Bruce Brown, Jonas Valanciunas, and a REVAMPED Denver Nuggets Bench

Bruce Brown, Jonas Valanciunas, and a REVAMPED Denver Nuggets Bench

All right, everybody. Welcome in to pickaxe and roll brought to my good friends here at Mile High Sports. I’m your host, Ryan Blackburn at NBA Blackburn on Twitter, part of the Mile High Sports Podcast Network, and I am excited to get back into uh the swing of things here at 10:00 a.m. Uh let me know if you guys enjoyed the evening recordings. It’s a little bit easier to do an evening recording when there’s not a game going on. Uh but I just wanted to get get a show back in and especially kind of just capitalize on this situation. talk about how crazy the year has or not not even the year like the last 48 hours have been for Denver in revamping their bench in completely remaking a lineup that was one of their big weaknesses heading into the playoffs. Ultimately that came to pass. They just didn’t have enough options. And I got to say, they’ve got plenty of options now, or at least enough options where, hey, one guy doesn’t work out, two guys don’t work out. You’re still okay. You’re still in a comfortable place where Denver can go forward with that. And so, I’m I’m very excited. There are guys that there are more pressure on than others, like Jonas Valenunis, for example. If he doesn’t work out, then obviously it’s going to be more problematic than if Tim Hardaway Jr. doesn’t work out because you need somebody to play at the center spot. You just need that. So, it’ll be interesting to see how it goes. But on today’s episode, I wanted to talk about the bench. I wanted to talk about some fun lineups. Wanted to kind of go into some concerns that I have that there are some things that, hey, this maybe this changes, maybe that changes, whatever. Uh, but first, we’re going to kind of rank the bench players by how I would project their minutes. Right now, I haven’t done like down to the number calculations, but as I’m doing this, let me upload the rotation chart that I put together before. Uh, trying to figure out the best way to convey this information going forward. You guys see I I changed the the legend here a little bit if you’re watching along on YouTube. Basically, this is one of the ones like this is going to be one of the rotations where yeah, I’m not doing anything too terribly crazy. Uh the goal would be to try to put out something that the Nuggets can go to on a relatively consistent basis. It’s not going to be a heavy minute situation for anybody. And the more I went into it, uh, Jokic, obviously you’re you’re going to play a significant amount of minutes, but the more I went into it, I think that there’s a lot of potential to drop the starters minutes down pretty low. Um, before we get into that, Mr. Exquis with the super chat says, “Ryan, off topic, when will you be in Vegas, big guy?” Uh, I’m not going to Vegas this time around. I know I have probably said in the past that I wanted to go to Vegas and was going to go to Vegas. I’m I’m not going this time. Just things got busy. I’m doing another trip immediately after that. So, uh just didn’t think that it was the right call for me, but uh I will be there at some point, whether it’s there, whether it’s the the All-Star game or anything in between. Uh but I do appreciate the super chat and the thoughts. So, thank you. It’s uh I do want to get down there. Um, but on this rotation chart, Joic plays 32, Murray plays 32. They they mostly overlap with what they’re doing. In this one, I didn’t have Murray kind of playing the all bench lineup. This one is kind of your more traditional Bruce Brown’s going to play that those minutes. Tim Hardway is going to play next to him. Jonas Valenunis is going to play. You’ve got your three veteran bench players that are playing. And then in this one, I had Payton Watson playing and he actually plays the most uh but not by not by a lot. Uh and then Don Holmes gets in there and that’s that Don Holmes minute stretch that six minutes at the beginning or the end of the first and third quarter. That I think should be a pretty popular rotation for the Nuggets. Uh Don Holmes gets his minutes with both the starters and the bench guys. He gets some action. It’s not going to be a situation where he is like affecting the game too terribly much because he’s going to be with Joic for a lot of that time, but also he’s getting some time and it’s it’s where you don’t have to necessarily worry about him in the second and fourth quarter. So, this would be my expectation something akin to this and as a result I have Aaron Gordon staggering with the second unit. I kind of like this. I kind of think that this makes a lot of sense for Denver this year. uh just because Jonas Valentunis, Aaron Gordon, you’re absolutely going to uh have the size, have the the physicality necessary in those lineups in order to make it happen. So, uh I like this configuration, but it benches Julian Strawler. And so it’s one of the reasons why I had concerns here that Denver just going forward, they’re going to be in a minutes crunch. And unless they open the rotation up to 11 or 12 guys on a consistent basis, there are just going to be some guys that don’t play. And that I think is of concern if you