Why Cam Johnson will be an UPGRADE Over Michael Porter Jr. on the Denver Nuggets | DNVR Nuggets Live

Why Cam Johnson will be an UPGRADE Over Michael Porter Jr. on the Denver Nuggets | DNVR Nuggets Live

Get out of here. It’s like real tough ones for me personally. It would have been nice in my career. I was like, “Oh, that’s interesting anecdote.” But we can’t tell the audience. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t talk. Let me know when we’re live. Oh god. What is up everybody? Welcome to the Americ podcast. Game for you. Oh yeah. The other way out for three. All right. There we go. Uh, a little twoman game here live from the Toyota lounge driven by your front-range Toyota stores. Toyota, the official vehicle of DMVr. Join the conversation with us. We want to hear what your thoughts are on all the topics we’re talking about. So, hop in the Toyota chat and chat along with everybody else watching. It’s what makes this experience fun. We spend an hour together every single day talking about our favorite thing. Some Sometimes the chat talks about their own thing. Sometimes their own conversation. It’s a It’s a community, your own little Discord here as we do a show. Yeah. Uh, we got a good one for you lined up today. Nuggets had their second to last practice ahead of their game on Thursday night. They will have a practice tomorrow. I’m told likely no media availability cuz they want to get out of dodge. Also, just an excuse. Yeah. Also, I’ll I’ll wait to see who you interview today, but I think a lot of the names are maybe out of the way. I’ll have to look too. I’m going to have to check my to see who it is we talked to. Uh, but I have some notes there we’ll talk about. And then the Cam Johnson Michael Porter Jr. trade is official. Good day to talk about comparisons side by side. similar uh similarities. I’ve been deep in the Cam Johnson tape. It’s been a while since I’ve been deep in the tape on a non-Nugget. I was going to say you’ve been deep in the offc court tape as well. You’ve been listening watching podcast. Watching podcast. I want to get to know his personality a little bit. A little bit of all that. Is it different than Mike’s? That’s kind of the running joke, but you know what? Less so than people think. All right. Uh so it’s me, myself, and then of course Brennan vote. How’s it going, man? I’m excited to do this. I just told the fellas in studio that I’d never seen There Will Be Blood and I watched it last night. So if I look like I’m distracted in the middle of this show, it’s because I’m thinking about Daniel D. Lewis. That’s a Where does it compare? Because you know they filmed that in No Country for Old Man at the exact same time. Yeah, I that’s a it’s a really hard question. You know that other one is my favorite. I do know that and it’s one of my favorite movies ever. I might go There Will Be Blood because it’s probably the best acting performance I’ve ever seen, man. Yeah, I think that one is a total what you like in movies kind of thing cuz they’re both great at everything. I could see a lot of people walking out of this one. There will be bloody if you didn’t know like my mom really, you know what I mean? 15 minutes of prospecting and you’re like, “All right, nothing is funny.” Like I love my guy Bill Simmons. You know that my idol. Love that guy. His take after No Country for Old Men was that they it lacked a shootout. I just like I don’t know if you got it. Kind of flew right over your head, brother. You got it, man. Flew right over your head. There should have been at the end a big shootout. I was like, “All right.” Um, let’s get into the notes here, though. You didn’t have a note that yes, it is day four of C of training camp. I think they did a practice yesterday with no media availability. Yes. Which is always a little bit odd, but you know what? Whatever. And so, this is day four and they don’t want to send the same guys. So, they’ve kind of sent the main guys to talk, and it is getting down the list, but there’s still stuff you can gain, some information you can gain. One, Stan Crunky very much present. Get his labs in. getting his laps in, which is a hilarious thing because we got to watch, you know, maybe 20 minutes of live action today in practice. They always do this one day in training camp where you get to go in, and they do this in training camp, by the way, in San Diego. There’s one day where you get to kind of catch uh a live portion of practice. We caught that today. Not any The only standouts I have from that, I thought that I mean, I’m I’m obviously locked in under on Holmes quite a bit. He uh had one really nice high low pass and I bring it up because you know he’s the big man here. You can’t really be a fax simile of Jokic. I don’t think they’re asking him to be. He’s not that kind of player. But one thing I like about him and I’ve actually been watching old scouting reports on him too. Like just old highlights from Dayton. He has a lot of everything like to say a jack of all trades. I think what’s interesting about him is he probably will become a specialist over time and he’ll you know whatever. But he has a lot of avenues that can break for him. And he had this one pass. He actually had two passes. One of them over the top I think to Hunter Tyson or to somebody for a cut and it was one of those passes that