Biggest Nuggets Summer Ever? | Jeff Morton and Swipa

Biggest Nuggets Summer Ever? | Jeff Morton and Swipa

The Denver Nuggets not in the Western Conference Finals. Another year, another second round, another game, seven loss. But given the context of how great this OKC team is, is that actually a win? What does it actually say about the Denver Nuggets that despite all of their issues, the injury to Aaron Gordon, the injuries to Michael Porter Jr., the lack of consistent bench help. Does it say a lot more about how close this team actually is that they didn’t end up winning this series? And we’re going to talk about Jeff Morton and Ryan Blackburn has some great articles that came out detailing a lot of the behindthe-scenes stuff about this Denver Nuggets team. We’re going to talk about all that. Uh we’re going to talk about AG’s playoff run and really what made him so good and then what is so important about him next year that’s going to make this team even better. Y’all, everything is on the line for the Denver Nuggets team. We got a lot to talk about today on Locked on Nuggets. You are Locked on Nuggets, your daily Denver Nuggets podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. What’s going on y’all? Welcome to Locked On Nuggets. This is your host, Swiper. This is your team every single day. I hope you are having a spectacular, phenomenal, wonderful day. I hope that you’re getting some well- needed rest this week and that you’re working hard and that things are going well for you. We’re here to talk about the Denver Nuggets. This is my first show with you since the Denver Nuggets lost in game seven of the second round of the Western Conference playoffs. And man, just what an incredible run that they had, you know, for the Denver Nuggets, for them to end this playoff run seven and seven where they beat uh the team in the Clippers that they were not favored to beat that I didn’t think they would beat based on how the regular season had ended. For them to play against a historically dominant team, especially one of the best defenses ever in the OKC Thunder, and to play versus them to take them to a sevename series is a big deal. But as many feel and as many recognize this team and everything they went through, there were so many ways that things could have gone differently for this season. There are so many ways that the team could have been even better. And y’all, despite the holes, despite the injuries to Michael Porter Jr., The Nuggets were very well within just two four quarter closeouts from ending this series in six or less games. Now, you know, a lot of that goes back to Nicola Joic missing a lot of shots down the stretch of that game. A lot of that goes back to the missed free throws from him and Aaron Gordon. A lot of that also goes back to Jamal Murray going five of 15 one of those games as well. But y’all, they were in position. They were in position and y’all and then they were doing everything that they needed to do in order to win this gig. And I think, you know, when you look at when you look at Nigel Yokic in the series that he had and you look at the inconsistencies game two through four, you look at the fact that Russell Westbrook had a couple of moments in game one. Uh you look at the fact that Jamal Murray had some really good games in this series. You look at the fact that Aaron Gordon 22 and 14 to start off the series in game one. And then Michael Porter Jr. only had one really good game in that second round, but he had really two good games in the playoffs. He had a 15-15 game, I believe, in game two when he hurt his shoulder versus the Clippers. Uh, and then he had a 21-point game in which he was making anything and everything in game three. But outside of that, you just didn’t get a lot from him. And a lot of that was just because his shoulder was so injured and the AC sprain really got to him. Man, I think for me some of my initial takeaways are the Nuggets with all the issues they had. They were so close and they were so close to another title. They were so close to beating the OKC Thunder. But the thing that ended up shortcoming them was the thing that had shortcome them all season is their inability to find consistent answers around the margins enough during the regular season. And on the top of this, for them not to be able to find consistency uh within their starters because of injuries, like it’s just so many things that happen together. And again, if Jokic did better in a couple of those games as a shotmaker, then yeah, the se the season extends. And I think they win games three or four, but they didn’t. And then they lose the game in game Well, they won they won game three, but they win games four. And then in game five, uh, Nicole Joic, uh, goes for another 4015 and five game and they lose that game, uh, on the margins and stuff as well. And there’s just so many things that I think could have been handled differently for this year. And I’m going to highlight a couple articles. One from Jeff Morton, um, right for the Denver St. I think he had an amazing article. Uh then you also had another one um that was