NBA Free Agency | Nuggets are LOADED up for West – Tim Legler on Denver add Johnson & Bruce Brown

NBA Free Agency | Nuggets are LOADED up for West – Tim Legler on Denver add Johnson & Bruce Brown

I promise it’s not personal UD that we keep playing these highlights we got just because Denver’s been busy lately. Only the highlights we got at ESPN. Let’s talk about Denver currently. How’s that? They’ve made some moves. They brought back Bruce Brown. They added Yonas Valenunis. They added Tim Hardaway Jr. and then also in a huge trade yesterday brought in Cam Johnson in exchange for Michael Porter Jr. All of these moves have allowed Denver to get out of any apron situations and have allowed us to use that D type of music. So where do you think UD that the Nuggets stap stack up in the West now? Just a little bit behind Houston, Wendy. Just a tad bit behind Houston.
Just a little hair.
Just a I mean we bring in a guy like Valentis. Man, let’s be real. The Joker averaged 40 minutes per game in the playoff. There’s no way he can sustain that. You bring in a guy who played 18 minutes a game last year and averaged 10 points and eight rebounds in 18 minutes. You don’t need him to play 30 minutes. You just need him to give Joke a little break. You also go get a guy Tim Hardway Jr. who is ignitable. Guy shot 40% from three last year. He’s the guy who you see one go through. He’s liable to hit five, six or seven. That just opened things up. Fan favorite Bruce Brown who a guy who’s killed us in the finals. Averaged 11 points a game. I hated him then, but I love him now in that position going back there. I like what Denver is doing. This is a team that was one game away from the Western Conference Finals last year and well, excuse me, one game away from beating the champions last year. So, I say they’re a little bit behind Houston Wendy. I I don’t I don’t know why you say they’re not that close.
I I agree. Comparable. I thought you meant for their off seasonason, but let me just say that Ben Tender and John Wallace, their new front office, they’ve done a remarkable job in their first few days uh running the show here. Number one, they’ve gotten coach David Adelman options. This is something that Michael Malone just didn’t believe he had last year. They have options. He can go different ways. I’m not saying Jonas Valenunis is going to play 82 games. There might be times when he doesn’t play. There might be times when we see um you know Hardway come in and out of the rotation, but now he’s got options. The second thing is with Cam Johnson, they’ve got a guy who can really help them defensively. I think he’s going to be an upgrade defensively on Michael Porter and he saved his owner tons of money. This maneuver helped save the Nuggets money and that will not only make a difference this year, but into next year as they try to keep this window for Yokic open.
This to me is like a home renovation. Like you put a fresh coat of paint on something, redo the kitchen. That’s what this feels like to me. What did they lack? They lacked depth.
Yep.
And they lacked a serviceable big when Joic is off the floor. They answered both of those and they upgraded a starting position from a championship team. To me, you’re right. Houston to me, they clearly won the race of the off season. Denver’s certainly trying to run them down in the home stretch. And I think more than the offseason, let’s just talk about prospects for next year. Denver is a contender. Denver is that team that potentially could give the Thunder all they can handle again and maybe even come out of the West. That’s how much I like what they’ve done to give them additional depth. That team looked completely gassed at the end of the year. This answers a lot of that.
Led the league in starter minutes last season and you could just tell that that took a toll on this team by the very end because we put nothing past Nicola Joic at this point and even at the end he looked tired. This is not a player that ever shows fatigue. And he said it after the after they were eliminated last year. Clearly, we’re not a championship caliber team. I got to say these moves have me rethinking that even in a very crowded Western Conference. In the East, however, there are many more.
I’ll Duncan back with you on Sports Center to the NBA and free agency day two. Nuggets have gotten a lot done. They traded Michael Porter for Cam Johnson, then sent Dario Sarge to the Kings for Center Yonas Valenunis, and then they added guard Tim Hardaway Jr. on a one-year free agent deal. And finally, they brought back Bruce Brown. Denver’s bench getting deep. If you add Valenunis, it’s the latest move in what’s been a really busy, at least start to the offseason for the Nugs. Denver also traded, as I mentioned, Michael Porter Jr. to Brooklyn in exchange for forward Cam Johnson, who, by the way, averaged career highs in points and assists last season. The champ is here, our three-time NBA champing the show. UD, what do you think about all these moves that the Nuggets have done so far in free agency?
I mean, I love it. I mean, this is a team who we’ve criticized in the last couple years for just being a little bit stale, kind of running it back. Obviously, this is a team where we understood they were going through some changes with their coaches. So, first and foremost, I love Adam as a coach. I love his leadership. I love the fact that you bring in a guy like Valenunis because listen, the Joker averaged 40 minutes per game in the playoffs last year. He led you in rebound, he led you in scoring, he led you in assists, he led you in every single thing. This man needs a break. So, like the hot boys say, somebody help him out. So, I love the fact that Joker has some help. Cam Johnson I think is an upgrade and this is no knock on what they lost but I love him as a basketball player. He can score the ball. He can defend on the other end. So I love that and he can make plays. Bruce Brown is a guy who averaged 11 points a game in the finals against us. I hated him then but I love him now going to Denver right now and he’s also a Miami Hurricane guy. So I am happy for Bruce Brown.
There you go. You give him a little Miami love. You know you love the move. You know who’s who loves the move? The sports books love the move. If you look at ESPN right now and check out the latest Western Conference odds. So this time yesterday, Denver was 10 to one to take the West. And now they’re five to one. That’s the second shortest odds to take the conference behind only the reigning champion OKC Thunder. How impressive, by the way, is what the Rockets doing so far. Houston with 8 to1 odds to win next season’s title. Second best behind only OKC. What do you think about their moves?
