy
that can shakes like a Chris Dunn one on one
in isolation, can he shake free to be honest with
you more often than not? Jamal couldn't over the last
two years. He's been doing that all preseason where I'm like, Okay,
he can beat those types of guys one on one.
Now to get to his spots.
Speaker 1: We've talked a little bit about this team's depth so far.
Are they meaningfully deeper to you? Because the Valanchoun is
ad I think is big, and I've liked Bruce Brown
and Tim Hardaway Junior as names of what Bruce Brown
did last time he was in Denver, But like, this
isn't two years ago, and it feels like they're setting
themselves up to be maybe overly reliant on two of
these minimum contract guys and then maybe a mystery box
or two in a Jallan Picket or a Julian Strawther.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I'm definitely with you on Julian Strauther and
Jalen Pickett. I think both of those guys are worrisome
to me as your depth pieces. But I think there's
no question. I mean mostly because their depth was horrible
last year. I think he was almost underrated how bad
it was. It really was Russ and then question marks
after that. Whereas this year, I think I buy Valanciunas
as a guy that can play in that lineup. I
buy Peyton Watson because I think he's a really good
player that had this untapped potential and now he's in
that role. I buy Bruce Brown and the role the
Nuggets play him in. I just think it. First of all,
even if you don't think he is like this like
great rotational player last year, he's replacing basically Julian Strather
of last year, you know, who was a really really
rough player there. It's a step up. Tim Hardaway Junior.
I'm with you. I mean, he's a veteran, he knows
where to be, but I'm not sure he's an actual
like value most teams. Would he be the eighth ninth
man on most teams? Maybe not. But what I think
is more important is that Denver has more than six
guys and even Spencer Jones, which I know is funny
like he's the big curveball here, because I kind of
think Spencer Jones is the tenth guy on the Nuggets roster.
And when you talk about the guys have defined roles,
they just need they want a full court press, Spencer
Jones might play three minutes a half just to go
in there and full court press the ball for a
couple minutes. So to me, yes, I was very low
on the Nuggets last year in large part because I
didn't believe in their depth. I do believe in it
this year as being meaningful to provide a spell for
the second unit or for the first unit, And I
actually think it'll it'll turn out to be a league average,
if not better bench.
Speaker 1: Who would you make as that first sub then with
the Nuggets when you're pulling Jamal Murray?
Speaker 2: Presumably so they did it the other day, and man,
now I'm trying to think of who it was that
they brought in. I can't believe. I can't remember exactly
who it was that came in for Jamal. You would
think it would be Bruce Brown, but maybe it was
Tim Hardaway Junior that came in. I know he ended
this first the first half with the starting lineup instead
of Christian Brown, but I don't remember off the top
of my head which one it was, So I'm not
sure who I would say the first one would it
would be? I want Peyton Watson to play more minutes
with Jokis, just because he has such great defense and
such great length that I'd like to see more and
more of it. But I don't recall who. I don't
I don't know who it's gonna be. Maybe Bruce Brown.
Bruce was obviously if you remember the championship year, Bruce
actually has a typical nugget, really bad when he wasn't
with Jokic, really good with him. When you got to
the playoffs, he played almost exclusively with Yokis because Jokis
played the whole game and he was good, and that
was really the arc of his season. So maybe you
repeat that again this year.
Speaker 1: So who, in your estimation do you think it ends
up being by the end of the year more important
to this team, Jalen Picket or Julian Strother. I know
you're a little bit lower on Strather than a lot
of others.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty low on Julian Strawther. The reason I'm low
on him is because I think that he is a
guy who's really kind of tunnel visioned and his role
would be sort of almost as a gunner, and I
just don't know if he's good enough to be a gunner.
And if he's not that for the Nuggets, then what
else is he doing? Like, I don't think he can
be Cam Johnson, who can is very comfortable being the
fifth option in an offense. Julian doesn't provide as much,
and then defensively he's tough. I think I'm gonna say
Jalen Pickett. But the real answer is, I don't know
if either one of them is going to be a
major impact piece this year. Here's what I'll say, Jalen Pickett,
I think if you told me Bruce Brown or Jamal
Murray we're out for two weeks, I think Jalen Pickett
would do a very nice job filling in for them,
way less dynamic, but can just he's smart, He'll plug
in and for two weeks he'll make it work. Whereas
Julian Strawther, your personality as a unit changes when he's
on the floor.