from uh another one today uh that was from uh Ryan Blackburn. And let me see actually I’m going to see if I can get Jeff in here um actually as well and see hopefully uh we’ll be able to do that uh because I didn’t he said he’s available to be able to join in. But all that stuff put together man I just think that there were pathways for this team. there a pathway for them to be even better than what they are right now. And I think that they were a few things away um for them to be able to change how their season went. But man, it’s just so frustrating, y’all. It’s so frustrating. I I wish that the team had a little bit more gutsy to them that allowed for them to be able to be bit more advantageous in the offseason. You know, my brain all of the playoffs and all of the regular season keeps going back to Calvin Booth saying that Nicola Yoka should not lose playoff games because of three-point shooting. That goes back to the reason you don’t bring in Calvin. You don’t want to bring KCP back is because you don’t believe that you needed him and his veteran presence to win. You wanted to elevate Christian Brown and Julian Strawther. But on the other end of that, if they needed to make additions, they’d be able to do that as well. But I’m going to bring Jeff Borton in here uh so we can have a larger conversation about his great piece. Jeff, how are you? I’m great. Is this the first time we’ve I’ve been on your show or you’ve been on mine? Is this is this the first? Oh my god. Um, but it’s I feel like it’s not actually like because obviously we’ve run across the way uh for quite some time now and you’ve been in this business way longer than I have and I’ve been actually I remember I actually remember reading your stuff uh in like the 2010s like back when I was just kind of like you know watching the team from afar and all that but no and the reason Jeff I wanted to I asked you to come up today if you had time and I appreciate you coming in such a late notice. you wrote a I think a stupendous article and I think it highlighted so many issues with some of the things that had happened with the team from a thinking standpoint and and I guess before we even get into the article Jeff when you think about what this season was and when you think about kind of like the end of the year and them taking the OKC Thunder to seven. My thing is it says a lot about how gritty the team is that they were able to do that despite the injuries to Porter and then the lack of bench. But for me, it also makes me frustrated, too, because I’m like, they were that close to beating this team and they didn’t have consistent help off the bench. So, when you look at losing to OKC in game seven, and then you see them, they blow out the Wolves in game one, they probably going to run their way to a title, do you have what feelings do you have about the team now kind of four days removed from ending the season in game seven versus OKC? About the same as they were going in. I said on my podcast it’s like if you look at it they went seven and seven in the playoffs. That’s basically what they were in the regular season. It was it I think I think what happens is like increased effort papers over some issues. The depth issue never went away and it was eventually going to catch up with them and it did in the playoffs specifically in crucial moments in the Thunder series. Um, now I I think depth is overrated in the playoffs and I still do, but I do think the cumulative minutes is the reason and I think Joic having to carry, as I said in the article, uh, the Nuggets like Circus Elephant, it really just eventually it just gets to you. I don’t think that’s why they I think they if you’re gonna if you’re g if if we’re going to talk about why they lost, you know, if you’re allowed to tackle the the opposing team center repeatedly with smaller players, eventually it’s going to catch up with you. And I think accumulation of that sort of defense got to the Nuggets, but they were close. Sometimes it’s about matchups. and the Nuggets always matched up well with the Thunder and but they also went seven games with a lesser team in the Clippers. So it’s like I I the true Nuggets were the seven and seven playoff performance in my view. That is that is where they were all year and that’s basically where they ended up at at the end of the second round. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it’s just so tough because, you know, you probably saw that I didn’t I didn’t pick them to beat the Clippers and it had nothing to do with like I think not believing in the team, but it was just like I don’t know if my I can just let my fandom or even my emotion get in the way what I saw like this team couldn’t play versus high level teams all year. the defense wasn’t there, the consistency wasn’t there, the connectivity wasn’t there, but then all of a sudden because they had that championship grit and I think in large part because of the fact that David Adam such a great job of pulling it out of them, especially the defensive tenacity they lacked in the regular season, they kind of showed that this was always