Denver Nuggets name Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace executive VPs | Hot Takes

Denver Nuggets name Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace executive VPs | Hot Takes

and good morning everybody welcome hot takes Goodman and Hurdle special guest next three days my man Troy Rank from the Denver Post how are you Troy doing fantastic eric how are you my friend uh doing well certainly have a lot to talk about even though we are in theory the dead season so it’s always nice that when uh you know Patrick Saunders finally nails down an interview with the Montforts we have a chance to talk about that and you know the Nugle today are finally having a press conference to uh make some introductions to their front office so I suppose there’s always something going on right yeah i mean the thing about sports in this market it’s the dead period is a little bit of a fallacy because there’s always news it just feels different when they’re not playing games and the Rockies are playing games but obviously they’re not playing meaningful games so uh but that we’re not that far from Broncos training camp it’s only about two and a half it only feels like about what three weeks before the rookies report so we’re not that far out but who’s counting with that i want to tell you about Roller Auction it’s the best way to get what you want at the price you want they’ve been the leader in Colorado auctions for over 45 years tomorrow uh the city of Aurora is having an impounded vehicles auction featuring trucks cars SUVs 4x4s trailers and more online bidding has started at rollerauction.com if you want to learn about upcoming auctions go to rolleruction.com as well get what you want at the price you want today at Roller Auction time now for the lead the lead is presented by Smok and Dave’s Barbecue it is not just the best barbecue in town it is one of the best restaurants in town you can find Smok and Dave’s barbecue off 36th and poss later today at ball arena to make it official ben Tenzer executive vice president of basketball operations John Wallace comes from the Minnesota Timberwolves under the Tim Connley tree to take over as executive vice president of player personnel on the surface Troy how much does it how much sense does it make to hire a pair of guys who have plenty of front office experience but have never had this type of responsibility and then throw in the additive responsibility of being the stewards of the Jokic era it’s a risk for sure i think if most teams had done this we’d completely pan the move like Eric what are they doing as you’ve noted out if you’ve noted on social media and I’ve talked to people about they’ve done this before with Mark Warren I think I’m pronouncing it right and Rex Chapman and through 2006 through 2010 there’s clearly uh an arrangement Stan Kunky and now Josh Kroni are comfortable with two guys reporting in this case to Josh Kroni i’m not crazy about it but if they’re able to work together and Wallace is what I’m being told is kind of the players guy the guy who keeps relationships who understands that side of it and tenzor’s the money salary cap this is how this trade works if we put it into the machine in theory it could work it’s just again the stakes are so high because of Jokic Prime when you’re trying to figure out can these guys do it they’ve had experience with guys with no experience doing great in this role so unlike other teams in this market say the Rockies I will give the Nuggets the benefit of the doubt on this but the pressure is on the stakes are high the pressure is on and we don’t none of us want to hear “Well he’d never done this before so there’s a learning curve.” No no no that you you ditched the learning curve when you’ve said at multiple press conferences Josh that everything is motivated to win around Jokic this isn’t a rebuilding plan you’re not in transition so these two guys have got to figure it out together and they got to figure it out quickly every head coach every executive has had a first job in which they haven’t had any experience they have experience doing other things but eventually on your first job that is going to be your experience but I want to go back to a couple of things quickly and things that I have been saying on social media josh Kroni hasn’t put a little bit of equity in the bank when it comes to hiring GMs he has loaded up the bank with equity remember he’s the guy who hired a relative unknown in Messiah Jiri messiah Jiri did pretty well by all accounts I would easily call him a top 10 GM in the business if not even higher than top 10 maybe even top five he hired Tim Connley tim Connley had no GM experience either worked out pretty well he also hired Calvin Booth now there are two sides to Calvin Booth Troy the first side is it’s kind of like John Elway when he got Pton Manning we know what happened when they got Pton Manning and they built a Super Bowl team we understand that it’s what hap had happened after Manning retired that’s a whole different chapter for John Elway it’s the same thing for Calvin Booth it’s the when he started acquiring Bruce Brown and KCP and I’ll say this forever and if somebody wants to for lack of a better phrase