went just over the fingertips of the defense like perfect touch. You know, he kind of lofted it and it’s one of those ones where you either can or can’t make that play and if you can’t make it, you don’t usually try. And he made it and it was successful and right on target. I was like, man, that’s a nice pass. And then he had another high low, you know, hit the pocket for the roller for for a layup. And it was just like, man, you know, it’s he has so many different things in his bag. And it was kind of cool to see the passing. Well, the passing because I remember plumbly a little, but actually Boogie Cousins was a guy who was able to sort of keep the ball moving and then make those feeds. And that’s the great thing of sort of grow I guess I’m already grown. I was going to say growing up on watching Yic. I’m an adult. You get the point. You’re still grown up. When centers make that that pass, you go, “Well, that looks easy with that angle. Why doesn’t everyone Most of them can’t? If you have it in your bag, it’s it’s important. But I I do think the jack-of alltrades things homes will probably have to become very good at at least one thing, right? And I would I think it’s maybe shooting. I’m going to tell you stop you right there and tell you that is the story and you commented on this from your, you know, first days at training camp, but that was the story today. And I’ll go even further. Coach Mson said he might be the best shooter on our team, man. That the guy shoots that well. It’s not just a little bit of a shot. And then uh you know, we talked to a couple of the players today. It was Curtis, I got to find the Nuggets summer league roster because I forgot his last name. Um Curtis Jones. Curtis Jones, I believe, out of Iowa State. And he said, you know, I asked him like what has stood out, who or what has stood out through the practice, and he was like Deron Holmes can really shoot. He’s like, I knew a scooter scouting report he was a shooter, but I didn’t know he was a shooter like that. Yeah. So, at least early reports are that Deron Holmes’s shot is not just, you know, a value ad. It’s like that might be his identity. I I’m hopeful it is, man. I’m hopeful it is. And I said this on yesterday’s show. You know, sometimes you there are a lot of shooter archetypes and they will shine in these environments. It then has to translate to the next level. I’m pretty hopeful it will for Duron, but you know, like Julian is a guy you think of as a shooter. Of course, Julian actually shot 35%. So, it’s it’s one thing to see it now. It’s very good and encouraging, but of course, we have to see it translate as well. Another note I have from practice today is that, you know, this was nice because there’s a lot of new faces in the building and there were a lot of people in the building today. Uh Jared Dudley was there with the team. Uh Rodney Bilips was there. There’s also a coach from Germany. I believe it was M in Germany where he coaches one of the German teams there. Kind of it sounds to me like it’s the Megalicks of Germany. Okay. You know, developmental guys kind of come through every year or two. And you know, you got to chat up with him a little bit. So you’re just getting all these different perspectives. And I ask everybody, you know, who who do you like? You know, who do you who stands out? And almost everybody had a different answer. And the one thing, and I know this is summer league, some people will roll their eyes cuz who really cares win or lose at summer league? You just want to see individual play. One of the things about this team, older team, experienced team, mature team. Uh, Coach Mson said afterwards, he I asked him, “What’s the character or identity or personality of this team?” And he said, “It’s just very mature. these guys have all, you know, we’re not, it’s not like hurting cats with these guys. They’re all professionals and they’re all just kind of more advanced than your typical summer league team. So, I say that to say the Nuggets still have one two-way contract to to hand out. And I think it’s really a truly an open battle, like an open battle here. It could even be outside of the system, but that there are a lot of guys. Usually it’s like you have one or two drafties, one or two two-ways, you’ve already signed, couple exhibit 10, and then it’s just a bunch of guys, you know, just what are we doing here? It sounds like the Nuggets have more of the guys that are vying for their own interest. And so it might affect how the Nuggets approach summer league and the minutes and how they hand them out. But it also tells you that this team should be pretty good in terms of guys who have upside to be NBA quality players. I wonder if you know that last two-way slot will go to a big if bigs maybe at the at at summer league have an advantage right now just in terms of Denver’s thinking but I was also thinking I’m I’m not really sure how this measures up relative to the last handful of summer league rosters I would have to look into this but like a lot of four-year seniors and then Hunter Tyson who’s coming back for his third summer league and I think this is by design and Don Holmes who obviously didn’t get to play in summer league but was around an NBA organization now for a year. So, maturity makes sense. Shooting is the other thing that I think this squad should