there, but they just didn’t have the juice or the guys to be able to do it in the regular season consistently. And man, I think and I brought this up before you joined. That’s where my brain goes with the Calvin Booth comments from last year in media day because I remember talking to to Ryan about this a lot, right? You know, when when he said that, you know, he doesn’t believe that three-point shooting should be the reason why Nicola Joic like loses series, I was just like, well, that that seems like a very like old school way of thinking about like where the NBA is. And then when he also said that like, hey, if we do need to add more three-point shooting, well, the reason we didn’t sign KCP is because we wanted to have leeway to be able to make an adjustment to add someone to the roster by the trade deadline. But then when we get to the trade deadline, there’s nothing that changes as well, even with all the issues we saw. So, it just felt like there was like conflicting opinions within the organization, which we know about because of all the stuff that’s happened, but also even some of the follow-up stuff based on what we heard in the summer, it just didn’t happen. And so it just felt like there are there are one or two decisions away, Jeff, from possibly being in another NBA championship this year. It’s it’s it’s weird and it’s weird how the playoffs kind of break down. I mean, who would have thought the Dallas Mavericks would have ended up in the NBA finals last year? I’ll be I’ll be honest with you, no one thought about that. And and a lot of that had to do with the Denver Nuggets not overcoming the Minnesota Timberwolves. And well, almost exclusively because that Nuggets team was better than that Mavericks team. So you you’re like, “Okay, playoffs are about matchups. Playoffs are like you just want to give your ch yourself a chance to get into the playoffs at a relatively healthy rate.” You mean like you got do you want to have guys like in 2023 where everyone was healthy? And one of the reasons everyone was healthy in 2023 was if if everyone recalls, the Nuggets basically took their foot off the gas in early March. They were so far ahead that they didn’t have to to put pedal to the metal and they lost a whole bunch of games by basically halfassing it. Pardon my language. And I think that sort of thing is something they’ve missed because they’ve had to press. They’ve had and specifically this last year people have said they didn’t have any effort. Yeah, I don’t think I I think the effort towards the end of the Malone era was very bad. Um but I do think that those last three games having to win those and then just the cumula cumulative emotional um weariness eventually catches up to you because they were clearly done with whatever situation they had before and then it gets to the playoffs and then it’s like you know what are you going to do what what’s the what are you going to do in that point because your flaws are still there. Yeah. You can only outefer your flaws for so much. And that is really basically what happened against the Thunder. Well, look y’all, we’re on the other side. We’re going to dive deep into Jeff’s article because I just thought that there were just so many strong points in there and things that I think highlighted some of the larger issues because again, building a basketball team, it’s a bunch of big decisions, but it’s also a lot of really small decisions that need to be made as well. Uh, but we’ll talk about all that and more here on the other side at Lockdown Nuggets. 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That’s c a rgurus.com. cargurus.com. We’ll be right back for the second segment here at Lockdown Nuggets. We’re back here for the second segment of Locked On Nuggets. This is your host Swiper with your team every day. Thank y’all so much for helping us get to 10,000 subscribers on the YouTube side. Please continue to like, share, and subscribe. We got more and more great content coming up here on Locked on Nuggets. If you’re listening to on the audio side, Spotify, Apple, iTunes, give us a fivestar review. That way, more and more people can listen to the great content made at Lockdown Nuggets. And you see, we got great all-time great Denver guests like Jeff Morton. Jeff Morton is a Denver GOAT. Literally, when I think of Denver sports, whether it’s Mike Cliss, whether it’s Singer, whether it’s Jeff Morton, there’s like this like holy trinity, including Vic Lombardi. There’s like these people that you grow up listening to and Jeff, you are absolutely 100% one of them. And like I said, I’ll say it again. I said at the beginning of the show, I was a fan before Swiper ever became a media member like when there was no iteration of this when I was just Deo Cameron. Grew up in Park Hill, Colorado. You know, I would watch and listen and all that kind of stuff. So, I’m obviously big fan. I think you do great work and I think you have a very very unique voice in the Denver space as well. So, a lot of respect to you. Well, I appreciate it. And I I I I you know I was I have this saying that people think basketball