Why Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets control their own fate in Game 7 | Diehard Q&A

Why Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets control their own fate in Game 7 | Diehard Q&A

[Music] Oh, Baby, let’s go. That after a win feeling just still going on. What is up everybody and welcome to the DMV nuggets podcast. Let’s go. Let’s go. Presented by bet365. Download the bet365 app and use the code DMVR365 when you sign up. Place a bet of $10 to get Wait, hold on. Deposit $10. Place a bet of $5 to get 150 in bonus bets when you sign up. Uh we we tried this out last round and it was awesome. Man, those were really late. We tried this out last time and it was awesome. We had the uh uh we have you the listener and more specifically the dieh hard on to our show. So if you become a diehard, which you could sign up for atthedmvr.com, you sign up, you could hop on the show whenever we do these. We’ll probably do these throughout the entire summer. We’ll rely on you guys to create our content, not ourselves. Uh we’ll do that. But first, we’re gonna do some hangover takes. And I got my homies with me. It’s Harrison Wind. Do you remember the last time we did the Die Hard Q&A? It was under very different circumstances. It was like one of the weirdest days in in Nuggets history after they fired Michael Malone and Calvin Booth. And now we’re bringing the die hards in to uh celebrate one of the best days in recent memory. That’s so true. Game six win. Nuggets 2 and 0 so far uh in do or die games in this playoffs. I’ve also got Dline Co here. Uh I’m going to shoot you straight guys. Feeling a little rough. Feeling a little rough. The the the concept of the hangover take hits a little too hard today. I did not fall asleep till well after 400 a.m. in the morning. I was jazzed up to a point that I could not dejazz myself. I tried playing violent video games. I tried I don’t think that would help you go to sleep. Nothing worked. I just stayed up. And now um I woke up. I I had a bunch of people asking me for stuff and then um I slowly but surely realized it was Friday. I’m so excited that we have tomorrow off, you know, like it’s like the best thing ever when you have a day off. I haven’t felt this in in like 300 days. So, I’m very excited that tomorrow I have no obligations. But Eric, I actually this is a good point. We live in this time and age right now where you have the pregame, the leadup and everything. Then you have the game. Then you have the winner’s lounge which is like it extends it. It’s also awesome hour and a half you’re going. And then right after that you have the joy scroll which depending on the size of the win where you’re just on YouTube or on Twitter or wherever it is you go. It can be 30 minutes. It could be seven hours. So So the game now the game and postgame celebration can literally be an entire day. I know man. I mean, social media in so many ways is ruining the world. Um, this is a way it’s really making our lives better. The uh concept of the joy scroll is something that just what life would not be the same without a nice joy scroll after a Nuggets playoff win. Yeah, you’re not wrong. I do feel like my intro was saying how detrimental it was to my life. I also agree it it does. Sometimes the things you want good and bad. Yeah, dude. Sometimes the things you want the most are not the best for you. It really is just uh unadulterated, uncut uh sports heroin. And I was I mean it’s better than some alternate options out there of what you could be doing at 4 a.m. literal literal heroin. Violent video games. Yeah. Uh, we’ll go some hangover takes here before we start taking callers. We have one lined up. Hopefully, we get a couple more. Uh, if you want to become one, hop in the Discord, the DNVR Discord, which you can only get access to when you are a diehard. So, here’s one thing I brought up on the AllNBA show today, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about. If you go through the series, game number one, they j they try to guard Joic straight up. They say, “Oh, we have two really good defenders. We’re just going to guard them one-on-one. We don’t need to adjust who we are. We’re the best defense of all time. Nuggets have a 114.2 offensive rating and they get the win. So in game two, they adjust and they hold Denver to a 101.9 offensive rating. That’s really low. They basically shut Denver down. In game three, Denver brings that up slightly to 105.6. So still very effective, but Denver’s increasing here a little bit. Game four was the 36-hour game. Both teams sucked. It was an 88 offensive rating. That’s terrible. But then in game five, Denver raises it up again to 108.2. And then in game six, 115.5. This is my biggest takeaway as I digested this game. My biggest hangover take wind is the Nuggets have actually since game two slowly started to figure out, I think, how to attack this team. And Joic in particular has just gotten better each game. And now you’re looking at it and going into game seven if everybody’s healthy and you go, “Has Denver actually cracked the code and now they just know how to attack this team?” Yeah, they have. And happens every series. You know, the deeper a series gets, the more comfortable Nicole Joic and the Nuggets get. I mean, we we’ve got so much data to back that up by now. And we’ve just seen it with our eyes over the course of the series. It is funny because he did have 42 points in game one. Yeah. So he he got going early, but that’s a different defense. That was a different defense. Right. Right. Both teams made their adjustments, but it also took a while for the rest of the Nuggets to get on board. You know, not everybody figures things out as quick as Nicole Joic does. But it does seem like the entire team is on the same page now in terms of how to attack this Thunder defense, where the holes are, where they can find the cracks in it. And I said this on the show last night, they’ve outplayed the Thunder in these last three games. They have just in two of them in games four and five, they choked in the fourth quarter cuz they were tired and you know, a couple other things. But for the majority of these last three games, they’ve been the better team. And nope, nobody should be scared of the Thunder anymore. I mean, the Nuggets have shown the blueprint, I think, in these last three games of how to win. And finally uh in game six last night they they capitalized on both ends. Yeah. For me like I think there’s like very high level things that have happened but I also think there’s like pretty basic things that have happened and Jokic started hitting a bunch of shots too. I think that opened up a lot of the world for everyone. Definitely. Yeah. Um, and it’s really easy to or really easy it’s a lot easier to navigate a packed paint if it’s you can he himself can break it by shooting from outside or you can count on somebody else to start making shots. But I’m with Harrison. I mean I I felt like the Thunder really showed their youth and inexperience last night. like I felt like they looked like the younger more in like they looked both teams looked like who they are, you know, not who they necessarily aspire to be. I think the Thunder are an incredible team and we don’t know if they have it in them to take the next step because it requires pressure, but I don’t think they responded to it very well last night. I mean, granted that that’s a pretty common thing that happens in these series. So, well, the real test obviously is up ahead, but I’m going into it with very confidently just based on what I’ve seen from the growth of our Denver Nuggets. Yeah. And but ironically, it was the Young Nuggets who made the difference here. Christian Brown was phenomenal. Julian Strawther was phenomenal. Payton Watson made some plays. So, as much as I agree with you that the Nuggets looked more veteran in that game, they looked more desperate, too, which is natural. They were the team that had to win. Um, but it was the young guys and that’s part of what’s kind of encouraging about this to me. I mean, for sure, man. The straw they’re having that game last night was it was unbelievable. Revelation. No one could have seen it coming. There were a couple people who saw it coming. Um, uh, some of them might be on the show. Do we have it, by the way, Eric? Did you send this to Kale? No, I I just I just I won’t fully blow up his spot. I I’ll allow him to maintain some anonymity. The guy reached out to me on Twitter. He did. He DM’d me. So, the guy who called you out. Yeah. I was called out specifically in the chat in in the chat. Of all places in