Speaker 1: So if you're mentioning Spencer Jones as a potential tenth man,
that's someone who's contract will then be converted by the
end of the season.
Speaker 2: I wonder what Denver's gonna do there. They kept an
open roster spot for a reason because I think they
tend to feel it fill it later on and they
want to have that. They don't have a ton of
trade assets, so keeping a roster spot open right now.
Do they need a backup point guard, Do they need
another defender, do they need a power forward? I think
that they don't know that yet and they'll probably get
till later in the year. And keep that spot open.
But my hunch is when you talk about playoffs, he's
not dynamic at all. I don't trust his offense. He
doesn't do a whole lot of things. But he's a
big body who defends really really hard and really really well,
and he's a smart guy. I can see him being
in a playoff rotation if they were to convert him
and being in a playoff rotation just to do the Hey,
it's the last two minutes of the first quarter, go
out there and wear down Shay or whoever it is.
Just go out there. You might get a foul, you
might get too, but you're just going to go out
and go really hard on defense and annoy somebody for
a few minutes. He's really good at that.
Speaker 1: I root for sort of random rookies like that to
all of a sudden start contributing to good teams, even like
on the level of Okay, Christian Brown was drafted in
the first round and then he ends up being integral
of Denver's title run. Is always fun a route to
see that.
Speaker 2: He's a He's an interesting guy, man. I think it's
weird to me, Like Doron Holmes and Zeke Nagia barely played.
They've basically been garbage time all preseason. Spencer Jones was
playing first half minutes, you know, with the starters, it's
it just shows you where David Adaman views him.
Speaker 1: What are your impressions of Deron Holmes like, even dating
back to Summer League, right. I liked a lot of
what I saw from him at Summer League when I
was doing his write up, But it doesn't seem like
if he's playing for this team, it feels like catastrophe
is kind of struck or it's garbage time. Obviously.
Speaker 2: I think he's a guy that had Achilles injury and
is a rookie, So he's both both a rookie and
coming back from a pretty catastrophic injury, and the team
is going to treat him as such. He'll be in
the G League for the first couple weeks at least.
You know, when the G League opens up, he'll be
down there, and I don't think the Nuggets will even
look at him until after. But if you ask me
about as a prospect, I believe in a shot because
his shot looks I just have seen him shooting an
empty gym too much. I've seen him shoot Summer League,
and even in preseason he shot the ball really well
and really confidently. And the idea is he could be
a very versatile defender, like as a power forward. He's
a guy that can guard one through five. That part
he hasn't proven yet and the game is moving fast
and all those things. But that's what the next couple
months are for to see if he can build up.
If he is that, I actually think he will have
a role in the Nuggets down the line. I just
would be shocked if that was this year.
Speaker 1: There anybody else, whether it's like the exhibiting guy like
Tesler Edwards or Curtis Jones, that we should be keeping
an eye on.
Speaker 2: Not really, I mean Curtis Jones. The team is hyping
up a lot, but I think they're hyping him up
as a two way player that will be in the
G League this year and maybe is a guy they
add to the roster next year. But no, I don't
think there's anybody else that's going to be playing minutes
for the Nuggets this year.
Speaker 1: I Curtis Jones, and he's gonna be one of those
guys that puts up like numbers in the G League
and then people are gonna wonder like, oh, why wasn't
he called up? He knows how to.
Speaker 2: Score, He's smooth. I think he's this very smooth player
we're thinking about this. Russell Westbrook was really good with Jokic,
and Denver has not had a lot of guys who
can just beat their man off the dribble. Jones can't either.
The Nuggets keep getting trade Alexander last year Jamal Murray.
They are a bunch of crafty guards who just know
how to get open with like slithery moves, but nobody
that can just one step get by you. And I
kind of wish they had one in the pipeline because
I would be very curious if it was as an
effective weapon next to Yo Kisch.