was invented the day before they became a fan because everyone who was a fan is so young. And as I’ve gone gotten older, I’ve realized that more and more as the basketball a basketball age of someone is like frighteningly young for me and I was old when I got into it and I’m like oh god. But it’s been cool and I thank you for reading it. I mean, stiffs in 2009 was uh it was the wild wild west. And Jeff, what when did you get into the actual Denver media space on the nugget side? 200 uh stiffs. I started writing for stiffs in 2009 and uh I began we were all credentialed in 2012. So for the tw the 12 um the 57 win team uh was was our introduction as far as credentialed media but we were fully ingratiated in the media the three years before that and uh it was just yeah that’s when it started. George Carl I was I was in college uh back in back in that day when you first got started with everything else. So I mean that’s that’s a long time. So that’s a lot of dedication. So, and then I guess just to do a little bit of a a lead in tease, I can kind of ask you some questions here. So, when you were when you were formulating this article and in particular, you were talking about the KSC side, which I think it’s a very uh important and I think a unique perspective about this because I do agree to what you’re saying like you even started with this emphasis on this tick- tock tick- tock. They’re in a new era. They’ve never and I’ve talked about this so many times, Jeff. The thing that separates the Nuggets from organizations like the Lakers or Boston is they might be competing with them now for championship, but they have never had preeminent all-time talent. Meaning, you have to know how to build around these players because the windows are so unbelievably short relative to your history. And this is the first time where the Cronis have been handed one of the 10, 15 best players ever. and it’s your job to make sure you win as many titles with that player as possible. Jeff, so when you look at the landscape of the Nuggets and you see some of the infighting that happened and you see kind of how Josh was in some way hands off but then in some very particular ways hands-on and then you kind of know where Stan is and then you look at where the arena is and a practice facility and just some of the stuff they don’t have. We’re in terms of how you’re evaluating where the Kronies exist currently and where ownership and the emphasis that’s going to be on them this summer. What do you think is actually on the table for them and how big of a summer is this going to be for them as an ownership group? Well, it’s it’s critical. Absolutely critical. Um I the thing about this is and I I I also mentioned this in the article. It’s it there’s nothing like having a true superstar. There’s absolutely nothing like it in the NBA. Very specifically the NBA. It’s different from football, different from NHL. It’s different from Major League Baseball. And Major League Baseball is probably the only one that could come close to it due to guys being individual, basically playing their own individual games in a team construct. This is this is you could make the argument that Nicole Joic has single-handedly inflated the value of the Denver Nuggets by himself. The Nuggets don’t have a a practice facility. The Nuggets weren’t able to be seen in Denver by a majority of its population for six years. This is this is all Nicola Joic. And this is the responsibility that comes with that. And I think Stan and Josh, I do want to see some acknowledgment that maybe not what they quote, “Oh, Nicole Joic,” because I know Matt hates that sort of thing. Like owing Nicole Joic anything or the whole the whole everything is too muchic, the role players matter. I get that and we also saw that this year, but Jokic ain’t guaranteed forever, man. and he’s already 30. And this is something that they have to be keenly keenly aware of to make sure that obviously you don’t mess everything up by making a Dame Lillard type trade. And and quite frankly, you could I mean to digress a little, the Dame Lillard trade, Dame was already kind of teetering as a decline kind of player prior to Milwaukee trading him. It’s one of the reasons Portland was okay with trading him. And then they he get they get him and it’s like, okay, you’re getting a guy who’s in his mid30s. You don’t make a trade like that. But you do understand the responsibility of maximizing and not burning Joic out. Mhm. That is the key. Burnout is is just you could see it on his face this year. He was miserable. I have not seen Joic this miserable ever. I talked to him in the locker room. I’ve never seen Joic this just have no joy in his game. You need to take that what you’ve seen with him and turn it into something else. Turn it into a guy who was quite frankly uh even the 22 23 season you could tell he was um maybe it’s not he’s never been happy golucky but it was a lot better than it was this year. They turn do what it takes to make him not burn out. Yeah. Yeah. And I look, I think some of this, too, is, you know, again, you’re a Denver resident, you know, the