the chat. I know that chat. In the chat. I was called out in a moment of frustration. Yeah. When we were all feeling down and you know, some people start to look inward, start to fight inward. I’m not your enemy, fella. I’m not your enemy. I’m your friend. But he was like, “Hey, man.” Remember when you said Strawther would win us a playoff game? Somebody said that in the chat to you. Yeah. Two day like after the last game when it like was not going well and he was like, “Oh, just say you were wrong, man.” And I was like, “No, I’m not going to say I was wrong. It’s not over yet. It’s not over yet.” Anyway, he I brought I blew up his spot several times on the show last night. Did not You did make it a point to blow up. I was just I I’ve never been I’ve never felt so vindicated so quickly by something. Um and I felt so good about my I I I never gave it up. You know what I mean? I was like Braveheart like I was I was William Wallace on the table and they were like I want you to give up your beliefs and I just wouldn’t do it. I looked and they tore my intestines out. I stayed strong and then Julian Strawley rewarded me. Anyway, he hit me up on uh DM and said that I was mostly right, but not totally right. But he’s sorry. So, I won. This is why you can never the haters. You won that guy’s zero. Except for he wouldn’t concede. He still was like he only kind of won the game. Not really. It was They’re like, “Dude, come on now. Come on. Take an L.” People need to learn how to take an L. You know, it happens to the best of us. Um so, yeah, I feel good about that. But now we have to talk about the Aaron Gordon piece of this which the schedule came out for round two. I’m not trying to get ahead of ourselves. Farah Gordon might not be ready to go in game seven. I I would guess no matter what he’s going to try to play, but if his hamstring like Aaron Gordon to me there’s three irreplaceable players in the Nuggets. Yogic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon. Everybody else in a pinch you can say it’s not going to last for long, but we can throw this person into that role or this role. You can’t do that for those guys. And if Aaron Gordon can’t go or if he is just ineffective, what happened? I’m sorry. It sounds like somebody’s getting arrested. Did you hear Did you hear this? No. So, not we’re we’re accustomed to there being police sirens going up and in KFEX. That sounded like we were in one of my violent video games. Like there it was. It sounds like it’s like World War II out there. It sounds like there’s somebody like in a police car on a radio yelling at somebody in the street. Yeah. So, anyways, sorry. Maybe check the news after you watch this show. Anything happening on the corner of KFax in York, stay safe out there, guys. Stay safe out there. Uh, no, but Aaron Aaron Gordon’s hamstring to me is like kind of a big concern because even if he’s, let’s say, 80% game seven is going to be brutal and then you have 24 or 48 hours to turn around and then you have to go home to play Minnesota. So, to me, I don’t want to think about it because it feels like putting bad vibes in the universe, but it is a big storyline here. Is a healthy? I know. Like, do you wonder if Michael Porter can siphon off some of his lidocaine supply and just maybe portion a little for Aaron Gordon because he’s going to need it, man. I agree. Like, he’s definitely going to try to play. It seemed like he popped his hamstring though or strained it or something and like that’s obviously what happened. Um, but it’s a huge storyline heading into game seven. No doubt, man. Just like how important he’s been in every single game. One of the more underrated, I think, storylines of the series is his defense on Jaylen Williams. The good Jaylen Williams. Which one’s that? The the fake All-Star Jaylen Williams. He’s the good one. Wow. That’s not Jaylen Williams. JD Dub. Yeah. But I mean, this might be Eric, to your point, JDub sucks, but it also might be AG Rules. His physicality in that matchup has been massive. He like he is way stronger, way more physical than Jaylen Williams and it’s been a big pivot point in this series. Yeah. Uh no, I mean I don’t mean to I just you know I I like to be petty when I’m able. So um but I forgot we’re this is we’re doing serious analyzation today. I’m I’m with it. Okay. Lock in Eric. Lock in. Come on. I to my memory AG played after he suffered that. He did not go out immediately which to me is a good sign. Like he played a couple more plays. I think it will get stiff on him. Um, I listened to Your Mortal Enemy, our mortal enemy. I would never recommend listening to the show Locked on Nuggets with Matt Moore and uh Blackburn. It was great. Um, I always listen to it. But, uh, they were talking about how Matt was saying like he he thinks that if this was in the regular season, like he’d be out for weeks, you know, just the way that the way that it’s handled. Um well may maybe I mean maybe but I think it like I I just took solace in that he didn’t seem to make a big deal about he he gave a very downplay quote to our own Brendan vote and he did play a little bit after that happened even though it happened like right at the end of the game right but I mean my god of course you’re worried about that it’s like you’re it mercifully it’s you got a a couple days to yeah a couple pool days maybe to to get it in the water you know loosen it up a little to get it in the Uh, it is honestly much needed. I mean, this is it could be the last it will be if they go on to win the last two-day break they get until the finals. So, it’s kind of crazy. I don’t By the way, man, you could make the argument the, you know, you got to win your series early if you want rest. But this every other day thing for two rounds in a row to me, why is it why is it the thing? If this is the cost of the end season tournament, what hell, man. Does Adam Silver care more about the inseason tournament than the postseason tournament? Probably. Does Adam Silver not care about Katy Perry? The Kat had to be moved. I heard about this from Ball Arena because the Nuggets game was happening during that time, right? Who who has less faith in the Nuggets, the Kronis or Katy Perry? Katy Perry probably a Thunder fan. Oh my god, it’s disgusting. score. She thought she thought the Thunder would run the West pretty easily. Yeah, she went to space and nobody will credit her for it. It’s very It’s very trouble. Can you imagine paying that much money going up into space and people saying you didn’t really go to space? That’s a bummer. Well, I mean, I would be mad if people told me that I didn’t go to I didn’t just go to Mexico. I mean, I I did. I was there. I didn’t see any pictures of you there. I don’t know. I didn’t do a good job when I was there. I did as much as Katie Perry did. You say you went, but I don’t know. Oh, you’re not that tan. Who was it that went to space and said it was really sad? Do you do you know this story? Oh, there was like a famous person who got to go to space and they went up thinking it was going to be life-changing and they were like it was really sad. I didn’t like it. Exc couldn’t joy scroll after a Nuggets game. I feel like I could I feel like I could relate to that. Like seeing the big expanse and how it’s like really it’s really a the universe is half empty or half full. Like you could be like, “Look at all of these things.” Or you could look at this great empty expanse and it could make you feel tiny or part of something large. Anyway, um sorry Katy Perry. I hope that the concert being made up is worth it. All right. All right. We got to have some people on now because we want to get you, the viewers opinions, our dieards in particular. If you want to become a diehard, that way you can read all of our written content, not just for the Nuggets, across the entire Denver market. We have some fantastic writers. Written and vote just published his article from last night’s game. So you can read that as well. We’ll do that right after this quick break. Quick break to tell you guys about Toyota. Uh let’s drive into the playoffs with Toyota. You can enter now for your shot at winning incredible prizes, including playoff tickets, a private sweet experience for you and your friends, a flyaway adventure to see a Nuggets playoff game on the road, and a chance to drive away in the allnew epic 2025 Toyota 4Runner. a brand new epic 2025 Toyota 4Runner. That’d be awesome. I would take that. Like if Toyota wants to present that to me, I would take that. If the Nuggets win game seven, yeah, I am going to look at one of those. Oo, is that going to be from your game seven winnings? Uh, who am I? Dev. Uh, check it out. The link is in our description for the drive to the playoffs. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to be a part of the Nuggets playoff frenzy. Drive to the playoffs with your front range Toyota stores. Autoation Toyota, Arapo and Centennial, Corwin Toyota and Boulder Groove Toyota in Englewood, Mountain States Toyota in Denver, Stevenson Toyota, Aurora, Stevenson Toyota West, and Lakewood Toyota is a proud partner of the Denver Nuggets and the official vehicle of DMVr. And also become a diehard. The dnvr.com to become a diehard. If you guys want to support us here at DNVR, that is the number one place to do it. Best way to support us is to become a diehard. Not that expensive, just a couple bucks a month and you can become a diehard ddmvr.com. Then you can hop in the discord just our 247 chat room for the nuggets. We have one for all the teams as well and right in there is the link to hop on the show where we’ll be uh taking questions from dieards in a second. So, become a diehard. Get a free shirt. Join us. Yeah. Don’t think of it as supporting us. Think of it as enhancing your life. Exactly. Who cares? Who cares about us? Yeah. for us. Think about your life improving because you have a t-shirt and you can be on the show and then um you know I mean that’s okay, right? Probably will make your life a little better vdvr.com to become a die hard. All right, I think we’re back. Adam has disappeared. So I’ll just bring the first This will actually work better because I I was just realizing we’re going to have the four slices where we bring somebody on. So screw Adam. Let’s go. Ah, Gino. our guy Gino. What’s up, man? Hey, how’s it going? Doing well. It’s going great. Perfect. There we go. Oh, there’s the three slices. There we go. Adam. Adam had to get back in here. Had to had to get back in. Gino, what’s happening, dude? Good. Doing well. Nuggets are up. Well, it’s tied. It’s It’s 3-3, but still alive. No one expected them to even be 3-3, so everything’s going well. Uh, weather’s good. Can’t complain about weather is good. Yeah. Yeah. Markets are doing okay. What’s the What’s the temperature of the room you’re in? Is it good or is it It’s like mediocre like a balmy 75. You know what’s funny though? Cuz you said the Nuggets are up, but I I do feel like they’re up 33. They are up 33. Absolutely, dude. The the myth of um momentum is on our side, baby. So, Gino, are you an eternal optimist? Yes. Yeah. I I when it comes to the Nuggets, as far as I see it, they won a title already. Everything else is gravy. Like, it’s so much harder to win a title in the current NBA than it was to have dynasties, you know, before the last two CBAs really made it hard to keep your team together. So, every team, I mean, every champ the last four, five, six years now has just been torn apart by free agency, by people leaving, by injuries. So, we got the title. We got the one. Any further titles, awesome gravy, and you know, at the end of this, either they’ll be champs again or there’s going to be massive changes and the team might be very different, but maybe more interesting to watch and and more fun. Who’s to say it is going to be bad? What a what an outlook. I love this game, man. Can you just narrate my life? I know. Do you know? I was going to say I feel like the temperature of the room that I’m usually in is is not good enough to have to cultivate. I would say it’s average to below. I think it’s a little cold in here to be honest. Yeah. Kale. Um, so yeah, man. I mean, Julian Strather’s game last night was a huge story and part of me wonders like Denver just needed one more shooter. The whole series really could be distilled down to Denver doesn’t have enough shooting and if they did have one extra guy, they might win every game by 10. I know that sounds a little incendiary, but I think it’s somewhat true. So, can Julian Strawther now, how do you approach game seven with him? Does he play seven minutes again, or do you think they roll him out there and say, “Hey, we just need it, and if it works, it’s good.” I mean, my feel is you give him the run in the first uh end of the first, start of the second, one of those parts. See if he’s hot. See if he’s still feeling confident. See if he’s hitting shots. See if they’re not attacking him violently every time uh he’s on the court, which is what happened, I think, like once or twice when Shay was there. But as long as Shay’s not there, I don’t know that the the Thunder have a guy who’s just going to pick on him relentlessly the same way. Um, so it it might not kill you. So you can ride that out. And if he’s hot, maybe you try it again in the second quarter, especially if Russ is being Kfax mode. Like you need to find someone who’s going to hit an open shot, but not take a crazy shot. The thing that’s tough about that is there’s nothing tougher as a shooter than them saying like, “Go out there and if you make it, you’ll stay in.” That’s like, are you kidding me? Like, okay, this is right. But you hold a gun to my hand. You just you just think that way. Well, I mean, but he knows it. You know, he deep down. I think the defensive part of this is the big one. But I do actually want to pivot to Russ now because we haven’t talked a lot about Russ. And I’m listening to Simmons’s pod last night. I’ll actually ask you this one first, Wind. We have not really talked at all or at least much about the fact that Russ is playing his old team and that this is the best. Like there is a weird if you put yourself in Russ’s shoes, you know, he’s both trying to make a name for, you know, keep rebound from the playoffs he had last year, which he’s already done. He’s having all these different things. But there’s also the idea of Russell Westbrook was the great point guard of the Thunder history, and now Shay kind of is, and he’s not dead. He’s still playing, and he’s in the series. And I do think it’s a weird situation for Russ. He hasn’t been great in the last handful of games. And I think it’s probably a little weird for him that he’s going up against his, you know, the his ex’s new new side piece. Yeah. Oh, it’s got to be weird. I mean, he’s going up Yeah. against his ex’s new side piece who everybody loves and has the most aura ever. Just overflowing with aura. By the way, spilling out of everything. R so much more aura than the thing. Whatever the definition of this stupid word aura is, I just know Westbrook has more of it. Way more. But he’s not recognized as the aura god this Well, because the word wasn’t around back then. Yeah, we weren’t so lame back in the day that this is how we talked about things. But I think it was cool back then. Yeah, it’s got to be a little weird for us. And yeah, what a story it would be if he just had this unbelievable games game seven in OKC in front of those same fans that like bowed at his feet. Yeah. Eight years ago or whenever it was he was there. It would be incredible. He was great in game one. Um put up numbers in game two, but that game doesn’t really count. Was okay in game three when they won an OT. These last three games he’s been really bad though. Yeah, it’s kind of been disastrous. The defense, I think, has still been good, but other than that, he’s been a liability. It would be the ultimate just, you know, the ultimate feather in the cap if the Nuggets win this series for him to have a great game seven. It would be huge. See, yeah. to combine the last two topics here. Like I think I think it’s unrealistic to think that Julian Strather will be able to replicate what he did in Ball Arena on the road in a in a playoff game, but I don’t think it’s at all unrealistic to think that Russell Westbrook might be the one to rise up and fill that role as the guy that shows up like because I do think that there is something I I do think that there’ll be a bigger emotional swell for him that I generally speaking he plays well when he’s like that. It is strange like how I mean he’s been bad the last like bad like he had a really terrible stretch. He had a great putback but like he did have that layup late in the game when the Nuggets had turned it over a couple times and you’re like what is happening? And then he just like took the ball to the rim and scored and you’re like oh thank god. But like my god, we started this week with a podcast talking about how narrative is such an important thing in sports and what this all represents and like you want to talk about an unbelievable narrative to have Nikico Leokic dethrone Sheay immediately after he’s given the MVP award and Russell Westbrook