Denver Nuggets SHOULD have won NBA Title this season?

Denver Nuggets SHOULD have won NBA Title this season?

coming up. Could the Nuggets have won at all this year if they stayed healthy? Would they have won at all this year if they’d stayed healthy? What are their biggest weaknesses to address? Is it going to get easier or is it going to get tougher to win the NBA title next year? Lots of questions, lots of answers. We’ll talk about it on Lif Nuggets. You are Locked on Nuggets, your daily Denver Nuggets podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome into Locked Onnuggets, your daily Denver Nuggets podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Thank you so much for tuning into the show and making us your first listen of the week. Very excited to get going here with Matt. We have been uh a week removed basically from Denver losing, being out of the playoffs. I’m with Matt Moore here. I’m Ryan Blackburn. We’re both covering the Nuggets here for Lockdown Nuggets. Thanks for tuning in. Uh I’m very curious, Matt. I feel more refreshed after just a week away and just kind of resetting the the expectations. How do you feel kind of a week? And I know your your responsibilities are a little bit different from mine, but as a Nuggets only guy, I feel way more refreshed just a week out. Must be nice, Ryan. Must be nice to feel all nice and rested. Got a little nappy napp in. Yeah. Uh no, it’s uh I think it’s easier. I think it defin I It’s definitely easier. And you needed it. Like it was This was a I think a rough season for everybody. Everybody I think. And it’s funny how that works where it’s like if the team is going through it, then the media is usually kind of going through it and it’s like a whole it’s a whole thing. So, I think it’s good to get perspective. I’ve got a big thing up on Josh’s press conference over at the Denver Dig. I gave my thoughts about it last Thursday on the show, but if you want to read more about it, my concerns about hiring Adam before um a president basketball operations, I’ve also got some stuff in there about what I’ve heard about Matt Lloyd at least being a name to look at and consider. Um I don’t have like a lot on this. they’re keeping it close to the vest. But I will tell you like if if you said, “Hey, Matt Lloyd’s going to be president of basketball operations, Ben Tender’s going to be the GM,” I’d be like that makes the most sense to me. Uh that to me seems not unlikely. Um I think as we get further away from the season, we’ll have like different kind of considerations of it. It’ll be interesting to see what we how we look on this in two years, three years about this season. for you. I am kind of curious because this opening question I think is such a good one. Ryan, you know, Michael Bor Jr. had one arm. He was trying to rebound. He was he was not trying to. He was rebounding with one arm. He was shooting with one arm. Uh Aaron obviously suffered the hamstring injury in game seven. You’ve got Nicole Jokic dealt with the elbow injury. I think that was pretty evident that was a problem for at least stretches of the season. you had Jamal in and out of the lineup and that meant, you know, maybe they could have won a few more games if they’d stayed healthier if they had Jamal and hadn’t lost Aaron for the stretch that they did. Although they played very well in various different times. Um, so let’s get to it, man. Let’s no more messing around. Do you think the Nuggets win at all if they stayed healthy? Uh, people are going to be shocked by this, but I don’t. Um, I don’t think that they win at all, but I think it’s a fair question to ask. And the reason why is I I’m going to make the case that they should have won it all last year if they were fully healthy. If Jamal Murray is healthier, able to kind of deal with the physical pressure, the kind of uh mental fatigue that Minnesota was able to put on Denver. They were the young upand cominging team. That was very exciting. I think this year they might actually get through OKC if they have a healthy if they have a fully healthy group. They might even get through Minnesota. I don’t know if they get through all three of OKC, Minnesota, and then whoever comes out of the Eastern Conference. I think that might be a bridge too far because you just see the normal wear and tear that this team has, the shortened rotation that they’ve been forced to play. Maybe they develop some of these these situ like these answers. And I think we saw that kind of through the OKC series from the Clippers series to the Thunder series. the Nuggets are a better team or they were certainly a better team than they like were at the beginning of the playoffs than they were to end the regular season. So, I think there’s at least a case that if they just don’t suffer the Michael Porter injury and the Aaron Gordon injury that they’re still winning, they’re still competing right now. I have a I have a very interesting question I think for you. Okay. What do you think was more likely? These