NOTHING Can Stop Jokic! | Should Russell Westbrook Start Over Jamal Murray?
Nikola Jokic once again goes supernova with 48 vs. the Hawks, scoring 104 points in two days on a back-to-back. Denver responds to the worst loss of the season with a dominant, wire-to-wire win. Jalen Pickett gets good minutes in. Russell Westbrook continues to show his great chemistry with Jokic, prompting questions of whether he should start amid Jamal Murray’s struggles. MPJ bounces back and the Nuggets get the win they needed. No Jinx breaks it down on Locked on Nuggets.
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40 Comments
If they win without Jamal, you play without Jamal, this is bigger than Jamal.
They better not trade Porter.
Benching Jamal will result in one of two outcomes. One, his pride gets bruised and he responds with a new found commitment and returns to the Jamal of the past. Or two, he pouts like a baby, buys season UFC tickets, and becomes Ben Simmons 2.0. We need old Jamal to win anything this year. But his mind isn't right. I don't think he trusts he's wheels anymore and just doesn't try anymore. He's playing soft. Hopefully, we can get old Jamal back.
Bumal Murray!
Pickett gets us to a championship.
You as a Nuggets media are also failed as much as the FO. You always discuss outcome and almost never been able to recognize the early symptoms of the problem. I've been saying for years that Jamal is not the best fit for the Nuggets, even when he was much better than now. When I saw childish attitude and absence of responsibility in him, you called him confident. When I saw selfishness and refusing to play the right way, you praised him as a great shotmaker. You're a big part of 'playoff Murray" narrative after it's become absolutely normal for him to cruise in the regular season and miss 30 games. And in reality "playoff Murray" made more damage than benefits to the Nuggets. Since Jokic has become the best player in the league, Jamal played one good playoff, missed two and played terrible in one. Where were you to condemn Booth's plan to give him 200+ mil?
Can you even imagine how this affects the rooster? How can you expect of the players to buy into the team chemistry when you have a 50 mil guy who doesn't?
And now we need to listen your shtty take about how Jokic is better to show up after he calls out his teammates? He's showing up every fckn game for the last 5 years
trade murray or keep losing
The biggest difference between Jamal and Westbrook is the passion and creativity. Jamal is got the old playbook on repeat in his head, pick and roll – and either take a floater or bounce pass to Jok in the paint for a layup. Teams are just so used to guarding it!
Westbrook is getting the ball to Jok in all sorts of situations and from all sorts of angles. The defense really has to expect the unexpected and that’s hard. Plus it’s just more fun to watch!
LMAO.
nikola scoring is incredible but are you forgetting that the issues for this team are on the defensive end?
lets hope the nuggets can get themselves together defensively so i can see the playoff matchup of my DREAMS this post season
Nothing can stop jokic until he meets Joel
Jokic's threat of "not getting paid what you're worth" after the previous calamity, when really he meant "you're not worth the money you're getting paid", was incredibly clever. Hats off to Jokic. I never realized he was also a gifted diplomat.
Stay positive! Jokic is awesome. Glad to have Russ this year. Braun has stepped up. MPJ is healthy and solid. Gordon is still in his prime.
I hope the kicked on people hear me when I say Matt should be replaced by Cam guy is horrible just says bad shit about us. How about you be a nuggets fan
Isn’t playing for Jokic literally playing for the team
Pickett killing it in his audition for the Hawks when we inevitably trade him in a package to Atlanta in the future
I think Westbrook should be starting over Murray. At least Westbrook is dishing a lot of assists and actually tries to play defense. Murray needs a wake up call. Maybe he can get himself healthy and earn his way back into the starting spot over time. The Nuggets team around Jokic is lottery level.
Joker called for brody fed up with Jamal
Team looked comfy with each other. Thats a big plus.
Pickett didn't do anything until the game was out of hand. Geees
Get it in your head 2man game with Jamal is over. We lost last year because of him. Dont do the same midtske agsin. Cant rely on Jamal any more.
Jokic will always get 50 points if you play him even when you're 2:58 up by 24. And why was Malone having Jokic keep scoring when we were up by 20 in the 4th quarter. If he's going to have him in there, he should be trying to get the bench players involved. He made 3 baskets in a row when he could of passed it. He had shots where he kept backing down and doing it by himself when we're up by 23. We will not go anywhere if he keeps doing this. He didn't have to in this game. Jokic is the greatest ever in my opinion, but I don't bow to him, I only bow for the Father
Trade Jamal Murray and Zeke Nnaji to Washington for Kyle Kuzma and Marvin Bagley
That’s the issues with this team. Freaking inconsistent with them. Win one game and lose the next game. Can’t get a winning streak going because of their lack of consistency!
