Is This the Biggest Offseason in Nuggets History? Talking TRADES and FREE AGENCY

Is This the Biggest Offseason in Nuggets History? Talking TRADES and FREE AGENCY

On today, Jake Coin joins the show with Ryan Blackburn and myself. We’re going to talk about the Denver Nuggets off season, the ins and outs. Uh he laid out one of his annual just deep dives into the Denver Nuggets off season from the money, the CBA, the possibilities, and where things went wrong. We’re going to have a very thorough discussion about this team, what the Nuggets can do to rewrite the story of the last two years to put themselves back in title contention. Yo, we got Jake, we got Ryan, we got Swiper. Y’all know what time it is. It’s Locked on Nuggets. You are Locked on Nuggets, your daily Denver Nuggets podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What’s going on y’all? Welcome to Locked On Nuggets. This is your daily Denver Nuggets basketball show unlocked on y’all. Thank y’all so much for being here. Cannot wait to get into this discussion, y’all. When I tell y’all that we have an incredible episode coming up for you, this is going to be one of your favorite of the y’all season. Y’all, we got Jake, we got Ryan. Yo, this is going to be a great show. I can’t wait. You know, Jake, I have been a big fan of yours for some time now. I’ve read every single one of your yearly pieces you put out, the information you put out about the team, whether it becomes stats or whether it comes to the money about the team. Truly, you are one of one inside of the Colorado market talking about this Denver Nuggets team. You’re the best at what you do. So, thank you so much for joining the show today. Of course. I mean, you’re too kind. I’m, you know, really excited to be here. Locked on Nuggets, probably one of the longest running Nugget shows I’ve ever listened to. And uh you guys have a great dynamic and Matt does too. So happy to be here. I appreciate that. Ryan, brother, how are you doing today, bro? I’m doing well. It’s been an interesting off season kind of transitioning into this thing after Denver loses in seven in the second round. Again, uh always at this point, you’re trying to look for solutions. You’re trying to look for answers, how to pivot, how to change. And yet, a lot of the messaging is that they’re going to stay the same with internal development. So, here’s hoping with with Jake that they can find a way to change that. Absolutely. So, we’re gonna get straight into it, y’all. Uh, so Jake, you know, we’ve we’ve had a chance now to kind of sit uh on this great document that you dropped on May 26 uh for a little bit now. Uh just talking about basically the overall season for the Denver Nuggets and just what exactly happened and just how they got here. And in your offseason preview, you talked a lot about the things that kind of led up to this moment really where the CBA and how that affected where the nuggets were based on where the front office and the decision-m that were made, the contracts that were signed prior to the CBA. So for you when you kind of just started doing the groundwork to talk about what happened in the last two years in the Calvin Booth era with Michael Malone that led to some of the things that kind of hard cap this team both financially and with the roster. Where do you think the story begins for kind of the downfall for where the team is right now? Yeah, so I originally kind of started on this uh the week that those firings got announced. Um, and you know, I think you look at it and you say a team always has a direction. You know, the Suns have a really unique direction with what they’re doing. And the Nuggets decided to take this route of going young, uh, despite them already being a good team, uh, which makes things a little interesting in the draft. And I kind of looked at that direction and I said, “Okay, well, considering this is the way they wanted to go, what did they do right? What did they do wrong along the way?” Um, and you know, I identify a bunch of different things in that piece, but I would say some of the main things that it boils down to from a front office perspective, uh, would be just kind of the tight rope you’re walking when you’re drafting in the mid to late 20s every year, which is what you’re doing with Jokic on the team. Just that tight rope, you have to get everything right when you’re doing it that way. your first round picks, they need to be contributing almost right away, if not by year two at the latest. And we didn’t really see that. You know, Pton Watson was a borderline playoff guy last year in his second year. I think you can say Strawther was a little similar this year. And so, it seems like things just weren’t progressing as quick as they needed to for how much you were kind of bleeding talent on the veteran side. the young guys weren’t able to pick it up as quickly. And I think you can get into a lot of theories of why