How will the Denver Nuggets decide to handle the trade deadline? | Coffee Break Podcast

How will the Denver Nuggets decide to handle the trade deadline? | Coffee Break Podcast

[Applause] [Applause] Welcome to coffee break with Rachel vill taking a daily look at the biggest stories in Denver Sports and interacting live with you the coffee break fam so sit back relax grab a cup of Joe and enjoy your coffee break here’s your host Rachel vill happy Thursday everybody welcome into coffee break I’m super

Excited because today we’re going to be talking about the Nuggets we’re going to be talking about EMB the MVP race and then we’ll get into a little bit of Denver Broncos talk um a lot of people know that guy they know and love him follow him very closely because he is so

In touch with the Denver Nuggets I’m super excited to have on swipa to the show let bring him in how are you my friend it’s been a minute yeah I’m doing well it’s always good to see you Rachel I love your platform love your program

You do a wonderful job every day oh I appreciate you so much how are you first of all you are in Atlanta but you are covering the Denver Nuggets it feels like left and right every single move they’re doing tell me how did you first

Get into the like the interest of it I’m curious yeah um in terms of getting into the swipe and stuff yeah yeah uh I started this on December 23rd 2020 you know I just uh I played you know college football you know I tried out for the NFL like I’ve been

Working in uh as a public speaker for a long time and then it was basically just like I I wanted to see something a little different I think in the media space and I just realized that like if anybody was going to do it I should do

It and literally just out of nowhere uh create a swiper and it’s just become this whole little phenomenon now that’s grown into this thing so it’s been a lot of fun but honestly right like people like you um I couldn’t you know without you without Adam MZ without Matt Moore

Without uh Vic Lombardi without Chris Marlo Scott Hasting uh what out Chris dimsey Katie wiy um anybody you know Dave Logan who I’ve known for 20 years of my life basically I mean there’s there’s so many people that made all this possible for me that have been

Through like uh friends and and really just helped me navigate the sports media World very well so like Ryan Blackburn like ailo like you know Nate ly like I I legitimately can say um that every person that I’ve met uh Jenna Garcia everybody I’ve met and worked with

Including yourself has been like just tremendously uh great and just very helpful and I’m like completely thankful for all of you just for the fact that like we’ve been able to work together so well and I can say I have good relationship with everyone as well like

So you know you’re like I said you’re amazing I’ve been watching you for a long time you have a a great gift and a great voice and you have a great platform people resonate with you very well so um it’s an honor to be able to

Spend some time with you for sure no I appreciate that the Denver media is honestly fantastic we’re so lucky that we get to cover one the teams here right so looking to the Denver Nuggets obviously the NBA trade deadline is coming up next week lots of people are

Starting to talk about this do you anticipate the Nuggets making any moves or how are you feeling about this like coming up yeah they’re really uh crunched with the cap right now just because they’re in the first apron um because of the new CBA agreements and everything they’re not going to have a

Lot of room like they can’t even trade out so if for instance if there’s a player that’s B bought out they can only be bought out for a veteran minimum basically on contract for the Denver Nuggets and they don’t have a room to go over that um the only creatable contract

They have would be readyy Jackson at five Z Nai has a poison field about $4 million this year uh and then obviously they have their starter but they’re not touching their starter so they really don’t have a lot of options and a lot of bet tradeable assets the biggest thing I

Think they need though is just a larger backup four I know if you remember blacko chanar last year 68 230 really good athlete could you and he’s a bigger body for like when you got to go small ball five with ag you want to have like

A Jeff Green type of athlete in size next to him so they’re probably missing that more than anything because I think pton Watson is going to be an incredible player uh pton for me though slots more as a three and as a two in his future

Just because of how long and lanky he is he doesn’t necessarily have the like the size now I think to deal with somebody’s larger power forward even though he did a really good job in yatas so the best thing I think they could get would be somebody at that power forward slot um