Speaker 1: Are you ready to enter the cookie Cutter slash Lightning
round portion of the podcast?
Speaker 2: Let's do it?
Speaker 1: Looking at the roster right now before the regular season
even begins, what do you view as Denver's biggest.
Speaker 2: Need man this one? The team is so new and
it has such a new identity to it that I
think this is harder to answer than most years. It
does feel like what I just said is probably part
of this. I'm worried that teams are gonna have, especially
athletic teams are going to have an advantage against Denver
full court pressing them when Jamal Murray's off the floor.
So it might be a reliable ball handler who can
just beat a press. That's one of the things that
Russ might have disguised last year. You can't press Russ.
He's too quick. He gets around everybody, and so we
never thought about this as an issue. But now that
it's Bruce Brown and Peyton Watson and Tim Hardaway Junior
bringing the ball up the court when Murray's off, you
kind of lutch it and go, yeah, they're not really
good enough to break a press on their own, and
so it might be something as simple as that, And
that might be something that the Nuggets look for at
the deadline.
Speaker 1: Is there anything about this team that's flying under the
radar that we haven't discussed that you think deserves more attention?
Speaker 2: Hmm. You know, here's I guess. The way I'll answer
this is to say that one of the takes I
have that is some sort of illogical I guess, but
sometimes you just get a hunch about a team when
you're watching him. Aaron Gordon shot forty something percent last
year from the three point line, and most of the
time when a guy had his eleventh year makes a
ten percent jump in his three point shot, you say, Okay,
it's probably a fluke, And I think forty four or
whatever it was is probably a fluke. He was one
of the highest, the best volume three point shooters last year,
but I kind of buy Aaron Gordon the new shooter.
Number one. He also improved his free thro shooting quite
a bit, so it wasn't like one number not the other.
And then two. Aaron Gordon is one of these guys
that has like really good body control just in all
of the things he does. And when I watch his
shot last year, there was clearly a mechanical change, and
it felt mechanical. It feels like this year everything is
much more fluid, as if he had to like train
his body very rigidly to make this new motion and
now the motion is just integrated into what he's doing.
So if I were to predict, I think Aaron Gordon's
gonna shoot thirty nine percent from three this year, Like
I have a second year in a row where he's
like a reliable three point shooter.
Speaker 1: Do you think Denver's defensive approached, assuming that he's not
the one who's like handling the high pickup points or
if they are going to more zone. Does his life
get easier this year on defense?
Speaker 2: Then I don't think it gets easier. I think it
gets more logical, you know, like he could. What I'll
say is I think it makes a bigger impact because
you are right that last year he had to cover
for Michael Porter quite a bit and just say, Okay,
well Mike can't guard this guy, so you have to
do it. And that can be impact when you have
to go guard Kawhi Leonard. Okay, Kawhi might get shut
down or whatever. But Aaron Gordon can make a bigger
impact as a help defender, as an all around scheme
cover for Jokich. And I think he'll be in position
to do that a lot more this year. So I
don't think it makes it easier. I just think it
makes it more impactful.
Speaker 1: So if I was to ask you to build the
ten man rotation for this team, we know who the
starters are, there are those five who will end up
being the five most used reserves to you.
Speaker 2: To me, no question, it'll be Peyton Watson and Valancunis.
I think it's almost certainly going to be Bruce Brown
and Tim Hardaway, and then I think the next if
you're asking me what they will go with, it's going
to be Julian Strather. I think more often than not
early on, I think there's a chance that it could
be Spencer Jones, and I think there's a chance it
could be Jalen Pickett. I like Spencer Jones and Jalen
Pickett significantly more than I like Julian Strather, and I
might even like those guys more than Tim Hardaway. I
think you need the shooting, and so Tim's going to
be up there and probably have a long runway to
kind of acclimate to the team. But I really like
Jalen Pickett, I really like Spencer Jones, and I think
that those guys I would not be surprised with as
opportunities guys are out and they just move up a chair,
I would not be surprised if the team looks as
good or better when they when they play, and maybe
earn some more minutes by the end of the year.