are somebody that has stock and Julian Stra there. Now, to be fair, it’s pretty easy to sub in his minutes for Tim Hardaway Jr. Pretty easy. Like, that’s that is a a straight line substitution right there. Nothing nothing crazy. Uh, but I do think that Denver at least has some concerns and should have some concerns about um Oh, are we getting we getting news live on the podcast? Sham Shirania says Dallas Mavericks assistant Jared Dudley is finalizing a deal to become the top assistant coach for the Denver Nuggets under David Adelman. Andy Miller of Clutch Sports tells ESPN Dudley has been on the Mav staff since 2021 after a 14-year NBA career. Okay, let me uh let me pivot real quick. Sorry, folks. I I know that you you want to uh you’re going to also want to do this. I’m not going to spend a ton of time on Jared Dudley. Um, he is extremely well regarded around the NBA. Extremely extremely well regarded. He’s one of those guys that learned how to carve a role out and did everything that he was supposed to do both on and off the floor in order to extend his NBA career for as long as possible. Um, he notes 14-year NBA career. That’s a big deal. and then he immediately transitioned into the coaching staff and was there under Jason Kidd. Uh I believe was Rick Carile there back in 2021. I’m not sure exactly when Kidd took over, but if Kid was there for that entire time then uh he’s he’s been there for four years. And that to me is a pretty interesting addition. David Adelman and the Nuggets coaching staff is going to look a lot different. I I recently talked about how they’re adding JJ Berea, how they’re adding Rodney Bilips. Uh both guys, I I have not met JJ, but I have met Rodney. Uh nice guy, good guy, somebody who I think will be valuable for Denver. Uh but if you’re talking about true experience, Jared Dudley is I think is going to give some really interesting steps here. He’s a good defensive guy, or at least he was in the league. He’s going to have some thoughts on Denver’s defensive schemes. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was the one who really was emphasizing defense and really trying to like like if you’re breaking it down kind of offense defense, I’m going to guess that JJ Berea would focus on the offense and Jared Dudley focuses on the defense under David Adelman. Kind of the the same way under Michael Malone. Adam was the offensive guy. Ryan Saunders was the defensive guy. So that’s interesting. Uh, I’m not going to pretend to know exactly how this got done or what they were going to do, but Mark Stein was reporting it back a few days ago that this was a possibility. So, going to be interesting to see how Denver continues to build up their stuff. Uh, but I think that I mean, obviously a great sign when you get a big name like that. So, uh, this should be this should be very very interesting about just how Denver continues to build this. does really seem like they’re going for it. It seems like uh and shout out like look, Denver saved a little bit of money on the actual roster with the way that they’ve built this thing together. Uh but that wasn’t like an intentional thing. It was to get them some flexibility and it seems like they’re spending some extra money on the coaching staff. So, shout out to Josh Gronkey. He was uh remember when he was saying, “I hear Nola loud and clear and then we thought that they weren’t going to do anything.” Uh that has pivoted. That is clearly clearly changed. So always important to be patient, I guess. Uh never never been my personal strong suit. So uh hopefully Nuggets fans are happy with this one. This is a pretty cool move and something that I think the Nuggets fan base should be pretty excited about. Okay, back to the rotation, which I’m sure Jared Dudley will have some input on. Um, Denver doesn’t have a 15th man right now, but the guys that I don’t think are really going to be a factor are actually it’s it’s really just Hunter Tyson. Like I I think that there is a world where Zeke Naji plays. There’s a world where Jaylen Picket plays. There’s obviously a world where Julian Strawther plays. Um, there is a world where Don Holmes is not ready and doesn’t play. I will be very excited to watch him in summer league next week. I’ll be doing it over uh over television and not not there unfortunately. But I’ll be excited to see what Deron Holmes can give. Right now I’ve penciled him in for 12 minutes a game. That is kind of on the the premise that he has earned that opportunity that he is ready for that. If he’s not, then okay, no worries. Denver works him in uh throughout the year. I think it’s pretty easy to see Denver going with a nine-man rotation at various points where it’s just Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., Peyton Watson, and Jonas Valunis where they don’t worry about Don Holmes. They don’t worry about Zeke Naji or Jaylen Picker, Julian Stra, other guys like that. And then you’re you’re suddenly going with an extremely veteran focused unit, which Michael Malone’s got to be kicking himself for because he he really wanted that the entire time. Now, David Adaman gets it and and he gets to kind of deploy the tools in the toolbox in in very important ways. Uh, but I do think that for Denver, there