king of Thornton himself. Like John Elway, this is was the responsibility. You knew when you had John Elway, this is what comes with it. You got to get Terrell. You got to get Shannon. You got to get Ed Caffrey. You got to get Rod Smith. You know, then they went and got defense. You got Trevor Price. Like, you did what you had to do. I mean, even Joe Sakage, like you had the 2096 year, uh, then you had the 2001 year and then you had Forgeberg and then remember they got Ray Bourke from the Broson Bruins and brought him in and they ended up winning and all that kind of stuff. This is what it takes. And I think, you know, when you look at like Denver getting Payton Manning, they also knew like we have to fortify him. They gave him the greatest defense in Broncos history in 2015. I I feel like this is just in Denver especially, this this city is used to winning titles. This is not title town to the same degree as Green Bay is, but like if you play here and you’re a superstar, then we want to help you win as much as possible. And I think with the Cronies, they have gotten away with I think allowing for the organization to kind of exist in this kind of place of well, it’s not like upper tier, top tier. It’s not like super small market. We’re not like super invested in some things, but we’re really invested in paying the players, all that stuff. But then when it comes to the front office coaches, they’re just like our limitations. And we’re at the place now where Jeff Jokic, remember when Calvin Boo said he’s the steward of the Jokic era? He said basically said that we’re in the middle of it right now. Like we’re in the middle of his prime. Okay, let’s just pretend then Joic has four to five more years of this of like alltime great level basketball. Jeff, for me, if they only win one title in this for me relative to being in Denver and having one of those guys, I think that is a catastrophic failure relative to the rest of NBA history. Oh, 100% it is because you have literally the best player in basketball. And if you don’t feel the weight of that, you are insane. And and obviously, but there’s a difference now with the the the aprons and the way the caps are structured and all of this. The cronies are obviously treating the second apron as a hard salary cap. So, what do you do within those confines? What do you do to maximize what you have? And you know, the two timelines thing. And do you mind if I ask you a question, by the way, because I I listen to your show, too. So, I I I myself am not 100% against the whole quote two timelines thing. I think the nuggets, pardon my language again, halfassed it. Uh, I think if you’re going to do that, you need to go trade into the lottery and get high ceiling players. What the Nuggets mistake was, they stayed at the back and they drafted and traded up into late first rounds. Yeah. to get I mean guys like I mean I hate to pile on Peyton Watson here but they tra traded a future first to get Payton Watson a guy who was never projected to be a first round player and rather than doing that try do what you can maybe package with a veteran move up if you’re going to do that because what’s happened in my view and I this is why I’m asking you this question the the attrition happened you’re losing talent but you’re not replacing it with equivalent talent. You’re replacing KCP, Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, uh all these guys with late firsts who need time to develop who are old rookies, but they’re still not as high as saying lottery talent. So essentially, the talent is not there. this disparity is becoming greater because who you’ve been drafting isn’t necessarily the perfect pieces and they’re probably best as other than Christian Brown maybe probably best as guys who are maybe just very minor role players not pivotal role players like they’ve had yeah here I’m going to answer that I’m going to do it on the other side we got to get so much time no trust me I I I have very strong feelings about this so I completely agree with you. But I’m y’all we’re going to be back in the third segment to answer that exact question here locked on us. Now y’all, uh when I found out that Skiims was making underwear for men, I was intrigued. I’ve heard so much about the quality from friends and family, so I had to give it a try. 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Select podcast in the survey and select our show in the dropown menu that follows. Skiims is the official underwear partner of the NBA, WNBA, and USA basketball. Y’all, we’ll be back for the final segment here. Locked on Nuggets. Y’all, we are back for segment three here at Locked On Nuggets here with Jeff Morton, the king of Thornton, the GOAT himself. And he asked me a question that I know some of y’all have heard me talk about this before, y’all. Now, Jeff, I I cannot tell you when they would stay put all of those draft except the Don Holmes year. They did jump up three spots obviously last year in the draft. Yeah. When they would stay put, Jeff, I was just like, “All right. OKC got JDub at the in the top 12.” Yeah. Dallas Mavericks, they