that was the case. And you know, was it talent? Was it coaching? You’ll probably get 10 different answers if you if you ask 10 different people. Um, but I would say that was the main issue was they walked this really tight rope of this strategy and they had to get so much right. There was so little room for error and I just don’t think they got enough right. Jake, overall it feels like Denver has bled talent a little bit over the course of these past couple of years. You lose KCP, you lose Bruce Brown in two successive years, and they haven’t done a great job of replacing them. And they’ve honestly gone the other way by spending as many resources as they have in order to uh I I guess maximize the current group of young guys, but I don’t feel like they’ve actually done that. Uh would you agree with that sentiment and just the way that they sort of the way that Calvin Boo sort of set this thing up trying to maximize this current group? They don’t have any more assets that they can throw out there to really pivot that much. Do you agree with that sentiment at all? Yeah. Yeah, I think I do agree with that because, you know, the way that they kind of bled talent and bled assets, it sort of molded the roster in a way that if you had a weak point, it was really hard to address. So, for example, I think the Nuggets wish they had another shooter, and I wish I think they wish they had another guy that could score off the dribble. Uh but when you put so many assets into getting these young guys and none of them have that skill set really uh I mean Strawther is ideally a shooter but he’s been a little up and down so far. And then in addition to that you also let veterans walk so you don’t have a lot of salaries you can use in trade. Uh the Nuggets salary situation is very topheavy, very bottomheavy and it doesn’t leave a lot of flexibility and so it makes it hard to maximize your roster like you said Ryan because you don’t have the way to get these support pieces in there to maximize the players you do have. And I think that was one thing that this team really struggled with is, you know, Coach Malone would always play the starters together and he had this pretty consistent rotation and it was really hard to kind of put guys in a place to succeed on that bench unit because you were so limited with the guys that you had. And part of that is just because, you know, you put your assets into getting those guys and not leaving any space for uh exterior improvement, I guess. You know, one of the things that, you know, Ryan and I have talked about for some some time now, and you noted this, especially um there’s this hubris that developed, it seems like with the Denver Nuggets front office and Calvin Booth. Um and one when they hit on the Christian Brown trade or trade, but draft, you know, I think in some ways that was confirmation bias that like, hey, you know, we had this plan where we’re going to draft where we are in the 20s and we’re basically just going to get the best talent available to us at that time. We’re going to go young. We’re going to work around the CBA with young cheap contracts and have wings on the roster that we’re developing. Julian Strawther, Peyton Watson, uh Hunter Tyson, you know, and then obviously Christian Brown. But then when you look at Christian, Christian was such a hit that even his rookie year when he was the Nuggets eighth man, he gave them such invaluable minutes for in their mind, they’re like, “Well, let’s just run it back. Payton will be there next year. He’ll have a full year under his belt. Another year in the second year, he’ll be there. He’ll be the next rotation player for this team.” But they drafted Payton at what 30 and they drafted Julian Strawther at 29. They drafted Jaylen Picket at 32. They drafted Hun Tyson I think at 37. So if you look over the last couple years how they have formulated this roster, you know, Ryan, I’ve talked a lot about this with you. If you’re going to go young with the CBA, Ryan, I said they need to get in the lottery. Like you can’t do this and then just make gambles that hey Rudy Goar’s going to be there again at 27, Pascal Seakkum, Jimmy Butler, they’re going to find them at the end of the first round like all those teams did over the course of a decade through the draft and that is going to be the thing that holds serve. You’re going to find players to be able to play good consistent minutes in year one, more in year two, more in year three and they’re ready to rock in year four. And here we are, Jake. Here we are, Ryan. We’re headed to year four of Pton Watson and Christian Brown. And right now, Christian Brown is the only one that’s fully developed into a consistently playable player no matter the situation. And Payton Watson, I think he can get there. I think there are paths for him. But we seen the offensive limitations that he has, they’ve been very strong thus far. So Jake, it seems that they had