have. And we know it’s something John Wallace has said multiple times. They want to add more shooting to this roster. It’s really really it’s really encouraging to hear that’s what Don is bringing in particular. Yeah. So, it’s really exciting for him. And here’s another note on Don and I think this one is important. By the way, we say this all the time. Really the best kid, man. Like comes up and just talks to everybody today. kind of gives a little bit of time, you know, like he just is such a gracious guy, such a good attitude guy. And again, I have no idea what he’s like personally, but just in these interactions, I’m always so I always walk away so impressed with just how he carries himself. Super positive guy, super high energy, and just unbelievably nice. Um, one thing though, and I think this is going to be true. So, first of all, as I’m getting into some of the tape from a year ago and just trying to remind myself, what was it that people saw in Deron Holmes when they when he was a a prospect? a draft prospect. He has a lot of skills and when you try to project forward like star upside, role player, this or that. One thing that he has, I mean, I think role player is very likely, right? Sure. But he really has a lot more like diverse skills than you would expect and there are a handful. It wasn’t the the foundation of his game. It wasn’t even a big part of his game, but more often than you would think, he does something saucy with the ball in his hands. And what I mean by that is multi-art combination like crosses over a guy, spin dribbles, hesitates, get to the rim. You know, you could see guys often times like a Zeke Naji, I’m not trying to compare him, but Zeke Naji is not going to have a multi-part move. He might get a good shot fake. He might get a good hesitation in, but it’s not like he’s getting some complex thing. And Don Holmes, it wasn’t a they didn’t require him or ask him to do this, but every now and then in a pinch, he would do something where you’re like, damn, that was kind of nice. A little skill. A little skill. Yeah. A little. And I Zeke you look at as on the hopeful end, you go, “Well, that’s an NBA body.” And he’s an athlete. Zeke’s an athlete. So that’s a guy. He’s a bigger guy. I Holmes is, I think, more I say this respectfully, but like a basketball player, I think. Just more fleshed out skill sets, more I I think confidence with the ball in his hands. It’s an interesting place to be because when you’re on a team like Denver, what did DA say at the press conference? We need people to develop at the things we need them to develop at. So, I don’t mean to try to put Holmes in a box preemptively because I don’t think he’s good enough and I don’t think he’s versatile. I’m just more of trying to think, okay, what does he put together that makes him invaluable to the big picture in Denver? I think Christian Brown nailed this better than any other role playing prospect that’s come here and he’s now set for a pretty nice payday. By the way, he was in the gym today. Looks huge. Somehow looks bigger. Uh oak tree, man. That guy’s legs are enormous. He’s just as an oak tree. I’m sure he’s in town. Probably maybe started negotiations on his extension and all those different things. But it was kind of cool to see him in the building. But Christian Brown did this where he has stuff in his game that he uses extremely sparingly. And we talked about I mean he had the passes behind the head, you know, he had a couple like crazy passes where you’re like, I didn’t know you had that. But he knows that getting on the court was about defense and about being in the right spots, cutting hard, playing in transition, being in the right spots. And it’s like as his game unspools now, we’ll start to see a little bit more of, oh, okay, it’s nice that you have that. I think for Deron Holmes, it’s going to be shooting, defending, rebounding, and then he has the fact that he maybe has something in his game down the line 2, three years from now. I hope we see that. I hope it’s like you built such a good foundation that now you’re allowed to kind of step outside those bounds cuz he’s one guy that if he does hit I actually think he has more versatility to his game in a way that you talk about continuity offense he might be a guy that can do a little bit more than just finish that would be lovely and and then it sort of goes from fleshing out the depth with potentially big Val in the picture to sort of contribute right now to hey what’s our plan for us backup bigs of the future. What are our plans? Who’s a guy that we can develop? So, Holmes is Holmes’ skill set is really exciting. And I don’t mean this to be a wet blanket. It’s strongly out of fairness to Holmes. I would just much prefer that he’s in a place this year where there are no expectations because Big Val’s here. I’ll kind of push Well, yes, 100%. I’m gonna push back on this because I’ve seen this take on the timeline a little bit of like don’t put pressure on him. don’t have high expect and I do think there’s something fair too the Nuggets and even the summer league but the Nuggets should not be thinking that he’s going to be special this year but at the same time I’m like guys pop when they’re good they pop when they’re good and to me you want a guy that comes into into the Nuggets next year and makes an impact