got Derek Lively in the top 12. Like, you go after a player, if if Calvin Bu, this is the whole thing. If you’re going to go young, remember they have six rookie contracts on the team. Six. If you’re going to go two timeline, it’s not even like they got Moody M. Remember Moses Moody, those were lottery picks. Jonathan Kaminga was a lottery pick. Padzimki was the only one that’s not a lottery pick. He might be the best one of them all, but that was luck. Yep. Like, you at least give yourself the best opportunity and chance by going as high as possible, getting a quality rookie who can come in and immediately contribute instead of we’re simply going to develop and hopefully by year two, hopefully by year three, hopefully by the end of the rookie contract, these are NBA players. And for me, when you got a superstar, because this started when Yokic was 28. Yeah. you start this process during an age 28 season. I’m just like, but in the NBA, you win with typically between 25 and 31 year old talent. And then even if you do that, I think the draft concept was off. I thought waiting to 29 for Julian Strawther, waiting for 30 for Pton Watson, and then waiting again. Now, they had they got uh Dron at 23, but remember they gave up three f second round picks to do that. and the same three second round picks they offloaded as you mentioned in your article for Reggie Jackson. M like for me it’s just it’s a missing of the logic that went into if you’re going to do two timeline you got to go good and you know and and giving yourself an opportunity to know this is going to be hit because at the end of the first round now you can find a Jimmy Bowler Jeff you can find a Rudy Gobear you can find a Pascal Seakum it’s all possible but the risk of that are crazy right and that for me was always it is like well if you’re gonna do young because of the CBA and because of where the money is, then why would you not give yourself the best opportunity and go get a lottery? You know, you and I are sympatico here because I just the way I’ve seen that I’ve watched I’ve watched the Denver Nuggets since Alex English was a player and it’s kind of like there’s nothing new under the sun. It is. And I mean like the game is played differently, but the concept of basketball is the same. You need the best players possible. And the Nuggets almost beat a Thunder team that had better depth. Yeah. Because the Nuggets had arguably a better starting five. Yeah. So what does that mean? Well, that just means that your players on the back end aren’t as good and the Nuggets got worn down by that. Well, how do you how do you supplement that? You get talent players. If you are not if you are against the concept of not having rookie scale deals like is the and basically this is what the the flag the Nuggets staked is like rookie scale rookie scale rookie scale. I actually had a conversation with someone in within the Nuggets organization about this while they were making these picks. And my point to them was that okay, the reason the the the Spurs worked is because it was during an era where no one was uh taking advantage of European uh and uh South American players and uh they had a they exploited a a a market inefficiency is I guess the way they call it right now. Mhm. That’s the only reason that Parker and Jamal Ginoi were able to work. It was during a time where no one was doing it. Now everyone is. You can’t be the Spurs again. You have to get talent because everyone in the league is getting better. And it seemed like the Nuggets were stuck in 2002 with some of this thinking. And I think that is what set them back. I mean, obviously this team’s still good. It’s like they’re not this not a death nail. But the the issue is if you’re going to lose talent, place them with equivalent equal talent. And that’s that’s not what they’ve done. Yeah. Replacing KCP with no one. I mean, we talked about this all last offseason. It just was like you already in game seven last year, remember? They only had two players score more than seven points in that game. So like you needed another player and then you just get rid of KCP and because of the money and because you wanted to elevate Brown and and then elevate Julian Straw. I was just like, well, but you’re taking away a veteran starter and then hoping that this other player is going to take a leap. Now, Christian did take a leap, but Christian is also not yet good enough all the way around to compensate for all of the loss. He made up for a lot, but again, if you just had another three-point shooter, you just had another person that could dribble the basketball, that would have made a big difference. And I think again, that goes back to the Reggie Jackson decision to just throw three second round picks and get rid of that player. I mean, you probably heard me on the timeline. I thought Nikquil Alexander Walker was a player you absolutely go after even just Chris Dunn like having other options to be able to do that and I think for me you know you look in the second round in 2023 again remember they took Julian Straw 29 and then they took 32 Jaylen Picket and they