the right idea. We’re going to go young. We’re going to have cheap available contracts. That way we can build our roster from the inside out. But one of your criticisms was, “But you’re doing that taking chances at the end of the draft when the talent that you actually need, you’re more going to find that the closer to the top than you are to the bottom.” Yep. Yeah. So, I mean, by all accounts, Calvin Booth is a very good scout of college talent. And, you know, like you said, I think they hit on Christian Brown right away. And maybe it gave them a little bit of false confidence. Uh because the reality is, and I note it in my report, is that you could have the best scouting department in the league. You’re not going to hit a 100% of your picks. And that becomes a problem, especially in the late first round, because when you do hit on a late first round pick, it’s usually not like an all-star player or something, right? Like it it is a Christian Brown type player. a good player obviously, but your hits when they’re so few and far in between, they need to be really impactful hits. And yeah, it’s exactly what you said. Um, I put one chart in that report that’s kind of these teams that have six or more rookie scale contracts. So, either a first round or uh the second round rookie exception that’s new under this CBA. And Denver, when you compare them to these teams, there’s just really no comparison. I mean, they don’t have any top 20 picks among those six. All the other teams do. Most of the other teams have lottery picks, and I think most of them even have top five picks. And so, you’re just talking about so little room for error. And yeah, I think it it’s exactly what you said, Swiper. It’s it’s just really hard to kind of land the talent you need to by taking that path. H let me ask you this really quick before we hit a break. Do you think the Nuggets have enough talent to justify running it back and saying that we are a genuine contender next season? Uh not just running it back as is. So like if if Westbrook opts in and you know you bring in some minimum guys, I don’t think that’s enough. I think you can start to make an argument if you say Don Holmes is going to be a rotation player and you say we’re going to get a guy on the MLE who’s going to contribute in the playoffs like a Bruce Brown or any number of guys. If you can say those two guys are getting added into a regular season rotation for sure and hopefully playoffs, I think you can make the argument. I personally wouldn’t make that argument. Uh, I would say there’s probably still a shortfall there. Uh, but I think there’s at least an argument, a credible one that you could make. So, and on the other side, we’re going to talk about how can the Nuggets write the ship because you do talk about some options that are available to them. And I think, you know, the fan base loves getting the trade talks as well. So, there’s going to be a lot of great options. And Ryan, y’all, he’s worked up some magic. Expect some all-time great 2K level trade proposals from Ryan Blackburn. Uh he never disappoints y’all. This is going to be a great great segment. We’ll be right back for more here on Lockdown Nuggets. The days are getting longer, the weather’s warming up, and people are spending more time outside, which means it’s the perfect time to refresh your outdoor space. Whether you’re working with a big backyard or a small balcony, Wayfair has everything you need to make it feel more like you, Wayfair’s massive selection of outdoor essentials makes it easy to transform any space into your ideal summer setup. From comfy conversation sets to sleek dining tables and outdoor decor, they’ve got it all at prices that fit your budget. Now, you need a new patio dining set and some string lights from Wayfair. Hey, great. 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That way, more and more people can listen to the great content here made at Lockdown Nuggets. And if you’re watching this on YouTube, you said, “Who are those three greatl looking gentlemen on the YouTube?” Give us a like, share, and subscribe. That way, we can get to 15,000 subscribers, which is our next goal, y’all. So, now it’s time for the hope. Now, it’s time for the positivity. We have a an array of positive folks up here. So Jake, when you think about how the Denver Nuggets can kind of write the wrongs of what they’ve done the last two years and kind of fix the situation they’re in with their roster, maybe even addressing some of their talent issues. What where would you start? What are some of the the first things that you would do to address those issues? Yeah. So, I think you probably start with uh the gimme, which is the free thing, which is that taxpayer mid-level exception, which they should have. I think to start writing some of those wrongs, you have to get it right this year with that exception. You’ve used it the last two years on Reggie Jackson