fight me on this I’ll have this conversation the Nuggets do not win a championship without KCP and Bruce Brown period period period period they needed a D and three on that roster and they got two once those two guys left it’s fair to question Calvin Booth’s draft now going back to something that you said a few minutes ago the three-headed monster i don’t know what you were covering back when the three-headed monster was going strong was it the Broncos or the Rockies the Rockies okay i can tell you plenty about the three-headed monster the three-headed monster was Mark Warantine interesting cat uh came from the Jerry Tarcanian School of Recruiting and then had his fingerprints all over as the assistant general manager of the Trailblazers he helped build the Jailblazers and then the Nuggets became the Thugets under his stewardship that was your director of basketball operations and oh by the way what I just said God rest his soul exactly what I just said he threatened to sue me in court for saying again which I just said again he called me when I did a commentary about this on Fox 31 and he said to me “If you ever say that again quote I’ll sue your ass.” Well he’s no longer around god rest his soul i just said it again that’s his background tarcanian jailblazers thuggets then throw in Rex Chapman director of player personnel vice president of play the exact same setup we have here currently rex Chapman didn’t have a big personality but he certainly had a strong enough personality then throw in Brett Barup who everybody loved everybody wanted to have a drink with this guy he was one of Stan’s closest friends closest adviserss and that three-headed monster built a team of misfit toys they brought in tons of talent but they didn’t bring in team guys role guys guys who were willing to play complimentary roles marcus Cami was not going to do that um Kenyan Martin was not going to do that i could tell you all kinds of stories about these guys but I don’t want to pull up the rug and let everybody see what was going on back then the point is it wasn’t easy in this particular case I think it is different you have two guys from what I understand are incredibly smart incredibly likable and Josh Krony’s running the show this time stan was hands off with a three-headed monster this has a much better chance of working yeah Josh has admitted that the one place he failed with this last uh pairing of Calvin Booth and Michael Malone was not recognizing earlier Eric that it was going sideways and just how toxic it had become you know at at some point Malone becomes so paranoid he can’t really function and enjoy the job and then Booth then kind of buys into that feeling like everything everything Michael Malone does during the game is somehow a slight to his authority and Josh Kroni blames himself for not recognizing this more you know again my issue with this has been very simple i respect Josh Kronkey and the work the Kroni family has done to make the Nuggets relevant and make them a champion i feel like Josh Crank is too close to the team to be objective and when they talk about running it back and they talk about these structures it feels like you’re doing it to benefit relationships and the closeness and in sports and especially the Western Conference right now sentimentality doesn’t seem to be the best course of action for me that you’ve got to make some tough decisions whether that’s how your GM operates whether that’s how your coach operates or how whether or not you trade Michael Porter Jr so there’s some at least a glimmer of hope here that you know ESPN reported that the Nuggets were on the fringes of the Kevin Durant thing that they had interest and that at least tells me they’re exploring the idea of changing this roster because I’ve said it and we’ll continue to say it if their plan is to run it back completely they’re not good enough and for everyone Eric that tells you they took the Oklahoma City Thunder to seven games yes they did i covered every one of those games the problem is they had to win eight more games after that Eric they weren’t going to win eight more games after that as comprised with one one bench player they trusted in Wessel Westbrook who was spiraling at the end of the playoffs i have heard the argument and I have made the argument hey Nuggets took these guys into the third and fourth quarter with leads but just couldn’t close it out right the argument is if they can do that with Michael Porter Jr playing as half of a player russ being the only real guy off the bench you went to seven games with Oklahoma City with five and a half players let’s just call the math what it is they had five and then in the very very end they were down another half player with Aaron Gordon yet still pushed it to seven games but let’s not forget either they also had a pair of last second shots that went in what if those don’t because we could play the what if game all day but you can play it on both sides what if they don’t get those last second shots to win and the other side is well look what happened they had the lead and they just couldn’t close it out with that um you brought up Josh Kroni being too close to the players right that’s your belief