The joker did say to his teammate after the loss to wizards. We should all take a pay cut if we keep playing like this. Lolz
When you say that you have Murry 7 years of career and everything… then put on paper how many games he played… what is his average?.. and can a max player have a career average of less than 25 points…at least when you're a hole in the defense like him
swear to god if I hear trade murray again and then have to hear matt explain why he can't get traded. I'm not watching this podcast again 💀💀💀
If you guys are going to cover the Nuggets, you should at least pronounce NIKOLA correctly, in deference to him. It's NIK-o-la. Accent on the first syllable. He seems to really appreciate it when reporters pronounce it correctly.
Start Westbrook over Murray
Nuggets this yr with Murray on +8 per 100 (includes 3 games without Jok)!
With Murray OFF -5 per 100 (-9 before last night).
Nuggets with Westbrook ON the court? -8 per 100.
Nuggets with Westbrook OFF? +13.4 per 100.
Westbrook should absolutely get more mpg and Murray should be closer to 32 mpg (like last 2yrs).
I say this as someone who was a Westbrook fan on OKC, but Murray hate so high ppl ignore reality. When just Jokic Murray on court together their +13 per 100 which is ELITE! When Jokic Westbrook on court together it’s +2 per 100!
I get ppl frustrated with Murray’s health and slow starts, but the last 2 yrs he’s been very similar to this year October Nov to around this part of December, but the rest of the year he’s been VERY good averaging 22, 7, 4, 1.5 stocks on nearly 50/43/87 with nuggets winning at a 60+ win pace.
Also Nuggets since 19-20 WITHOUT Murray win at 48-49 pace vs WITH him they win at 54-55 win pace.
Since 2020 playoffs 32-19 in PO with him vs 5-10 without him.
Even if you want Murray gone this summer you should be cheering for him to play very good to great the rest of the yr (like he did 22-23 & 23-24 mid December to end of yr) bc no one is trading for him unless he does that! FWIW in 23-24 in 59 games he was 14th in OBPM, 19th in BPM, 19th in VORP per game while AVERAGING 33.3, 10.2, 6.5, 2.5 stocks + 9 per 100 on 48/43/85 splits! Nuggets won at 61 win pace last yr with Murray vs 46 win pace without!
At the risk of being banned, and my license revoked – I feel like I have to, am obligated to as a fan of athletes and sports, to disclose main points from the Jamal Murray`s latest medical report:
The bad:
1. head problem… not working at RPMs expected for his age.. doesnt go beyond `idle` even on full throttle
2. heart problem… barely ticking… its a miracle he can actually stand up and/or walk
3. testicular problem… both of his testicles retreaded back into his sternum and position themselves where ovaries usually are in female patients
4. spinal problem… extreme softness and play-dough consistency
The good:
1. his tongue is in a great shape and he can still form words, even sentences, to explain how its other peoples fault
2. he seems pretty happy, all the time
So… for all the haters out there… shut up. Boy is suffering a slew of serious medical conditions and a little empathy is in order.
Give Russ fry to play.. Joker+Russ..100% this i ticet for win..
I have to say you two are becoming a great duo.
Russ over Jamal any day. Jamal is never been a good player. He had one off anomaly good season in his career. Its something most players have. Dont make them a great, just an average player with one off. Russ is always doing his 100%. Good or bad at times, he leaves it on the court.
With Westbrook Jokic is scoring 40+ easily…
They should totally be hyping up Jalen Pickett and playing him as much as they can. Build up the Pickett Hype-Train! Whoo-Hooo! Then maybe they can convince some sucker to trade for him! "See! Jalen Pickett isn't so bad! Did you see all those 2 assists he had?! Why don't you throw in a 2nd round pick for him!" 🤓
Yamal's game is too ''off'' for long now & he can be a bad influence on the court…..If couch leave him & sometimes even Porter on the bench, Denver needs only 1 more safe 3 point shooter as K.C.P. was – beside this great (nmb 3) rookie , & Nuggets could go up in a top contenders for a cup
Russell westbrook should be the starting point guard hopefully mike malone will realize it i don't know what he is thinking and doing move Murray to the shooting guard you still want Murray to start
You can start russell westbrook in the playoffs you big dummies he average 23 points a game as a starter in the playoffs against the suns with the clippers its obvious these two fools don't know basketball
Its easy to point to the money issue to Russ starting. But remember… they allowed Pat Bev & Schroder to start over Russ making 40million. However, Russ still logged his minutes & same usage. That’s all they have to do. Allow Russ to set the tone. Murray should follow their lead.
Calvin booth is absolutely failing jokic , and wasting his prime , I honestly think they should trade Murray especially after he brushed off Aaron Gordon on a players huddle during the wizards game