is the one that helps him do it. Oh my god. Is like I mean that’s like that’s like ep that’s a Game of Thrones stuff. Yeah. I almost made Kale write a report from home. So, Gino, I mean, with that context, does have you been thinking about this context at all that this is maybe a really weird series for for Russ? For I mean, it’s definitely a really weird series. I don’t know that he changes how he plays ever really like he’s he’s always pressing. He always seems like, you know, he plays the most basketball. I don’t know if it’s the best, but he’s doing the most things all the time. That’s a good one. Yeah, that’s that’s why people would call me the Russell Westbrook of this show. Yeah. So, like he I you’re give it and take it on the show. Yeah, dude. Or people just say generally I’m doing a little too much. But I I feel like after he got benched last game, after he got benched yesterday, when he came back in, he dialed back his I’m open. I’ve got to shoot it. Like, it’s my responsibility to shoot this corner three or to shoot this top of the break three. I can drive into space. I can kick it to Joic uh from a different angle. I can occupy that space. And then obviously uh like Win said, the the layup when everyone else was kind of trying to play prevent offense for like four or five minutes and Russ just said, “What if I just scored?” Yeah. What if they’re not They’re just trying to pick at the ball. They’re not trying to actually defend the hoop. I’m just going to take it. Um, I think that he’s hopefully he can find that nice middle ground where he’s attacking the hoop but not over penetrating and then getting blocked at the rim because that’s what everyone’s expecting him to do. They’re either expecting him to take the wide openen shot that they’re daring him to take or drive all the way to the hoop and throw up garbage. But this is why his job is so tough. So he came in and I just thought he had a horrible first three minutes when he came into the game last night and it kind of almost cost the game because the Nuggets were just smooth sailing and then he came in. But here’s what’s tough about it. They’re not guarding him from three and he has to both come in and feel the rhythm of the game while also not letting them for, you know, like scare him away from shooting. You have to be aggressive and confident but also know the temperature. And he didn’t get the right balance yesterday. I mean, there’s no way around it. He didn’t have it. But that balance isn’t that easy. It’s easy for us. We’re on a couch, but it’s actually kind of a hard balance. Yeah, 100%. I mean, he is good enough from the corners. He should take some. There’s There’s some amount of corner shots where he’s he probably is open enough and should be able to take it, especially low on the shot clock, like dribbling in two steps to take his odd bank shots. Um, I don’t like that one. to go in sometimes. But he does have freedom of movement like a little bit inside of the arc that other people don’t get because they’re not getting cushion. So he can probably set up some passing angles. He can be creative in a way that someone who’s getting pressured full court like Jamal is um just wouldn’t have that opportunity. So I I liked that in the back half of the game he was using that additional space to do something other than shoot or run into Chad’s waiting arms. Yeah. Um, what else you guys got when you got any you guys got anything for Gino here? Just to hear his rosy outlook on it. Hey, Gino. Gino, what do you think of stock market? I was going to go stock market. Yeah, let’s talk Israel Palestine. Can we get a man? Come on. All right, fine. No, I’m good then. I mean, I had a question for y’all if if that’s all right. No, that’s not how this works. Thanks, Dino. It was really good, buddy. We’ll see you. I’m kidding. I’m kidding. Fire away. I was just wondering um we’ve been talking about you know the Booth Boys for I y’all have been talking about the Booth Boys for a while now. Orphans and given like how Pwatt and Strawther and I mean pick it he at least got to play in the first uh um the first series against the Clippers which I don’t know that a lot of people expected early on in the playoffs. Um, how much more would you need to see from some of these guys to feel good about them being a part of the picture? Because we’re getting a new GM, we might get a new coach. Um, there could be any number of changes, but it seems like some of them are at least stepping up into what is needed for right now. Like, are they incredible? Eh, sometimes yes, sometimes no. But they’re at least Yeah, maybe they’ve earned a chance. Can I I I’ll take this one first if you guys don’t mind. And I I’ll almost take it a different direction because you know Nick Wright had a tweet uh last night that said something like uh Calvin Booth is vindicate. I can’t remember what it was but something about something along those lines. And I saw a lot of like nuggets just commentators like a lot of like you know well-known nuggets commentators that are like actually Booth Malone is the one that likes straw they’re not Booth or blah blah blah blah like I think this whole story is like largely misread I in my opinion and I’ve been the one that has tried to push back and say there’s a lot of nuance to this man people aren’t just like one-dimensional doing this or that my opinion is that there’s no question Cal made mistakes and the roster is like has been deficient for it you look at it where I think that Malone made missteps in how he handled Picket, how he handled Payton Watson, Strawther, uh, and probably just those guys. You could throw Zeke Naji in there if you want because I think Malone killed his confidence. I think it’s not just about playing guys. And Strawther was a Booth and Malone guy. Like they shared him, you know, that was the first round pick. They had agreed to that person. So, not like one person owns it over the other. But what I think the misstep was when you’re building for a playoffs, you’re not just playing guys. And I think that Pton Watson, Picket, Strawther, Zeke, to the extent that they played their roles, Julian was to run all over the court, but Pton Watson’s was to stand in the corner while Russell Westbrook ran a second unit and he had no involvement in it. So what is his offensive skill set to Denver right now? And I think Pton Watson can handle the ball a little bit. I think he can pass it a little bit. He’s a little erratic and you probably would have to go through some learning curves and more importantly when you got to the playoffs he’s not going to be playing alongside DeAndre Jordan, uh, Picket Westbrook is that he’s going to be playing around Joic and Murray. And so for me, my complaint is not just about the low minutes total, which I think they should have played more. It’s how can you find ways to work these guys into into different spots? AJ Mitchell played a lot this year for Oklahoma City. not playing now, but they played him a lot because they’re like, “We need to get him reps that matter, not just these garbage time or second unit reps, like we need to filter him into our system for years down the road.” And that’s where I think whether you agreed with it or not and Cal should have read the tea leaves better. That was his two-year vision and none of it was followed. They didn’t play a lot and when they did play, it was not in a role that they were going to be used for in the postseason in my opinion. But I know that we have different opinions about this. No, I I agree with a lot of that. I I’ I’d say can Julian Strawther and Peyton Watson play on a contending team? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. They’re doing it. Yeah, yeah, they definitely can. Um, can Harrison win do a podcast? I mean, PWAT, if you just look at who he is defensively, it’s it’s exactly what you would want, you know, on a team that’s led by Nicole Joic and Jamal Murray. Um, you know, Strawther his shooting or what he could be as a shooter. Yeah, he hasn’t been a consistent shooter at all as an NBA player, but I mean, does he have the skill set to fit in between like the Nuggets higher usage guys? Yeah, absolutely. They’ve got the talent and skill. I I think they can develop even more as well. I I am with Adam though, like it is a lot of how they’re deployed and how they’re put out there on the court and and who they’re playing with because and and I’ve said this a lot, nobody is going to look good next to like Russell Westbrook, you know, Julian Strawler, including Jamal Murray. Yeah. Like nobody looks good as in that in those lineups of four bench guys. It’s just of four like average or below average players when you’re matched up against a team that’s doing a lot more staggering on the other end. So I I think it’s more how they’re deployed and you know what kind of lineups they’re out there with. Can can they play? Yeah, they they’re both they both can be even even real quick, Eric. People would say like Zeke Naji is good with Jokic and people say well he everybody’s good with Jokic that doesn’t count. And I go well if AG’s out wouldn’t it be nice that we had Zeke Naji with Jokic in this next game? that that was a thing we trusted in any capacity. Now that part is actually what makes him valuable, but we’re not there. And it’s hard to do that while also winning games throughout the regular season. But I that was the vision that was laid out and was not one that was agreed upon. Yeah. And for me, it’s like the answer is being written right now. Like they’ll show like if they win the title, they’ll probably keep them if they if they flame out. I mean, they’re those guys are getting better. Pton Watson like you look at you’re like, can that guy be Jade Jaden McDaniels? like maybe I don’t know can he like be that style player can you know um he’s getting better and better and you still see like it’s worth it um but it’s just like if they win like yeah of course yeah there’s also a price tag too like of course uh yeah they have to be cost controlled but also Payton Watson and I don’t think the Nuggets did this intentionally but it’s possible his price tag is way lower than it would have been if the Nuggets would have followed Booth’s plan and we might be going into a summer right now where it’s like he’s worth 110 million and it’s like, well, maybe not. So, uh, Gino, we got more people waiting on. So, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for following your optimism. Dark ass podcast of ours. Thank you. Have a good one, y’all. Let’s bring in our old friend say now. Oh my god. Oh, boy. I’m sure. Let’s go. Hell yeah. Looking good, man. Representing. Thanks, man. Hey, heads up. It’s uh close 10 till 1:00 a.m. here, so I don’t want to wake up my one-year-old, so bear with me if I’m whispering. All right, there you go. He’s still joy scrolling. That’s crazy. Joyce one in the morning. Uh what did you think of that win last night? And and do you agree with my hypothesis that the Nuggets offense might have be slowly figuring out Oklahoma City and every game is kind of getting more comfortable? I think I I agree with you. It was a great win. Just, you know, when they’re back against the wall, they just showed up. That’s that’s the Denver Nuggets. That’s the golden era. That’s that’s what defined them. Um I honestly I think they figured them out like game three and then they should have won game four and five. It just came out to some tweaks. He came maybe couple or three or four minutes of uh Julius uh Julius rather in game four or five minute maybe might have sealed the deal for the Denver Nuggets if he played that well. So I think they’re figuring out uh they’re even I he said they’re even. I think the n the Denver Nuggets slightly better, you know, tougher, more experience. Hopefully game seven will show it. Yeah. Um so I’m I’m very hopeful for game seven. I’m not so hopeful for the next round. We’ll worry about that when we get there. Yeah. What you What are you worried about new stuff for? The new stuff. I don’t know. I I get to hold squares from last year for a very long time. But uh we’ll we’ll we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. For sure. Yeah, for for sure we will. I do think Jamal Murray’s playing better though, too. And this is part of it. If you want to know the most optimistic angle for this, the most pessimistic is AG’s injury and health. Like that to me is by far the most like well if he’s not healthy how good of a chance that becomes really tough. The most optimistic is Jamal Murray has been very good to great in five of the last six quarters. He was not that in the fourth quarter and it ended up costing him, you know, two games ago, but last game he was very good and very comfortable in getting to his shots. And I just feel like Murray slowly gets to a place and maybe it’s getting later and later every year. It used to be the playoffs, used to be right after the All-Star break. It might be now the third round. You’re like, you know, Jamal Murray is a Western Conference Finals player. He always shows up for the conference finals, guys. Chill. He always shows up. Yeah. Yeah. He better show up getting seven. But he does feel like to me like these last six quarters, I’m like, “Oh, there it is.” That’s the most consistent six quarters we’ve seen from him and it was consistent in that he was good in five of six. Yeah, he’s a champion. I mean, we have no doubt. I’m on Eric Trin. We have no doubt of Jamal Murray. Yes. last year was a you know I don’t know fluke whatever you want to call it maybe things were happening behind uh just beyond the game of basketball I don’t know no one knows his personal life but uh I have no doubt of trusting Jamal Murray even last year game seven he showed up he’s I think he scored 35 yes uh I have no doubt in my mind that he will score in the 30s late you know high 20s also next game. It’s uh who’s the X factor. This is what what we worry about for the last uh two playoff runs is who’s the X factor for the Denver Nuggets. We got Russell Westbrook, we got Gordon a few times uh in this playoff. We got Russell Westbrook, we got J. We got Christian Brown. So, who knows who’s who knows who’s going to surprise us for good or bad. But Jamal Murray, no worries. No worries. By the way, you guys know what Jamal means in Arabic? Uh, no. Uh, golden air. No. Beauty. Beauty. Beauty. Yeah. I’m going to start calling you Jamal. I almost named my youngest. I almost named my youngest son Jamal after him, but my wife did not agree. It’s an Arabic name. Why not? Say is an Arabic name. Interesting. It makes it sounds it now that you say it. Um, any other thoughts or questions for say? We do have a queue going now, so anything you guys have? Well, I I I thought he brought up a good point about like potential X factors in this game seven. I was thinking that maybe it’s Payton Watson, especially if Aaron Gordon’s hurt and can’t play as many minutes as he normally does. It’s on Pwatt to step into that role. And like, we know he’s going to bring it defensively. His offense has been shaky though, especially around the rim. Like can he just shore that up a little bit and just play like a really strong two-way game? I feel like a lot could be on Pwatt here. Yeah, especially if AG can’t give you 100%. I like that. I will say one thing if you guys remember Nuggets go up 16 which in the fourth with five minutes to go which was their biggest lead of the night and Julian Strawther just didn’t match up with anybody and Alex Caruso had a corner three. Do you guys remember that play? Cuz it was like 16 points five minutes to go. over and then immediately they went on like a 90 run and you’re like you got to be kidding me. Like just over what are we doing? But that was a play where Strawther for whatever reason is just like thinking, you know, not not really thinking the moment. And that to me is the thing about Strawther and Payton to some extent or a Zeign is they have talent, they can do all these different things, but man, every tiny mental mistake, even if it only lasts two seconds, can sometimes be the difference between a N0 run or not. And then that was an example of Strawther playing great and all of a sudden you’re like dude you just gave them they they had missed like 11 in a row and it was like they’re never gonna score again and then you gave him a wide open one. You’re like ah yeah great point. That’s why I think Adam did not even stick to him. He entered uh Westbrook I think like it was two minutes maybe like two minutes some you know like he made a little bit later but he didn’t just say okay good or bad we’re going to stick to Strather. So he was on top of his game. So maybe you know it’s just a little bit of sprints here or there. Couple of minutes here and there make might make a difference. Actually another close games. Another point there and then we can get you out on this but Adelman benched Westbrook quick because he had a horrible first stint and usually he would play longer and Adam gave him a quick hook. Elimination game veteran player former MVP. Adelman hasn’t been perfect in these playoffs but that move to me was an impressive one because it’s hard to bench Westbrook after just four