How Much Confidence Do You Have in the Denver Nuggets? | DNVR Nuggets Podcast Live

How Much Confidence Do You Have in the Denver Nuggets? | DNVR Nuggets Podcast Live

Feeling so casual. Casual and confident. Casual and confident. What a duo. What is up everybody? Welcome to the Diver Nuggets podcast. Let’s go. Let’s go. All right. That was Friday energy. Uh we remote show, man. Guys, it feels like the pandemic all over again. I know, man. I know. Yeah. Yeah. All of us are remote. None of us are here at work. We’re all at home just remote. We That’s Yeah, it’s cool for us. I’m definitely at home, too. What are you talking about? It’s not like Eric and I are here. That’s so cool. They want you to go remote. Um, well, there you go. Yeah, you live two minutes from the uh from the bar. You’re basically you’re out on your porch basically. This is your You’re actually not at work enough, Eric. You know, now that you bring up bring it up like you’re not there enough to be honest. I feel that way. I do feel that way. I didn’t hear this in our premic checks, but Harrison sounds like uh the wizard from the Wizard of Ods. He’s got it’s not well it just has like you’re like you’re in a giant hallway. I am in a very large room. That’s what it sounds like. An undisclosed location. Harrison Wood. I am I am in a very large room with a lot of echo. So I’ll try to I’ll try to speak closer to the mic. It really comes out when you laugh because it sounds like an evil laugh and like a lord in a giant castle. Uh but whatever. It’s going to be fun because we’re going to talk about how much confidence do we all all the three of us plus you guys in the chat. How much confidence do you have in the team at this very moment that things are going to be okay? What is your confidence level? And we’ll have people on and they’ll share their perspective if you want to join the show. We’ll probably do these on Fridays somewhat regularly maybe every Friday where we invite you the audience member and more specifically the DNVR diehard when you sign up at thudnvr.com you can join our show and give your two cents. Uh so we’re going to do that in the back half of the show. But I do want to start with I guess we can call these hangover takes or we could just just for some news and notes I guess I would say. And top story today, Michael Malone does not hate Nicola Joic. So stupid. We did it, boys. We got to the bottom of it. Dude, never never ever ever This is just I’ve learned this over the past however many years. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that bullying does not work. Works. It’s so true. It works 100% of the time, dude. It’s amazing. Bullying, man. People hate me for my bullying of the panel, you know, but just tough, you know? I mean, you guys I get, but I mean, why do they care? Um, he did. So, Michael Malone went on Countdown or whatever it was yesterday, whatever ESPN is calling it the lead into their show. And he right off the bat was like, I got to make this clear. I think Yo’s the MVP. I think he is. People back home are upset. I thought it was a funny moment, but I’m also glad he did it. Yeah. I mean, it had to go Go ahead, Win. I want to hear your thoughts on this. Um I mean, my thoughts are like, how is this guy so online? Like I This was too big. This was too big. I don’t know if it was online. I’ll bet he got a bunch of texts from personal friends that are like, “Yo, man, the internet’s roasting you for hating on Jokic.” Yeah. I mean, I I said on the show the other day like I don’t think he meant any ill will in those comments. I thought it was like a very uh AI generated thing you say on NBA Countdown on ESPN. Mo GBT. It was just like you can choose one of these lines to say about SGA. And he’s like all right, I’ll go with that one. You know, that’s the most popular one. That’s what people want me to say. So, it was just a very like ESPN national TV moment. I didn’t think much of it. Um, but in classic Malone fashion, like a very vintage Malone thing is to double back and kind of try to get on everybody’s good graces again. So true. Big market Mike. We got to deal with big market Mike now. Um, yeah, I felt the same way. Like I I the previous day was not bothered at all because I I as Harrison saw what he was doing. I mean, I was like, listen, he’s not I mean, we first off, we left we fired the guy. Like how mad can we be at something he says back? But I didn’t think that he who hates Jokic. I mean come on. What do you think? I think you know what it is though. It’s just it was fodder for our enemies, right? Because you know who really lean. I don’t think anybody really believed you know that he’s Matty or any of this stuff. But the Thunder fans sure took to it. The bald stop crowd clearly took to it of like see we’re right. We told you even Malone knows. So I was glad that he came out and just gave that one. He did not walk back. best fans in the world though. I will make note of that. Right. That’s the most because because the fans are the really really the ones that are hating Michael Malone right now. That’s true. Hey, it’s probably true. Also, that um the title best fans in the world is or in the league or in the whatever is given to every fan base at any time. They’re they’re here in front of the best fans of the world, Philadelphia. Dude, that was still such a weird though. That was still so weird. Oh, for sure. But it’s cuz they were loud. I mean, listen, he’s trying to play it up. He’s big market mic, bro. And I mean, that was also another one that was definitely on the list of possible lines ESPN gives you to say totally in a segment. I just think there’s go-tos and you’re right. Look, man, I got to give it to OKC’s fan base or like their home crowd, I should say. Really good. Really powerful. I mean, it’s it is a story line. So, I and I I I absolutely do not have to give it to them. And I won’t. You don’t have You don’t have to. I don’t have to do anything. I’m not going to do it either. Um, I want to get into a couple other things that I thought about that we did not vote and I did not talk about in our twoman game about uh Josh Kronkey’s pressers because we talked about a lot uh on it. You can go back and watch it yesterday’s show. I’ll get you your two perspective here, but I want to talk about a couple things that we didn’t talk about. One of them was and I had to I didn’t actually catch this the first two times I watched it, but then I’m with closer listen my third time I really picked it up where he was asked about is I think it was Ryan Blackburn saying can you lure free agents to Denver because free agents who come here play well and then they get paid big money and he’s like yes you know that’s been the pitch for several years we try to give you know tell people that. And he goes, “But that will be a pitch with some of our young players.” And I thought that line was really interesting to me because who are the young players who he could be talking to? Well, the two that are up for contract right now, Pton Watson and Christian Brown. Christian Brown, I think, already in line to get paid big money because he plays or at least in part because he plays with Jokic. But you wonder about that Pton Watson extension and how it would look. You know, I don’t know that Pton Watson has earned like this huge market right now around the league, but you could he’s young enough that it could mean that Josh Kroni is looking at it and saying, “Hey man, sign a short deal. Get a two plus one with us on short deal. You’ll be 24 or 25 by the time it’s up right in your prime.” And if you’re right right now, you don’t play with Yoko a lot, but in the coming years you will. Think about how much you’re going to be worth when you’re 24 years old or 25. You could get a huge deal, right? I think that’s an interesting point. The first thing I think of is Bones Highland. Yeah. When you bring this up, I mean, Bones Highland was in a position where he was like a year away, a little more than a year away from potentially getting like a I don’t know, four years, $50 million contract or something. Nuggets are probably just going to hand that to him if he was a good soldier and just like played his role and didn’t cause any drama. And that got messed up for for a number of reasons. and now he’s on a two-way contract in Minnesota. Um, so yeah, I I I I think it’s definitely the right way to look at it if you’re a young player. And yeah, maybe a guy like Payton Watson who I like I I think you do want to extend him for the like a right amount of money, you know, if you can get him on like a Zeke Naji type of deal like that that that is the right type of extension to do for him, that’s just good business. But you can also look at