is that correct that is my belief to me that was the knock and rightfully so on Tim Conley he was too close to his guys as well specifically guys like Gary Harris and Will Barton who should have been traded long before eventually they were cast off to other teams that is a small concern that I do have if I have read and talked to people correctly about John Wallace this guy is a people person gets along really well with the players and he comes from the Conley tree right then again Tenzer comes from the Conley tree ironically it would not surprise me i I don’t know this as absolute fact but Tenzer has been part of Basketball Without Borders for a long time that’s run by Messiahi these are all nuggets ties together but here’s the difference between Messiah Jiri and Tim Connley and there are many differences messiah Jiri didn’t give a flying f if he was your friend he would trade you without even thinking about it that’s the way I think Calvin Booth was as well not to the same extent but he had more of a he wanted he wanted to have a good relationship with the players but he didn’t mind trading them okay tim Connley was way too close so if I have one concern from what I’ve read and people I’ve talked to about Wallace is he might become too close to some of these guys and then may not want to trade them with that how does it make you feel that you have two guys off the Conley tree is that a positive or is that a negative i mean for the most part it’s a positive again it’s just in pro sports you’ve mentioned it you need to fall in like with players you can’t fall in love with players correct as soon as you fall in love with players you overvalue them and you stop seeing their flaws and you brought up Michael Porter Jr well if he wasn’t you know playing with half his shoulder Michael Porter Jr is the same player whether he’s hurt or injured he’s wildly inconsistent he’s going to give you 18 19 some nights 30 some nights six that’s whether he’s healthy or not that’s just who Michael Porter Jr is after seven years in the league we keep acting like he’s a young player he’s going into his eighth season so when it comes to Tim Connley Tree a lot of things Tim did at with the Nuggets I really like he stayed way too loyal to Will Barton will Barton drove me crazy there were times I would stop watching the Nuggets because I didn’t want to watch Barton this guy had no self-awareness and everyone loved him i get it they’re like “You don’t understand everyone loves Will.” It’s like I know but if somebody gets theirs he felt it was his obligation i gotta even the score and get mine it’s like you’re not competing against your own team Will but in general it’s a good thing i will point out one interesting fact that I read about uh Wallace that could benefit this relationship issue that we both have some underlying concerns i’m not sitting here saying it’s going to be a mistake but it’s something we all have to be aware of and mindful of because re tight relationships with front offices and players typically don’t lead to championships especially at the stage the Nuggets are in but keep an eye on this and something I read and we’ll see how this plays out apparently Wallace has a really good relationship with Jamal Murray he does and that to me could be critical because hello Tyl Hallebertton is who Jamal Murray used to be where we would say Jamal’s gonna show up in the big games and he’s Mr money Mr clutch bubble Jamal we haven’t really seen that player Eric in two years he had two moments two years ago against the Lakers then he was hurt and didn’t play well he’s in he’s getting older is this the time that Jamal Murray shows up in camp and talks longer about the responsibility of being a Max player than his future in the MMA last year when he talked about that it was such a joke it was insulting to the entire organization jamal hello you’re you got to be the guy man you can’t use the first six weeks of the season to get in shape yeah that affects your seed they need him wire towire to be a good player and then great in the playoffs and so if somehow Wallace is able to push those buttons and Adelman is able to push those buttons we’ll look back on and say this made total sense that in in a way is almost like a free a free free agent acquisition is getting Murray to that next level and it’s not even the all-star conversation which has always been part of it with Jamal can he be really good at the end of the season and stay healthy he’s starting to miss games like he’s 34 and that to me is the key here if Wallace can get the most out of Jamal I will reserve judgment on a lot of how this structure is made well I’m not reserving any judgment i’m going by the history I’ve seen and the history that I’ve seen with Josh Kroni and he’s always had a voice as well he’s not a meddling owner like a uh like a Dick Montford i mean Josh did play he wasn’t some great player at Missouri but he certainly has an understanding and they built a pretty good roster over the years under his stewardship and he understands the importance of you know Joic and you know his legacy the truth is and I understand you need to build more pieces around Joic specifically on the bench or at least develop