are two events that did not occur. The Nuggets beating the Thunder or the Nuggets losing to the Clippers. Which event was more likely? Oh, wow. Yeah, I thought of this one. So, I’ll give you my take while you think on it. Okay. I think it’s I think it’s the the actual more likely event was for them to lose to the Clippers. I don’t know how they won game one. It was a it that’s why you watch sports. Yeah. I’m not taking it away. You watch sports to have a game like the Nuggets coming off of game seven down 14 rally and all of a sudden what what what Aaron Gordon for three like that’s an awesome moment and you all should remember that with some level of happiness even though the the series ended badly. That was a cool moment. They upset the Thunder in game one of the conference semi-finals on an Aaron Gordon transition buzzer beater three. How amazing was that? That said, if we look at the context of that series, they get blown out in two, they get blown out in seven, they steal three, they lose four close, they lose five close, they win six by a comfortable margin. If we reverse the game one, which you can’t, and that’s a hypothetical, but if you reverse the game one, then this series is likely over in five. And I’m not saying that they are that much worse than OKC. This is like what’s difficult. OKC is not going to be this good next year. And we’ll talk about that a little bit later on. And you and I are going to disagree on that. OKC is not going to be this good next year, but they were this good this year. And the Nuggets did everything to get this series into a place where they could have a shot at it. And that is a testament to Joic and Adelman and Murray who was great at times in that series and AG and everybody who contributed to make that happen. those guys banded together and pulled that series into a place where they could have pulled the upset off. But if we’re talking about the overall quality of the teams and if we buy into the idea that the better team should win, it doesn’t always happen in the playoffs. Lots of times a better team doesn’t win in the playoffs. The Celtics were a way better team than the Knicks. Way better team than the Knicks. They lost. It’s margin of error. That’s what it’s about. But the Thunder were a better team. And I don’t know how much better the Nuggets were than the Clippers. I actually don’t think that they were as good as the Clippers. I just think that they were made up of better stuff than the Clippers and so they won. What’s your answer for who you think what was more likely the Thunder? Would it be the Thunder or losing the Clippers? So, my priors would of course say losing to the Clippers. Just everything that I had thought about this team, everything that I had discussed up up until this team. In retrospect, I’m gonna go the other way, Matt. I’m gonna go the other way. I’m gonna I’m gonna zag a little bit for my normal negativity. I think that this Nuggets team was very close to upsetting that OKC team. And I’m going to give a take. The biggest reason why the Nuggets did not win that series was because Nicole did not win make shots in game four in a game where the OKC Thunder scored 92 points. The Nuggets only scored 87. They only scored 87 at home. And I know it was a really horrible situation for Denver. They were gassed. It was like a 36-hour turnaround. It was not a good situation. But those are the games that Joic is usually the best in. He’s usually incredible in those moments in particular. And he just didn’t make shots up until that point. I thought that game three was one where OKC was clearly frustrating him. I did not feel that way about game four. I just thought he was tired. I just thought he missed shots. And if the best player is often the one who wins the series in these situations, I think you can make the case that Denver has the best player in the playoffs. And if they get that game four, they can still lose that game five and be fine and then go all out and win game six at home. Let us know what you think in the comments at youtube.comonnuggets or hit us on Twitter and let us know if you’re listening on the podcast version because I think that’s very very interesting. Uh coming up, why don’t we talk a little bit about Denver’s biggest weaknesses to address where they need to go in the off season, what they’re going to do, how they’re going to build it. We’ll start talking about some of those questions coming up uh on the other side here on Locked on Nuggets. I’ve got it. Ever check your bank account, wonder where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment, it’s easy to lose track. That’s where Monarch Money comes in. It’s your personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money isn’t just a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track your accounts, investments, and spending in one place so you stop just managing your money and start start building wealth. So, I use My Money tonight. 