to Hunter Tyson at 37 and I’m for me I’m just like but even if you know what this team is and Jeff you know Jokic’s biggest disability as a player is he is not a rim protector meaning you need guards and wings who are able to stop penetration to allow for him to play at most in space and away from the basket because that’s what he’s best at. Yeah. But then the Nuggets are like drafting players that don’t do any of those things. Yeah. And then also are now like upper tier offensive players at the same time. And I’m just like I feel like we’re we’re drafting around like hopefully my strategy plays out rather than what’s actually best for Jokic and Murray and Porter and Gordon and what do they actually need for them to be where they need to be if that makes sense. Oh no, it makes total sense and and you know look I I don’t blame the philosophy thing is whatever. Um, I I’ve said this in articles and and on my podcast, old rookies are still rookies regardless of how much experience they have in college. The NBA is a different thing. It takes time. The curve is flattened. You know, you want it to go up and down, but you know, flatten it if you don’t if you don’t if you have to devote time to developing people. But if you’re going to do it, you got to go all in. and Nuggets just to me in my view Calvin Boo’s biggest failing is that he didn’t go all in on getting the key talent, the big talent. The guy who you can oh I don’t know run a second unit without the need to have Nola Joic on the floor all the time. Jamal has always struggled with that. Jamal works great with Joic. He doesn’t always work well just doing it by himself because Jamal just does his thing. It it’s it’s completely different without it. If you had a guy who was trustworthy who can run the second unit, that relieves a ton of pressure off a Jokic regard, it doesn’t have to be a center, just a guy who can just be the guy. Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan did not play the same position. Scottie Pippen gets out there and he just runs the second unit for the Bulls very well. It did. You don’t have to have equivalent positions. Just have the talent. And I think that is what at least to me what I saw in the second round uh and even going down the stretch this year. the Nuggets were lacking equivalent talent to the way they were in 20 2023 when you could argue that they were one of I mean they were to in my view the peak almost the peak talent of what you can get with Jokic and the at the atrophy since then has just at least in my mind been really difficult to watch. Right. Yeah. And I think too because this will go into the last question as well again Bruce Brown, Jeff Green and Christian Brown like Bruce was a six starter that year and Michael just like this year when he would have issues and he couldn’t close or couldn’t finish halves. Well, Bruce did that. Well, that made them a lot better. like they just didn’t have tremendous drop off in the playoff context cuz you had a very good slasher who could hit threes but also was a terrific defender and you had multiple options you could utilize Bruce to do and like the Nuggets don’t have that and you know we’re hoping and this was this is what was unfair to Russ is 36 years old and we’re hoping he can save the Nuggets time in and time out and I think that like asking a player of that age with his own deficiency as a player to do that consistently that speaks to the roster issue and I think that speaks the poor planning and I think Watson still needs time to develop which is perfectly fine. Like he’s still super young. I think Julian is still coming along. But again, it’s like Zeke Naji was your project and you paid him to be like the next guy. Yeah. But then that’s not someone you can trust. And then and you you’ve heard me talk about this before. I know. I thought signing Dario Sarge was just was based on his skill set. Jeff was just so like baffling to me. he fell out of rotation. And so all this is to say, Jeff, when you look at this summer and and and highlighting kind of the key points of your article, what do you believe that the Kronis have to get right this summer to kind of salvage these last two years and going into the rest of the Jokic era and to salvage the championship window for Denver? This is there’s there’s two ways to approach this and I think both are right. um either hire someone from outside like a Matt Lloyd uh you know people have talked talked tossed around Bob Nyers no way they’re paying for Bob Myers um but guys like who have the gravitas and the the ability to a talk to agents which is one something the Nuggets have sorely lacked I mean they they how many they have like nine players uh that are Jeff Schwarz players on this roster they talk to other agents you need to have agents ies relationship with that other than them. So that is number one. And number two, I think if you get a guy like that, they can have a fresh eye and then they can make the even if you don’t do anything this off season, you have the ability to have someone with a fresh perspective look at this roster and say, “Okay, this is