The Nuggets Are Attempting to Line Up the PERFECT GM? | How Should Nuggets Fans Feel?

The Nuggets Are Attempting to Line Up the PERFECT GM? | How Should Nuggets Fans Feel?

the Denver Nuggets still without a president of basketball operations still without a general manager so as we’re watching around the league the OKC Thunder are currently up 3-2 in the NBA Finals set with a longtime GM they seem to be headed in the right direction for years to come the Indiana Pacers just made another move to trade for their 2027 pick in exchange with the Pelicans during the NBA Finals you see Buchanan doing a tremendous job building up that team you’re watching around the NBA Orlando Magic Memphis Grizzlies there are teams that are making personnel changes the Los Angeles Lakers are selling their franchise they’re headed in a new direction $10 billion across the league teams are making major changes from the top to the bottom and yet the Denver Nuggets are still waiting on who is going to lead them into this next season y’all we got to talk about all that and more here at Locked on Nuggets you are Locked on Nuggets your daily Denver Nuggets podcast part of the Locked On Network your team every day what’s going on y’all welcome to Locked On Nugget this is your host Swiper this is your team every single day i am so glad to be here with you again y’all i haven’t seen you I think since last Thursday with Ryan and I i saw that there was a great episode that Ryan and Matt put up uh just last night talking about the GM conundrum with the Denver Nuggets and I wanted to add my thoughts into that because obviously there’s been some recent news that shakes up the landscape for the Denver Nuggets a little bit y’all so it’s going to be a great episode a lot of implications for what’s happening around the league and what’s not happening with the Nuggets uh by the way this episode is brought to you by FanDuel right now new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when you place your first $5 bet and it wins y’all what’s going on so as everybody knows the Denver Nuggets are making more changes to their team they are now without their leader inside of the Denver Nuggets facility and Tommy Bachettes uh Tommy Bouchettes has been there for quite a long time he had had a tremendous impact on the overall culture of the Denver Nuggets a lot of the changes and adjustments and just even a lot of the trades that have been made there have been a lot of things that he’s done that he’s influenced significantly for this team uh apparently he was also very wellliked and loved behind the scenes as well you know I think the Nuggets are going to miss him you know when you’re in a situation like this where you’re looking for not just a replacement but also on top of that they’re in a situation now where they’re trying to establish a brand new culture coach Malone is no longer in the building you have David Adam adam takes over uh he wins more games in the playoffs funny enough than he did over the course of his regular season tenure which is the first time in NBA history that I believe that’s happened but you see that the Nuggets are trying to reestablish a championship mindset and you saw a lot of that happen in the NBA playoffs when they’re in a situation where they’re able to find a way to beat the Los Angeles Clippers but one of the things even though I picked them to beat the Thunder and look they went to a game seven and looked like this was going to be an opportunity for them to do so but they go into a game seven and the things that had been prevalent all year with this basketball team come to light and that is just the severe lack of depth now granted three of the six rotation players including so Jamal Murray Christian Brown Michael Porter Jr Aaron Gordon Nikolic and Russell Westbrook that was their top six in the playoff michael Porter Jr had an injury that should have had him out for a month and more aaron Gordon had a injury to his leg that really should have held him out that game and then that clearly debilitated him in the game as well and then you had Russell Westbrook who we find out gets hand injur hand injury and then ends up getting surgery right after the season’s over so one of the things they run into is that they just had three of their best players to go down and play through injuries and they deserve a lot of credit for that but they run out of gas because they don’t have the depth they don’t have players off their bench they can trust consistently and one of the things that if you’ve been watching these NBA finals you can kind of watch and see you know JDub Jaylen Jaylen Williams you know he just had a 40point game he just had a 40point game and among second options you don’t find many players that are doing that but remember I remember we talked about this so many times you all one of the things and one of the real criticisms I had of Calvin Booth in the strategy was that if you’re going to go young go young and go good and give yourself an opportunity you got to move up in the draft and instead of doing that they decide they just wanted to wait and see what falls into their lap outside of the Geron Holmes and giving up three second round picks to get him so where things are currently you watch Jaydub in the draft lottery in the team in the 12 at 12 overall turn into this kind of a player you’re looking at the Indiana Pacers and seeing all the players they’ve either acquired in the draft or they’ve acquired through trades hat Tyresese Hallebertton Pascal Seakkum they have players on their roster that are making significant improvements to what their games are and overall impacting their ability to win and I think the Nuggets they’ve been so reliant on Jamal Murray so reliant on Nicole Yokic so reliant