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Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com, code locked on NBA for half off your first year. We’ll be right back on Locked on Nuggets. We’re back at it. Locked on Nuggets. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. If you can, it would be awesome if you could give us a like and subscribe on the YouTube side of things. If you are listening on the audio side of things, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast, hit us with a fivestar review as we transition into offseason content. We’re going to be pumping out great content. I have no doubt. We’ve got a full list of ideas. I’m actually looking at it right now on the left side. It’s how we kind of built the the thought process for the show tonight. We’ve got plenty of ideas, including uh there are a variety of people that have been asking about a variety of different kinds of shows. Uh one of them, Alex Ts, when are we doing the trade machine episode? We send you guys trades and you make fun of them. Uh that will happen. That is absolutely happening. We will do that sometime in early June. That seems like the right the right time to get that done. We’ll have a good opportunity for that one. Okay, Matt. Next up on the docket, if Denver Okay, they didn’t win it all. You don’t always win it all. I think it’s important to remind people, important to remind me that if you don’t win a championship, 29 other team, 29 teams don’t win a championship. Only one is able to do so. It doesn’t make you bad. So, what’s Denver’s biggest weakness that they need to address now? So, this is a really interesting one because there’s two different sets of problems. There’s your regular season problems and there’s your postseason problems. Like the regular season problem was the non- yogicish minutes. It’s always the non- yogicish minutes. is like just if you just like don’t lose the Don Joic minutes by 15 every time then you would be good enough to win 60 games and be great. Go ahead. I’ll give you another one and and it kind of manifested itself in the playoffs was the bench Jokic minutes without Murray ended up being really problematic for this team. And so it’s just the overall layers of depth, the different ways like when you start to incorporate your bench in any way, shape, or form, Denver needs to be better just across the board. Yeah. Uh was the Jamal stuff in the regular season, too? It happened a little bit. It It certainly happened, especially when Russ was coming off the bench as opposed to starting. When Russ was starting, it was a little bit easier to kind of just transition into, okay, Russic twoman game. and especially during the middle of the year was better, but when Russ was coming off the bench, it als it almost always kind of struggled, especially in those first quarters where Denver could never get off to a good start. Yeah. And so I think that the the non Murray stuff is really interesting because it and it suggests that you need another creator, which is something you’ve been kind of on and I think is also probably near and dear to your heart a little bit is like love me some hoopers, man. Yeah. Um, and that’s okay because like I love 3 and D wings and so I I think that you should always go get more of those. Um, to me though that’s the difference is like I I also think that Denver should go get 3 and D wings. They just don’t have any of those. Yeah. You also like you’re kind of It’s funny because you talk about Ryan. It’s like they really need to get a 3D wing. Also another shot creator. They also need a backup center. Like they also need like rim protection and just just overall versatility. They need a whole bunch of everything. So that’s the thing like you just need a stack team, man. So this is I will ask I’ll ask you this because this has been kind of perplexing for me talking to you and Swipa and listening to the fans and it kind it has to do with that first question that we talked about. How is it that we can be like they could have beaten OKC and still be like they need this that and the other? Like I don’t understand that causes a dicho like that that’s a the dissonance is is difficult for me because I’m kind of like if they were if they were good enough to beat OKC it should be like one or two bench players and somebody says it in the comments here. They’re like one or two bench players and we’re good. And I don’t know I don’t think I agree with that. I think they’re probably further away because I do think that they need kind of all these things. They’re not going to get them and we’ll talk a lot about that over the course of the next couple of weeks. but they’ll also engage in Hopium and be like, they could get this guy. Um, but can you kind of explain how they can be right there and still need all this stuff? It’s the overall level of competition in the NBA right now. It’s the I I with the gosh, what’s the word that I’m trying to It’s the competitive like shift that has gone from par parody. It’s just the overall level of parody in the NBA. Denver