what we need. This is what we need.” And then make adjustments either a during the year or for next off seasonason. I would hopefully it would be during the year. Um or two, if you are going to go the Ben Tenzer, David Adelman approach, there has to be accountability for Josh Kroni because he is going to have a major role inevitably in the shaping of this roster. If you bring in a guy like Tenzer who is an, you know, he’s the G-League GM, but obviously NBA is going to be different. It’s going to be a firsttime GM. You’re gonna have and a essentially a rookie head coach. You’re gonna need Josh to be there and accountable. And that is what I want. And both of those scenarios can actually work. Both of them can work. But it’s going to require a either Josh Cranky and Stan Cranky giving up a little control to have the guy who can come in and do what it takes or b Josh comes in and if he’s going to put his name on it and they’re you’re going to bring in Tensor, you have to be accountable because that is the biggest thing because Tenzor is not going to have the gravitas or the the weight behind him. Josh is the one who has to be steering the ship at that point. I think those are both very salient points. Um I think for me it’s they have to be willing to make some hard decisions and y you know again the biggest piece is the Porter piece is like what do they do? Are they going to trade if can they find a trade? You know who do you slot them in with? Um, but also just with the bench, I think that look, Jaylen Picket and Hunter Tyson, I think they’re great ideas, but if you if you need to open up roster spots to have other players go on the roster, like what do you do? Will you be make willing to make that work? Um, also like the Daario player option thing, like that’s going to be a big deal because again, you can’t it doesn’t matter if he takes it or not. You can’t have $5.2 million sitting on your bench and not be able to contribute. Not not in this CBA, not in a first apron team. It’s literally like it’s impassible. Like it literally it’s untenable. You can’t have your sixth highest paid player be something you can’t use. And then Zagu, that’s another contract has to be made a decision about like what do you do? Like you have to find a way to utilize your roster. And then on the other end of this, you do need to bring veterans into the building. So whether that’s veteran minimum, whether that’s another taxpayer MLE, I do believe adding some adults into the room is going to make a huge difference for the regular season and for the rest of the culture and for the playoffs. And I think to your point, Josh Crocki, there does need to be a real sense of ownership and accountability that you not everything you owe is to is to Joic. I understand that. That’s not how it works. But also in the NBA, it is how it works. Like LeBron is the story. Jordan is the story. Shaq’s the story. Kobe is the story. Magic is the story. Bird is the story. This that is Hakee. It is their team. The conversations about them and everything about you as an owner. They’re going to remember you for what you did to help that player win. That’s the way NBA stories are told. The reason why Dr. Bus is what he is. You think that’s just because he was a great decision maker? No. Because he had Magic, he had Kareem, and he made sure that they won. And he gave them James Worthy. He gave them AC Green. He gave them Michael Cooper. He gave them all these players. go get it. And I think that’s just kind of what the story has to be. It’s like, how do you actually go about maximizing the roster for Joic, taking accountability, and everybody doing the job they need to do, and just not going into another playoff, Jeff, where you cannot survive because you don’t have a backup big. He also had Dr. Bus also had Jerry Jerry West, right? And the Cronis needed Jerry West as far as I’m concerned. Yeah, fully agree, y’all. Well, look, Jeeoff, this has been a great episode. But, uh, this this is going to be a long summer, so we will be having a lot of conversations. Um, especially if you get into free agency around the draft, even though they don’t have draft pick, what are they going to do? So, there’s going to be a lot more to come, but I do really appreciate you joining the show today. Of course, and I need you on CSG. I’ve never had you on it, so I need to I need to correct that very big fault of mine right there. No. Yeah, I understand making the schedule work. Um, we’ll talk a little bit right after this, but y’all make sure y’all like, share, and subscribe. I really appreciate y’all. Lockdown nuggets will be here for you all summer. Ryan, Matt, myself, deeply appreciative of y’all, y’all. This was an incredible year. But guess what? The journey is still going. The marathon continues, y’all. See y’all on the other side.

JEFF MORTON JOINS THE SHOW! The Denver Nuggets are headed into their most important offseason ever? The Nuggets have had a lot of bad decisions that led to this moment but even WITH that…they went 7 with OKC. Is that an accomplishment?
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