on Michael Porter Jr they haven’t made a true swing trade for this team since 2022 and 2021 and I think if you’re watching the league right now you see what the Orlando Magic just gave up to get Desmond Bane on the roster and I think Desmond Bane is a really good player i think he’s going to be really good with the Magic i love what he brings to the table as a shot creator as a defender i think there’s going to be some really interesting ways they utilize him but they take a chance they combine some of the players on their roster in order to get a player like Desmond Dane in the building now one thing that’s been a little bit of a misnomer about my my mentality about the the Nuggets just like the OKC Thunder acquired Alice Caruso I don’t think the Nuggets necessarily have to go that route they may not have the assets to get a Alice Caruso definitely don’t to get a Desmond Bane but what they have to be willing to do is if you’re going to have a draft and develop strategy you have to do that higher in the draft than 23 higher in the draft than 29 higher in the draft than 30 higher in the draft than 32 higher in the draft than 37 and even respectfully higher than in the draft than 21 overall the Nuggets have drafted at 21 23 29 and 30 in the first round in the last since 2022 their four first round picks have all been between 21 and 30 and they knew they were going into the season with this idea that with the limitations of the CBA with the luxury tax with the first apron with the second apron that they’re going to need to have not just flexibility but they’re going to need players on the roster that can do multiple things all at once to have true scheme versatility and also Calvin Booth mentioned that this last summer so this is all going to get into the direction that I think the Nuggets need to establish now Calvin Booth last summer said the reason they didn’t bring back KCP was to have flexibility with the new CBA that they’re not in the second apron that way they can make the moves they want to make they didn’t do any of that in the regular season made no additions no moves no trades no nothing but they relied on their picks between 21 worked out 29 not so much 30 not so much 32 definitely not 37 they allowed they said that’s going to be our strategy we’re going to we’re going to continue to move up and take the and take these kind of players out their spots and I’m watching around the league and just saying I just don’t understand that if you’re going to prioritize this why would you not just trade your assets up and at that time to go get a premium draft talent that you can utilize and I just think the Nuggets they’re in a situation now where the being devoid of leadership and devoid of direction right now now there’s two minds I have i’m going to talk about some of this in the second segment as well tommy Bchett is being gone two things ben Tenzer they’re awaiting the end of the NBA playoffs the NBA finals to announce Ben Tender and they’re going to go with internal development and believing what exactly he’s going to do or on the other end they’re looking to make an outside hire and they’re waiting on the NBA finals to be done with so therefore they can announce those things now I don’t know exactly what they’re going to do i have a feeling a feeling that it’s leaning they’re going to have an outside hire but I truly don’t know but what I do know is that in order for them to become the team that they truly want to become to add the depth that Jokic was talking about they’re going to have to be able to make significant changes to the rotation and bench and I don’t know if that’s going to be internal development uh on the other side y’all we’re going to talk a little bit more about this conundrum they’re in with the GM situation we’re also going to talk about some of the strategies that need to develop and change and adjust with this team to move into this new iteration of what the NBA is currently we’re going to talk about all that and more here on the other side here at Locked on Nuggets wow y’all we are in the middle of the NBA finals the NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highlightw worthy performances major momentum shifts and can’tmiss moments whether it’s a game-winning shot or a breakout player there’s never been a better time to get in on the action fanduel makes it easy to stay in the game before tip off and live with player props performance trends and same game parlays fans have more ways than ever to play smart and win big now which players are going to show up jaydub drops a 40 ball jub in the last three games of the NBA finals y’all is averaging 31 points per game that would be somebody that I would want to focus on going into game six in Indiana with a chance to win their first NBA title y’all and when you do this man SGA is playing really well per usual watch out tyresese Hallebertton might not play so more TJ McConnell more Andrew Nimhard they’re going to have to rely on rely on other opportunities in order to get this done so a $200 bonus if you hit your first $5 bet that’s a big deal so new to FanDuel it’s the perfect time to sign up head to fanduel.com and place your first $5 bet if it wins you’ll get 200 in bonus bets make every moment more with FanDuel official sports betting partner of the NBA we’ll be right back for segment two of Lockd On Nuggets what’s going on y’all we are back here for the second segment of Locked on Nuggets this is your host Swiper this is your team every day i hope you’re having a spectacular summer i hope you all are getting an opportunity to move this summer go work out go walk go on runs spend time outside clear your mental there’s a lot happening in the world the more you can connect with nature the better I think things