are so many different ways that they can put some things together. Um, I am worried about I am worried about Strather and kind of the actual amount of minutes that he’s going to get. Now, that could be wrong. Uh, the way that I kind of have it in my head is that Bruce Brown is the most likely to play the most amount of minutes, his role is going to be very important. he’s going like, but that’s also not accounting for the fact that Jaylen Picket if he plays and if he’s really good and the Nuggets need him at backup point guard, if they they like those minutes a little bit more, then Bruce Brown moves over to the two and suddenly you’ve got like Jaylen Pickicket and Bruce Brown together and you’re not getting as much spacing and maybe that doesn’t even work out. So, there is a world where Bruce Brown’s kind of cut out of the mix. Um, so I’m I do think that there is at least like I can see a world where all of the bench players are cut from the rotation at various points except for Yonas Valenunas. Like his minutes to me feel the most steady because his role is the most like inflexible and the Nuggets just need somebody like that. So, uh, when I say things like that, more of what I’m saying is I’m trying to foresee, I’m trying to predict into the future how the season will go. There are going to be injuries, there’s going to be absences, there are going to be uh slumps, there are going to be players that play extremely well. So, I think what you’re probably most likely to see from a ranking of the minutes perspective, um, your five starters are going to play the most, and they should. They are the five best on the team. That lineup is going to be extremely important. There will be some staggering going on, perhaps more than there has been in the past, but I do think that of the benched guys, number one most likely to play the most minutes is still Bruce Brown to me. Number two is Payton Watson, particularly because Denver’s going to need that perimeter defense and interior defense. And if they want to continue to say that the that the development is very important, then he’s going to play pretty consistently, whether it’s at the three, whether it’s at the four. Uh there’s also a potential that he comes in as the six-man. And there are some lineups where he plays the two next to like in place of Christian Brown who plays Murray, Watson, Johnson, Gordon, Joic. Like that’s a lineup that they probably won’t get to that often. something I I wish they would have done this past year, but maybe they are just not ready for that. Um, but I do kind of think that Payton U obviously very important for Denver’s development and like if they are going to become a better team in the future, which they can, then Watson has to be a massive piece of that or whoever they trade him for would be a massive piece of that. I kind of don’t think that they’ll do that though. Um, okay. Bruce Brown, then Payton Watson, then I think Tim Hardaway Jr. is most likely to play next. Although, I could be wrong about that. Uh, there is a world obviously where Tim Hardaway just gets benched and they are more likely to play Julian Strawther in the regular season. Um, but I’ll go Tim Hardaway at three because I do think they’ll really need that spacing. really like that spacing. That’s something that they’re going to enjoy. It’s something that they’re going to really value. Um then Jonas Valunis is the fourth guy. Julian Strawther will be the fifth guy even over Don Holmes or Zeke Naji or anybody like that because they’re going to try to work him into that mix as often as possible. And I think the most likely lineups for Denver are likely to be Yeah. Hey, we’re going to slide Peyton Watson to the four. We’re going to try to play Julian Strawther and Tim Hardaway Jr. and ultimately like Don Holmes, Zignnagi, those guys like that a little bit less likely to play extensive minutes. Um there will be some lineups in some situations where they have to play like hypothetically Denver is playing against the New Orleans Pelicans. You’re not going to want Pton Watson to be guarding Zion Williamson. You’d rather have Don Holmes or Zeke Naji to do it. So you have those guys out there and you play a little bit bigger. And there are like ex examples that I can come up with that are like that, but honestly there are far more examples where it’s not like that where you want the spacing, you want the perimeter speed. So it’ll be interesting to see kind of with Jonas Falunis playing pretty slow with uh Don Holm, Zeke Naji playing pretty big. they they aren’t necess like Don can in theory space the floor, but I’m not expecting him to shoot like amazing. What is it going to look like from a spacing perspective? Uh that’s something that I I definitely am a little bit worried about at times, but I do think that overall Denver’s got a lot of great combinations. So, we’re going Bruce Brown playing the most bench minutes, then Payton Watson, then we’ll we’ll flip Jonas Valenunis and Tim Hardaway Jr. just because I think Yonas he’s going to play every single night and though his actual minutes number is probably not going to be super high. I Well, it’s that’s tough. They’re they’re going to be about the same. Uh them Tim then Tim Hardaway Jr. then Julian Strawther, then we’ll go Zeke Naji, then Don Holmes. So Zeke is at 11, Don Holmes is at 12, and then I’ve got Jaylen picking at 13 and and Hunter Tyson at 14 uh in terms of kind of their rankings within the rotation right now. So, not fantastic if you’re Jaylen Picket, not fantastic in that situation, but there’s potential for him to shift over as I talked about before, uh, for Bruce Brown to then shift over to the two. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Denver just like if they look a little bit more convoluted for that reason, like a variety of different guys will get some opportunities to play. This is not going to be a situation where guys play every night, every night, every night, every night, and then you make a change. It might be from night to night. It might be just based off of how Adelman and his coaching staff are feeling. Uh they will uh pivot based off of matchups. They’ll pivot based off of who’s playing well, and they will try to manipulate that. It’s not going to be a set bench unit, I don’t think. Or at least that would not be my expectation. Okay, let’s take a break. When we come back, we’re going to talk about I I want you to write in the comments your favorite fiveman lineup that is not the starters. I’m curious to hear what the chat thinks about it and then I’ll react to some of them and I’ll give you some of my favorites. We’ll be right back here on Pickax and Roll. All right, we are back. Pickax and roll. Ryan Blackman here. Thank you so much for tuning in to the show. Hit that like button down below. Hit that subscribe button. Would really really appreciate it. Yeah, it’s going to be it’s going to be interesting to see how this works. Um yeah, I already got some some folks on Twitter. Can you post the charts on Twitter when you’re done? Uh I will do my best. I I’ll probably build out some additional minutes configurations and rotations. I do think that that will be valuable. But guys, let me know if you like this format. It’s the thing that I’ve been using for five years basically. Um, I was trying some things out in Python. I have never used Python before. Uh, but I’m not sure the kind of visual editor that I would need in order to convey all of this information the way that I have in Excel. Uh, I like the way that I framed this, but I do think that there is it’s going to be interesting to see uh how that goes. Uh, we’ve got some got some conspiracy theories in the in the chat. Haley comes in, says, “I’m late to the pod.” Uh, sorry, she didn’t cough. I coughed. Uh, I’m late to the pod, so I’m reacting to the coaching and I’m reading between the lines is that we’re getting all a lot of Luca guys. I’m buying into all the conspiracy theories. Uh, the the conspiracy that I was thinking was not Luca. It was actually LeBron where uh LeBron was clearly a Jared Dudley guy for a while. Like he was he his last years came in LA before he ultimately went to Dallas. LeBron going to get bought out and seek a spot on the Nuggets. That would be interesting. That would be really funny. Uh but yeah, I I do think that there is like people have asked what they’re going to do with the 15th spot, what they’re going to do with the 15th man. They don’t have to rush this. Like I do think that based off of the names that they have in their rotation right now, based off of the names that they have on their roster right now, I think that they can be patient. Like here’s here’s one. Uh Ryan, I think we should pick up Dame. Uh maybe he won’t be ready until the playoffs at the very earliest. Um that would be like that’s that’s the other thing. You want somebody who’s going to be on the roster that can help you at some point. Um maybe Denver doesn’t need it. Maybe they’re okay without somebody having to play. Uh but it would be awesome if they got Damen Lillard to play like a a bench a bench roll at some point, but I just don’t think he’s going to be healthy enough in order to do that. Um, remember he got hurt late April, had surgery around that point as well, late April, early May. Assume at least 11 months. So that’s late March when somebody would come back. And for Damen Lillard, like assume effectiveness four months beyond that. So I’m not even really I wouldn’t expect it. Uh, I don’t think that Dame is going to be on a roster at all for this upcoming year. I think he waits until the next free agency. Uh, unless he likes getting paid money like that. He could also really enjoy that. So, um, we’ll see. We’ll see what happens. Um, okay. Got some different lineups that people have thrown in the chat here. Um, says, “Ryan, it feels good to finally have the luxury to run multiple lineups. Don’t you know it?” Uh I’m on on lockdown last night. I effectively said, “Yeah, you know, I think they’re the best team in the league.” And Matt is like he’s getting hurt because of the amount of whiplash my takes have given to him over the course of this year. But it’s pretty easy to figure out why, right? Like they they just have optionality now. They have different players that you can trust in different moments. And I think that’s unequivocally a win for where Denver’s been at. Um, Mike P says, “Gives us a lineup. Jaylen Picket, Jamal Murray, Bruce Brown, Cam Johnson, Jonas