Speaker 1: You mentioned before about David Adaman saying he wants to
go nine ten eleven players deep. And it feels like
in training camp now where we used to have muscle watch,
it's one slimmed down watch all of a sudden, like
this guy lost weight. And now the new thing is, yeah,
we're gonna play like we want to play ten deep.
Do you think that David Adaman actually means this, like
we're looking at the Nuggets on a game to game
basis and they are routinely going ten eleven guys deep.
Speaker 2: Well, the thing about that is, I think one hundred
percent believes it. The question is if the Nuggets are
four and seven, you know, the the the urge to
play Yokic thirty eight minutes is gonna be there, and
it's gonna you know, whatever happens, that's that'll be the
real test. But I think that David Adaman truly leaves that.
You watch the Oklahoma City thunder play and you say,
how do you make it through an eighty two game season,
and how do you play it defense for eighty two games?
You play it by playing ten or eleven guys, because
that means four or five of your guys are only
playing ten twelve minutes a night, and those guys can
go really hard on defense. And if Jokich instead of
thirty seven is at thirty three thirty four. He can
go a little bit harder on defense in select spots,
So I think he truly believes that the only way
to defend in today's NBA is with athleticism and intensity,
and the only way to do that is to play
ten eleven deep. We'll just see if it if. Like
I said, Nuggets just can't fall behind early in the
season in the schedule, and.
Speaker 1: If they can go that deep, I think it helps
a ton to eat the regular season innings. I look
at their roster and wonder though, like, is that a
ten man rotation that would work in the playoffs? The
one I kind of Indiana and okayc And the answer
to me.
Speaker 2: Is no, There's no way, There's no way. I think
the Nuggets I think about this last year. They had
six guys and they fired their coach three days before,
three games before the playoffs, and they still were able
to piece together. I think the Nuggets just know the
regular season is one challenge and once it's over, that
challenge has nothing to do with the challenge that's ahead
in the playoffs. So how do they get through the
regular season? I think this, they're they're hopeful that they
finally have the depth to do it. Dad.
Speaker 1: And the thing that just boggles, like Michael Porter Junior
had the shoulder thing, wasn't Aaron Gordon basically playing like
one leg, but they still push OKAC to seven. I
feel like that doesn't get I know some of the game,
I know the games they lost for like blowouts, but
I feel like that doesn't get talked about enough by
by myself included. It wasn't just they pushed them to seven,
but they and I know everyone's banged up, but like
you had two of your main guys like dealing with
serious shit at that point.
Speaker 2: Michael Porter, I think he averaged seven points per game
in one of the series You're talking about. Denver's one
of his main their main weapons, and he just could
not score in the in the postseason. So I agree
with Yeah, he's averaged seven points a game in that
series against Oklahoma City. I think he made nine total
three pointers in seven games. Like he could not shoot,
he had one arm. And yes, Aaron Gordon was dealing
with that calf injury all year that turned into a
hamstring injury at the end. I'm with you. I think
Denver had three and a half healthy bodies by the
end of it and still competed at the highest level.
Speaker 1: This question, once again is just so pointless for Denver
about their go to crunch time unit. So I will
ask it this way. Do you see any of the
spots in that crunch time lineup having the potential to
be futzed and fiddled with or is it just like, no,
that's the default, Like there's really no shifting from there.
Speaker 2: I think that there is likely to be no shifting,
especially if Christian Brown continues to play well. But one
of the things I will point out was that in
the playoffs last year, Christian Brown was a little spooked
from three, especially in that Oklahoma City series. And I
would not be surprised if Denver got to a point
where they said, you know what, especially if your final
three minutes and you're down five, where it no longer
becomes about you know, it becomes more about scoring than
it is getting stops. I wouldn't be surprised if they
tried a Tim Hardaway Junior in that spot, or even
a Bruce Brown and just said, okay, Cebee is not
making his shots. I don't think this would happen in
one game, but over the course of a series, I
could see them just going to that offensive lineup and
trusting their zone little bit. And we saw this yesterday.