could have won the championship this year. Would you agree? No. Could No, I don’t. Okay. So, you’re you’re and this gets to something that somebody’s brought up. Shador’s been bringing this up in the comments. Uh not that Shador in the comments pretty consistently and I think it’s pretty fair. Like it’s the the Minnesota matchup. It’s if you okay, you get past OKC and you run into that Minnesota team the Nuggets fans were desperate to avoid. And I think you can look at the East and be like, “Yeah, like yeah.” Also, look, the Nick the Nuggets had real problems with the Knicks in all their matchups. If the East doesn’t go bonkers, they were getting killed by the Celtics or the Cavs. And like Pacers, I think, is interesting because they’re playing so well. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I’m I am pretty far away from the Nuggets could have won the title. I think it would took everything for them to get OKC to seven. Yeah. When I say could, I mean kind of in the Daryl my school of you should go for it if you have larger than a 1% chance at winning a title. And I think that they had a 5 to 7% chance of winning the title somewhere in that in that general range. And so I think that you go for it. It doesn’t necessar like and that’s that’s what I’m saying. like you get one or two other guys into the mix there, then your odds go up. Like you probably double your odds in that. You may not like become the favorite, but you certainly double your odds in that situation. So to kind of like circle back around to the biggest actual weakness, I think it’s the versatility of the starting lineup. Not the start. You know what? No, not the starting lineup. No. Yeah. I try. You know what’s funny? I did this exact same thing on Dig. I was writing and I was like, “Well, they actually, you know, when you look at it, they need to change this up because of” and then I was like, “So, let’s look at the numbers.” And I was like, “Oh, their starting lineup was better in the playoffs than they were any of the last three years, including the title run.” There’s no way to argue that starting lineup isn’t good enough. There’s no way to do it. I agree. I and like that’s that’s the unfortunate thing here is that if we’re talking about ways to make the team better, the trade of Michael Porter Jr. and like splitting him up and making him turning him into some depth pieces has been discussed and will continue to be a discussed ad nauseium over the course of these next probably two years. So, it’s tough, man. Like, I I think that there’s a couple of different ways that they can go, but they probably like they needed Russ to be playable for more than one series. They needed Strawther to have more than one playoff game. They needed Payton to be more consistent in the second round. They needed a backup big man of some sort. There’s a variety of things that you can point to. Maybe it is just bench talent slashbench reliability that we’re talking about here. And if that’s it to at least give them a chance, then maybe that’s all that’s needed. Let’s talk about the Knicks. I don’t want want to, but let’s talk about the Knicks for a second. And the reason I bring up the Knicks is this. Um, they play five guys all the time throughout the entire season. That’s their entire thing, right? But what when they were faced with it and they were down 02, a lot of things happened tonight. The Pacers shot five of 24 from three. Like 24 attempts, by the way, against a team that started two centers. Um, and the Pacers just I didn’t think play with enough energy. But Josh Hart goes to the bench. Mitchell Robinson starts. They build new lineups with Landry Shamut and okay, Landry was probably an outlier like the long Wright and Miles McBride. Like they’re able to build different versions of themselves. A tib team built different versions of themselves by the necessity of invention. And the Nuggets simply do not have that. They have one thing and then everything else is try and survive for a few minutes. Yeah. And before last year it was well you’re going to be good in the starter minutes and in the in the yoke and the bench minutes and you just got to survive those non- yokage minutes. And the problem is last year it went to you’re going to be great in the yoke in the starter minutes and then you’re going to be like not as good just like a little good and sometimes you’re not going to be great in the yoke in the bench minutes and then you’re going to be awful in the non- yogic minutes and then you’re back into like the whole thing. And that’s the thing is like they got to reinforce all that. And you can either do it just by adding competent guys or by reinventing that that unit. And that’s gonna be David Adam’s challenge because if they follow the internal development plan, which again none of us here on the show believe that they should. But if they follow that plan, it’s going to rely on David Adelman being a magician and being like, “Now watch as I turn the bunny rabbit into a brick