cuz they need him if if you told me Deron Holmes had an impact season as the ninth or tth guy it’d be like man that’s huge that that means he really did something and I’m hopeful for it because I like the skill set. But there’s one thing he is, in my opinion, going to struggle with more than anything else, and coach Mson mentioned it today, and it makes a lot of sense based on his personality and what I’ve seen scouting him. One thing that I think he’s going to have to overcome, we’ll talk about on the other side. Oh, what a tease. Unbelievable. Now I’m kind of mad. I guess I’ll stick around, too. Whether you’re on the road, at home, or somewhere in between, First Bank makes banking easy, convenient, and secure. Their mobile banking app allows you to check balances, pay friends, and manage your money anytime, anywhere. Here’s the best part. Open a new First Bank checking account today, and you could earn $300. First Bank is all about helping you stay on track. Their tools make it simple to stay in control of your finances without the hassle. No matter where life takes you, First Bank gives you the freedom to bank how and when it works best for you. So, if you’re ready for better banking and the chance to earn a little extra, head to efirstbank.com/bonus. That’s e-firstbank.com/bonus to open your account. Bank how you want, when you want with FirstBank. Certain restrictions and requirements apply. Member FDIC. And let’s talk about our friends at Toyota, the official vehicle of the NVR. 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Toyota is a proud partner of the Never Nuggets and the official vehicle of DNVR. Let’s go places, Adam. Let’s go places, man. Um, all right, back here. So, there’s one thing I think with him and and again, what I want to see about from Deron Holmes at summer league, I want to see him defend really well at a high level because that would stand out to me just perimeter defense, interior defense. By the way, you noted that play yesterday from from scrimmage where he blocked a shot on the perimeter. Kind of his specialty. Yeah. Yeah. Like as I was going through his highlights again, he had a lot of blocks out on the perimeter. So like jump shot exactly like how he had it, blocked it right back into the shooter. He maybe that’s something that he does well. Uh but I want to see him defend on the perimeter, defend inside and rebound and then shoot the three. Everything else would be gravy. You know, anything else if he has a little handle here, passes well or whatever it is. But I wanted to see the defensive versatility as a big man in the three-point shot. But there is one trait of his and coach Mson pointed this out. You can check out the interviews on YouTube and that is the problem with Don is we want him to be more aggressive. We need him to be more aggressive a player like he has all these skill sets but he’s so unselfish and so willing to be part of the system that there are times where he has to learn when to dial it up and just and assert himself. Summer league is a place that will draw that out. This is why summer league can be a bad example of who’s good or who’s bad is more passive players don’t get the opportunity. But I’m not less worried about that in summer league because I mean it’s its own style. But I am curious about him and just what a the appropriate aggressiveness looks like from him because I do think he is a role player and in his head he’s a role player which is great but yeah man put the ball on the floor sometimes really get to the rim go up strong right. Is he a kind of guy that’s going to look for his own shot at summer league? Do they want him to maybe a little more than he has so far? But as long as I to me it’s just get involved. Right. You talked about the passing and just be involved in possessions and not just sort of a shooting decoy off in the corner. I do wonder if if he’s such a nice guy. Does he have to get a little meaner at times on the floor? Maybe. Who knows? But yeah, I I think be you can be really assertive and aggressive on the glass. You can be really you can be a very aggressive and noticeable impact player defending the rim. Offensively, I wonder how much it’s gonna, you know, is he gonna shine or is it just he looks good as an open shooter and we’ll take that because it’s not there are a lot of different agendas at summer league. Like if every if everyone on the roster is like, “Yeah, we’re getting the ball to homes. That’s all we’re doing.” That’s one thing. I don’t I’ll tell you, I don’t think it’s going to be like that cuz he’s not that kind of player. He’s not that kind of player. So, we may not see the offense pop. And some like I’m kind of prepared for that. But be aggressive on the glass, be aggressive on defensively. I know it’s silly, but I think this Nugget summer league team might be good because it’s not dependent on any one guy and there are a lot of good players. And I’ll tell you the other guy that gets mentioned. I I heard just from guys’ names I heard shout out today. Buouie apparently running his second unit in their scrimmages looked really good. Terrence Hangrove I know uh people like Keonte Johnson liked. Curtis Jones liked. So Spencer Jones I think people very excited about. I mean he’s obviously already a guy. And then EJ Liddell who’s been around uh Rain Smith as well. So