it and say, “All right, if you know, if we sign like a shorter term deal, maybe that does give you more potential earnings, you know, a couple years from now once your role is bigger.” Yeah, it’s crazy to me. It doesn’t seem like any team in the league can pay anybody. Like everybody’s like, “We can’t afford these guys. No one can afford any of these guys.” And like having three max contracts, it just like puts you that’s just like the end. You’re just at that point it’s just like you’re immediately then in the beggar or chooser and they the Nuggets at least on their side have the Nicola Joic card which should be very attractive but for me it’s like that gets them in the door with ringchasers like that’s the ring chaser line that you can sell to people. I have really hard if I’m Kristen Brown and they ask me to take a cut that like this early like I’m like dude I don’t know what my future holds. I’m going to like I need to make sure that I get a contract now. Like I what happens if I get injured? What happens? You know, like so I feel like it’s going to be a really tough selling for some of these young guys to take a haircut with their first contract, like their first real contract. Totally. That’s that’s a hard selling point, man. It’s a super hard selling point. I the hearing the $30 million mark for Christian Brown from Bobby Marks. Like first off, like I don’t I can’t even comprehend that. Like that’s also just a number Bobby Marks came up with. We’ll see if it holds. It could I’m not trying to doubt him. He’s good at what he does, but that’s not the number, right? But I’m like, yeah, dude. Like I I think about like a good player, like a not a spectacular player, a good player is like 15 to 20 million, 30 million. Like I mean, if I I I get what you know, the Nuggets would be trying to do to sell guys on that, but like that’s not how the world the NBA world works. Like that’s not how agents work. You’re you’re trying to get as much money as quickly as possible. That that’s just how it’s going to be. I think here’s the thing though because I think right now you’re in extension territory with Christian Brown. So what you’re really doing is the riskreward factor. Does he really want to say no? Think if they offer him 22 million or 20 million, whatever it is they offer him, which to me sounds more like fair market value. He is a really good player. If they offer him that and he goes, “Yeah, but Bobby Mark said 30 and I know there’s teams out there that really like me and if I can just play through this year, I can get to that.” There I think that what he’s saying is their retort would be look maybe you do, maybe you don’t. Maybe you play out this year and get hurt and all of a sudden now you just blew an opportunity, but if you sign a deal with us, an extension and you’re playing with Yoke for the next three years, your value is not going to go down. We already know teams are valuing at this. So you could take the safe money on a little haircut and in three years from now, you can enter unrestricted free agency with 60 million or 80 million in your pocket and then you can go test out that next one and your value won’t go down. That’s a powerful argument to me. Is Christian Brown the type of guy there are some players that’s like this is all it’s about. You’re not getting a penny less from them. They’re going to play and some guys screw themselves over from this. Dennis Schroeder remember famously passed up a deal once never got the deal. Never made back the money that he should have signed originally. So some guys are firm on this and some guys are like you know what I’m enjoying the ride. That’s a lot of money. I I’ll play it safe like they’re I think Christian might be like the second but I don’t know. We don’t know if he’s a bird in the hand or two in the bush guy. Honestly, it probably probably just depends on who his agent is to be honest. Yeah, but I mean like you know there’s some guy like I don’t know that he has he’s not wearing fancy suits, you know? He’s not coming in like he seems to First off, what are you saying about sweatpants? Hold up. I I What are we talking about right now? Eric, have you or have you not taken a giant discount at All City? Yeah. Oh, I took I I took a haircut. I’m taking a a haircut daily. A natural haircut because my body dies. My my rest my case, your honor. um sweatpants. Guys, the other thing I thought was funny was or interesting was he Josh Kroni referred to a 135 philosophy where everything he does he thinks about what does this mean in one year? What does it mean in three? What does it mean in five? And I wish you know sometimes you don’t you only get so many questions when it’s a full scrum like that. I used up my two right away. I like the ones I got. I like the answers I got. I thought they were interesting. But I wish I could have followed up on this one to say what’s the point of the five in that when you have Jokic? Like I get it for most of the time, but what’s the five here? Well, 135 is probably just out of the Krony Enterprises uh slide deck. It is. I’m sure it is. And I think it serves them well. It’s a business philosophy. It’s important to have those philosophies, but sometimes you’re like, “Okay, I don’t know if we need a five-year plan with Jokic.” Yeah. I I’d be good with him just thinking about a one-year plan than a three-year plan, and then, you know, the world’s over cuz like that. Yeah, dude. That’s what it might be if the three-year plan doesn’t work out. Yeah. Year year four and five we’re floating through the cosmos is dust. What are you talking about? It might be sell the team. Like five years from now, we sell the team. Like we go all in, we try to win one or two championships and then Bro, they’re never sell They never sell the team. Are you kidding me? They’re not selling the team. Um, but I just thought that was interesting because the way I look at it right now. I mean, Cal very clearly echoed that two years ago, you know, like we might lose a year, but we have this long-term plan and it hasn’t worked out the way, you know, he envisioned it. Obviously, they didn’t win a title, but that to me is almost like, yeah, you’re in the 13 now. There’s no five. You need to win next year and you have to operate with that as 90% of your calculation. And then the three-year is more of a like let’s you know does this put us in a pig in a in a corner where if disaster falls are we screwed? That’s the consideration. Five years man who knows man. Five years. Yeah that’s I mean the it I don’t feel like they use this 135 at least. I don’t feel like Tim Connelly was uh privy to this 135 philosophy when he just kept handing out all these max contracts that now three years down the line, five years down the line are putting us in a really tough spot. I mean, he drafted both though. There’s no way that was a one or three. That was a total five. It’s so true. No, it’s uh I don’t know. It’s crazy. The thing about having Nikki is that one fifth of your starting lineup is always the best in the world, you know? So, you’re starting off from a really good place. Your windows never really close, but it is it isn’t like at this stage right now. I mean, I, you know, I I’m not this guy, but this is the prevailent um storyline about the Nuggets is like that they got too committed to their two other Max contract players too early and like now it’s put them in a sticky situation. I don’t necessarily agree with that, but I do have to say that those two guys have not proven to be particularly trustworthy um since the since the title. Well, also there’s like it’s no surprise that Cal and Josh were kind of on the same page. I think I agree with both their approaches. I think they both kind of saw the CBA and the current financial landscape of the league in the same light. I I think they both agreed that like the plan that was getting put forward was the best plan. You know, it wasn’t executed the best way. There there were definitely a lot of mess ups along the way, but I think like they kind of both saw eye to eye that that is the best approach to take and sure enough Calvin Booth was reportedly offered a contract extension of some sort you know last year. So, um, I it is scary because you do want to see some type of shift in philosophy and I I I think there will be a a small kind of shift, but you know, h how big that shift is from Josh probably determines what next year looks like. Yeah. All right. We’re going to continue this discussion on the other side and start the discussion about how much confidence we each have. Uh, probably get different answers. We’ll do that on the other side. Uh guys, we’ve all been there. Your parlay’s one leg away, then a uh relief pitcher maybe gives up a walk-off. Bomb of the ninth, heartbreaker. Some weird stuff happens in a Nuggets game. We’ve all been there, of course. Check out Hall of Fame bets. The Hall of Fame app is built to fix that. Started by two lifelong sports fans who also happen to be Ivy League grads. Really smart guys, probably. Hall of Fame makes parlay research smarter, faster, and data driven. 