can be for you also if you’re listening to this on the audio side give us a fivestar review that way more and more people can listen to the great content being made here at Lock Nuggets also if you’re watching this on YouTube give us a fivestar review go ahead press the subscribe button y’all we’re on the way to 15,000 subscribers for our next goal make sure you’re giving us a like share the content and subscribe to the channel all right y’all so we’re back here talking about the dismissal of Tommy Bettis and also what’s going to happen in this next iteration of this team will Ben Tender will he get the job or are they going to have an outside hire that they’re going to rely on in order to move forward into the future now truly y’all truly y’all I’m not sure yet i’m not sure yet i think that we’re in a situation where the Nuggets are it looks like wanting to do the famous internal development plug but my fear is my genuine fear y’all genuine fear is that they get in a situation where they’re lining up their team to look very much like the Golden State Warriors very much like the Golden State Warriors and I don’t want I don’t want the team to get lost so far into the sauce similar to the Golden State Warriors where we’re just going to say Jonathan Kaminga Moses Moody Brandon Pazimski and but again even those players overall are better than Julian Strawther and Payton Watson and Jaylen Picket and Hunter Tyson so even even the idea even the idea you all of having a two timeline build with the Nuggets is still contingent on getting lottery picks moses Moody was a lottery pick jonathan Kamingo was a lottery pick uh Brandon Pazinski was the 18th overall pick all of those young players they have to work with and be in a and be in a situation where they’re developing they’re playing and they can contribute to high level basketball and if you watch how the season went for the Nuggets now David Adam might have a different strategy than Michael Malone he might be able to find ways to utilize the personnel more but again I don’t have the criticism of Michael Malone that everything and for and why the reason why the young players weren’t developing is all on Malone i think you have to have really good players you have to have really good players it’s really that simple you have to have players that you can trust players that you know are ready for the moment and players that are able to do the job so I don’t know i just think that the Nuggets were not in that situation that they could trust those players to do that i think Malone while he faltered I think in some way with the booth Malone split I also am looking at the situation and saying objectively well who do they want him to play consistently again you’re not giving him the seventh overall pick the 14th overall pick and the 18th overall pick and I think that matters if you look at the way the draft or even Benedict Mattherin for the Pacers he was the seventh overall pick andrew Nimhard’s a starter andrew Nimhard is a freak of nature that was the 31st overall pick right behind Payton Watson you don’t find those players tamati Kamar the 57th overall pick for the Portland Trailblazers again that’s another gamble worked out really well got him at the end of the second round he looks like a future starter in the NBA so there are players you can find but relying on a strategy where your basically your whole game plan is in building around your franchise’s best player ever is saying “Well you know what we’re just going to really trust our evaluation process and see where we go from there.” And again y’all it’s not that you can’t have that mentality but I think the shift in the mentality is we don’t know everything and that’s what the new GM that’s what the ownership that’s their mentality that needs to be what it is we don’t know everything and because we don’t know everything what can we do to increase the propensity of our team and our roster to be able to perform at the level that it needs to what do we need to do to find ways to make things work and to hit on these prospect at a higher level and I think you have to be able to have an idea that we’re going to be able to move up and work in these situations we’re going to have to be able to find more highlevel talent because one of the issues I’m even seeing now is that when Josh Kroni says we’re we’re waiting on the perfect GM hire i think this is a conversation between Stan and Josh i think they’re trying to deliberate the best way to move forward and again they could have an outside hire already agreed to but they can’t announce it until after the NBA finals would not be surprised about that but I do think that in order to have internal development you got to have internal development with players that are I think just more capable than I like if if you told me Christian Brown Pton Watson and Julian Strawther and you said “Okay that’s three we’re working with and Don Holmes we’re working from there I think that’s okay but what’s not going to be good enough is that if the starters go into the next year unless their energy level to start the year is just in a way different place which is up to Adam and they’re playing high level defense from start to finish like they did in 2024 remember they didn’t even do that in 2023 when they won the title through December 22nd i want to say they were like the 29th ranked defense in the world and then over the next several games like the next several months they were I think all the way at high six in the NBA because they just changed things up here they adjusted their scheme and they started committing bodies to it i think the Nuggets this next year based on where things went wrong the last two years they need to come into the season more prepared for the 2023 24 year