and Dario Sarich. Um, and if you dig deeper, you had to use three second round picks to get off that Reggie deal. So, it’s just like you have to get that exception right this year. I mean, you could make an argument to me about whatever position you might need to to sign with it. I’m open to all arguments, but whoever it is, it needs to be somebody that’s going to play for you in the playoffs. Uh, and hopefully they’re able to do that. Uh, from there, I would probably say you need to bring in at least one more rotation piece. And there’s a number of ways you could do it. Uh, you could send out one and get two back. You could just send out maybe like a Zeke and a pick and get one back. So, there’s a bunch of different ways you can do it, but I think at the end of the day, you need to see the team bring in at least two new rotation guys. One probably with the MLE and one via trade, I think, unless you’re able to land some really great player uh with a minimum contract. Let me let me clarify for you. The Zeke and pick is literally a single solitary pick that they have left. They have one they have they have one pick that they can trade. It’s in the the 2031 first round pick which I mean if you’re if you’re an opposing team it’s kind of a it’s a viable option. It’s a viable thing for a team that has Jokic that’s already turned 30 in 2025. What’s it going to look like when he’s 36 I think is a fair question. And whether he’s going to be here or not. So uh if you can throw a lot of different things uh with that particular pack with like that particular pick at a team. So, I kind of hesitate to throw Zeke Naji in with something like that because are you just trying to upgrade at the seventh man? Are you just trying to upgrade seventh or eighth? Is that is that justifiable for spending your last remaining draft asset? Yeah, I mean it’s a good question. I think it would depend on the guy coming back. Uh like Zeke in a first round pick for Io Dumu, right? I think there’s people that I think there’s people that would consider that even call. But yeah, I mean, like you said, that 2031 pick, it isn’t nothing. I think it’s a pretty good pick. It’s not like a a blue chip asset, you know, it’s not some great pick, but I think it’s a good one. And then, uh, starting in July, they’ll also have those 2032 picks available, uh, which they can’t trade 2031 and 2032, but they could trade either. And then they’ll also get that second round pick in 2032 that they’ll have access to. So, um, pretty limited there. And like you said, it’s a big risk, I think, trading them, but you might have to do it. So, we’ll see. Uh, him is in the comments, by the way, says Ryan, you could trade that 2031 for multiple picks, kind of like what Phoenix and Utah did. Jake actually outlined that in his manifesto and I I think it’s a pretty salient point. The way that they could I if I I think one of the things that they should be trying to do is find a 2027 first that they can acquire and find a 2029 first that they could acquire. I I don’t care how they do it, but if you can do that, you could honestly trade your other picks in 2028, 2030, and 2032 this off season and put together a an actually really interesting package for one of these guys. Um because of the Steppian rule, you have to at least have some pick in those years in order to make it happen. So, uh there’s there’s a lot of ways that I think they can get very creative. Let me throw one other thing your way. I am of the opinion that the only way that Denver can make real tangible change is if they trade one of their core for because of the way the salaries are impacting things because they have so like small salaries. Zeke Naji is not going to change anything with their group like just trading his salary. He’s only going to make seven and a half million. It’s not going to be anything significant outside of maybe one or two possibilities. I I kind of think they have to trade one of Jamal or Mike. And you’ve outlined that in your proposals as well. Tell the audience why you think that might be the case. Yeah. So, I mean, the first point which you pointed out, Ryan, is that the salaries of some of your younger guys that do have some trade value like Christian Brown, I mean, we’re talking a little under $5 million, and that’s just not really going to get you much uh out on the trade market. And with Denver’s salary situation, they can’t take in more money than they send out. And so, it gets it gets pretty complicated there trying to make an upgrade with little salaries. And so I agree with you. If they’re going to make significant change, I think it’s going to have to be Mike or it’s going to have to be Jamal. Throw some other pieces in there probably and hopefully get an upgrade, but I don’t think it’s a guarantee. You might have to take some risk with whoever you’re getting back. Um, and to be honest, you know, I think Jamal and Mike, you know, partly