Extremely impressive, man. I love Emoka as a coach, as a leader. He’s a fiery guy. He doesn’t back down. And now he’s brought in a superstar scorer. A guy who we saw them in the finals or excuse me in the playoffs last year they struggled to score. This is a guy who’s 27 points per game, 50 from the field, 40 from the three, 90 from the free throw line. So this is a guy who gets it done. You bring in Finny Smith. He’s a guy who guards on defense, shoots 41% from three. So you got a 3 and D guy. You keep your young corn Jabari Smith who’s the future of this franchise. You opt out Fred Van Fleet, but you bring him back on a longer deal. So you got your leadership and then you got your young allstar in Sangon. you really lost nothing in this KD trade. You brought back your core. So, I’m looking at this team who was hovering around second in the West last year to make that improvement. And you also brought back Steven Adams who was huge for you in the playoffs last year. And Clint Capella, you got three bigs now to go against Joker.
Yeah. Listen, I’ve had to spend a lot of time around Jana Wumck the last few days as you know, noted Houston native. And there’s just been lots of screams of we up, we back, it’s it, it’s lit, it’s us. So, I think they’re feeling very good. Yeah, she ain’t lying.
Breaking news story today. Sham Shirani reporting that the Bucks are signing former Pacers center Miles Turner to a 4-year $107 million deal. And to make the money work, they’re waving Damen Lillard. Remember, the 34year-old tore his Achilles in the playoffs. Milwaukee will spread out his 113 million over the next five years. Our senior NBA writer Brian Winhorse joins us right now to weigh in. The Bucks waving, as I mentioned, a superstar and little training trading, excuse me, for a rim protector in Turner. So Wendy, what does this say about the direction of the Bucks and what they’re taking this off season? Well, you just you just said that statement. They will pay off his 113 million over the next five years, but that you have to stop right there.
We’ve never seen anything like that in the history of the sport. So I just just to be clear, the Bucks to make the salary cap space to acquire Miles Turner are going to pay Damen Lillard $23 million in dead money on their salary cap for the next five years. So that means that over these next four years where they’re going to pay Miles Turner 27 million, they’re essentially going to be paying $50 million for that slot. So that is an aggressive level that we really have never seen before in an attempt to team build. And they’re doing that because they’re trying like crazy to keep Giannis Lieutenant Kmpo committed to staying in Milwaukee. And and they’ve done this before, Amina. Before they faced some pinch points with Giannis when he was due contract extensions, they traded for Drew Holidayiday. That happened a couple years later, they traded for Dame Lillard. Two more years later, they’re concerned about Giannis’s commitment. They make this trade, which is really they already have traded away all their draft picks. This is just really mortgaging out their salary cap. So, it is a very aggressive move, but I do believe that Giannis is looking for reasons to stay in Milwaukee. and they gave him a golden one, giving him a center that is younger than Brook Lopez and that he will be able to pair very well with who can stretch the floor. Look, you said it right there that Giannis is looking for a reason to stay in Milwaukee. However, Wendy, will it be enough to keep him in Milwaukee with all the rumors we’re hearing about Giannis on the Kumbbo maybe going elsewhere? Well, Giannis has never said that he wanted to leave. And the reason that there has been rumors is because rival teams had been watching what the Bucks had and not and believing that the Bucks couldn’t upgrade their roster because quite frankly no one could ever fathom taking 113 million a million and putting it dead money on your books. It’s just not something anybody would ever see. And so teams were forecasting that the Bucks were not going to be able to upgrade this roster. They did not forecast this. So I don’t think it came out of of Giannis sending signals he wanted to leave. If anything, like I said, Giannis has been sending signals he’s looking to try to figure out how to stay.
Well, let’s get to the Pacers side of things. Our Sham Shirania reporting today that Turner made it known that he wish to remain in Indiana, which is quite interesting when you take a look at everything that’s going on. What does losing their longest tenure player mean for the Pacers? Well, this is their franchise center and um he was a a key member of their run to the finals and I know that he didn’t play offensively well in the l latter stages of their playoff run, but he’s a core player for them. And you know, this number $27 million per year is not out of line for a center of his quality. It’s a little bit high, but Nas Reed of the Minne of the Minnesota Timberwolves just signed for $25 million a year. So, this number isn’t high. The the issue, Amina, is is that this if the Bucks or if the Pacers had matched this offer, they would have gone significantly into the luxury tax, something they haven’t done in 20 years. And I do believe if Tyrese Hallebertton had not become injured and would have missed this season, the Pacers probably would have been willing to go to this this level. But clearly, they got to a point where they weren’t willing to go. And it’s very difficult for them to replace a player of his quality. He’s obviously been their their center for for a decade. So, this was really, you know, a monetarybased decision. Um, and look, in Indiana, they’re an organization that has limited resources. They haven’t paid the tax in 20 years for a reason. They’ve had to build their team around some of the advantages that other deeper pocketed organizations have. And this is where the reality of their situation has really come to bite. Meanwhile, the Lakers have been quiet. stupid. I can eat it. speech. Somebody can hide down. Okay, that’s good. I’m sorry. It’s all Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Hello. Hello. Good night. I’m Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Speech. Speech. Speech.

NBA Free Agency | Nuggets are LOADED up for West – Tim Legler on Nikola Jokic’s Denver add Cameron Johnson & Bruce Brown