the guys that they have but the guy who’s most responsible for Joic’s legacy is not Josh Kroni and it’s not Wallace and it’s not anybody else but Jamal Murray if Jamal Murray can play to his potential for a full season stay in shape and he is a he’s no longer a Batman he’s no longer a Robin anymore he’s not because I think you can make the argument Aaron Gordon you’d rather have him than Jamal Murray we wouldn’t have said that during the championship run jamal Murray is directly tied to how Nicola Joic will be remembered nationally as a potential Mount Rushmore type player without him Joic cannot win titles yeah and you’re and it’s not fair but it’s the reality of sports when you start ranking all-time greats joic cannot be an all-time great with one championship there’s just no history of it if you look at the all-time greats name me one in like the top 10 that had one title they just it doesn’t exist here hold on i’m I’m going to take it a step further i’ll ask you give me one all-time great one that didn’t have an unbelievable sidekick an unbelievable Robin to compliment his Batman unless you were referring to Wilt Chamberlain early early on in his career before he joined the Lakers give me one Jordan and Pippen you have Bird pick who you want you can have Paris you could have male you could have Dennis Johnson you have whoever you want to akean you got Drexler when you go back the last 40 50 years there are outliers and you can really probably start with the 2004 Pistons did they have any superstars on that team well all these years later now they have two Hall of Famers in Chanty Bilips and Ben Wallace but they weren’t considered superstars like we look at superstars today but almost every team that has won a title has a star and then they have a solid number two B uh Robin roll the Nuggets don’t have that and and Murray is their only chance of getting a guy like that and he’s already on the roster yeah the only one I could think of and it it’s not total apples to apples is Kobe Bryant with Pal Gasol you know no one saw Gasol as like a superstar player in the end it turned out he was he was way Troy he was an 18 and 10 guy which by today’s standards is not considered great py Gau was a very very good player and and honestly I’m so glad you brought that up because that’s the one of the examples that I bring to other people kobe Bryant only had Pow Gil pagaso was a really good player but he wasn’t great like other tandemss we’ve seen like Julius Irving Moses Malone right kareem Abdul Jabar Magic Johnson Kobe and Shaq you know you you you look at other teams like that have won titles recently what about Toronto quan Seakum would that qualify yeah exactly well there’s my point why can’t Jamal Murray be Jaylen Williams like that that’s who I’m saying like I’m not asking him to be a Hall of Famer why can’t he be Jaylen Williams to the SGA numbers like he just has to be a little better i mean people don’t I mean the first six weeks of the season Jamal was averaging like 17 and a half 18 points a game on off to the worst shooting of his career from anywhere on the floor right then he picked it up and then oh wait he gets hurt again right and that’s the problem when you use part of the season to get in shape it’s the old climbing the mountain you exert too much energy to get there and then your body’s not right for the stretch run so if Wallace and Adelman and Kroni can get in his ear they’re giving you max money Jamal we’re not asking that like hey we need Don Holmes to be the guy like that’s stupid it’s We don’t know that we have no idea i watched him play in scrimmages before the OKC series i don’t know what he’s going to be it’s totally fair to ask Jamal Murray as a max contract guy to show up motivated in shape and to put together his best season because if you look at these other teams that’s my been my issue this whole off season with the run it back crowd for the Nuggets do you think the Thunder are going to be better or worse next year you think the Rockets are better or worse the Western Conference you just hold on you assume all these other teams aren’t getting better Troy they’re set up differently okay well but you’re assuming as Nuggets fans if you run it back you’re better that’s as if everyone else stays stagnant they’re not well but again these other teams the the Nuggets were the first Let’s continue this after the break let’s do this because I will contend that the Nuggets were the first team that truly got punished by the new CBA and they are in the middle of that right now look at Boston they are just they’re having a fire sale like Jur Holiday what do you want from him i’ll give you a bag of hockey pucks for him right no but they make good trades last year you traded three second rounders to get ready Reggie Jackson they get a guy in Simmons who’s going to be a great player for them that’s the difference well you keep saying they’re hamstrung because of these deals under a pre-existing CBA so we just giving them an excuse that can’t be the case we’ll I’ll explain more after the break how’s it you want to stick around are you tired of me yet i’m getting close i’m getting close are you me too i’m getting right on the edge