of gold.” And that’s or nuggets of gold is what I should have said. But yeah, that’s like That’s what they should have done. That’s like that’s the idea here versus and I think the versatility and optionality to me is the big thing is you got to be able to be like, “Hey, maybe we won’t win the starter minutes. We don’t have to win the starter minutes. We can win these or maybe we’ll win these.” Versus every game with Denver is you better be up 15 when the starters exit. Yeah. And so, and I it’s it’s one of the reasons why I have still criticisms of Russ despite the fact that he did objectively have a good season for Denver. Like they they needed him to be the prop. They needed him to be somebody that could elevate the non-jic minutes, be the playmaker that they needed, the sec the secondary or primary at some points ball handler. And yet they just they didn’t have the stability that they needed. and he of course needs another ecosystem around him in order to function and do some of that especially at this point. But if they’re going to go for this kind of plan again, they need somebody who can handle those minutes and be good enough in those situations. Whether it’s Murray, whether it’s Gordon elevating in those situations, I don’t I don’t know if you can ask that much of those guys on top of what they do at the starters, though. So, it’s tough, man. You just need more from the bench. It’s hard to get more from the bench when you have no money on the bench. This is always the thing. Hence the trade possibilities. Yeah. And we’ll talk a lot more about that as the offseason progresses. Maybe later this week. In fact, we’ll get into some of those details coming up. Uh is it going to be easier or tougher to win the title next year? Ryan and I are going to um again very pleasantly disagree because we’ve both slept a little bit. And then uh we’ll get to some of your comments at the end as well. I also have a show notification for future episodes. Just an FYI for you guys. Coming up here on Lock on Nuggets. All right, back at it. Locked on Nuggets. Thank you so much for tuning in. Matt Moore, is it going to be easier or tougher for the Nuggets to win a championship next season with the core aging and with all of the factors that I think teams in their like core contending seasons generally hit at this stage? Yes, it’ll be easier. Uh OKC is not going to be as good next year. This is their year. This is everything. Look, everything’s gone right. Everything opponent, they allow the most three-point attempts in the league and yet opponents are shooting the worst. Do you think that’s going to hold for another year? Probably not. They’re going to get scouted and teams are going to figure out stuff. They’ll have more injury problems and they’ll have a little bit and they’ll it won’t be it’ll be harder to come back. It’s just it’s always a little bit more difficult. Wolves trying to go for three straight consecutive conference finals appearances. That’s very difficult to do. Now, the Lakers are going to be better. Yeah, that’s problem. Damn. So, that’s an issue. Are the Clippers gonna be better? Probably not. Probably not. Like, they’re probably going to be the Clippers, man. They’re probably gonna be the Clippers again. And hey, look, we thought they were like the market thought they were gonna be like a 37 win team and they won like 50 and they were right there, right? Kyler is probably not going to be able to play that much. And so, uh, the Warriors, I don’t I think that that team is just like bones. I think they are bones and gravel. Um, so I don’t have a lot of concern there. Uh, the Spurs will be better, but will they be so much better as to be like a dominant force you can’t get past? No, I would feel okay about it in the playoff series. The Nuggets this season had not devastating because that’s the other thing is like it could be worse because it could be devastating injuries. Knock on wood. Hope that doesn’t happen, but they had bad injuries this year. They had no bench. They had internal strife the entire season. They got no in they got no significant internal improvement outside of Christian Brown offensively. That’s the only thing that really happened was Christian Brown got way better offensively. I think by the end of the year he got better defensively, but that was like a long-term thing. um and really kind of negligible around the margins. He did great versus Sheay, but worse in other matchups, etc. Uh all of these things happened and they still won 50 games, had the four seed, took OKC to seven. The path will be easier next year because they’ll be more wide open because things won’t be as miserable in Denver and that does count for quite a bit. So regardless of what they do, their opportunity will be better next season. That doesn’t mean the team will be better. doesn’t mean they’ll win, but the opportunity will be better next season. I’m willing to listen to that and think pretty positively of of that sentiment. Uh I do think, and Shador