And then if they wanted to make a massive upgrade back a point guard maybe but I don’t know if they have the assess to it let’s talk about Pon Watson real quick because he really did do a good job on Giannis the other night you know all the players were kind of slapping

Him at the end of the game like you did this you’re proving who you can be here in this league and I feel like this is only the beginning for him truthfully I feel like he’s about to take off here if not this year for sure and like the next

Year yeah yeah I mean look pyton Watson you know when he came in on draft night I understood the what they had in mind they saw herb Jones Jr for the New Orleans Pelicans and they said we need a player like that say kind of in between

AG kcp like a longer kcp but can kind of get vertical like AG does and pyton Watson’s one already one of the best defensive Wings in the NBA I think for him it’s just figuring out and rounding out his offensive game and as you saw yesterday versus OKC not making some of

Those young boy fouls like when you don’t have to foul like making sure you’re staying out of the way and I think some of this for Payton man he legitimately for me has like dang near Allstar potential just because you don’t find two-way players that are developing

A pull up mid-range game or they have the ability to attack in transition to have a decent free throw rate and then on the other end you can switch him between Damen Lillard or Giannis or or Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and Devin Booker like there’s

Just not a lot of players you can do that with and I think he really like the limit for him is just going to be whatever he decides he wants to be for his career as a player for sure a lot of people have been like why don’t they use

DeAndre Jordan a little bit more where’s DeAndre Jordan going to fit into this mix and I always tell people I’m like DeAndre Jordan like the dad now of this team where is kind of there to you know keep guys motivated pump them all up would you like to see them more like use

More of DeAndre Jordan or do you think his role and what’s happening for him right now at this point in his career is totally fine yeah I mean he’s you know he’s not a young you know player anymore in the league I think some of this is DJ

Is able to give you really good spurts the problem is DJ is not the most mobile athlete like he used to be so you’re going to have trouble at time finding ways for him to be as effective as he could be and I think you know DJ he’s a

Very good veteran player to have in your roster but it’s not somebody that you want to deal with like a Paul Reed for instance you know for 20 minutes or 15 minutes a game at the backup center and even in the playoff because Rachel when

You get in the playoff setting a lot of the time because especially in the western conference is so guard and Wing Reliant unless you have a drop big or a hedge big like joic who’s able to get in the gaps and fill in the spaces really

Well and play well with the pick and roll level you can’t really have bigs on the court unless you’re like Rudy goar and they’re like an elite level rim protector and DJ is neither one of those things at this point so I don’t think he

Gets a lot of run in the playoffs um I think the biggest thing is that Z Naji is just not turning out to be what they want him to be so far doesn’t mean he won’t but that’s probably been the biggest Miss is that he got this

Fouryear $32 million deal but he’s not in the rotation played versus OKC yesterday he was a minus 12 in like eight minutes and 46 seconds you know he just is not a playable player right now what is it though about Nick or Zeke Nashi because I feel like there was so

Much talk about him is it because I don’t know has he been lazy like what is it about him because seriously I feel like there was so much hype around him and it just hasn’t transferred over to the NBA level yeah so Zeke has had an unfortunate start because he’s had great

Great starts at times and he gets injured and so when a player is Young they don’t get a lot of minutes and then they got injuries that disrupt their minutes and then they have a level of play that doesn’t meet the requirement of a championship level team and then

They get pulls from the rotation so it’s a lot of like tug and go and I think it’s hard to develop continuity with yourself when you don’t play as consistently like that so I think for Zeke he just needs to be in a situation where he gets to play a lot

And often kind of like Isaiah hartstein when he was here in Denver Isaiah hartstein terrific center for the New York Knicks one of the best defensive centers in basketball when he was with Denver bad hands at times he was just kind of sloppy with his feet but you saw

The mechanics there but he just needed to play more and Zeke I think if he gets a fresher start maybe somewhere else or even you know maybe with the Denver Nuggets like if they give a chance to give him some real goal in the future he’ll be better but he just doesn’t have