due to their contracts, uh, and partly due to performance, I don’t think they make sense like for every team in the NBA. I think there’s a handful of teams that would take Jamal and I think there’s a handful of teams that would take Mike. And so, you’re really looking at like a really narrowed down pool of teams you can make a deal with. And so, you know, it gets it gets pretty complicated there, but I’m totally with you. If they’re going to make a significant change this off season and either upgrade or just kind of make things look entirely different, and hopefully it’s an upgrade, I think it’ll come at the expense of one of those two guys. On the other side, we’re going to finish up this conversation about the trade options for the Nuggets. There’s one in particular I want to ask you about that I think might actually end up working out in some ways. Ryan also will have some available. And then also we’re going to answer the question, is this the biggest summer of the KS era? We’ll be right back for more here. Locked on Nuggets. We are back here for the final segment of Locked On Nuggets. We have the friend of the show, uh, Jcoin from Stasquatch himself on Twitter, uh, is joining us with the show today. Ryan Blackburn, uh, the man, the myth, legend himself, uh, great, uh, content creator in the Denver Nuggets area. and then just little O me. Uh y’all, we’re having a great conversation today. Now, Jake, I’ll say I’ll tell you what, because of the nature of the NBA and in particular because of the CBA, you’re looking to get off of bad contracts in this league, you’re also looking how can you shorten the amount of time that you’re paying out for a bad contract and you’re also willing to take back a larger contract for a better player also on a shorter term. And there’s one trade in particular that you proposed that I have absolutely talked to Ryan Blackburn about and that was the Chicago Bulls deal that you put out. And if there was a trade that I think actually makes sense for both teams, Patrick Williams, Kevin Herder, I do Michael Porter Jr. Zeke Naji and that first round pick that actually makes sense for getting more to Chicago. They have a first round pick that they can play with that’s probably by then going to be a top 10ish pick. And then on top of that, you get Michael Porter who has a shorter long shorter contract than Patrick Williams, but again more money initially, especially in the next two years, but you can pair him ostensibly with Josh Giddy, with Lonzo Ball, with the rest of the roster and Montas especially, and give them another offball shooter and give them more size as well. Denver gets back a player that’s a better defender, but again, not as good as MPJ, but you get IO back, who I think is going to be a playoff level, championship level guard for some team at some point. You get Kevin Herder, you shooting back at again, not the best contract of all time, but a player that can be a rotation player. And Jake Ryan, I actually think that if there was a deal out there for Porter that makes the most sense, that’s probably the one due to all the extenduating circumstances surrounding it. I can fix Patrick Williams, Jake. I can fix him. It’s fine. He can start here. He’ll be okay. Yeah. I mean, that’s what everybody would tell themselves, right, with these uh four years and 72 million I think he has left going forward. Uh yeah, I mean like I really do try and dig in with all these deals I put in this report, try and make them make sense for both teams. Uh looking at this one in particular, one of my things I was thinking about was uh Nquille Alexander Walker. Uh if people remember earlier in his career, he wasn’t who he is now. Um and he kind of was a throwin for a couple trades and I I was kind of thinking about, you know, who could be like the next guy that ends up sort of like that. Now, to be fair, IO is already a better player than Nquille was at the time of him being thrown into trades like that. So, it’s not really quite the same, but I think IO is a clear example of a guy you could bring in and he could just really elevate his game, especially if he’s playing some minutes next to Joic. Um, and I think the same with Kevin Herder. Um, more of a proven shooter than like a Julian Strawther is. I think you could put him uh in a lineup next to either Picket or Westbrook or whoever you might have. Uh and he’s really gonna help you space things out. Uh and I think carry some more of those bench units. I like it. I I think it’s a good move. It’s an interesting move. The idea of course being you give up one rotation player and one guy who hasn’t been able to make it into the rotation in Znagi and you get back three you get back three possible guys that you can you could throw in there depending on what you think of Patrick Williams. Um, another one that I would consider for Jamal Murray. Uh, there’s a couple of the You’re talking about a handful