where they’re looking to win as many games as possible because I think you just have to be able but again that’s not just the starters like the reason OKC is what they are is because they’re bringing players off the bench that are veterans that are that are young and talented and they’re mixing those things together and finding ways to optimize their personnel you don’t have to win 68 games but it can’t be a struggle bus like it was last year either there has to be a line but I think some of that a lot of that is going to come down to the new GM and president of basketball operations and those conversations with David Adam about building a team building the culture and then from there finding the players to fit that system best because I do not believe that standing Pat is a choice i do not believe that for the Denver Nuggets that if they simply just run it back that is going to be good enough to make a necessary difference to change the fate of the last two off seasons and then going into the next season it can’t be that like remember Justin Holiday was added later to the team and he ended up being a rotation player for the team in the NBA playoffs in 2024 this year Russell Westbrook ends up being a vet men signing he’s a top six rotation player for the roster and they can’t they can’t live without him because they don’t have the dep what Julian’s not ready for that pton wasn’t ready for that jaylen’s not ready for it hunter Tyson is not ready for it so you’re going to have to find real talent on the other side y’all we’re going to talk about why again the standing p part is not a choice but also y’all how should Denver Nuggets fans feel i think for a lot of people there’s a lot of like it feels like there are there are some people that are almost legislating how Nuggets fans should feel and I’m saying that like I want to paint some some perspective on why I think this is a bigger deal than some people are giving credit to we’ll talk about all that and more here on Locked on Nuggets what’s going on y’all we are here for the final segment of Locked On Nuggets talking about the Denver Nuggets and their GM situation no president of basketball operations uh yeah I don’t think Standing Pat’s going to be acceptable this year y’all and on top of that on top of that we’re in a situation now where the best player in the world has already said “Hey we’re not good enough we’re not good enough we don’t have enough off our bench you watch the other teams around the league they’re going into their depth they have players they’re bringing off the bench jokic is already telling you that he doesn’t believe and maybe not believe believe is a different word than no joic knows they don’t have enough off their bench meaning enough NBA players off their bench to make real moves and real adjustments and real steps forward now for me y’all that’s everything because the best player in the world is already telling you that like look man like I don’t we don’t have to we don’t have to to to play around about this it’s like I don’t have to sit here and pretend that things are okay and things are fine the way they are because they aren’t they’re not so for me it’s like all right well if the if your best player is telling you that if the MVP is telling you that if the if he’s in a situation where he’s looking around the league and he’s saying to you and saying to the coaches uh and everybody else on the Denver Nuggets that hey like you know what we’re we’re still a little bit away y’all we got we got more work to do we got we got more to be done and if if he’s saying that then I think that needs to be taken with a certain level of credence that it’s not going to be acceptable just to run it back and for me they better have in their brain the Let me And let me clarify this y’all i want to get the exact days the exact days y’all the NBA draft is seven days from now the NBA draft is seven days from now the NBA draft repeat this is seven days from now what is the Denver Nugget strategy shams already said that he expects a boatload a boatload of trades to happen a boatload of trades and the Denver Nuggets are still without a decision maker yeah what still without a decision maker and I think that Bruce Brown right now for Nuggets fans and Nuggets lore okay for people that are deep in the Nuggets trenches Bruce Brown has shown so much love to this team and show so much desire to reconnect with this team that Nuggets fans are already of the mindset that hey hey he’s going to be a nugget bruce wants to come back look at the tweets i think he has a Denver Nuggets tatted on his body with the championship he wants to come back y’all throw him the taxpayer ML but what if that doesn’t happen how do we And again we also don’t know if he’s a target so what I’m saying is Nuggets fans the only reason Nuggets fans right now seem to have some a level of appeasement is because they believe that the guy that helped them win a championship two years ago is back in the fold but if he doesn’t get signed and the Denver Nuggets come back and say “Jaylen Picket go.” Russell Westford’s gone julian Strawther go payton Watson go like Ash catch them gotta catch them all pokemon dron hol fresh off an Achilles go i think that’s a very very very misguided strategy but then the question is what do you want him to do the money is tight well I mean the money’s tight but you’re also under the second apron on purpose the whole reason that you said organizationally you’re going to be under the second apron is because you want flexibility well you have flexibility more you have literally built-in flexibility based on the parameters you set for the team built-in flexibility so use it dario Sarge right now now again Nuggets fans are hoping that he rescends his player