baby i’m right here i’m right here ever wondered where city and county fleet vehicles go when they retire now’s your chance to find out and score big imagine driving away with a great deal on a reliable vehicle for over 45 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Hurdle want to tell you a little bit more about my one of my favorite restaurants in town and that is Nola Jane down in Low are you a Cajun guy Troy 100% absolutely love it okay so I’m going to give you some things that you need do you like fish i’ll start with that i do okay okay I’m going to give you a dish that is one of the best and I’ve traveled all over the world i’ve been blessed it’s one of the best meals I’ve ever had in my lifetime it is a blacken catfish over dirty rice and you can put crawfish atufet on top and every time I think about that crawfish atufet you ever like something and you think about you’re like I would love some of that right now that’s what that crawfish atufet is they also have an amazing barbecue mac and cheese with shrimp which is fantastic the shrimp and grits with shrimp obviously is absolutely awesome they have six different pobo the desserts are homemade and why not wash it down with a hurricane and it’s not like the hurricanes you get at patio 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contract that’s 32 million a year or Michael Porter Jr michael Porter Jr barely no he’s not drew Holiday is still a terrific defensive player he doesn’t give you big offensive numbers he’s 35 years old he’s affordable he has some years left on his deal but who’s going to trade for Michael Porter Jr’s contract that’s when I saw that deal i was like you can’t trade he I think he had what almostund what he have 100 million left not 100 but something like that and MPJ’s got right at 79 i mean Holiday’s best days are behind him and he’s a little onedimensional at this point but to your point about reliability you know what you’re going to get from him that’s the biggest criticism of MPJ his ceiling’s higher certainly at his age you just don’t know what you’re going to get not only night to quarter to quarter from MPJ so when I hear people say all the time I always fire back with the same question oh you want to trade this guy huh okay what do you think you’re realistically getting back in return okay so can you really trade Jamal Mariano’s contract right now hell no i mean it kicks in Max i would say no no you might find a Let’s say Toronto i mean I’m saying there might be one team because of the Canadian connection Toronto that say we want to bring him home but generally speaking no messiah Jiri would not bring Jamal Murray back at a contract that is getting ready to start knowing his injury history and for lack of a better phrase his questionable work ethic when it comes to coming into camp in shape jamal Murray is not tradable no one’s jumping to go get him no one’s certainly jumping to get Michael Porter Jr so we talk well look what look what Boston got boston had better pieces has better pieces drew Holiday is a nice piece to have i think he’s a better piece to have for a team that’s contending than than Portland but that’s neither here nor there so who who else you going to trade who else you going to make a creative deal with what do you got well again the most valuable player you have to trade is Aaron Gordon but he’s become like almost like you say he’s almost number two in the pecking order now and he became a folk hero in the playoffs that deal has to be a home run because of what he does defensively my concern the reason I would consider it I get so much criticism for this is because he’s starting to age the calf injuries the the ham like the ank all this is the signal of a guy who’s lived above the rim his entire life he’s starting to get a little older but he’s the one guy that has value because of his contract his versatility how he’s viewed in the industry he’s a great teammate he fits in anywhere that’s the problem christian Brown again another guy they see as a core guy but every guy you can’t be in love with that goes back to my problem we can’t trade him we love the guy we can’t trade him we love that guy well then you’re going to love getting knocked out in the second round I guess like you can’t keep doing this at some point you have to make a decision to move on from somebody that’s for me the easy part not for them the hard part is getting a good trade and they’re not even getting to that point of it though it’s that’s the fear of it they are so convinced they know what we have in this guy we don’t want to risk that in a trade because trades are risky not every most trades don’t work and usually the team that gets the best player wins the trade the way you trade Aaron Gordon which I wouldn’t recommend because who else is who else is really playing defense in the starting five yeah a little bit okay brown plays but he gets worn down and they need Joic to play better defensively next year to help Brown up till near the top of the key joic has got to commit to being more of a functional defensive player at the top of the key next year if they want to win a championship he just wants to keep doing what he’s doing i understand it he