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Make sure you hit that subscribe button, follow along with us, become a die hard so you can actually hop on the show with us. Um, yeah, the last uh thing here now as we kind of get to the confidence we have in where we are and this is such a subjective question because I can see both sides of this equation. I’m going to start this us off and I’m not going to give a simple answer. I’m just going to talk about specific things here. one reason you should feel very confident about the Denver Nuggets going forward. I think that last year there’s a lot of dysfunction across organizations, misalignment. I just think Denver was the most misaligned group organization that I can imagine. That’s how far things were off. And so what we saw in their playoff run and pushing this OKC Thunder team, who by the way smacked the Minnesota Timberwolves again last night, they completely are outclassing them so far. So, it looks like Denver was right there with the best team. We’ll see how it plays out. But to me, it’s like I know people hate this. This is why there’s so much talk about trades and margins and all this stuff. And it’s interesting. We’ll get into all that stuff in the offseason, too. But there is this thing of like, yeah, but you have to understand an organization has to be rowing in the same direction. And if they’re not, everything’s going to look off. So, to me, I look at it and I go, no matter who they bring in, I would be shocked if it was onetenth as dysfunctional as it was over this last year. And that alone should raise every aspect of the team, their performance and how they operate. It is kind of crazy that with all the dysfunction that happened, they still had the regular season they did even though it was very up and down. Yeah, 50 wins. They did get to 50 wins with no bench. But that’s not good though. I’m saying like 50 wins is Well, but that’s like I mean it’s standard bad. It’s like 50 wins is like the that’s a successful season always. Oh, no way. Yokero 50 is low in my opinion. Well, I’m just saying it’s a it wasn’t a disaster season, but like just to say like they surpass the 50 win plateau to me. That’s like where you start talking about a team that you should take seriously or not. Yeah. I mean, I I think 50 wins in the West is it is is on the low end of expectations for sure. I I think it’s okay. um you just just like with everything that went on like yeah it was okay. So, it’s not going to get worse, you know, like especially with how how we think the new front office is going to be shaping up that the coaching staff as well. There’s going to be so much more alignment like it’s not just not going to be worse. You know, here’s the thing, Eric, that I’m trying to say, though, and this is this is I mean, you can disagree with it, but but this is the point I’m making. I think the Nuggets were a 55 to 57 win team this year. They won 50. And it’s like that five to seven games to me was the misalignment. It was the way that this season was approached. And oh, by the way, they played Joic more minutes than ever to just to get to 50. And that’s my point is if you have confidence in it, you’re looking at it and being like, well, are they good or bad? It’s like the team is probably better than they showed this year, like meaningfully better. And they fixed the one thing or or appear to be fixing the one thing that caused the biggest anchor. And so, let’s judge them on, okay, those training wheels are off. I think they’re I think they’re a 53 54 55 win base. That’s where we’re starting from. Well, see, okay, so the the biggest question, how confident do I feel? I feel like the Nuggets underperformed during the regular season, but not in a way that was disastrous. To me, last season the as the dust settles now and you look at the coaching and the the front office, definitely a big issue. But to me, the injuries were a bigger story last year for the team more so than the miss. I mean, now it’s like that’s all we’re talking about, but AG missed a huge amount of time and Jamal Murray missed time and everybody missed time and it was they couldn’t ever quite get on the same page. They didn’t get their starting lineup until the last that lined up with the coach being fired. It was like a all things came together and then they took the Thunder to like they I swear to God I replay in my my head like all the time those two games that they had a lead in the fourth quarter and let it slip because they rode Joic and Murray too long and tired them both out. Like they absolutely could have beaten this Thunder team. They did not. Um you know that’s that’s how it goes. But to me it it I don’t feel like there is a a mass like massive shakeup that has to happen. I feel like they just need to get guys that they can rely on that aren’t in the starting lineup. It’s the bench obviously that’s always the story with this, but it’s, you know, it’s getting the a couple of correctly priced veterans, another Bruce Brown type, like guys like that that really make the difference when that can step up if an MPJ get hurts his shoulder and then is completely ineffective throughout the entire playoffs. if AG hurts his uh hurts his calf or quad or whatever he hurt and like he’s not as effective in that last game. It’s just they just they were just too paper thin. I but like the team is not that far off. It just we’re in such a bummer era right now having just lost. Um and you have to start looking at all the answers like but we’re not as far off as maybe it seems. I don’t think I think the playoff team I’m I’m with you. The regular season I don’t think the Nuggets had like that much of an outlier in terms of injuries. I mean, if you look at a AG missed almost the entire but that happens. I mean, Chris more than half year. We were talking about that in I know, but I’m just saying like let’s compare to a team that won that won more games than Denver. Tatum missed 10. Jaylen Brown missed 20. Drew Holiday missed 20. Al Horford missed 22. Chris Taps missed 40. That’s their starters right there. And they all missed more than AG. So to me, I’m like that happens in the NBA. It’s also not like the Nuggets are a young team. I think the, you know, if the Nuggets continue on this pattern with how they’ve set up their team with not a lot of depth, I think the injuries like get worse next season. No, Aaron Gordon’s turning 30. Jamal Murray’s turning 30 next year. This not a young team. Yeah. So, but to me, the point remains that I think the Nuggets left five wins on the board on the table. I mean, easily five wins just from the dysfunction that was going on. And I think that dysfunction will be gone. there might be a new problem that comes in, but I think the Nuggets, like I’m confident because I think this year artificially depressed them in a couple ways. The other thing here is versatility is key in the NBA. And I think one thing we learned about the playoffs is, and this is where Eric, you were talking about depth and and your not belief in it. And I I like only half agree with you because I do think depth matters. But perhaps the point you’re making is the Nuggets core is incredibly versatile. Like they’re really good. the the main guys are really good to play any style and this is what we’re seeing in Minnesota in this series. Their guys are not versatile and so they look terrible because OKC OKC took Denver out of what they want to do and they still battled them team Minnesota’s being taken out of what what they want to do and they have no shot. So to me the core is very versatile. The depth wasn’t but that’s promising because it tells you that Denver it’s not like an era thing. Denver starters can win 20 different ways. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you’re starting with how confident am I in the Denver Nuggets starting five, I have supreme confidence in them. Like as confidence as ever, pretty much. Yeah. I mean, like, for me, the the qu the main question is is Mike. Like, I I just don’t know. I’m I’m really nervous about his health moving forward. Like, I just I He was just so ineffective. And you understand why he probably tore his rotator cuff. Like, he was truly playing with one arm that entire time. But it seems like there’s always some reason. Um, and I just I don’t know. He Mike makes me nervous, man. He’s the only one. The rest of it is like I feel like we can find enough guys that have some confidence in the play. I mean, playoffs one thing, regular season completely other thing. But I mean, I’m very confident in that starting five for the Denver Nuggets. Sans Mike. I I just don’t know what you do with Michael Porter Jr. I mean, I don’t think there’s a lot you can do. you you get him healthy and hope for the best like to be honest. But what if a new coach unlocks him? I honestly think this is part of why I’m also like confident in the team is it’s always possible that a new coach is actually worse and we go into next year and it’s like damn this was terrible. But I think there’s a better op chance out there that guys get even slightly different roles in a way that’s energizing to MPJ. Like all right, I mean this year I asked MPJ what would it be like if Malone let Mike be Mike? because he was talking about how he lets Russ be Russ and I was like what would it look like if if they let Mike be Mike and he’s like I don’t want to answer that man like because it was painful and it might be that this next year Adelman has a little bit more of that of hey man I know what you want to do we’re going to work that into our offense. Yeah I think there’s hope for that for sure. Um know like towards the end of the regular season we saw the offense shift a little bit when David Adam took over. it wasn’t centered as much around Joic, which I think is a really important thing to carry into next season. You cannot be as centered around Yoke as you were this year, for sure. Um, and yeah, guys, I think can take ownership of the offense a little more. What does that look like for Mike? I don’t know, man. Like, because there have been those games over the years where, you know, Yolk’s out or Jamal’s out and we’re always like, “Okay, Mike can cook this game.” And it never looks good. Never happens. But maybe that’s not, you know, letting Mike be Mike or whatever David Adelman has planned. So, I am excited for that. I think David Adelman’s like a really innovative, forwardinking coach. I think he’s going to switch up a lot of what this offense has looked like, and I’m really excited for that. Um, but I I don’t know what that looks like with Mike. What if it, Eric, what if it looks like next year he shoots 38% from three, which is, you know, we always expect a little bit better percentage, but what if it’s that on 10 11 threes? So, it’s more of, hey, Mike, we’re using you as a gravity, like everyone’s afraid. 38% is still really good, but you’re shooting four more a game because we are turning the dial to what’s the green light for you. I mean, that’s always kind of the the hope with Mike, right? is that you take advantage of his excellent three-point shooting. I I the this playoff run shook me so bad with him because he’s the guy. He’s like the three-point shooter and he hit zero big three-point shots. Like he hit the every three-point shot he hit was so quiet. It was like fine. Oh, finally. I was It was like so out of sorts. And I I don’t know how much of it I can just again like the man’s hurt, so I just don’t know what to do with it. But I just don’t have any confidence in his three-point shot anymore. Even though the the numbers will tell you that I should. I just don’t know what the deal is there. I mean, maybe it it is uh he needs to feel comfortable to be a and confident to hit the the big ones, but um it was a rough year, man. The last reason I I have confidence is I look at it and I say I think Pton Watson will be better next year. It’s be weird if he was worse somehow. Like, you know, he’s basically a third-year player. You expect to make leaps there. And same with Julian Strawther who’s a played this year, this will be his second year basically playing. To me, I just look at that and go, those were the key rotation guys and they’re just not going to go backwards, I don’t think. I mean, I think it would be impossible. So, even just of the guys they’re bringing back, I think Denver actually makes marginal improvement in key areas without necessarily losing anything from what we got out of AG this year. Jamal played it basically what you expect and yoke is yoke. So, to me, I look at it and I go, the key guys are actually either neutral or better next year. I mean, yeah, of of course I definitely agree, but it’s really going to come down to Adelman and his rotations and his system because if you just throw that same bench out there, it’s not going to be good. It’s not going to be good enough. You need to mix and match more. You just need to have more versatility and just more lineup possibilities out there that you work through in the regular season. Yeah, those guys will be better for sure. Like young players just get better gradually. Peyton Watson has gotten better every season. Just a little bit better, a little bit better every season. So, I think that will continue. But you got to put them in better positions. That that is the key, I think. Yeah. I mean, if you look at, you know, what does it look like when players improve yearbyear? Like the leap that Christian just took this last year was a revelation. It was better than I think any of us anticipated, especially on the offensive side. And his ability to really step in and make the moving on from um KCP look almost like a deaf move because KCP didn’t really do anything with with the magic and and Christian like really blossomed. Like you just you don’t know what it looks like when guys are really given more and more leash. What they’re like if they’re put into a bigger goldfish bowl. Will they will they grow to that size? Will they rise to the occasions? You really you have no idea until you see it like Yeah. All right, let’s take a our last break on the other side. I see we already have one person, Andrew C, in the queue. So, we’re start having people on. If you want to be on, hop in the Discord, the DMV nuggets Discord, so you can join the show. Yeah, you can tell me I’m wrong to my stupid freaking face, dude. I know. We only have one person waiting, so we’ll see how this goes. We’ll get to that on the other side. Shout out to our friends over at Red Hawk Roofing. The Denver’s best roofers have joined the DMV team. These guys are major now. Like, they probably don’t even care about us anymore. Just kidding. They they do. They’re on the Nuggets broadcast. They’re on the ABS ice. Like, they’re crazy right now. Go with the pros if you have any roofing needs. Uh make your spring cleaning routine with Red Hawk Roofing. Catch any issues and repairs before they get out of hand. No project too small for our guys at Red Hawk Roofing. They’ll be with you from the minor repairs to full roof replacements. Uh so hit them up. They’ll give you a uh free no obligation roof and property inspection, a free in-depth photo report for all inspections as well. Support these guys. Support local businesses. redhawkroofing.com 720771-8921. Tell them DNVR sent you. Also, shout out to UC Health and um on June 5th, actually, the 7th annual UC Healthy Swings charity home run derby. There going to be some Broncos players there. Corland Sutton, Alex Singleton, Marvin Mims. uh UC Health, they’ve donated over 900K to local charities, over six iterations supporting Coloradoatans with food insecurity, cancer screenings, veterans, mental health challenges, and more. Uh this year’s beneficiary actually, Freedom Service Dogs. So really cool initiative from UC Health there. Uh Freedom Service Dogs, they provide service dogs to individuals with limited mobility, young adults with autism, veterans, first responders, uh to help with disabilities like PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, and more. Uh, so support UC Health and this year’s beneficiary at the UC Healthy Swings Charity Home Run Derby, which we’ll actually be at. We’ll be doing a whole live stream there that day. Freedom Service Dogs. Uh, so shout out to UC Health for that. All righty, we are back. Let’s uh start it up now. Having our first guest, perhaps our only guest on. You never know. You never know. I’ll I’ll put the link in the Discord. See uh who else wants to pop on. Oh my gosh, look at this. Is it We see some eyeballs. All right, there we see a nose. There’s a teeth. Maybe a chin. My bad. What’s up, man? How you doing? I wanted to show my Durango hat off to you guys. Repping Colorado here. Heck yeah, man. Are you in Durango? No, I’m in Arkansas, actually. But I went to I went to Durango on vacation. I went to Dragon on vacation last year. So, yeah. It’s a beautiful place. What a flex, dude. What a flex. You know, did you uh did you What is uh what are the ruins up there? Mesa Verde. Did you go to Mesa