minutes. Westbrook was in disbelief what the commentator said. It was like me me. Are you talking about me? I’m coming out of the game. All I had was five turnovers and six bad shots. What do you expect? Yeah. Yeah. Uh quick question for if you if you if it’s a if it’s right. Uh just a Yeah, very quick. I’m running. Uh schematic. Just schematic. Why the hell every time I mean I feel like it’s so easy to drive on Denver and score like Oklahoma I mean they okay they have Shay I feel like even in the fourth quarter it was just maybe like barely 10 seconds out out of the shot clock and they’re already scoring like just not I wish we have couple of guys that just they can run to the basket. We have they can run to the basket but they can’t score like Westbrook. What’s what’s schematically? Why are we not I don’t know. Why don’t we have those guys and why it’s so easy to score in Denver? Yeah. Something I don’t know. It just seems like I think some of it in last game is they’re up 15 points, 14 points, 13 and the worst thing you can give up there is an and one or even just a free throw because it stops the clock and everything. So, I think there’s not a prevent defense but a little bit of a like we’re just going to try to make them make tough ones and Yeah. Yeah. They won comfortably. Thank you. Always good. See you, Jamal. You see you in the Western Conference Finals. Let’s go. I hope so. Uh I guess I think we’re going to talk about Zeke Naji here coming up. Do you think so? Our guy5 is 555’s got places to be. Yeah. Are we We’re on the go with you. Yep. I’m taking my break from work right now. This is the best. I love you, man. This is the best. Let’s take a little break, man. Let’s go outside. Yeah. What’s up? Do your Do your bosses know that you’re on the show right now? Is that Would that be a problem? Nope. I’m pretty Don’t worry, I’m safe. They know I’m taking a break. Do your bosses know you’re a legend in the Nuggets universe? Yeah. You are Are you Are you rewarded for your faith in Zeni at at professionally? No, I’m just the the silent hero, I guess, in that regard. But no, I uh my boss is actually so she’s a she is a Nuggets fan, but she is from Minnesota, which is interesting. She talks to me about the Wolves sometimes. Interesting. Or or she asked me about like, are they good or how are they doing? And I always like, yeah, they’re they’re okay. They’re all right. I mean, I don’t know. They’re they’re fine. Yeah. Uh, what are you thinking, man, about this series and about game seven? Man, this series is really freaking amazing. So, I actually So, the previous before game six, I had a hunch that we were going to win that game. So, I took next Monday off because I figured after game seven, I’m either going to be way too happy to focus at all or way too depressed. Yeah, that’s very smart of you. Very smart. It’s called a mental health day. Yeah, it’s either for joy scrolling or for uh deep looks into the universe, seeing if there’s anything out there for us. Yeah, exactly. So, but yeah, this this series has been really amazing and I think I think you guys touched on it before, but like I feel like something in game five clicked for Jokic and that was like it was so ironic that the most the thing I was worried about the most was is Yokic going to figure out OKC and I think in game something in game five happened where he’s like oh he he figured something out I think and I’m like in game six just kind of just confirmed what I think we all thought because he had a good game, average Jokic game, but it really felt like he could have done more if he needed to in that game. So, I mean, I thought he controlled it, but you’re right, didn’t need to dominate it. Like, he was in control, but didn’t necessarily have to dominate. So, I agree with you that I feel like he has something figured out. And to me, I’m curious what you, Eric, what you think of this one, but I feel like Yoke in the early part of this series got too wound up, like he was very emotional. playing the refs and this stuff and the last two games he’s like taken a deep breath and calmed down and he just looks different to me emotionally. Yeah. And it I mean there’s no safer bet in the world than was Joic going to arrive to this series in a way that would it is familiar to us. Yeah, I agree with you. I mean like I think he just sort of like took a step back in general like all right, what am I doing here? you know, like missing his shots. Mhm. Getting the ball stripped repeatedly, turnovers, stuff that you’re like, “What is this, man?” He was in his head about the refs, too. Yeah. The like he was way too emotional over it. And I mean, I don’t know what it is, but these last two games have like there’s been very little chatter about the officiating it seemed like, compared to earlier in the series. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank God. Yeah. What else do you think? I think that this game like anything can happen in game seven honestly. So like are we going to get another really good Julian Strawther game. Is Adelman gonna throw out another curveball or something? Or is Mr. Dagnot on the other side gonna maybe start a certain someone instead of another certain someone? A permanent sub. It’s kind of crazy to pull one of those out now, don’t you think? I mean, like, here’s the thing. If you’re a coach and you do that, you put the light on you in ways that are probably more bad than good. It’s risky for sure. It’s It’s a double-edged sword because either you look like a genius because everyone’s going to point everyone’s like, “Oh, look at that adjustment they made in that game seven that won them.” Or you or like you said, it’s like, “Why the heck did he do that? Why didn’t they or your Ty Lou? That’s like all I think I’ve got the secret and it’s starting Derek Jones Jr. who is just a disaster and absolutely cost the I mean DN is so like cocky and smart. I know dude that I could kind of talk myself into seeing him like coming up with some big adjustment for game a weird trick. The Isaiah Joe adjustment. He’s going to dig deep into the rule book and like find something about you can’t stand on the three-point line for more than 4 seconds with a defender within 3 ft. Got him. Got him guys. So you So interesting. So about about Dagna. My I was talking with my dad and my dad thought the same thing like like this coach is so cocky. I don’t like the way he talks cuz and he was telling me I didn’t listen to the interview but apparently when he was being asked about Oklahoma City and the clutch and someone was asking him like like did you know like they were they were going to pull it out and he’s like of course they’ve been here before and he’s like no you haven’t you haven’t done anything yet what are you talking about but yeah there’s there’s something about him that like irks us or me or people I don’t know I will say the specific example you gave me because I agree with you. Eric pointed it out. Now we can’t unsee how smug he looks. Doesn’t mean he is smug, but he certainly has the look of a smug guy. He certainly gives a lot of smug faces. But the one thing is that is a thing everybody says no matter what. Like if you ask Jaylen Picket, he’d be like, I just been in a lot of big games. And you’re like, “No, you haven’t.” Just this is a go-to line for people for some reason. Um, all right. We got to keep it moving. 