Valenunis. Pretty small. Uh, a pretty small lineup here. I do think that there is a value in playing small sometimes. I think there’s a value in having a whole bunch of ball handlers on the floor.” And that’s exactly what this would be. Cam Johnson moves to the four. He’s your your spacing guy. Valenunis rolls to the rim. he’s your offensive rebounding guy. And then Picket Murray and Bruce, they try to pick apart the defense as much as possible. I I do think that rather than Bruce Brown out there in the Picket Murray lineups, I think I would rather have somebody like Tim Hardaway or Julian Straw there personally. Uh or you could go with Pton Watson for a little bit more defensive pressure, but I do like the concept of picket Murray lineups. Denver didn’t use it that much. uh wouldn’t surprise me if they would uh do something a little bit differently. Thomas gives us Bruce Brown, one of Hardway or Strawler, Payton Watson, Cam Johnson, Jonas Valenunis. So along the same lines there, a little bit bigger because you have Payton and Cam and Valenunis and then you move Bruce to that backup point and then one of THJ or Strawther at the two. I like it. I think that’s going to be a pretty consistent one. Cam Johnson can stagger with the with the second unit and he also has a little bit of extra ball handling and creation that he can get into. Uh but more than anything, he just give them another consistent option that they could trust in those situations. I kind of like the idea of pairing Cam Johnson and Bruce Brown. Uh not because of anything in particular, but because like Bruce is not a traditional point guard. He is your combo guard type. And so Denver’s going to need some other guys that you can believe in that you can trust to handle the basketball at various points. You do not want to get into a situation consistently where Bruce Brown is just overwhelmed by certain situations handling the ball and that will happen at times. So I do think that there is some value to this. Uh Strawther can handle a little bit. Watson probably can’t, but maybe there is some defense, some development that happens and he has a little bit more consistency to his handle and to his creation. Uh, but I do like the idea of Cam Johnson with that group. It’s pretty good. Gabe says, “Bruce, one of THJ or Strather at the two Watson AGIC.” Okay, this is interesting. This is one of a one of the lineups that you’re probably going to get into if you’re staggering at the end of the first, at the end of the third. Aaron Gordon stays out there for defense. Jokic obviously out there to orchestrate. And then you’ve got Bruce, you’ve got THJ, we’ll say, and Watson who come in off the bench. That that seems pretty consistent. I think that that would be a pretty likely option for Denver. um this past season and kind of going back a couple years, the Nuggets really like to uh to keep one of KCP or Bruce Brown, whether like it was KCP starting or Bruce Brown or Christian Brown, excuse me. Let me let me re let me let me restart. KCP when he was starting, Christian Brown when he was starting. Usually those guys would be handcuffed to Joic as a perimeter defender, somebody that could kind of uplift that defense a little bit, uplift that energy a little bit. And so you’re probably not going to get as many lineups where you get the bench one, two, and three out there at the same time. But it’s not to say that they shouldn’t try. And I think that there should be some more experimentation that happens with some of these lineups and rotations. So I like it. I I think that they should try it. Uh Yoka JG lineups will always be good. Throw in Bruce Brown. That thing’s going to cook. It’s going to be great. Um High Wisdom says Strawther, Bruce, Hardaway, Holmes, Valenunis. Obviously kind of flipping Strawther and Bruce in there from a one-two perspective, but this is a a lineup that I think people aren’t giving as much credence to. Having both Strawther and Hardway out there at the same time, you’re getting two wings that can shoot. Like that’s that’s what you want in in a lot of these cases. You want guys that can really space the floor and then to compensate for that, you get Don Holmes who’s a bigger power forward and then you get Valenunis who’s a very big center. You’re not going to give up a ton defensively. I don’t think like that’s especially on the rebounding side of things. Denver should dominate the glass. They should dominate the interior. there should be some things that they can do. And then you’ve also got the spacing around it. So in theory, you’ve got gravity kind of pulling both ways with two wings that can really space and two bigs that can really crash. So I like it. I think that that’s a good one. Will it be good enough defensively? Probably not. But it’s a good offensive counter punch, especially in the regular season against some bench teams that probably not going to be that great. So like this is your lineup against Charlotte where you just really try to roll Charlotte at some points. That would be good. Him says Bruce Christian, Pton Watson, Aaron Gordon, Don Holmes. Pure defense. Um this is your switch all lineup. this is your this is your lineup that you want out there for uh playoff defense purposes. Can