Verde? Nope. Went uh hiking. Went down to uh what’s that little town? Silverton or something like that. Silver, you take a train down there, look at the scenery and stuff. It was pretty nice. It’s a nice place. How lovely. All right. Well, uh, you know, you know, our big question we’re going to get to right off the top to kind of start the conversation, which is, how much confidence do you have in the direction of the Denver Nuggets at this very moment? Probably like a seven out of 10. I guess it’s good. But mainly because I don’t know how to say this without sounding just with this CBA. I feel like every Denver’s kind of, you know, not not screwed, but like they’re in a bad spot, but then you look at literally everyone else except for maybe OKC and it’s like, oh, they’re kind of they’re kind of screwed, too. So, it’s like I don’t know. We we have the best players, so like, you know, can we find a few like guys to help him? Like it it doesn’t seem like we’re that far. you know, get a few players in. And then these other teams you’re looking at, it’s like, you know, OKC, even OKC who has, you know, 10,000 picks, they’re about to have to pay JDub a super super contract. Chad’s about to get a super contract like in two years or something. So, they’re probably not staying together. Or if they are, it’s going to be a very different version. So, even even the ones that look like dynasties, it’s like I don’t know what are they what are they actually going to do in here in like two years? I don’t Yeah, I think it’s a good point. I I think it’s a good point. And like here’s what I was thinking about today. If Ben Tenzer gets this job as the Nuggets GM, he both has like the weight of the world on his shoulders. Like it’s an incredible responsibility that that’s being placed on him. But also, the job isn’t that hard for next year. You think? Just get a just get a couple Jeff Greens. Yeah. and you and and you win the off season in Nuggets fans eyes and then whatever happens in the season like we’ll see. But like like that is the route for him. But I mean it is still a ridiculous amount of responsibility on his shoulders. Like you’ve got the last you know the last year’s yoke at just prime. But the path this off season it seems so clear to me. It’s so true. I I couldn’t agree with you more like he’s he’s not starting if it is Ben Ten or whoever comes in not starting from scratch starting from a pretty nice vantage point of having a very solid I mean that’s what that’s what it is like to be a team that’s sort of wandering the desert you’re just always looking for your core like can we establish a core once you establish a core then it’s just like working around the edges they Calvin Booth went heavy heavy on young players He told us as much. He told us his plan. It made sense to me. But whoever comes in next is probably going to be the one that benefits from that since Talivan is now good. Like now these players are no longer young players and they’re actually, you know, if a if you don’t want to stick on a Payton Watson, you can flip him for a reasonable older player. I’m sure like you can get an upgrade as far as a player is concerned, but probably just an older player from a team that’s looking to start over and build young. So, uh, it is, yeah, it’s obvious what we need. It is they don’t have to come up with a new theorem. It’s just like, bro, we need we need some vets. We need some guys that can help out. Yeah. One thing I was thinking about with Payton Watson, and I don’t think this was by any grand design, but by virtue of just where he’s at in his development, it’s possible the Nuggets sign him on a cheap deal. You know, it’s possible that that he’s a little p a little a little cheap here in this extension and he takes it and it’s like, hey, now you get two more years of PEWAT where he actually blossoms. Yeah. But it’s like, oh, he’s way underpaid. Well, I I hate to bring this up, but imagine how cheap CB’s extension would be if KCP was here. But he also wouldn’t be the player he is today, though. I mean, that’s the other thing is he made a huge leap this year. We’re just like, we have to make sure our players suck. We don’t have to pay them. We don’t want to pay them, man. Don’t you understand? Meanwhile, Zeke Naji got that big extension and he was terrible all the way up through it. So, who knows? Oh my god. Uh, so Andrew, tell us something else about this year, just how you experienced it. Do you feel the Nuggets were close? Not not the regular season, but the playoff run and the regular I mean, the regular season kind of sucked on for several different reasons because, you know, they weren’t playing with a lot of joy. The playoffs were different. You know, I I I just think if there was one guy I actually think if Michael Porter didn’t get hurt, which maybe he wouldn’t have made his threes even if he didn’t get hurt because he kind of didn’t make his threes against Minnesota and, you know, he wasn’t really hurt for that series. But if he just made some threes, like I don’t know. Like I kind of think that they would have won that series in like six, you know, or five, you know. I I I think it’s I think we’re actually like really really close. So, I I don’t know if we And you know, Russ was great this year, but if you told me that if I if we could swap out, it seems like has Bruce Brown already signed a contract with like has that already No, it it feels like that’s already happened like he’s basically Did you see Did you see he he post he reposted uh David Adam getting the job? No way. You didn’t see this? No, he reposted that on Instagram. The picture before that on his story was him in an ABS hat. Dude, I’m telling you, he’s he’s in straight. Is the I have I’m with Andrew. Is the deal done? I feel like reposting is 9/10en of the law. Like he’s already if he doesn’t sign one, we could actually go after him legally. We can. Calvin Bu’s first move was to sign DeAndre Jordan. The the new GM is going to get a much easier like slam. that people are going to be like, “All right, sign Bruce Brown.” I know, dude. Ben Tenz would go nuts. Benzer shows up, sign Bruce Brown, and then we throw him a parade immediately. Ben Tenzer, just sign Jeff Green. Boom. Oh god, not Jeff Green. Uh, but Bruce, I mean, look, man, I would take it. That would be uh you’re right that it would feel like the vibes are returning. It would feel like we’re going back to a better time. Even if Bruce Brown to me is kind of a mystery box health-wise, you know, like what what where’s he playing? But but he’s our guy, so it’s like, you know, you know what’s in that box? A championship. Well, as long as he’s healthy by the playoffs, I he can do, you know, whatever he wants in the regular season for the most part. I I kind of think our answer like the six through 15, I it can’t be I don’t think it can be worse next like six players six through 15. I don’t know that it would be possible for it to be worse because I don’t think that’s what you think. I’ll say that, but yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, we’ll see, man. All right, Andrew C, we’re going to move on, but thank you for joining us from Arkansas. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for being a homie. Um, let’s go to our next guy. We got a good little list now. We got a good little queue. Scott Fitzgerald here. Ask Scott Fitzgerald. Now, Scott F. Scott, what’s going on, buddy? What’s up, fellas? Um, what’s up? Yeah. So, I’m hearing I’m the guy that always says I’m in Corpus Christie. You guys read it awful a lot, so I appreciate that. Um, hey, apologies for the state of your or the constant state of the ocean. uh in your there’s just have you guys ever been to Corpus Christie? It’s I have. It’s there’s just like there’s just like it’s brown and there’s just like dead kelp just like just live. It’s a rough spot but uh beautiful. Just absolutely beautiful. It smells bad in the summer. Yeah, dude. It’s always good when the beach smells. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s terrible. Um, but yeah, so I my confidence for this year, this coming year is like I’m an internal optimist because I’ve been a fan since uh I mean the Alex English days. Like I had a Rodney Rogers jersey when I was like, let’s go. Like this is the greatest basketball that the Nuggets team has ever seen. So without rival without rival, right? So, like I’m I’m good with Adam and I’m good with uh Grankkey staying in home for it because I do believe that the players love him. I do believe that they’re going to come back motivated to play for him and show that he deserved this job next year. And so, I think um yeah, I just really think that this is going to be a great year for us. I do have a question though. Fire away. All right, go for it. So, permission granted. So, Um, so yeah, uh, you know, there’s a possibility of four roster spots being open, you know, with Daario player option and and Russell being option. What do you think? First, you there’s rumor out there that Daario may just opt out and go play in Europe. Do you think that’s viable? I mean, you you never see a guy just like say no to a free 5 million. Yeah. I don’t care how much you’ve earned. That just usually doesn’t happen. And it doesn’t happen when you don’t have a bigger deal lined up, especially. So, I would still be a little surprised. But my god, I mean, does he really want to do this again? Right. That’s what I was thinking. like the mental health of knowing that you can play but you’re not being played. But what if he knows? Go ahead. What if he’s an ad man? What if Adam loves him? I mean, this is actually another possibility here. Like, I know people are going to say it’s crazy and I’m because you don’t want to bring it up because of how bad it was, but he didn’t really get that long of a leash. You know, it was two It was two games. Two games. Two games and then we done. It was bad as it could have been. I mean, to be fair, he just got let out into the street. He’s like, “Oh, dang.” I don’t know. Well, what are you gonna do? And it is possible he’s good enough to be the third center or something like that where it’s he’s useful in moments and not train wreck. Who knows? I don’t know. Yeah. And I think I think Russ played himself into a I you know, maybe not. I think somebody else might offer him. Yeah, I think somebody’s going to offer him a higher contract. Yeah. I mean, I think he’s gone, but I think that’s I actually think it’s an okay thing. He served the Rust conundrum. He served. He served us well. They will miss his athleticism. They’ll miss his creation, his ability to get into the paint. They’re You’ll definitely need You’ll definitely need another guard that can get to the rim for sure. They’re going have to add some athleticism. Yeah, they they’ll definitely miss him having one of the worst two games in the biggest games of the season. They’ll they’ll miss uh the the turnovers. They’ll miss I mean, it’s going to be a sad story if he doesn’t come back. I’ll tell you that. And if they got Bruce Brown though, I mean, Bruce Brown is kind of like Russ in the good ways that in Russ’s good ways, you know, a quieter Russ. So, yeah, we spent all season being like, “Oh, Russ can be a a better version of Bruce Brown.” And then we’ll be like, “Bruce Brown can be a better version of Russ.” Yeah. I think I think Brucey B wants to be back so bad. Like, he’s, you know, obviously he came to the playoff game um and told them if it, you know, if it’s something that works out, it’ll work out. But this dude is always in Colorado. He’s always posting about Colorado. Like he’s We gotta have Brucey be on our road trip. Let’s go. Let’s go fishing with him when we go. That he might do it. You know, he might do it, which would be incredible. Tyson with some t-shirts, Steeline. There we go. Tyson’s a Brucey a Brucey B uh t-shirt. It’ll bring him back for sure. Yeah. Yeah. He’s like, “I love that you stole my name, image, and likeness for this. This is beautiful. I’ll do anything you want me to do.” Scott, thanks for joining us, man. Appreciate you, Corpus Christie. Thanks, man. Yeah, it was a hell of a beard. Did you see that thing, man? That was beautiful. Thing of beauty. Beautiful. Yeah, I bet. I bet it smelled like the Corpus Christie ocean. Well, now we’re joined by Pastor Rhett. Hey, guys. What’s up? Oh, hell yeah. What does this mean? Denver mist in both directions. Um, so the the point that I want to make, Denver missed in both directions. I I did some I did some online sleuththing. I did almost 5 minutes of internet research and uh it seems like of guys that are on the uh mid-level exception, I think the only guy in the league playing on the taxpayer mid-level exception is Daario Sarich. Yeah. And I could be totally wrong, but I was like reading up and down the list and trying to see like who who are guys we could have had instead of Dario. Who could we have signed? And I think he’s like the only guy I could be totally Yeah. But it’s it’s just like Calvin had a vision and went to see it through and it’s cool, but he was so confident, but like I think we were the only guys that tried to do it this way. The only team that said, “You know what? Let’s just do the first apron.” like everyone else ducked underneath and like has flexibility and can do things or paid all their guys and are like kind of the Celtics where they’re like, “All right, we have to figure out something now, but we got another, you know, we brought the band back together one more time and now I don’t know what exactly the flexibility is.” Like I feel like we we like gave up a whole bunch to like add like we’re still not touching our toes if we bend over with our flexibility. Like those hammies are still pretty tight right now. Oh, those are tough. Yeah. Yeah. Um so that’s that’s my that’s my big concern. And then my other thought that I didn’t tell you guys about surprise thought is the Zeke Naji victory card. the fact that he outlasted Michael. Dude, that’s what the offseason is about. We need to go forensically and really figure out what those tarot cards were about. Like now there’s no guessing game. We can just be like obviously this had to do with the fact that he outlasted Michael Malone and got 555 minutes for the season. We know that. Got to go back with hindsight. Figure it out. Like this isn’t the Walter White I won. You know, there I won. I won. Um, so I mean I guess my my question is uh with your sage minds is um is what what does it look like? What what kind of players um like when I’m trying to set expectations for who sign? Did you just change your name in the chat to is pastor really a pastor? Yeah, I might have. I don’t I almost uh well also no um but okay that’s because I like kind of retired from pastoring like two weeks ago. I like Oh, congratulations or I’m sorry. No, it was good. Was it your choice? You know, I’ve been I’ve been I’ve been a a pastor and a teacher for like eight years and neither one of those pay a living wage. So, I had had to had to figure had to figure that out. Um, but no, I’m I’m liking it cuz uh I’m actually playing pickup basketball again. So, like we’re we’re we’re living. Uh, you know, the cent’s pickup game on Sunday mornings. You do that, you you kill you know, you you get there, you you learn, you figure it out. Um, but yes, I I guess No, I need to figure out something. I guess I’m just Rhett now. I don’t know. Who are we now? We lost in the second round two years in a row. You know, I’m a drift. I I need you guys. Give me something to hold on to. So, like the the Nuggets loss was so devastating that it uh he lost his faith. Yeah. He doesn’t even know who he is anymore. He’s wandering the streets. Is he a Nuggets fan? Is he a fool? Are we fools? Or Yeah, we’re probably fools. It’s still fun, dude. It’s still fun. You know, you you’re just you’re you’re walking you’re walking through it, right? And and every every season is a different story. and we find out that the I think we all get better than what we deserve and like basketball gave us this playoff run and we don’t deserve it but we’ll we’ll take it and we’ll take the the pain of a game seven loss with the elation of a game seven win you know so can I can I ask a person we’re we’re getting we’re getting free sermit here on I love it but can I ask a personal favor of you is that you stop echoing Adam Mara’s talking points about life and basketball how the who intersect wavelength and we’re supposed to I I don’t want to live I I’m tired of living where I’m just supposed to be miserable 90% of the time so I get 2% elation can we just like be happy I’m just trying to I’m trying to smile once a week at least I’m over here like two years ago uh Adam made a point he talked all about like Ni like not becoming the monster and like trying to defeat the monster and I was like this is my guy this is my guy right here man who from the show let Just get him out of here a little bit. Yeah, dude. Let us go off sin. Oh, there it is. So perfect, man. So perfect. Uh, no. I mean, you know what? We’re in a weird pickle. Let me just ask you about Ben Tenzer. You know, obviously we don’t know a ton about him and what he would do here, but what’s your gut tell you about if the Nuggets were to make that move? How how do you think you would feel? I would feel I would feel tepid. Uh, I’d feel all right. It’s it’s it doesn’t feel good going back to the to the shark tooth well for