555, but we always enjoy when you sneak out of work to be on the show. Hell yeah, dude. No problem. Also, if the Nuggets make it past this round, there’s still hope for more Zeke minutes. Hey, game seven even if a very unfortunate silver lining to the AG injury is maybe it’s Zeke time. But what card did he get though when we played did the card drawing the terrain? We don’t know. We’ll have to look retroactively. How do you mean you don’t know? Of course, we know. He’s the one card we remember. The victory card. Who’s better? Here’s my question. Who’s better on the move, Nikolic or 555ish? Definitely 555ish. All right, cool. Thanks, guys. See you. Thanks, buddy. Uh, you got to Jared, you have to turn your camera on so we could tell that you’re not exposing. He had it on earlier, but also on earlier. I don’t I just don’t want I don’t want to say somebody like gets on the show and then all of a sudden they’re just butt naked or something. And yeah, that would not be ideal. His camera or maybe his camera doesn’t There it is. There it is. Fully clothed. There he is. is Jared. What’s going on? Not much. Did not expect to get called up here. Uh, sorry. I’m also working, but I happen to work from home, so it’s all good, man. We’re all working here. Yeah. Yeah, we’re Yeah, we’re actually also working. Do you need to um take us somewhere? Do you need to like walk outside or No, I there there could be the chance though that I have to cut off uh soon. My we’re waiting for my I have a baby daughter as well like Harrison. So she’s 11 months and taking her second nap of the day and I promised my wife we’d go for a family walk after this. So yeah predictive I know I know how you feel. Are we not part of your family? Like I mean uh you’re part of my family when I get to take the walk with my dog by myself and just listen. But yeah this is a this would be a no headphone situation. Talk about late game adjustments. You know, like Dagen could learn quite a bit from Jared, I could say. I could say as well. All right. Tell us your perspective on this series here. Uh I don’t know if I can swear on this, but it’s uh you can get get the report ready. We can Yeah, we’ll just have Kale write a report. No, I won’t do that. It’s just it’s been a it’s been an up and down roller coaster. uh been mind effing me for the this entire time, this entire playoffs. It’s like I uh had written them off. I won’t I won’t lie, I’ve been eating crow. Uh I wrote them off after game five. I was like two two games in a row. They’ve just ran out of steam. This is looking like game seven of last year all over again. And then, you know, the Nuggets nugget and do the exact opposite of what I expected. Um and here we are. So now it’s just like, you know, anything could happen in game seven. Um, it is an early game which scares me a little bit and AG being out uh scares me, but they’ve already exceeded expectations so much further than I expected that uh, you know, I’m just rolling with it at this point. But it would be nice if they didn’t keep doing game sevens. Uh, I hope that the ne if if we make it through this that uh the next the next series is not as long. I I am the opposite. I just want I am telling you I’m so like you get a vision for a thing 1612 16 and 12 man I just it would be the coolest thing ever for for the Jokic legacy Jamal’s legacy all of them it would be I mean it would be the craziest I I would have to think it’d be like the craziest postseason run ever given the circumstances going into it. Were they underdogs against the Clippers? Do we remember? I think they were. Yeah, they were right. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, four underdogs. Let’s do it. Also, don’t lie to yourself. It will be discredited beyond belief as soon if the Nugget They’ll be here’s I’ve already written the script. They were up against an aging Clippers team and young and unexperienced Thunder team that was a year ahead of schedule. Also, the other thing I love is that why it’s so great to in to bring the community into this. We get the yin of Gino and the yang of Jared. two Gino Casino Nothing But Light and Jared is ready to jump out at every turn and I love it. I love the whole ecosystem of all of our nuggets die hard. It is great. Yeah, I’ve been hurt too many times and but at the same time it’s like, you know, like I said, it’s it’s uh maybe it’s uh just setting my expectations low and having them be, you know, exceed my expectations, you know, can only go up from there. You’re like Jokic. That’s what he said on that Aaron Gordon tippin in round one is he’s like I didn’t want to come up to come down so I just waited for the result before I got excited. Yeah, that’s you. You’ve been hurt too many times. You’re just going to wait. You’re not going to be pre happy. I’m just throwing up wild sombo shuffles and hoping that something good happens. There’s nothing more flattering under any context than to be compared to Nikolic. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. Can I also say share something that I you said that I’ve never heard before and just tickled me so deeply is that you know that when you’re just known for a thing like the Chargers and people say well the Chargers are going to charge or that means the Nuggets nugget. He said the Nuggets are going to nugget and that means that they’re going to pull it out. Dude, how Yeah, that’s sick. It’s you don’t I that’s the thing. I don’t know who the Nuggets are these days so much. It used to be like Nug Life and now I feel like Nug Life is situation where it means it’s not just bad. It can be good, but you just don’t know what it’s going to be, and it’s just going to, you know, tear with your heart. And yeah, I bet the nuggets nugget stressful. They’re gonna, you think they’re dead, but they’re alive. Yeah. That’s why, Eric, I disagree with you. Okay. Sorry. This is why I disagree with you because the Nuggets are the team of two 3-1 comebacks. The Nuggets, you know, are fire their coach, goes 16 and 12. No matter what you say about competition, which first of all, I don’t think you can say that. If you beat a 68 win team, you can’t say that they didn’t play anybody. Come on. That’s one of the best records of all time. I’m nobody could say that. I’m saying the you underestimate the pods. I just If you say that, you might as well like Michael Jordan wasn’t actually that good of a dunker, right? Like come on. All right. So, but here’s the thing is this would solidify the Nuggets as the ultimate like heat culture team, right? He there’s heat culture. They’re just so good and they’re about the right things and they’re tough. The Nuggets would be like that times a million. It’d be like, “Hey, they’re the 3-1 comeback team, the 16 and 12 team, the you can’t kill them team back against the wall team.” And that would be a dope brand to have. The Nuggets nuggeting, baby. The we don’t need a coach or GM team to win. Don’t even need it. Don’t even need it, man. We coach ourselves. Figure it out. When the Nuggets start to nugget, it doesn’t even matter, dude. Forget the play. You don’t need a coach. You don’t need a GM. You just need five. You just need Nicole Yokic and four guys. Then then you just let the Nuggets nugget. All right. Should we let Jared go on his family walk now? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I hear people staring upstairs. So Yeah. Yeah. And they’re probably like, “Don’t disturb Don’t disturb Jared. He’s hard at work right now. We could hear him taking a a call with a call right now.” Yeah. Let me loop in my client really quick. Um quick question for you though. If we end up pulling this out and we just get to the Western Conference, does that do we think the Adelman’s job is safe at that point? Is he, you know, almost assured to be the the next coach? I mean, all depend on the GM in my opinion, but I I would think it’d be crazy, but it it feels like we’re heading towards him being the coach. I mean, I don’t know. I like you said, there’s still some things that have to fall into place, but he’s done everything he can, right? like it’s not he he he can’t be doing his job that much better than he is. He could call a uh GD uh challenge every now and again. I’ll say that that is a that is an interesting point you bring up. Yeah. But I I think we could be heading that that way. Definitely seems like it could happen. He could be the coach for sure. For sure. Yeah. He’s just like the Nuggets and one day we love him and the next day we think he’s terrible. So, who knows? I don’t know. In my opinion, that is yours and yours alone. That is your That’s not what we think. You’re right. You’re right. I’m throwing you all in there. But uh I’m gonna connect you with Gino, by the way. The two of you are gonna be an unstoppable force. There we go. We’ll balance each other. All right. Well, I appreciate it, guys. You have a good one. And go Nuggets. Go Nugs. Thanks, man. Uh I We have one last person here, JP, that we can hit to if he turns his camera. He or she turns the camera on in the next five seconds. You’re on the clock now, JP. I’d love to get out of here. Is it Jaylen Picket? Holy smokes. Jaylen, is it uh Julian? What? James Posey, maybe. James Posey. Holy [ __ ] Oh my gosh. We got James Posey. JP can’t figure out his camera. Therefore, he’s out of here. We do have some super chats though, Kale, I’m told. What do we got? Uh Chad Sheller, is the flopping a concern, distraction, or something that needs to be game planned or coached differently? Love the DNVR. If we had to I’d be honest here. There’s three floppers in this series that stand above everyone else. And you guys will be mad at me for saying this, but it’s Blue Door, Shay, and Joic. And Joic is, I think, doing like retaliation flops. like every time there’s a bad call in his direction, he goes and does the same thing and