brings it up there, the half-life concept that I’ve been trying to bring up on a consistent basis, there’s just a very short shelf life that a lot of these teams have. And everybody overrates how long it actually is. every single person, every single fan, every single uh analyst, including me, overrates how long it actually is. And especially in the modern era where things just move so fast and things like these teams change over like very short periods of time, you just never know what team is going to crop up. And so, I don’t know about you, I wasn’t really thinking about the Spurs being a massive threat to their championship hopes, but they might be. Uh, what I will say is that Minnesota, as they continue to get more expensive, are they going to be able to bring back Nas Reed and Nquille Alexander Walker, two very important pieces of their team, and how can they replace their guys is a very fair question. Rudy’s getting older. Rudy’s getting older and that contracts can be harder to move. Yeah. Right. And like I love that Wolves team and I think that they’re legit and but it’s just it’s tough. It’s tough for everybody with the CBA. Yeah. The teams that are gonna be in the best position are the ones with low money that have a lot of flexibility. But look, in time I’ve been trying to warn OKC about this and they don’t think it’s a problem. I’m telling you, you can’t pay Shay and Chad and JDub. You can’t do it. You cannot have three contracts over $30 million. That is my new position that I am absolutely sticking to. You cannot have three contracts over $30 million. The Nuggets have four. And so that’s a little bit of a problem that they need to address. Um but like this is kind of my thing is just you’re going to see teams rise and fall a lot more quickly. And if you go like, “Well, Denver’s risen. are they going to fall off? And the answer is no because they have the best player in the world and there are a lot of options. They may go through this summer and be like, “Yeah, we can’t do we’re not going to do anything. We’re just going to run it back and try it.” But if they get to next season and it’s not better, I think they’ll probably make a trade and that could reinvent them on the on the fly. I think that that the more changes are likely to come. But what I do know is just like it won’t be as stagnant and frustrating, I think, as this year was. And that alone, I think, is reason to think that they’ll have a better chance next year. I do agree. And one of the things that they’re going to take with it is I think a fresh perspective after Malone and Booth got fired and now you’ve got David Adelman in there. And I think that there there is at least an opportunity for some tangible changes internally and this is the the internal development conversation that I think yeah people aren’t going to be super happy about and I’m not necessarily super happy about but like is there a world where David Adelman has been trying to tell Michael Malone about the right plays to run for Pton Watson and Julian Strawther to get better and uh and now he gets to sort of open up the playbook for those guys earlier the season. Look, I I look, everybody knows my position on Malone and he’s getting the stuff that we’re seeing the stuff that always comes out, which is a guy gets fired and then everybody comes out of the closet with all this, well, you know, um, and I don’t think I do think that Malone had some problems internally in terms of how he treated people in the in the office. I do think that there were issues. I do think there were problems in the locker room. What I will say though is um we have wondered for years I do think Malone neglected the bench. I just don’t think he thought it was worth putting time into. Yeah. And I think that it’s we would say it a lot of like why does this team not have more structure when they run the bench unit? It took them forever to be like hey we should run pick and roll with Jamal and DeAndre and it was like wow when you set screens for Jamal isolate him the entire time and try to have him post up or like have Russ try to drive the lane. Weird. And so, you know, Adeline’s going to reinvent some stuff because he’s just going to want to put his stamp on the team. And that that just that process Yeah. will yield good results and Joker will be like it will tell him if it’s like, “No, we’re not doing that.” You know, like he has the authority to be like, “No, no, we’re not doing that.” Um, so I I think that there’s an opportunity for them to have more structure. I think the offense has needed a little bit of reinvention. I think the defense is probably going to need a lot of reinvention. I’m very curious to see what happens with the staff. Very curious to see I heard you talking about uh Saunders and other guys and just just how Adam tries to structure things. I I do think that like so Josh Kroni said that he would give David Adam full autonomy to structure his staff the way that he wants to. So, yeah, that is an interesting statement