would be in line with most NBA stars frankly but they need him to be more functional defensively at the top of the key it’s hard to be that functional defensively at his size and his weight when the entire offense runs through him again this is the issue there’s so much energy that that that that that you can have that’s like his the criticism of his defense is fair in that if you just look at the metrics and the eyeball test he was not very good last year but when people say that I’m like well what is the tradeoff because he is your offense he is your point guard and he’s your center so you have that’s why the the supporting cast that’s why I’m much more critical of Murray and the supporting cast like at some point guys you got to help this guy he is a top either the best or top three player every year it’s on the rest of you we can’t keep saying give us more Nola give us more i don’t think he has any more to give maybe a little more defensively especially in the postseason but he What else can he give you Eric i want to I want to take something back to um the Connley tree if that’s what you want to call it something that Tenzer and Wallace both come from prior moves made by Connley mostly Booth though by Connley and Booth have sent out first round picks in 2025 2027 2029 second round picks this year next year the year after the year after the year after the year after and the year after they don’t have one second round pick from this year through 2031 now there is a rule fortunately maybe you’re protecting the Nuggets against themselves they they right they cannot trade their first rounders next year 2028 and 2030 my my thing is when you have a mentor who shows you how it’s done you’re going to have your own mind and you should have your own ideas but you learned at the foot of somebody who does something and they’ve had success at it right you have the two Connley guys under his tree and then you have Booth who was under the Connley tree who literally gave away draft picks like sticks of gum like they just didn’t mean anything my concern is are these guys if they have the ability to trade draft picks now we’re looking into 2032 i don’t know if I’m going to be a I mean I think I’m collecting social security oh wait I’m not have to be 67 whole different whole different conversation i thought I might be collecting social security that time but not to get too political they just moved the age and now I can’t for all the money that I put in i just got on my political soap box there didn’t we put a lot of money into social security we started working at 15 when are we going to get that money back troy I’m hoping there’s some there when I need it i don’t know if there’s going to be but the point is it’s good to learn under guys who are really good but when you’re giving away all of these draft picks and now you have nothing to deal with and you’re up against the cap I hope they don’t repeat the same mistakes that Connley and Booth made and Booth was egregious in what he did well he’s the Jackson trade was criminal the s the signing of Daario the lack of movement at the trade deadline i mean that’s when I when when it all happened I said Calvin Booth deserved this uh you know Calvin Booth had it coming michael Malone deserved better mainly he deserved a press conference for being the winningest coach in franchise history to to be able to go out with a little bit more respect and dignity whatever he’s gone i understood the reasons and it it played out more clearly as they got into the playoffs but one thing that I think they need to learn from all this you can’t get three you can’t have three guys on max contracts and one of them be incredibly hurt incredibly risk because that in so many ways and it’s not fair to MPJ he is a bit of a warrior in the way he stuff he plays through you know more about it than I do he is a tough guy i respect that again the context of pro sports almost always relates to value as it relates to the contract if you just watched MPJ you’re like he’s a solid player if he was making mid-level money you’d love him troy Troy let me cut you off it was like Connley knew and he didn’t know it’s as if Connley knew he was going to take the job as team president with the uh Timberwolves and said “You know what i’m going to help myself before I leave hey Michael here’s your new contract.” Exactly and it made no sense he had been hurt really hurt leading up to that deal listen it was a they had no business even negotiating more or less offering it’s because they like him so much right tim fell in love with his players that’s what I’m worried a little bit about with Wallace hearing his history that he’s very likable and that’s all good but you don’t want to become friends with these guys and that’s the problem when you become too close to guys in a tough sport that’s the issue if this is baseball you give them what the hell whatever the hell you want money monopoly money in this sport Eric it just creates this iceberg you’re you’re just in you’re landlocked with Murray Joic and uh MPJ and now you got to play at some point Christian Brown maybe even this off season hold on hold on i think you if you needed to you could trade MPJ after the