then he’s like, “See, exactly.” But, uh, nonetheless, those three are flopping around kind of crazy, dude. Dor Lou Lou Dort is number one on my power rankings, man. By far. Lou Dort by far. He’s the Have you guys seen the play also where he I I didn’t catch this live, but the play where he pushes Hartinstein into Jamal Murray on that first four-point play. I mean, play, but yes. Yeah, exactly. But that was What was he doing? He just can’t help himself. I think that he’s built a little bit like a bowling ball and his inertia made it so that he couldn’t turn. No, he pushed Hart and Steam in. Well, I mean I think I mean I see he sucks. I listen, you’re putting me in a position where I’m per where I’m on uh one of our fast channels. Anyway, uh [ __ ] Lou Dort. I hate that guy. Don’t make me try to defend Pooh Dort. But I Yeah, I I mean I agree with your assessment 1 million%, Adam. Um Joic has been flopping, but he’s been doing it because he has to fight fire with fire. It’s the only way to get a call in this series. Yeah, it’s pretty ridiculous. What else we got? GGX gang. If AG is not good to go for game seven, do you start Zeke over Pwatt to tie his minutes as much as possible to Joic or start Pwatt like they did in the regular season and run Zeke or DJ in the backup? Maybe even go small with Westbrook. Oh god. Let’s hope we don’t have to come up with any of these. Those questions are all the worst kind of questions you want to be talking about a game seven. I know man. Uh man, I would probably start PWA. I Yeah, you start PW. Of course. Yeah, I think it’s Zeke is coming in too like way too cold. But I I know earlier we were talking about like Yeah, you play Zeke with Yolk during the regular season. So if this scenario comes up, you feel comfortable. Yep. We did see that a little bit during the regular season a little bit and it looked pretty good. Yeah, I don’t want to go that in game seven, but yeah, but thanks for the 20 piece. That’s a nice super chat there. We appreciate it, man. Uh, Hood Poppy, I I really need Pwock guarding SGA in game seven. I can’t afford us to lose Sunday. Otherwise, my girl is turning back to Only Fan. Nobody has more writing on this series than Hood Poppy. Did this Did he tweet this? Did he give this last night? This is very similar to his tweet super chat from last night. Same kind of predicament that he’s in. Yeah. First off, Hood Poppy, you got to diversify your income. Like it really like it can’t just be betting on the Nuggets or Only Fans. Like you should always have a job or something also, right? Like or just another source of income. But the bigger part is I do want to see POD guarding SGA, but Javal’s been pretty admiral and has uh um Christian like SGA has not taken over a game. He had he’s had a couple spots, but I can’t think of a time where I was like, “Oh my god, it’s SGA time. We’re cooked.” Um right. I mean, he’s got to hit his mid-ranges, but he’s missed a lot. And I saw somebody talking about this like, you know, we’ve been kind of bottling him up or whatever. And I don’t think that’s the case. I kind of think this is just what he looks like. I think it’s like but he normally gets more free throws. So his 30 points a game turned into 40 point games. It’s like I just kind of think this is what his game looks like. I mean, he’s a really good player. He’s a really good scorer. I know. I know. I know. But this team is great because of their defense and they have a guy good enough offensively to like carry them on that end by and large. But they did not win. This is the thing that’s tough about uh 68 wins versus 50. And again, I’m a person who believes you should factor that into MVP and I think you should factor it really heavily, but there is a thing of like why do they have 68 wins? Yes, it’s a lot to do with him and how he draws fouls and scores and controls the tempo, but it’s really their defense. Their defense is incredible and their depth, too. They have so many good players. I mean, the most obnoxious part, there’s always like one obnoxious line that catches on and defines every right uh MVP, you know, era, like it’s either the voter fatigue or this or that. And um SGA racism was a prevalent topic a couple years ago. Still still going, I think. Yeah. Yeah. But the the one that annoys that that makes me insane is when people are like, “Hey, listen. Nicole Joic is the best player.” I mean, he’s the best player, but that doesn’t mean he’s the MVP. I mean, what are we talking about? My my actual favorite one from this cycle. I I love how this is now what we’re talking about today, but um the M Nicole Joic is so above the MVP award. I just love the idea. It’s like that’s it’s just an excuse to not give it to him. He’s above it. What the hell does that even mean? It’s dog whistle for voter fatigue. The old voter fatigue is back. It is so true. I just I do love this. I just Nothing makes me like angrier, but just make me laugh more than just like he’s above the MVP. We know he’s the best player. That’s not the question. We’re not wondering who the best player is. But he’s definitely not the most valuable. He’s for sure the best player, but he’s just not just Definitely not. So stupid. I hate the NBA. What are we doing with our lives? What are we doing? Uh David, depth problem equals Booth Boys never had a chance because of the bad blood with uh Moch and Booth. Yeah, if we get a fresh season in with Adelman, Booth Boys will flourish. All the nuggets are good. Might be too late, but yeah, maybe. Do we have to They can’t be the Booth Boys anymore. They We have to call them the the the booth orphans. The orphans. That was funny when you said they’re orphans. Let’s call them the orphans. They’re not They’re not the Booth Boys. They’re just not. Uh THTR Nuggets Fired Malone. Does that mean they’re coaching with one less coach than every other team? Yeah, technically. That’s such a great question. Less staff members had before. Shouts out big D. Shout out Big D. Big D. Oh, I thought it was Dline. No, no, no, no, no. David. Yeah. Lost that C. What does it say about this team? If they win this series, are they favored to win at all? Is there more growth the team would need to make? Oh, bro. I mean, the Nuggets to me, if they win this one, will be the best team in the playoffs remaining, but also the most tired. So, counteract those two together and going up against their fiercest rival. I can’t even go there. I can’t We can’t talk about this. We got to win. We got to win on Sunday. Got to do it. And Michael Pinter thinking far ahead here. What team do the Nuggets match up better with offensively and defensively between the Knicks and Pacers? Hey, Eric, let’s go way further the next round. Let’s go. I can’t what about the legacy of uh No, so the Pacers they I if listen if if we want to be ridiculous here and just breeze through game seven in Oklahoma City and the Minnesota Timberwolves that give me the Pacers all day long. Yeah, give me the Pacers. Give me Pacers. Also, Nuggets Pacers. I just love an ABA matchup, you know? I just love it. Oh, I mean Adam Silver would be so many ideas while that series is going on of how to end it. never make it happen again. Yeah, exactly. He’d be so livid, man. It’d be the best. He’s like, “Oh, we’re going to have what’s called an offseason tournament.” And it actually And then we can have backto backs in the playoffs to offset that. Yeah. Oh, man. What a fun little off day show, man. I love when we have homies on. I know. Yeah. That was a great show. Um, right after this show, you should go on our YouTube channel because Ryan Green’s spotlight behind the scenes exclusive footage from Game 6 last night is live on our YouTube channel. You can check that out right now. We make a lot of stuff at this network. Most of it is okay. It’s Oh, fine. Whatever. RG nothing but bangers. Just banger after 100% hit rate for sure. Yeah. Thanks everybody for tuning in, man. We hope you enjoy your day off tomorrow. Weird day off. Enjoy it because we’re back on Sunday for game seven. Hit the like button on the way [Music] [Applause] out like the mayor.

The Denver Nuggets are headed to another game 7. Jokic and the Nuggets have a chance to go back to the western conference finals on Sunday. Do the Nuggets control their own fate? The fellas are joined by DIEHARDS for a live q & a in this bonus episode of the DNVR Nuggets Podcast!

Start – 0:00
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Gino the eternal optimist – 19:00
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Superchats – 59:00

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