Don Holmes handle that is a fair question. It’s a fair question for sure. I think he can. Um he played center obviously in college. I think he’ll be able to play center in the NBA, but you have Aaron Gordon next to him and that kind of eases up that burden a little bit. So, can Denver get enough shooting, enough spacing, or is this just going to be a purely kind of defensive transition, uh, where you are forcing mistakes, you’re forcing turnovers, and you’re running? Um, yeah, I don’t I don’t know. I without Murray, without Cam Johnson, without Joic, usually you would want one of Tim Hardaway Jr. or a straw. They’re out there to really space a little bit, give yourself some breathing room. I am worried about what Denver’s lineups still look like without any of those three. Murray, Cam Johnson, Joic. Uh but we’ll see. We’ll we’ll see it. You’re right about it being pure defense because it’s not a lot of offense, that’s for sure. Uh but I do I do like the concept of it. Um Patrick O’Shea says, “Cam plus Bruce plus Val plus Holmes plus Strawther.” Okay, so you got you got Bruce at the one, Strather at the two, Cam at the three, Holmes at the four, Val at the five. Sure. Like that’s a pretty logical one. You’re getting pressure on the interior. You’re getting Bruce to handle the outside. Uh there’s a lot there. I I like it. I think that that like the Don Holmes Yonas Valentinis combination is going to be an interesting one to track. I’m curious to see whether it can hold up on both ends of the floor because if it can hold up defensively that offensively it should be pretty good against bench units specifically like that should be one where those guys are overwhelming some teams. Uh so that’ll be nice to nice to have at some points. Gabe comes back with Jamal Bruce Pton Watson Cam Johnson. This one I think is going to be a playoff lineup. I really do like this one. I I think you you like the idea of having Bruce as a secondary creator next to Murray. Like hypothetically, you’re facing actually this is a great example. Hypothetically, you are facing the Oklahoma City Thunder and Jamal Murray’s got Alex Caruso or Lou Dort on him. Bruce Brown’s probably got Shay Gil just Alexander on him. And if not Jay, he’s probably got like maybe JDub’s kind of in the M. JDub’s actually probably guarding Cam Johnson in this case. Uh but either way, you want to be able to loop in some other players that can handle the basketball and you don’t want to give up the baseline impact that you’re getting from Murray uh that you’re getting from Joic. So this will be a good defensive mix to throw around the Murray, Cam, Joic trio. like those guys are undoubtedly Denver’s three weaker starters on the defensive end. So you get Bruce Brown out there, you get Peyton Watson out there. In theory, they should lift that up at least a little bit more. I think having the perimeter guys doing that, I think is going to be really helpful. Uh really helpful in general. So we will see. Uh but I do like that. I think that’s a good concept. Um okay, here’s another one. Bruce, Tim Hardway Jr., Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, Jonas Valenunis. I like this one uh because it means that Cam Johnson and Aaron Gordon are staggering with that second unit. And I kind of like that. I kind of like that for this group. You want them to be providing a little bit more of that size and versatility to some of those second units. It relieves some of the pressure from guys like Don Holmes, from Payton Watson, from Zeke Naji. They don’t have to be out there. But you get the three veterans in Bruce Brown, Tim Hardway Jr., Jonas Valenunis off the bench and you get two of your starters with them. So that could be a really good bench lineup as well for the playoffs. Like that that one I would expect to get some run. Uh we’ll see what it ultimately looks like, but uh can Denver defend with that group I think is a fair question. I think they will be able to score at least to the degree that they need to. Uh, but I am curious if there is a weakness that I think Denver still has on their roster, it is at just traditional point guard play where when Jamal Murray is off the floor and Joic is off the floor who is creating that offense consistently. Can they run a unit and create open shots for other people? Bruce is going to run that second unit a lot. Maybe Jaylen Picket gets some opportunities and maybe that’s a way that he can carve out some opportunities for himself. How much pressure he actually puts on the defense, I think, is a fair question. Probably not a lot. So, it’s something to at least be concerned to think about. I’m not even really concerned. Uh, but I do think that there is at least a world where Denver, like Gabe says here, that’s why Bruce is in a huge upgrade over Russ. There are certain things that Bruce does better than Russ. He will be more malleable. He’ll be more flexible in terms of what Denver can do. uh whether it’s defensively, whether it is kind of playing on and off the ball in the offense, whether he like it’s different lineups that he can fit around. But what Russ does is when he’s handling the basketball, he puts a lot of pressure on the rim, he puts a lot of pressure on opposing teams to kind of collapse