like a third or fifth or 85th time, but to to be honest, like the Nuggets are good at it. Like most of the time, the guy we hated and we kicked out won a championship. So like it’s it it is a it seems to be a fairly proven proven method. And I’m just not I’m not a fan of most of like the tried andrue guys. So the the name that that like the best GM maybe they could hire is go out and find someone who I don’t know like then I’ll be like I’m excited. I don’t know this guy. He’s from somewhere else. But if if Ben Penzer is is good, if he’s more of um you know, if he’s more relational than than Calvin was, if he understands the organization top to bottom and doesn’t have to to do any of the getting used to people, learning people’s names, learning where all the facilities are or like what’s what’s, you know, like what’s the best way to get to and from work and all those little things that you have to worry about the first couple months, he will have a significant um little like mental advantage there for the first couple months like it’ll feel good whether or not those are the most important months for the for the GM though. Yeah. For the GM to find how to drive to work. I don’t know if that’s but uh but the I think he could start really fast and that could be really good. I’m afraid of the ceiling just because it feels like, you know, it feels like war when like, you know, oh, you’re now a commander because everyone above you in the chain of command has been shot. But Tom Hanks in there, you got to captain the ship because you’re just the next You’re the next ranking member. I don’t know how to captain the ship. Saving Project D. Uh, but I I think I think overall I would be okay with it because I believe that the Nuggets are very close in a 16 game format and very far in the 82 game format. Yeah, that’s probably safe to say. That’s a good point. Yeah. And so, you know, I I you would have to I I hope that he would understand that and would know better like the team that he spent time with it more than someone coming in with their big fancy plan of I’m going to come in, I’m going to save the Nuggets. I don’t think the Nuggets need saving. They need three stabilizer. And again, we’re all just taking guesses here based on little limited information, even though I do know Ben and obviously I’ve talked to him quite a bit. I think he’s a project manager. I don’t think he’s an ideas guy. I don’t think he’s a guy that’s going to come in with a whole lot. I think he’s a guy that would come in with the expectation of getting everybody together and leaning on people and then being the decider, you know, being the guy that’s like, “Okay, I have my council and then they inform me and this is what direction we’re going.” But I almost view him to the extreme of that where I doubt he would have any ideas about what the nuggets are supposed to do. Ben Ben’s a collaborator. Yeah. He He’s a guy who’s going to take everybody’s opinion and then they’ll come to a consensus. you know, he’s not going to be a dictator type where he goes rogue and has his project dynasty type plan. Like Ben Ben is very much a collaborator that’s going to want everybody’s opinions. Yeah. All right, Pastor, we got one more. So, we appreciate you joining us, man. All right. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. Uh, good luck. Thank you. We need it. God have mercy on all of our souls. I mean, what better way to end end our Friday cast than with our guy five five5ish. Holy smokes, dude. Yo. Yo, give it up your giving up your location there, man. Be safe out there. Yeah, dude. You don’t Wait, you don’t live at 5555. Oh. Oh, I wish. That’s so incredible. What’s up? How you doing today, man? Good. It’s a Friday. just ready for this long weekend. Dude, dude 555ish wears his jacket like girlfriend. I know, dude. It’s too warm to wear both sleeves. It’s too It’s not stylish enough to wear none. This is This is a casual Friday, man. It’s so true. He’s just getting casual with it. No one more casual. So, what are you thinking, man? Where’s your confidence at? I could go on brand and say 5.5 or but but really I I feel 7. I feel 7.5 honestly. Is that good? Like I mean for where you know we are in the Jokic arc. I think so. I think that I’m I’m optimistic about Adelman being able to make this team, no matter what it looks like coming in the next year, look significantly different. I’ll pull a little reference. It’s like it’s like it’s if the Nuggets were a deck of Magic cards and Malone was at Malone is at the Malone has was at the helm for almost an entire decade and sometimes the cards in the deck they do they always do their job but it always depends on how they’re being used. So I think with Adelman at the helm maybe he finds a different ways to utilize the cards. Yeah. Maybe never did. He’ll he’ll drop the uh the reverso uh curse. I I don’t know anything about the re these foggy owl. The owl bear, dude. I mean, come on. Yeah. Uh so, all right. I mean, that’s I think we’re all kind of there. Like there there’s like the casual fan, and that’s not a derogatory word. I’m just saying the people that don’t think about this stuff all day, they just kind of tune in for the games. They’re probably pretty low because it feels like a lot of bad things happening and, you know, this or that. And I think if you’re following all the time, you I don’t think you feel like super optimistic. Like the Nuggets are in perfect position, but you’re like the team’s floor is so high and they kind of hit their floor last year. So, and they almost won. So, how bad can we possibly feel? I think that’s how most people feel about it right now. And if they get lucky a little bit, make some smart moves, and come together, the team will be better next year. Exactly. that it did. I mean, that’s that is the lasting thought here is that the Nuggets were so much closer. And the thing that sucks is that this is now two years in a row that it felt like if they had just gotten past their second round competition, the road would have been paved to the championship. I feel that even more strongly this year than I did last year. It it feels and it’s ironic because the people watching the show are not casuals. This is casual Friday. This is dieh hard Friday. This is for the sickos. This is for those of us who never stop thinking about this stupid team. But it’s worth it still. Like this team is still structurally very very sound. It’s just not that dissimilar to when Calvin Booth came into power and he just needed to make three great moves and it got the Nuggets over the top. And that’s like where the next guy that comes in. It’s like you got to get you got to get a dope veteran that’s not so long in the tooth that you can’t count on them for an extended season. You need to get a tough guy and you need to get some defense. And like then you need to figure out how to make that work with not only the now the influx of Don Holmes, which is another big thing that we’re going to be dealing with or looking at going into the season, but can you make a for can you make a reasonable bench that can also intermesh with the starting unit and just give you options so when you find yourself in a situation where some one of your guys is hurt, you have somewhere to go. You don’t just have to to to pray. Yeah. So, the Nuggets are they’re close, man. They’re close. Last last thing for you, 55, then we got Let all of our Let Kale and everyone else get out to their weekends. But we have traditions now at DNVR Nuggets like the tarot reading and everything else. How does it feel now knowing you’re locked into your five bid and now we have a whole office to try to figure out what the next one will be? Oh my god. Yeah, I haven’t even I haven’t even started thinking about that yet. Nor should. It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s off season. Take a little time to reset, dude. I gotta tell you though, five five ish. The first guy who got me’d in the entire Nuggets universe was me. My name’s Eric. Everyone’s called me Dine. I didn’t choose this. You’re now 5555ish. I hope you’re not fond of your actual name. You’ll never hear it again. You know, it’s actually funny because this this username I I’ve had it since I was in I want to say middle school a long long time ago when I was just starting up YouTube when YouTube was in its early stages too. And I use a gamer tag that’s something completely different. Maybe a story for another day. Sounds like not But yeah, I don’t What am I going to do if Zeke’s not on the team next year? Well, I can’t be Zeke. And it didn’t work out for us this year with the Z countdown. I feel like it’s going to be the hunter. The number hit, but not so consequential. Also, do