there’s a lot of guys that I think when you ask around there’s a lot of guys whose names pop up. You want to talk about a tiny king Rain Smith. That’s your guy. Small fella. He’s the one who got almost 10 threes a game up at Louisville his senior year. Yeah. He is a shooter. Yeah. Um let’s go now to Oh, one guy, one other guy I want to shout out. Everybody seems very impressed with Tamar Bates. He got a bunch of defense shout outs on the day of the first day that I went and I was, you know, he’s this 50 4090 guy at Missou. I think he’s going to be good, man. And you Yeah. And I was thinking we’d hear about him as a shooter, but the first handful of shout outs are about how aggressive he was defensively, diving on the floor, making an impact. So, he’s he’s here to he’s here to make a make uh an impression for sure. I think uh Tamar Bates might be number two guy most I’m Spencer Jones obviously, but Tamar Bates might be a guy I’m just very very excited to to kind of get to know his game. Um, and then Curtis Jones out of Iowa State. You’d never guess it. Friends with Monte. Oh, no kidding. Monte is going to come up later in this episode, by the way. Oh, hell yeah. Uh, let’s move on now. So, I’m excited for summer league. I think it’ll be fun. There’s enough players to be interested in. And unlike most years, I’m actually pretty invested in who this last two-way is because I think it’ll be important for Denver. Okay. Uh, whoever it is they pick. But let’s move on now because the Cam Johnson Michael Porter Jr. news uh became official today. Um so that deal is completed. I know a lot of people were worried about physicals this or that. I the front office I don’t believe was ever concerned about those types of things. This was one where they were confident. The thing is I know early on with the tra with trading Michael Porter. There are teams that you have a great deal of trust with and familiarity and there are some teams that you would worry might try to pull one over on you. And so I think that was always a fear with Michael Porter, but I don’t think they felt that way about Brooklyn at all. The deal made sense for them. They have friend, you know, very friendly over there. They never was concerned. So I was never concerned about this one as well, but it is official now. And so I thought it would be neat or important here to kind of compare the two guys. How much Cam Johnson have you watched, by the way? Have you been like checking out just trying to get to know his name? I’ve seen highlight clips. I haven’t like watched games. So So the intel intel on Cam and I this is part of it. Even though guys are in the league, they still do their homework on, hey, what are they like, you know, around apparently it is elite for Cam Johnson. Every coach loves him. This is like the type of guy every coach is like, I was my favorite guy to coach because he’s extremely dedicated and extremely detail oriented. He’s one of the guys that is asking for more on the scouting report. Like he wants little detail. And I think this is true mostly of shooters. There’s different types of players. I think shooters for whatever reason are so ritual based like tra, you know, I go through this motion because it’s like almost superstition and then they’re also detail because they want to know how they get their shots off. So, how does this guy close out? What is he good or bad at? So, intel on Cam is that coaches and teammates absolutely love this guy. 10 out of 10 score and that he is not going to be the guy to mess up details because he is obsessed about them. Detail oriented. How many times did Yokic say the word details in the last playoff run and what when asked almost every time about what will differentiate the Nuggets and the Thunder down the stretch of that series, he kept saying details, execution, and as big a believer in who in Porter’s talent as I am and who he would have been without that third surgery, details are not top of the list when you’re talking about Porter. They’re just not. And with and with Cam, they are on both sides of the ball. And I think that that’s important as well. Let’s not to say that Cam is an allNBA defender, but he’s detail oriented and it’s team defense. And we saw that in the playoffs again, Denver defense elevated in a way we weren’t sure we would see after that regular season. And it’s not because of some deadline acquisition. As a group, they just started playing. And the issue with Porter in game one and why he couldn’t stay on the floor in game one is he was not a part of that. Cam will be. So details are again this is just a guy that coaches will love that Jokic will love. Yeah, those type of details in particular. And by the way, you mentioned defense. I I should have brought this up in the last segment, but Mson referenced that Adelman wanted him to try out some things that they’re considering for next year stylistically. And I asked him about those and I said, you know, on the offensive end and defense and he said, offense is tough because we don’t have Jokic. So how much can we really practice something that we might and if you don’t have a Jokic on the floor, you’re not going to be able to do it. But defensively, he did let loose a couple of those things that they are going to be trying. Fullcourt pressing and zone, among other things, you know, some