on him and then can create some opportunities for other people. So that is the the give and take there. And so maybe Russ is back and maybe he is able to do that. his role would obviously be far diminished from what it was last year. He would not be averaging 28 minutes a game. He’d probably be much much closer to like 15, maybe 20. Uh but I do think that there’s at least a world where Denver misses that skill set for sure where they need somebody who’s getting downhill but also creates at a high level for other people, which Russ did do. He averaged six assists. Okay, couple more here and then I want to talk a little bit about the rest of the West. Um Dustin, you says Murray, Christian Brown, Peyton Watson, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon. A small ball lineup where this is kind of a a playoff type lineup where Murray’s out there, Christian Brown is out there, Aaron Gordon is out there, Cam Johnson is out there. That’s four starters and Pwatt. Uh I like that. I think you’re probably more likely to see that with Bruce Brown and you move Christian Brown to the three. Uh, but I do like it. I think that there is a world where it works and honestly like with the way that Aaron Gordon’s been shooting with Cam Johnson, the way that he shoots in spaces, I think it can work. I think that’s that’s something that would be really interesting. So, can Denver get enough impact from Murray in those situations? Can he be the one to kind of uplift things? He’ll have a lot of pressure on him with Christian and Peyton next to him, but I do think that that’s something to consider. Uh it’s one of the reasons why Bruce Brown would be good for that lineup is a secondary ball handler. Maybe not a a primary ball handler in that situation. And let’s go one more here. JK Wallace says, “Murray, Tim Hardaway Jr., Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon Yoke, the no defense but will score 160 lineup.” Absolutely. U and you could even throw Strawther into that mix instead of Tim Hardaway Jr. if you wanted to. Uh but Denver will have lineups where they just want to score. They will have lineups where they just want to defend. There will be some lineups where they try to do both and those will probably be their best ones. Uh but this one is a good one when you just want to get back into a game or you just want to extend a lead that you have already established. So will be interesting to see how it goes. But I’ve been very impressed with the way that the Nuggets have put this lineup together with the the rotations and there are so many options that you can get out here. So excited to see where it goes. Final couple minutes. Uh I just want to focus on the rest of the Western Conference and and look around at the NBA and just talk about some of these other teams. Uh this past season standings were as thus OKC, Houston, Lakers, Nuggets, Clippers, Minnesota, Golden State, Memphis, Sacramento, Dallas. Um San Antonio will probably jump up into that mix this year. We will be healthy. Darren Fox will get a full season with them. They added some talent. Uh they added big old Luke Cornets. He’ll but they lost Sandre Mama Kellishes. So is that really uh is that really fair? So we’ll uh we’ll talk that through but uh OKC is basically standing pat. They didn’t have much flexibility in order to do that like in order to do much else but they did retain some of their guys including big Jaylen Williams uh who I thought that they might let slip through the cracks because of the situation that they’re in. But they they’ve got him for a good contract. They’ve got a lot of other guys for good contracts and good like Aaron Wiggins for example gets onto a descending contract for the next few years that goes down to like 7 million per year, 8 million per year. So like that’s that’s Zeke Naji money right there. So they’ve got they’ve got guys that they can uh like they’re they’re not going to be worried about keeping that group together. Uh Houston also very effective in how they have assembled their stuff. I’m a little bit worried about Houston’s lack of three-point shooting. Now, now they do have some guys that can obviously shoot, but it’s a lot of pressure on guys like Reed Shepard, a lot of pressure on guys like Tari E, uh, to be good immediately, but you can’t argue with the defense. Like, their their group is going to be incredible. Uh, their starting lineup is Fred Van Vleet, Amond Thompson, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith, Alper, and Shangun. And then you’ve got guys like Tari E coming off the bench. They are making sure to bring back Jan Tate. They have Steven Adams. They added Clink Capella. Like that group is going to be really good. Um so I think it’s those three teams, Denver, Houston, OKC that are now in the top tier. I think they’ve elevated themselves well enough. Maybe OKC is kind of in a tier of their own still because they have uh the certainly the baseline, but I I still kind of think that Denver has an argument that they’re better than OKC based off of how close they were last year, based off of what they have done to change themselves, based off of some of the weaknesses Denver had. They have now sort of rectified or or gone steps to rectifying. So