Denver actually got out scored by like nine points in
three minutes when they went to Tim Hardaway and for
Christian Brown at the end. But if you go back
and watch those possessions, wide open shot for Cam Johnson
for three, wide open shot for Cam Johnson again, wide
open shot for Tim Hardaway, they missed all three. But
when you just talk about what quality of a shot
did they get in their four possessions in that lineup,
three of them were wide open threes for their best
three point shooters. They just happened to miss him.
Speaker 1: Do you have a whack a Doodle lineup that you'd
like to see David Adaman try this year?
Speaker 2: I think the double bigs counts for this, to be
honest with you, I'm just so intrigued by it. Do
you remember the Plumble Yokics lineups from a couple years back?
Speaker 1: No, I feel like mate, that I wipe those from memory.
Seems like something.
Speaker 2: There were a handful of plays, like there's one play
in particular that I remember where Yoke pitches his to
Mason plum Lee out on like the left wing or
right wing, runs a little fake dribble handoff, then turns
back and runs an actual dribble handoff for an empty
corner lob for him. And it was just one of
these things where it's like, that's two centers running a
dribble pitch, fake dho pick and roll into a lob
in quick order. And it was awesome. And I just
have these hopes for the val Jokic lineups being this
weird lineup that everyone's like, we don't know what to do.
Speaker 1: I want to see that lineup and I don't know
what it would look like on offense then, but like
then let's get them with Aaron Gordon, Peyton Watson, and
Christian Brown and they'll just be.
Speaker 2: Enormous monsters all around.
Speaker 1: Maybe Spencer Jones instead of Christian Brown. He's six to seven, right,
so we'll throw him in there, you know.
Speaker 2: What I mean. Maybe Deran Holmes when he gets done
with his G League stint. You know, like he can
shoot the three. I really think he can, and he
has a huge wingspan, so maybe he's part of this.
Speaker 1: So before I ask you to just make a couple
of predictions. Is there anything else about the Nuggets we
haven't discussed that you think warrants some spotlight.
Speaker 2: I'm very curious. I think their front office had a
really good offseason and it was a rookie front office,
John Wallace and Ben Tenzer. If you look at it,
they signed two guys to minimums and they're guys were
excited about Tim Hardway junior Bruce Brown. Good value. They
Cam Johnson deal was incredible. I did not see it
coming and I think it was good value. And the
Valentniss deal is also just opportunistic. I mean, they really
got rid of of an albatross Dario Sarich contract for Valentunis,
which just feels like a double win. It's insane. So
I'm inclined to say these guys seem really good. But
we're gonna find out what they do with Christian Brown
and Payton Watson's extension. That's also part of the GM job.
Can you get good value there? And I do think
Denver has to make some kind of move at the deadline,
not has to, but should they kept the roster spot
open and they have Julian Straw the maybe even Deron
Holmes as trade chips, and I think Denver is good
enough to win it this year. But if you get
to that point and you can upgrade your roster even
just a little bit, so I'm kind of curious to
see what this rookie front office who had a really
good offseason. It's not really over until they get past
the trade deadline, and I just have no idea if
they're going to be able to pull that off or not.
Speaker 1: I've been trying to get figure out a way to
get Io to soon moved to Denise. I think I
might just pick them to win the title if they
were able to do that, but I can't not having
their pick available, I don't know if swaps and stuff
gets it done, especially if like Zeke Najen needs to
be the outgoing money in that's an area.
Speaker 2: Se Zeke Naji three years left on this deal or
something I.
Speaker 1: Think goes on like that's the Patrick Williams of contracts. Now,
it's just like goes on, and I know he signed
it first, but it just goes on forever.
Speaker 2: I mean, Zeke Naji might be the thirteenth or fourteenth
guy on the roster right now, and I'm not. I
think Hunter Tyson, who by the way, also signed a
contract extension with Galvin Booth, is the fifteenth or the Yeah,
they're the thirteenth and fourteenth. They don't have a fifteenth spot.