you do you work at a train station? Yeah. What’s going on? 5555. The building is right next to a railroad. Sorry if it’s super loud. I’m just just asking questions. The mystery of 555ish. Just layers to the onion. Just keep on peing. Well, we had two years ago it was 55 wins. That was awesome and exhilarating. And then last year, Zeke actually was surprisingly exhilarating. It was as we got to it. So, we got to come up with another great one, you know, that we countd down this next year. I’ll be in the I’ll be in the thinking tank for that. Okay. Get in the trading of the offseason. Thanks so much, buddy. We’ll see you. See you, man. All right. Let’s round it out with some super What do we What do we do to deserve 555ish, do you think? Like, I don’t think I don’t think we deserve him. We don’t. We definitely every Friday the entire off seasonason I will be looking forward to hearing from 5555ish. I mean if I don’t hear from 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 555ish every Friday. I don’t know. I might quit the show. I like I don’t know. I need to be stabilized. He stabilizes me. Hopefully he turns his camera. He’s going back to his office right now. He’s actually still on camera backst Oh, there he goes. That could have gotten rough. That could have gotten really rough. All right, let’s get to our super chats. All right. Uh, the team from Amin or Aean, the team needs some fresh blood. I like Adelman, but he’s also been with the team for a long time, most of the last season. Uh, the team was bored going through the motions. Maybe it’s a new number two option. I am very curious to see how Adelman builds his staff. Very, very, very curious. But I will say this. I don’t think you should view uh Adelman at all as an extension of Malone to like even though he was on staff. I think this is a very new regime even if it’s only one guy. I agree. Quickly, I didn’t get to respond to this. I cannot believe they hired the coach before the GM. I cannot believe they did that. Well, I mean, maybe they’ve already hired the GM deal. They’re just they’re just saving it. They’re like it’s like it’s his birthday coming up or something. They’re doing an exhaustive search. I mean, I don’t know. Maybe. But you your point remains. You hire Adelman. He now has the power in the GM coach dynamic. No matter what you say, it’s like, “Yeah, but that guy just signed. He was here first. GM, welcome to the party. Work with that guy now. Not the other way.” Yeah, dude. Yeah. So, also I I mean I I know like GM is in theory the way you want to do it first. You want to hire him, then you want him to hire your coach. David Adelman, I think, is arguably the best coach available in the NBA. Agreed. He’s arguably the the best name available. So, why wouldn’t you just hire the best name, too? I think he’s I think he’s easy to work with though. I mean, who knows? But I think he’s coming into this with the reputation of very different than Malone in that way. I think he’s like, “Hey, this has to be collaborative.” Yeah. Uh Chris Peters, if we can somehow get some depth in a full camp with DA, I am confident in Denver, especially after seeing OKC go with us, and kill everyone else. Yeah. Another camp with Derell Arthur. Let’s do it, dude. perspective. It’s funny that two years ago it was Boston who it was the heavy favorite and Boston was like, “Yeah, the only team we’re worried about is Denver.” You know, that’s the only team who gets troves. And now you have Oklahoma City and it’s like, “Yeah, Denver was by far the Denver is.” Even if they fall in the public’s view or whatever, it seems like the great team still look at Denver as the team because they keep pushing them, man. Denver’s a great team. I know. Like what do you think? Do you think like 26 other teams would trade place would not want to trade places? No, let’s not do this. Let’s not do this. Let’s not do it. Uh Maddox, this season I am committed to being the optimist. I love it. That’s a good will excel with a full camp and the new GM will succeed. Four four times MVP. I hope so. I like I like knowing the new GM will succeed without even knowing who he is. It’s incredible. Uh I mean again, Bruce Brown should sign on event minimum. Jokic already got him paid more than he could ever imagine using the million on another good bench player. Dude, I’d be so if Bruce Brown, what a hero if he went out just to get paid 40 million for two years and he’s like, I’m good. I’ll come back now. It was all part of the plan. Yeah, it’d be so sick. We got to get Brucey be on the show. If that happens, we got to get him immediately. No kidding. Toketta, even seeing Tenzer in a good light, hiring him would be too late at this point in Yolk’s career. The window is tight. We need a proven GM. We don’t have time to see if an internal works out. Please. Well, negative. I mean, or at least cautious. Who are who are the proven proven GMs other than Bob Meyers? That’s the thing is that um there’s so many GMs that just have most GMs enter the job unproven. Yeah. Yeah. And Yeah. There there’s not a lot of guys that bounce around and have like continued success. Like Daryl Moy, you look at, he’s like the guy. And the 76ers are in maybe the worst position in the NBA. Here, here’s a question for you guys. Do you know who the GM of the Pacers is? Uh Isaiah Thomas, Larry B. No. You’re 20 years late. Go ahead. Who is it? Reggie. Chad. Chad Buchanan. Oh, there you go. Oh, yeah. Chad Bues. We know that guy. Nobody knows who the Pacers GM is. That’s what I’m saying. They He does a He did a good job. Uh I mean, again, people forget Joic and Ag had to turn into elite shooters last season for this roster to work. They’re very close, but also not close at the same time. I actually think that’s the right answer. They’re both close and far, and that’s why it’s kind of funny, but they are close. Yeah, but they’re not going to not be elite shooters now. They have that also to add. It’s possible they both improve their shooting. should be an argument that they’re close. Yoke had one year where he was a great shooter before and then went away. So, we’ll see. Also, I’m sorry I’m going down a wormhole on Chad Buchanan right now. Oh my god. Before he was kid Tik Tok, before he was the Pacers GM, he was the assistant GM for the Hornets. I can’t imagine that was a splashy hire when Indiana made it. I know. Good point. Really good point. All I Yeah. All I know is that when we hired the former assistant GM from the Washington Wizards, I was like, “What are we doing?” And then it was Tim Conley and he got roasted in the media for years and then it turned out he was incredible. He was he wasn’t great in the first year. But Kobe Cheeser 30 million sounds crazy for CB, but he did produce more than MPJ all year. MPJ was making 34 million. Well, I think MPJ making 34 is the crazy part, not the Yeah. Well, all right. Is that it? All right. Little Memorial Day weekend for everybody, which means we are not back until Tuesday. Hope you guys are doing what I’m doing, which is getting up to the high country, man. Joy and God’s beautiful nature. Hiking. I have a feeling I have a feeling a lot of people will be joining you doing that. I imagine your drive up there will be quite uh you know, popular. Yeah, that’s probably accurate. But we appreciate you guys all hanging out with us for this long. Shout out to the entire crew who made this week possible. Our first week of the offseason. Great work, fellas. What a good week. I know. A little three-day break. Thanks to both of you for coming into the office today. Really putting in the work, grinding it out. Appreciate uh your commitment as always. Yeah, Nuggets Nation. What? Of course. That’s exactly how that works. Everybody hit that like button on the way out. We’ll see you. The man.

The DNVR Nuggets crew goes live to take the temperature of the fanbase. How confident are you in the Denver Nuggets right now? Can Nikola Jokić carry this group across the finish line? Can Jamal Murray bounce back? What about Michael Porter Jr.? We break down the pressure points, the coaching decisions, and the state of the locker room heading into the offseason — or a historic comeback. The DNVR Nuggets Podcast goes deep on where things stand and what comes next.

Adam Mares, Harrison Wind, and D-Line Co. come to you LIVE from the DNVR Bar to break down everything you need to know.

Start – 0:00
Malone doesn’t actually hate Jokic – 2:35
More takeaways from Kroenke’s presser – 6:15
Confidence in the Nuggets – 18:50
Andrew C joins the show – 34:00
Scott F. joins the show – 41:40
Pastor Rhett joins the show – 46:20
the legend 55555ish! – 55:15
Superchats – 1:01:50

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