and I’m curious to see whether he decides to bring in like a a big-time defensive mind like one of these other top organizations generally get to run their bench. Um, yeah. So, I do think there’s probably some reinvention happening. I want to just I have a little bit of a show note here. Um, Eddie Cell says, “If the Nuggets are stuck and can’t help Jokic, trade him. He deserves better and to have the chance of winning multiple championships. Porter Jamal won’t deliver. Trust me, plenty of proof. Okay, so first of all, they did. Yeah, they did. They did do that. In fact, um just a little bit of a note here. The Nuggets are not trading Nicole Joic unless he requests a trade. They will never do it unless forced to. And there’s no point in talking about it before he does so if he ever does. So, thanks management. I’m gonna put that shut that screenshot up and read it every single time that I get those comments. All the itches, they’re not trading Jokic. He’s the best player in the world. He’s the most valuable commodity in terms of generating revenue for this team. Stan Gro is not doing that out of the goodness of his heart. That’s not happening. So, until I’m not ruling out the possibility that Joker could request a trade Ryan, like we’re going to have to deal with that possibility at some point if they don’t pull this out of the mud. if they keep running this back as well, you know, like maybe Adelman can install a new pick and roll. Well, here’s here’s here’s the one the one thing that I think I want to address there, and we can go into a larger episode on this. I if I was Nicole Joic, I would not sign an extension this summer. He has an ability to sign an extension with this team. I would not be doing so until I felt comfortable about the direction, like if I was if I was in his shoes. And so that’s gonna that’s not going to jive well with a bunch of Nuggets fans that just want him to be around for the entire time, but the team has to earn it. Like he is at that level that you have to earn it. I want to get this comment from T-Bone 303 at the beginning of the show. One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is Jokic’s window and where did the time go where we all thought other great players wanted to come here and play alongside him. Was it Malone? No. Michael Malone has a lot of respect in this league. uh regardless of whatever may have happened at the end of this thing in terms of like other organizations or whatever dealing with his ego like the players love and respect Malone like that’s he was it was true in New Orleans it was true in New York it was true in the other places in Sacramento yeah like even then I think that’s probably just for show so no I do not think it was that I do think that there’s legitimate problems with the reputation that Denver has as a city for black athletes and the practice facility and the accommodations. This is not a pl other places you go and it’s like, “Hey, this is our practice facility. We got a smoothie bar. Do you like smoothies? This is our film room. This is our film room. It’s a fully f functioning auditorium with 3D projections and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.” And Denver’s like, “We got a court up on the second level. You can go up there and leave your stuff if you want. Ain’t nobody going to mess with it. It’s not good luck.” So that’s that to me is the reality. But I do think there’s this question and this it’s a good point for you for not for Joic not doing this. Players are not usually I’d be like you need to sign because that then players are like if Yogic is going to be there I want to sign up and it opens up that possibility but they’re not coming anyway right now. So unless that happens I don’t think there’s any reason not to. I’m with you. Put the pressure on the organization. It’s the first time that I’ve ever felt like he actually needs to do that because the organization I think has done right by him through this entire process. I don’t think that sticking with Murray and Porter and Gordon and that core, I don’t think that was doing wrong by him. Now, they’ve run up up against it at this point. And I think that now you’re starting to see a little bit of chinks of the armor, but I do think that there are at least reasons for him to hold the feet to the fire a little bit and see what happens. But Matt, we have run out of time. Thanks for joining us. Appreciate you guys being with us. Leave us those five star reviews on Spotify and Apple Podcast. Give us a like and subscribe at youtube.com/locktonnuggets. We’ll be back tomorrow. I will wrangle Swipa and we’ll start having conversations about where the Nuggets need to go from here. All that and more coming up this week on Locked on Nuggets. Thanks for joining us.

No Jinx kicks off the week by asking whether the Denver Nuggets would have won the championship if they stayed fully healthy the last two seasons before discussing what they’re missing.

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