They're the thirteenth and fourteenth guys. Actually, take that back,
they're the fourteenth and fifteenth guys. Spencer Jones, who's a
two way, is ahead of both of them.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say I had a team with fourteen
guaranteed contracts. One of those the fifteenth guy. Uh. We
didn't talk about the Peyton Watson extension just because I
didn't think he was gonna get one. Is that the
accurate read on the situation.
Speaker 2: I think Denver will try to sign him to one,
and I think if you look at Denver, I mean,
Denver's in this weird spot where the last two years
have been so disappointing that I don't think you no
longer think about long term. I mean, I think Otle
Nuggets fans are just like the windows open. The last
two years feel like wasted opportunity. Who cares about the future.
But if you forget that for a second, Cam Johnson
is old, Aaron Gordon is old, Peyton Watson. If he
hits and you were able to get him on an
extension that starts next year for three years, it extends
the title window for Yokich, the remainder of Yokich's prime.
If it doesn't hit, then you're kind of in trouble.
But if you don't sign him to one and lose
him or whatever happens there, or if you don't sign
him and he has a great year and now he's
outside of your price range, you're getting a pickle there.
So I think Denver has to make a little bit
of a gamble. I think they can get him on
a tradable contract because I think his skill set is
at least intriguing, and he's young. He was one of
the younger players in the draft when he was picked.
I think he's twenty two years old now, so he's
still really young. He'll be twenty five when that contracts up.
As long as he doesn't pull his Zeke Nagy and
you're able to get him at fifteen million a year,
I just think there's going to be teams that look
at that down the road and would trade for that
if he'd sort of doesn't hit. If he hits, the
middle of the road mark for him, but I'm hopeful
that he's very good, and if you have him under contract,
it gives you flexibility to retol your line up here
in the next two and three seasons.
Speaker 1: You mentioned how Nuggets fans are kind of just like
in f the Future mode, and I think I noticed
that in the reactions to the Cam Johnson trade because
my thing was and in the interest whole transparency, I
didn't hate the trade, but if I was giving up
my unprotected twenty thirty two pick, I would have wanted
to get off Zechnology. I wanted something else. So then
grant my coast and I proceeded to exercise in a
later episode of well how could they have done better?
And we struggled like it just I don't know that
I was wrong. I'm still kind of skeptical. I think
that I go back and forth on Cam Johnson's defense,
especially in a playoff context, but like I understand it
better now when you go through that exercise of like
there's this crown Jewel trade asset to them. But I'm
also I've criticized the Warriors about this, I've criticized other
teams about it like you have this transcendent megastar, the
best player in basketball, You're obligated to go all in.
And I think the fact that you were able to
who get Jonnis Valnchunis and like you aren't able to
do that if you don't make the Michael Porter Junior trade.
So I've come around on it for the most part,
still a healthy skepticism, and I think it's the right
mindset to have. And again, I don't know what the
alternative path with that twenty thirty two pick would have been,
but to just the optics of getting rid of it
and still having z Ikenagy just bought me a little bit.
Speaker 2: I guess Zeke Naji might still be around in twenty
thirty two as well. I have to check the expiration
on the contract. Here's the thing I'll say, though, my
theory about roster construction, with Sam Presty being the exception
to the rule on this, I think it's like when
a player in a playoff series gets two fouls, a
star player and the coach sits him down. It's like
you're punishing yourself prematurely for him being in foul trouble
and you might not ever matter, and all you did
was just cost yourself minutes. I think that's how it
is when it comes to future roster construction, like, oh,
Denver's not going to have many picks in the future.
Very true, Very possibly could be the case, but more
likely is just try to win now and something will
make itself available to you. Maybe you signed Spencer Jones
to a cheap deal and he turns out to be
a tradable asset because he's a really good player. Those
types of things seem to happen when you just keep
the title window open in the short term as long
as you can.
Speaker 1: That's the you know, let's galaxy brain this. They traded
that pick because they knew they were going to have
Spencer Jones, like they're gonna be able to get him.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm trying to say. That's what that's exactly it.
Speaker 1: So, how many games do you have this team winning, Adam,
and where do you see them landing in the West
regular season standings.
Speaker 2: A couple weeks ago, I had them at fifty seven wins,
which is a franchise record. I'm lowering it to fifty six.