It like he’s not a great finisher he can’t shoot the three anymore and he’s just not like consistent enough defensively with his hands and his body that his foul rate can just be like incredible sometimes so it just again when you say all that that means the

Player is really young it just needs a lot of development no for sure I just keep thinking about DeAndre Jordan and how he pulled off the Saran wrapping of jayen pickets car I’m like I need to know how he did this like did he do it

During the game he was like coach give me two minutes right before half I’m going to run out there and off this car did he hire somebody to do it like this just keeps popping through my head every single time I think of the Denver Nuggets I don’t know why but it’s like

My Roman Empire at this point I’m like I need to know how this happened right yeah I have no idea that that whole Fiasco reminded me of that that issue that Kenyan Martin had a decade ago wrapped his car and it almost led to some blows so thankfully Jaylen was like

Cool about it because he still you know rookie in the league and everything else but yeah you know players find time to do that stuff you know to prank rookies and everything so it was a lot of fun all right let’s look back at last night’s game obviously they lose to the

Thunder it was a bit of a bummer close game they just could not get a rebound in the fourth quarter which is really what kind of sealed the deal for him but yic misses the game with low back pain Nicole yic puts in a lot of minute we

All know that are you at all concerned about this back pain even in just like the slightest like it’s something you’re keeping on your radar or are you like no he just needed an extra day of rest uh not really well the reason is you know

He’s missed two games now this year he’s on Pace to play 80 games which he probably won’t you know he probably play around 76 78 maybe if not 75 some of this is Joker is he had it last year a little bit uh but once the playoffs come

Around like everybody is nicked up and bruised up and a lot of it is just how well can you play through injury I mean literally everyone from Giannis to obviously embiid to SGA to Kevin Durant LeBron ad they’re all gonna have some kind of little injury they’re dealing

With and so are you able to play through it and Elevate and so this is the thing Rachel about the finals that people may not get initially it’s not just about like Talent how good your team is but when you get to the first round it’s hard it’s way harder than the regular

Season second round it’s a different Beast third rounds way different beats and then you get to the finals and it’s not even about like efficient shot making for most people anymore now it’s about can you get through a game and do enough to overcome what your opponent is

Doing because when you get to that point your your body is basically gonna be like look everything that you did in the summer everything you done in the regular season to maintain after and before games this is when it matters to most you saw Jimmy buler last year he

Was very healthy versus the Bucks 37 points a game crazy he was healthiest kind of versus the Knicks had the ankle injury that he went to the Celtics series not the same player still dealing with some injury by the time he gets to the finals he’s just not the same player

Because you’ve gone through four rounds of Elite basketball and now you’re having to play versus a huge athletic team so I think for joic he is still gonna be better situated than maybe anybody else in the league to be able to deal with that because of his size and

How well he takes care of every body well I was watching the the pivot podcast um I don’t know if You’ saw that mpj was on it with Ryan Clark it was really fascinating because he was talking about you know how everybody thinks that playoff basketball is like

So much more intense and everything and he was like it is but that’s because you start to learn the plays from all of these teams so defense is able to get better right when you’re going night in and night out and you’re changing up things you’re playing your Nuggets game

But eventually during the playoffs you start to play towards the other team as well because you know all of these plays you know when they’re going to shoot you know a three or when they’re going to hand off the ball whatever it’s going to be and I found that to be just so

Fascinating because you’re right like it does seem like playoff basketball is just more intense as it should be but it’s not because the game is any different it’s just because they’re getting to know their opponents more right Rachel do you play uh manala or chess or anything um I love manala I

Haven’t played in a really long time but I do love it well so this is what we gonna do one day we’ll exchange numbers we’ll play like games with each other and this is what’s gonna happen the first game you and I play who knows