OKC hasn’t gotten better this past offseason or this offseason. I don’t think they have. Um, they’ll be trying to play guys like Nicola Topic. Uh, they’ll be trying to play some other young guys that they have. Kase Wallace is obviously very good. Uh, but there might be some kind of flexibility there that they they need to have. They’re they’re also going to be pretty tired coming off of a long playoff run. They’ve had a long extensive season. Are they going to be able to do that again back to back is a fair question. Um, other teams. Um, Thomas says, “How about the Clippers?” Adding Brook Lopez to the mix that they have is pretty good. Uh, they didn’t do anything too crazy outside of that from what I understand. Uh, but Brook Lopez will help. Think about the the series with Denver. The big issue for them was the non-evita Zubots finish. Like he was very good. Uh some of the actually you know what some of the lineups that they had with like Ben Simmons and some of their other like smaller options were pretty good but they had so much pressure on Zubot and now that they’ve actually got another backup center there will be some flexibility there. So like they’re they’re going to have a really good mix. It’ll probably win about 50 games like it did this past year. It’s just a lot of pressure to put on Kawhi Leonard, James Harden. Not sure that those guys are at the level that you need in order to seriously compete anymore. Uh they are good. I’m not sure they are great anymore. And it’s not really the rotation players faults. Like they they have so many other of those guys that can do it. It’s just mostly about uh Harden and Kawawaii. Uh Minnesota will be slightly worse, but not that much worse. Um, Gabe asks, “How do you think we match up better against Minnesota now?” Um, Michael Porter was a problem against Minnesota. He wasn’t really able to guard like certainly switch on to Anthony Edwards, but he also struggled with Jaden McDaniels. I think Cam Johnson will be able to guard a guy like Jaden McDaniels a little bit easier. He’ll be able to move his feet a little bit better. Um, and also just having some creativity to be able to put the ball on the deck when he needs to, that will be super helpful. Um but yeah, like Joic should be able to figure that out. Um them not having Nia Alexander Walker, it’s one less perimeter defender that they can throw at Murray. Are you going to just keep having Anthony Edwards do that the entire time? Does Jada McDaniel slide over to Murray now? And then does that kind of screw with some of the matchups that you can have? I’m I’m curious to see what it looks like. But if Minnesota, like True Teller here says if Minnesota does get Broggeden, like that would that would give them a slight replacement, but it doesn’t really help them defensively. So that was their identity that really got them through Denver. Um I’m curious to see what they ultimately do there. Uh but the Lakers got worse. I don’t think there’s any argument. I know that DeAndre Aton is going to start at center for them, but I think that Dorian Finny Smith was super valuable. some of the things that they were able to do last year. Um the it was they kind of junked up their defense because of how small that they were playing. But I do think that the Lakers like they’re probably not winning 50 again. I’d be shocked if they won 50. There’s also still pressure that LeBron James is putting on everybody. He might actually accept a buyout like if if that’s a thing. So I don’t think that they are a serious contender if that is happening, if that’s ongoing. Uh, but who knows? Maybe they they turn some things around and maybe LeBron gets back in line with what they want to do and he just finishes out the year with them and like we’ll see what happens. But I I just don’t think they’re good enough defensively in order to make any of that happen. Dorian Finey Smith was really helping them defensively. DeAndre Aton will help guard bigger players, but I’m not sure he’s going to do it better than the way that they were guarding before. Like even over what Jackson Hayes was doing. Hayes was doing just fine. So, we’ll see. Okay. Um, don’t really need to talk about much more than that. I think that is going to do it for this episode of Pickax and Roll, brought to our good friends here at Mile High Sports. Thank you so much everybody for tuning into the show. Always appreciate everybody hopping in, sharing their thoughts. This this bench situation for Denver is going to be very fun. Uh, I’m I’m looking forward to it. Looking forward to seeing what they do. I’ll probably be back tomorrow. We’ll do one more kind of wrap-up on this free agency for Denver and maybe we can even talk about the 15th man a little bit more extensively depending on if Denver does ever sign one. We will see. Thank you so much everybody. Hit that like button. Hit that subscribe button on the way out. I will talk to you guys very soon.

On the latest Pickaxe and Roll, Ryan Blackburn ranks the Denver Nuggets bench players by expected role in the regular season, breaks down some bench lineups he likes, and goes over the rest of the Western Conference and some moves other teams have made.

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