I know that's high. I took the under on the
Nuggets last year, and I hit. I was low on
them last year. I thought they might be a five seed.
They ended up tying for the five seeds. So this
is not a thing where every year I picked them
to be this juggernaut. I just believe in this team
this year. I think it's the right collection of guys.
I think David Adaman, we didn't talk much about him,
but I'm very excited about him as a coach. I
think he's a very different kind of coach than what
Michael Malone was. I think Jokic is the smartest player
in the NBA, and he deserves a coach that is
a bit of a strategist and a thinker. And I
think David Adaman is that he's one of these young,
you know, forward thinking coaches that isn't try afraid to
try new things and really think about the game, not
just go with established principles. I think they're gonna win
fifty six. I do think that there'll be some figuring
things out with the bench. But Jamal Murray being in shape,
I mean, here's the thing, man, the Nuggets always get
to where they get usually top three in the Western Conference,
with Jamal Murray being out of shape till January or
mid December, and six playable players and a coach in
GM that hate each other. So if you can do
that in a suboptimal situation, this year, to me is optimal.
This is actually a Nuggets team that I think has
the right philosophy and personnel for their philosophy, and I
think it's gonna be a very fun, very successful season.
Fifty six wins, two seed in the West, because Oklahoma
City is gonna win eighty four games somehow, and they're
gonna get to the playoffs, and they're gonna be in
the same tier as all of the top teams in
the league. I don't not better, not inevitable that they win,
but I think they're gonna be better than they were
last year and will challenge all the best teams in
any series they face.
Speaker 1: Actually just did my record predictions and I had them
at fifty three because the Cam Johnson and Aaron Gordon
of at all, how much time are they missing? Cam
Johnson's weird because I don't know how much of his
miss games are due to oh, those injuries were serious
versus or like he was playing for teams that just
didn't matter. Then I listened to your postgame show after
the Clippers. I then peddled them in for fifty five.
You talked to me. I think that lovers at fifty
four and a half. So you talked me on two
things based off one preseason.
Speaker 2: Game, one preseason game. It's not I will say, it's
not just that, you know, the team being together. Michael
Malone at media day the other day last year was
asked about, like, you know, how is Peyton Watson look?
He says, I don't know. I haven't seen him all summer.
I haven't talked to I haven't heard from him when
I talked to him all ask and he was almost
being coy about the fact that nobody was together all
off season. This offseason, the Nuggets spent it entirely together
outside of Valenciunas and Yokich who were abroad, but everybody
else was in the gym together. They all came into
the camp in shape. I think they all kind of know, hey, man,
the title window for us probably is going to be
like seven total years. When it's all said and done,
four of them are behind us. We have one title.
I think they all know that, Hey, these opportunities, an
opportunity like this doesn't come very often, Let's make the
most of it. And it's just a very excited but
also professionally confident group that I haven't seen for the
last couple.
Speaker 1: Of years non OKAC Division. What as of right now
do you think is a particularly fascinating or concerning like
playoff matchup team for Denver?
Speaker 2: Minnesota and Golden State will be my two answers now.
I think Denver. You know, we haven't seen them play
Golden State with this iteration, and I don't know if
it's a great matchup for Denver or a terrible one.
They're just an They're a smart team. I think Denver
smarter than most teams, and Golden State they might not
be smarter than them, but Minnesota has the athleticism and
in particular, they have a matchup that Denver can't seem
to solve, and that's Jamal Murray versus Anthony Edwards. It's
the one guy that Anthony Edwards is the one guy
that turns Jamal Murray in to you know, takes away
playoff Murray. So I think that one. I would love
it if Denver had to face them this year in
the playoffs because it feels like the year they won
the title, they had to go through the Lakers and Lebron,
the team that had always beat him in the playoffs.
I feel like this year they need to go through
Minnesota because if they can beat them, it would be like, Okay,
they've slayed the Dragon.
Speaker 1: I would love to see. I don't even know what
I would make of it. If they were up against
Golden State and there's a Horford Quinton post front court
against Valentudis and jok I don't even know what I
would make of that matchup. Could I get one additional
Nuggets prediction from you, Adam for this coming season? It
could be whatever you want.