Might be a blowout for you or for me we don’t know but if you do that for 15 times we’re going to figure out each other’s Tendencies by that point and how we think through a game and it’s the same thing in NBA basketball when you’re

In a situation where I’m looking at you every day for basically two week span I know everything you’re about to do now it’s about me beating you to a spot and me understanding I’m gonna play the odds I know you want to go left you got a 62%

You know two-point pull up percentage year when you’re at this spot GNA make you go the other way like it’s just figuring out those Tendencies executing and then whoever can execute the best down the stretch off of the opponent tendency that’s who wins the series yeah 100% um I’m going to look like

Definitely take you up on that manala one definitely so much fun you know those Apple iPhone games are addicting and the paintball on so so so addicting um all right I do have for our producer Joey did an amazing job he’s a huge NBA fan and he put together a few names that

He thinks that the nuggets should go after the trade deadline and I’m curious to get your opinion roll the clip here’s some of the possible trade Acquisitions we could take over as the Denver Nuggets move towards the trade deadline the number one is Dennis Smith Jr the

Brooklyn Nets a backup point guard who would lift the Nuggets defensively and possibly fill that spot the we’ve been missing since Bruce Brown left another is Andre Drummet who would be a backup center uh who could play with DJ and kind of split the minutes there possibly won’t see very many playoff rotation

Minutes but could provide a huge boost going into that playoff room to give joic and DeAndre Jordan and Aaron Gordon some time to sit on the bench and relax Jordan Clarkson is another one of the Utah Jazz who’s a veteran six-man that would provide a huge boost in bench

Points the only problem there is his cap his space might take up a lot of room uh for the Nuggets uh some people we could see leave Zeke Naji who’s a young athletic big man with a medium trade value that other teams would see as a positive another is Reggie Jackson who’s

Performed well but due a small contract could be used as a good side to teams who are in cap trouble um and Justin holiday who doesn’t have much space to grow with Payton Watson and Christian Brown around him taking up minutes uh he could fit in somewhere else very well

But I’m very excited to see what the Nuggets will do come February 8th I love this this is Joey’s first time he’s really starting to get involved too so it’s fun to see what he’s able to come up with but a few names right there and

I saw you kind of shaking your head behind the scenes what do you think of those three names that he says could be added yeah Andre Drummond and probably Jordan Clarkson are going be way too expensive and the fact that they’re gonna have so many suitors around the

League if they try to move those players they’re gonna have a Litany of options I think the most realistic one is is uh gonna be Smith and the reason is because he has a very cheap contract I don’t think a lot of teams necessarily value what he brings to the table but again

It’s him and Chris Dunn with Utah they’re both play players that were drafted pretty high both defensive Aces but they just didn’t have the kind of skill sets that were transferring to like high efficient point guard play that people said we want to keep on our

Roster so then people just got him for really cheap and I think that Smith is a archetype of player that is a very good Defender that has good Rim pressure that gives you like a Bruce Brown feel that would work well with Denver but really

At that point for the net would be you know do they want to take on any AET that the nuggets have would it be valuable to them and then on top of that we’re going to give give you an older player that’s probably not going to be

As good as them meaning like Reggie Jackson or something so it really just up to them what they seem to be valuable but if the Nugget would want to make that trade then you know I wouldn’t be too mad at it just because obviously you don’t want to Rouge Reggie because you

Know he’s the Colorado kid himself from Palmer high school but um yeah I mean he’s a really good player and a really good defensive player as well for sure swipa always a pleasure my friend thank you so much we will definitely have you on more cool yeah I’m excited thank you

So much for being for letting me be here today all right everybody we will see you tomorrow morning 12: p.m. I gu tomorrow afternoon 12:00 p.m. for another episode of coffee break love you guys bye everybody

How will the Denver Nuggets decide to handle the trade deadline? Find a big or keep Reggie Jackson? Swipa joins Rachel Vigil to discuss options and MPJ on the Pivot podcast!