option or per Jake Coin they’re also hoping that he’s waved and they’re paying out basically $1 million over the next three years and he takes 2 mill on his deal this year he doesn’t need to be back i don’t think I don’t I don’t even think he wants to come back but he wants his money so the Nuggets going to have to wave another Calvin Booth bad decision so Zeke Naji the reason why apparently his contract is completely unmovable around the NBA because teams don’t believe in him so you’re saying Michael Porter Jr based on some reporting apparently doesn’t have a lot of value the contract doesn’t two years left zeke Naji doesn’t have any value on the contract three years left dario Sarge doesn’t have any value on his contract at all negative asset has a player option so that’s again this is why the whole standing path thing to me just makes no sense because if you know that you need more depth and you also know that you’re going to have to have more players to play on this team internal development and just hoping Jamal Murray becomes an allNBA player is crazy just hoping that Michael Porter Jr becomes an allNBA player is crazy and again Porter 38 mil this year dario Sarge $5 million this year zeke Naji $8 million this year y’all by my count that’s $53 million on the roster and per what I’m what have people are intimating is that all of that money is unmovable and unusable okay but now you have the taxpayer ML what do you do with it it has to be a player that hits it has to be it has to be a player that hits reggie Jackson started off the 2023 24th season really well and then he got worn down as the year went on and he wasn’t great had a really good playoff game over Minnesota first half dario Sarge taxpayer ML nothing didn’t get anything from him played 15 games this year I believe basically so now again the question becomes what who will you target who will you target to make sure that you have an additional player to play on this team next to the young guys and also are you going to work your way into this draft this year i don’t know if y’all have heard this is one of the deepest role player drafts reportedly that we’ve had in years like 2017 2021 was another one this is one of the deepest role player drafts that you would have had in years and really around the Denver Nuggets range danny Wolf at 22 you got Cedric Coward at 21 washington State i mean you got neat Clifford uh what are some other players that the Nuggets could use even in that situation drake Powell uh he’s a shooting guard small forward 28 for North Carolina walter Clayton Jr uh I know that my boy uh uh CT likes him a lot uh he’s a point guard with but the apparently projected to go in the late first like these are all players that they could add and use but the issue is is like if you don’t have a draft pick this year you just can’t pretend that Don to me like Deron Holmes is coming off an Achilles it’s unrealistic to expect him just to be ready to go but you’re hoping he is i do not think that Nuggets fans should feel any assu anger as long as it’s like you know contained anger or about their desires to see the Denver Nuggets you need to have a leader in at the helm and you need to make better decisions with your basketball team and you have a 30-year-old Jokic who probably has five years maybe who might be maybe maybe he’s LeBron maybe he has five or six MVP level seasons left and then you know four more all NBA season left after that that’s what LeBron is maybe he maybe is a freak of nature but more than likely four or five years and then what like I think you know uh Stephen A smith and uh Jay Will they got in a conversation on ESPN on First Take saying that uh Stephen A Smith think that uh basically Giannis is an underachiever because he’s only won one title and I I responded to that by saying I think the Bucks are an underachieving organization for only getting one title with Giannis i think the Nuggets are absolutely if you look back on the from 2018 to 2030 and you win one title with Jokic yeah that you’re that’s an underachieving franchise that literally let the window slip left the left the window slip for the best player you’ll ever see in a top 10 player I think that’s ever played this game all because you were making up excuses about money or you were being cheap or you were being delayed in your GM process or you allowed for GM and coaching issues to fester and just drop the season or you allowed a GM to rid everybody of veterans and you said self-reportedly Josh Crock I should have been more involved allowed for the GM to get rid of all the veterans so all the young again young guys 29th overall pick 30th overall pick 32nd overall pick and 37th overall pick that they would have to play no I don’t think that’s good enough um I think you should expect more from an organization in this situation especially with Jamal Murray uh at 28 years old michael Porter Jr is currently 26 be 27 soon Aaron Gordon will be 30 this year like you you you it’s it’s like you have to the times here uh let me know what y’all think in the comments section do you think that the Denver Nuggets are they making an outside hire um do you think that standing pat for the Nuggets is going to be good enough or on the other end of this uh how do you feel about the current GM situation and and uh the lack of president of basketball operation situation for the Nuggets uh this is Swiper this is Locked On Nuggets y’all know what time it is see you on the other side

The Denver Nuggets are still without a GM, President of Basketball Operations and without a clear direction of leadership. How should Nuggets fans feel about this? Let’s talk about why I think standing pat is not a viable possibility.
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