Speaker 2: I've given you a lot of ones. You know, some
of my takes about Peyton Watson being good in Thish
of that, I think it'll beat Jokic's best defensive season.
I kind of em betting on if I want to
get spicy, I might predict here. I'm gonna make a
couple of predictions on Jokich. I think he's gonna have
the lowest per game averages, probably in both in points,
rebound's anassist he's had in the last four years, probably
in every category. So if you go down that might
be like twenty four and a half points per game,
eleven ten ten eleven rebounds, and maybe eight assists, still
a great stat line, but lower in every mark than before.
I think he's gonna finish third or fourth in MVP
voting because of it, for some you know, for some
weird reason. But I predict he will have his most
efficient season yet, which is funny because he's had some
of the most efficient seasons ever. And I would not
be surprised if he was around twenty four points per
game on seventy percent true shooting or you know, effective
field goal percentage, and it's gonna be We're gonna I
I also predict I was looking at this in Daniel
Gafford last year he had like thirty nine straight made
two point field goals. I don't think he's gonna beat that,
because they're all dunks. I think Yoke might have two
or three perfect games in a row this year where
he has like Yoke was eight for eight, next night
he was seven for seven, and then he starts a
game six for six before missing a three.
Speaker 1: What is the logic behind you thinking that? Aside from it, obviously,
I could the lower counting stats if you think especially
he'll play a few more minutes. But just the efficiency.
Speaker 2: Stuff, I think Jokic can make every shot he wants
other to a certain degree, and then he has to
like strain himself to make the other ones, right, so,
and I think that he only strains himself when there's
no other options available. I think the Nuggets aren't going
to struggle to get open shots, so I don't think
they'll find a lot of late clock somdboard shuffles, you know, Okay,
I gotta really drive into the defense here and go
up over two guys. I think he'll be able to
just kind of pick his spots this year and say, yeah,
I'm open under the rim, a little floatery up, that's
my jump mid range jumper. That's what I'm doing. And
I just think he'll have a lot of nights where
he'd only take seven shots, eight shots, and there's just
bound to be a game or two where he strings
two of them together.
Speaker 1: Seventy effective field goal percentage or true shooting percentage would
be insane. I favor that. I like that one. Adam,
thank you so much for doing this as you do
every year. Is a great discussion. Are you able just
to remind our audience where they can find you and
all the fantastic work that you're putting out now.
Speaker 2: Dnbur Nuggets Podcast. We actually made documentary this year on
the Denver Nugget season. We're so excited for it. We
made this documentary that'll be on YouTube here in a
couple of weeks, and then our in a couple of days,
and then uh, the All NBA Show with Tim Legler.
We do it twice a week and then it legs
is the best.
Speaker 1: You guys are great. You guys are just appreciate there. Also,
you taught I meant to mention this. You taught jo
Kic the word emphasis? Is that true?
Speaker 2: It is? I ask him the same question every day
and he gets annoyed. So tell me if you think
this is fair or not. When you walk into a practice,
I ask you know, what did you guys go over
and practice today. It's like an opener question that just says, hey,
I have questions I want to ask, but I'll let
you kind of tell us what happened. So I asked
him what was the emphasis of practice today? And he said,
what does that mean? I explained it to him, and
then the very next question, he said, yes, that was
our emphasis. I was like, hey, man, quick learner.
Speaker 1: I think that's a fair question, and so.
Speaker 2: To me, it's just kind of like, hey, take the
wheel real quick. Is there anything you know that stood
out to you about the practice? Okay, now, I'll get
into my real questions, but maybe you say so Oftentimes
that's the most illuminating question because they'll tell you, oh,
Cam Johnson was going crazy today, we worked on place
for him and blah blah blah. It's like, oh, okay,
now I know where my next follow ups will be.
Speaker 1: Adam, Thanks once again so much. Remember to follow Adam
on Twitter at adam Underscore modes of the link is
in the podcast YouTube descriptions and as you know by now, sir,
I will be pestering you again down the line.
Speaker 2: Let's do it, man,