season he has one year left on his deal i know that’s Then he becomes then he becomes attractive if that’s something that you wanted to do um you know they need to find out if if some of these young guys can play think about this for a second we still don’t know because Malone wouldn’t play these guys adelman will but it all ties into Jamal Murray coming into shape i mean it all ti I like everything that Adelman said i don’t have a problem with the setup that they have they don’t have a title of GM let’s face it the GM is Josh Kroni he’s going to be far more involved i trust his direction because he has proven to me you you can trust his direction if we’re talking about the Rockies that’s something completely different but there is a similarity if if if you truly do believe something that you said early on which is Josh falls in love with his players dick Montford treats every player like that player is his son that’s why he can never get rid of any of them and that’s the danger of becoming too close well again what to Josh’s credit the players he falls in love with are usually pretty good the Rockies fall in love with guys who are not good slash terrible right and then they want to trade him for I want your number two starter for my fifth outfielder the industry is like uh yeah no we’re good and so again I love the fact Josh cares and he’s passionate when you hear him talk at press conferences he loves basketball the guy loves hoops all the other stuffs he’s involved in the soccer all the other you know the tentacles of the KSC enterprise he loves basketball and that comes across but you have to be able to when it comes down to it make tough decisions and will they try to make one with Michael Porter Jr i think they’re going to continue to put their you know the dip dip their toes in the water there it’s just who’s going to take him because of the physical and the injury issue everyone I talk to says as you just mentioned he’s tradable next year with an expiring contract this year it would be very difficult to move him and so that’s why it feels like another year where they’re basically saying we’re going to do our best but really it’s 2026 where we’re going to make a run for it but are we sure this is my my thing about sports are we sure Nicole Joic is still going to be the greatest player in the world in 2026 like at some point you got to be fair to to Joic like you can’t just assume that I used to cover the Rockies and it was like when Cargo and Tulo play our winning percentage is 553 and I’d be like yeah and they play like 81 games together every year that is not a strategy and so this idea that Joic is just going to be Kareem and be a top player when he’s 37 okay i just think that’s a faulty strategy i just me personally I just think you cannot Troy they’re pinned into the strategy in the bed that they’ve already made but then you still have to try Eric you got to go i didn’t say you got to get Mason Plumbley you got to cut buy out Daario do not bring Westbrook back he will trample all over Adelman you have to do some tangible things other than throw your arms in the air and say “Oh the old CBA.” Okay let’s look at the numbers you could buy out Sour in full if you choose to that’s what I would recommend that the Kronis do and now you’re c now you are 16.5 million under the second apron you could do a little bit of work with that yes if you want to they have three roster spots that are open they’re not bringing back Westbrook uh and Sarich you know you just hope that he walks out the door and gets a better deal in somewhere in Europe he won’t i don’t I don’t think he will either but but then you then you buy him out this is the problem that they have but you get rid of DeAndre Jordan you get rid of Okay well they’re going to his contract get rid of Westbrook you have to move on from all of them fine well well DeAndre Jordan’s contract is up that’s why they have a roster spot he’s great everything about DeAndre is great you got to move on it’s time right so you need to see if some of these young guys can play not only meaningful minutes but maybe can they one day dare I say be a starter i’m not so sure okay you have MPJ’s contract people say all the time trade MPJ don’t you think all the other GMs around the league see what you see it’s it’s as if MPJ is playing in a in a vacuum here in Denver nobody gets to see him except for us we’re like I bet we can pull one over on the Pelicans because they probably have never seen the guy play they don’t have cable they don’t have Comcast they had Comcast there and never saw him play until Right and then you have the same thing with Jamal Murray everybody knows that that his reputation of not coming into camp in shape with all that talent’s never been an allstar yeah this year he had his best numbers in terms of scoring but he needs to be firmly entrenched in that number two no doubt about it role he just isn’t so you have two contracts in my opinion that are untradable i don’t think you trade Gordon because you’re losing so much defense and he’s a great glue guy i mean he’s the heart and soul of that franchise i’m sorry you don’t trade him away christian Brown you might have to he’s going to ask