of teams that you think might be interested in acquiring a guy like that. When I think of that kind of deal, I think of teams that struggle defense, that struggle offensively to score, that struggle in the playoffs, that could need a little bit of a jolt. somebody who’s been in those situations before. I think of Houston, I think of Toronto, I think of Orlando. Um, and Toronto is one that actually has cropped up for me recently that I think is very interesting. Um, with them getting Brandon Ingram, think they’re going to give up RJ Barrett and they might do it in a very interesting way. Can you manage a Emanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett for Jamal Murray and salary deal and get two quality starting rotation players for one? Yeah, that’s a good question. Uh, Quickly is a guy that I highlighted highlighted in the report. Um, not as good of a player as not as good of a player as Jamal Murray clearly. Uh, but I think you’d hope that you can sort of raise his ceiling next to Jokic. Barrett’s an interesting one. Um, out of curiosity, how would you play him here? Would you start Porter, Gordon? I I think there’s a world where that is the move to beget the other move where Michael Porter then gets broken up into a couple of different bench pieces and you start quickly Brown and Barrett and then have a bench that is a little bit more fulfilling. Yeah, I think Yeah, I think it’s a doable deal. Barrett is someone that I kind of played around in the trade machine with a little and uh going to Denver. I do have another deal in there where he’s going to Washington, but I did look at him coming to Denver as well. I think he’d be a good player in Denver. I think they could bring the best out of him. Um, my concern in that lineup specifically would just be uh spacing and shooting. Um, you know, if you had a KCP, for example, instead of a Christian Brown, I might feel a little bit better about it. Uh, but I think the spacing there could get a little funky. Uh but it would be an interesting experiment because Barrett can definitely create off the dribble uh more than Porter can. Um Gordon can do it a little bit and then Quickley can do it really well. And so you kind of have three creators there in addition to Jokic. And so I think that’s a new dynamic that would be interesting for sure. Yeah. And then you also had one um that I thought was interesting. Emanuel quickly Oyabaji and then Marcus Smart end up in Denver and then that’s where Denver gives up Jamal Murray and Zik Naji and Julian Strawther RJ Barrett and Daario they head to Washington and that kind of I think that makes sense for Washington getting a young asset kind of to get in the room with a bunch of kids uh that’s kind of in the middle of his young career right now again that might be about like I said y’all like people people think that I you know uh Jake think you know the Nuggets need their Caruso Giddy deal. I’m not of the mind at all that that’s what’s going to happen. I think I’m very conscious of what the value is for these players, but I also know there are other teams that have bad contracts that are trying to get off of what they believe to be a bad contract and there are pathways. And you brought up a Zack Lavine drill deal that’s in there. I thought the John Collins Collins section one for Michael Porter Jr. Dario Hunter Tyson and the 31 pick that also is something that makes sense. Again, John Collins does not have a lot of value in the league. He doesn’t have a lot of value for Utah, but he also is a good player. And then on top of that, if you’re able to add another player with John like Colin Sex and you give the Denver Nuggets more vertical explosion than they’ve had in years. And I think that also matters for the team. But to your point, Jake, I think objectively the team, they have to make adjustments to address how explosive they are. They have to get players that can beat you off the dribble, which is what they were in 23 when you had Jamal, you had Bruce, you had KTP, you had Brown, and Porter was even doing a time, plus Joic, plus Gordon. They just had so many different options. And I think they limited their options over the last couple years. And you know, Ryan knows, I’ve talked about this plenty in this league. You got to have four or five people that can beat you off the dribble, at least make you think. And that’s what OKC has, that’s what the Celtics have, that’s what even obviously the Pacers have like in galore. And I think the Nuggets, they have gone away from that and they struggle to get the ball up the court if it’s not Russ or if it’s not uh Murray. But then we even saw with Russ Ryan because of the hand injury, he just couldn’t hold on to the ball as the playoffs went on. Like period, it got ripped all the time. But again, that was just more so because of injury. You need another playoff side of picket you could trust. So they’ve lacked options. Now the