for about 30 million a year and somebody will give it to him so then what do you do about your bench that they they’re limited because of the CBA crushed them can they make moves yes but can they make a Drew Holiday move i No I don’t think so i I don’t think they can you could get a Taius Jones from Phoenix to come in here and shoot threes and be a better backup point guard they should have brought him in last year you could get Bruce Brown back he wants to come back well yeah but wait hold on hold on he wants to come back for 5.7 million if he does great i mean I think he might i think he might because he’s made enough money now i’m not saying I would like it’s his money it’s easy for me to say he loves he would take a discount would it be that it might be that steep he his value has basically fallen off a cliff since he left here so he might say “I’ll rather come here and have fun and be a folk hero.” People think that the Nuggets can go out and spend well into the Second Apron they can’t first apron’s punitive too not like the second apron point is they have a maximum mid-level exception of 5.7 who’s coming in for that they they they are in the throws of getting killed by the new CBA and in three years the same thing will happen to Oklahoma City i don’t care how many draft picks they have they’re going to have big contracts coming up they’re only going to be able to pay X number of guys rockets they’re in their window as well good for them it’s about a three four-year window and Oklahoma City has gotten off to a great start the Nuggets unfortunately got punished the irony real quick is we would agree with all of what you’re saying is this would be a transitional franchise if it weren’t for the presence of Jokic that’s what frames every conversation if Jokic was just a good player we would be like this makes so total sense they’re in transition wait till 2027 but it’s we’re sitting here we can literally It’s like an episode of the show 60 Minutes where the clock is ticking behind us with Jokic in his prime that’s what frames every conversation if he was Moy from Cleveland man he’s a great young center but we got time it just feels like with Jokic the clock is ticking and then as Jamal gets older and Gordon gets older it’s just like man is this really going to be it the Nuggets were a one-off and listen I’m a native i never thought I would see it so I appreciate what they did and won a championship it would just kind of it’d be a little bit of a downer if that was that’s as high as it ever gets is that moment two years ago murray’s the key he has to he has to play up to his highest potential to get Joic another ring to get himself another ring i mean I’ll ask you and then we got to run clearly they’re going to retire Joic’s number and I do believe they should be retiring Carmemelllo Anony’s number as well there need to be two 15s up there that that could be a discussion for another day would you retire uh Jamal Murray’s number he’s got a case because of the championship i think he needs to finish though he need he he is a he is in the hall of very good right now when it comes to Nuggets and to me if he wants He’s had two Troy he’s had two great playoff runs it just depends on how you championship it just depends on how you view the championship from a statistical standpoint no he’s not worthy of a retired jersey from the championship how do you weight that in your logarithm that’s it in your log I’ll say this and I could be wrong and I’m sure there’s an outlier out there i’m guessing there’s at least one team in basketball that has retired a number where the guy has never been an all-star but I doubt it right you gota be desperate sorry you got to be desperate to be retiring numbers if you’re retiring number of a guy who has never even been an allstar right so anyway that’s going to do it for us uh Troy anything big planned today uh any big column you’re working on uh I’m going to be covering the US Senior Open and the US Women’s National Team this week so I’m looking forward to something a little off the beaten path i’ll be heading down to the Broadmore as I get off the air right now us Women’s National Soccer Team yeah I’ll be doing that on Wednesday and Thursday i’ll be doing golf today and Saturday well hopefully you get a lot of Colorado flare with all the Real Colorado gals who uh have played because there are three of them and they’re all unbelievably good i mean that team is fueled by Real Colorado which is a club team here in Colorado you knew that I’m sure right yes of course now I feel like such a jerk anyway have a great day see you tomorrow Troy you got it see you later

The Nuggets have named Ben Tenzer as Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations and Jon Wallace as Executive Vice President of Player Personnel. Eric and Troy react to the news. How much will Josh Kroenke be involved in the decisions and how confident should Nuggets Nation be in the trio of Tenzer, Wallace and Kroenke? What is the offseason for Denver shaping up to look like – should we expect any sizeable trades? Eric Goodman and Troy Renck deliver the latest buzz with the Nuggets on Hot Takes!

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