the fantasy land deal, Jake, here is the Michael Porter Jr., Christian Brown, Don Holmes 31 pick for Zion again. But again, if I’m the Nuggets, this is the thing. The league now is not about what makes sense to everybody else. It has to make sense to one person. And I think the Nuggets need to be that team that’s making calls to everybody trying to figure out who is the player that they can actually acquire that can help make the difference. But to ask this question, and this will be our last ending point here, Jake, and then Ryan, go after that, please. Do you think this is the most important summer of the KSE era with the Nuggets? I mean, yeah. I think without a doubt it is. You think about all the decisions that have been made or need to be made this summer. You’re talking about coaching, uh, front office, and you’re really at a inflection point with a lot of these guys on the roster that won you a championship before. So, I I think without a doubt, it’s the biggest summer. Um, you know, personally, I’d probably even be a little bit disappointed if they just sort of run it back. uh maybe trade into the draft for a second round pick or a late first and kind of buckle down on this strategy they’ve already taken. So, I think uh it is a big big summer. Um and I’m hoping that they really look at this with a fresh set of eyes um and determine where they can get better. Yeah, I would I would firmly agree. I do not I’m I’m on record on this on saying this. I’ve a lot of people have been pretty critical of me laying out the the plan of what the Nuggets are are really trying to state and like we’ll see what whether that changes with the new GM that they end up getting. We think it’s potentially Matt Lloyd of of Minnesota. Um I think that it would be a mistake to run it back. I think that the only reason that the Nuggets are framing it that way is because they have so few assets. It’s because there’s no optionality to actually be able to change anything. And they they know that if they call about Jamal Murray, if they call about Michael Porter, that they’re going to be met with pretty dead phone lines for much of that. And that’s going to be a problem. If you if you continue to like put those guys into trade rumors and then nothing ends up manifesting, then you might ruin the chemistry of the team. So, they have to know when they’re actually going to get this done and how they can go about it and who’s the right guy and and whether they’re going to have relationships enough to build this thing correctly. Uh, but I just tend to think that if they screw this up, like there is there is a method to the madness of waiting a little bit because if you do wait until Michael Porter is a is an expiring contract, if he if you wait until the 2026 draft, you can trade him along with a 2026 draft pick, a 2031 draft pick, and a whole bunch of swaps and really put yourself into a position where you’ve got a lot of valuable commodities coming back, but can you wait? Do you have the timing to be able to wait? I think is a fair question with Nicole Joic being age 30. Yeah, I fully agree. I think that um Jokic being 30 is uh they’re on the clock. The Crockis are on the clock. I do think there is a pathway though. I don’t even think you need a crazy swing, but you got to get the bench right. You got to get veterans on the roster. You got to get the MLE right this year. can’t be a repeat of Dario Sarge. All due respect to him, can’t be a repeat of Reggie Jackson. It just cannot be. You need a younger, more player that’s more talented. You have to find a way to get somebody that can give you valuable contribution. What you can’t do is go into the playoffs with your sixman being a 36 year old who will be 37 next year, hoping that that will be enough plus a bunch of young guys. But we’ll see on the other side. Jake, this has been a great episode. We really appreciate you being here today. You do excellent work. Again, I think everybody on the Lockdown Network uh and the Nugget side is huge fans of yours. The chat is a huge fan of yours. The audience loves your work. So, we really appreciate you being here today, Jake, and just made you made this an amazing episode. Well, yeah. Thank you guys for having me on and uh thanks to everybody in the chat for all the support. Appreciate it. Well, y’all know what time it is. Yeah. There you go. Lockdown nuggets. Y’all make sure y’all like, share, and subscribe. We will be back here with another episode tomorrow. That’s Ryan. That’s Jake. This is Swiper. Y’all know what time it is. See you on the other side.

Jake Coyne joins the show and we are talking about his offseason preview and how the Denver Nuggets can address their areas of need this summer. The Nuggets hare tasked with building another title team under a new CBA and the Nuggets can ill-afford to make the same mistakes of the last two summers.
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