schematic things. I find that very interesting, though, because zone was a huge part of Denver’s playoff strategy against Oklahoma City. Denver didn’t flood their roster with elite defensive players. I think they got good offensive players. And it makes me think that Denver might be leaning in really heavily to some unconventional styles of defense, including more zone, more fullcourt press. I love that. I think it’s probably Well, the more fullcourt press thing is something we’ve seen deployed against Denver forever. Yeah. And Denver never seems to have the depth or the personnel to play it back. The depth. Yeah, for sure. I think that’s a big part of it. I think this roster should, right? I mean it’s even if it’s not your best def even it’s just guy you have enough bodies to just chase guys around and exhaust them and the zone was highly effective and in convent conventionally just guarding a high pick and roll like Jokic as your center depending on Murray’s effort Porter in the corner it just it wasn’t an awesome blueprint and I think getting unconventional just sort of helped those guys out helped everyone in the last postseason but again this should all be that much easier to do and execute with Cam over Porter this particular stuff. I also just like it though cuz it’s creativity from the Nuggets. You know, they’re looking at it and saying, “Why, what if we did some weird things defensively?” But back to Cam Johnson here. I think him and Michael Porter are actually really similar. Some people have yelled at me for this and said, “They’re nothing alike.” I actually think they’re remarkably alike. The statistics bear it out. The shot profiles and different things bear it out. Even the type of actions Denver runs very similar to what uh Brooklyn ran for for him over these last couple years. He’s in the same spots as Mike. He’s running the same types of actions. And this is one of the reasons I think that it’ll be very seamless. Ben Simmons was even in a Jokic role. I know people will laugh at this. Ben Simmons very good as a passing center. Sure. When he plays center, they ran a lot of elbow action with him running off of dribble handoffs. They’d run a lot of rip DHO action. And by the way, this is so if you don’t know, rip DHO action is one of the staples of Denver’s offense where Murray typically would set a back screen for Aaron Gordon towards the basket and then come off of a handoff on Yoke. And the reason it’s so difficult is the guys that guard AG are not good at guarding Murray. And the guys that guard Murray are not good at guarding AG. He’s too big for the guards. Murray too quick for the bigs. So you run that so they can’t switch it. You get a little delay and then you run off. Well, Mike struggled with this for two reasons. Number one, he wasn’t big enough to screen. He’s just a skinny guy. Y and so they would run what’s called gut action for him, which instead of the back screen, it was usually just a pin down. So he’s coming off of two. Cam Johnson is big. He is not very quick, but he is a big guy. He can be used in those actions. So, they ran him in the Jamal spot a lot and then would come off of that and have a quick uh trigger. And the second reason Michael Porter doesn’t run it often is that if that shot isn’t open, but you get a switch or you get something, Mike wasn’t great at creating another advantage off of that. Cam Johnson’s very good at this. So, they ran very similar actions. And the biggest difference to me is not the shots that came out of it. It was more what Cam was able to do once the play concluded. When Porter when it develops and Porter doesn’t have his shot, he picks up his dribble and he just kind of stops and he looks for Jokic. He’s not resets the offense basically or Yeah. slows it down if nothing else. He was a finisher in that offense. Most of the time if he was passed the ball it was to shoot the ball. Cam might be past the ball to make the next read or or or drive even or drive um just actually finish the cut which Porter would often kind of not do. The these are things the flow of the offense I think Cam will be a a connective piece and and it it it’ll I think it’ll look different in that way. It’s not just so much, oh, I got the ball so I can shoot it. Yeah. And that that just the continuity parts of it I think are going to be really big. And then again, the size difference allows you to put him in different roles. So, I think what’ll be nice about Denver, Denver would run a lot of actions, but one of the things that makes actions different is Yoke’s the ball handler in this one. Oh, he’s the screener in this one. Actually, he’s coming off the pin down in this one. And it’s cool that Yoke has the versatility to be able to be run the same play, but put Yoke in different spots and it’s a different play. I think you have that with Aaron Gordon, you have that with Jamal Murray, even Christian Brown to some extent. And I think Cam Johnson gives you the opportunity where Denver can run the same actions, put guys in different spots, and now it’s different and or just swing the ball and do it on the other side of the floor, right? Which remember when when Yokic would kind of used to look to do that and he’d see Tory Craig, he’d be like, never mind, go the other way. Uh sort of a a realized dream here of just, oh, we can we’re we’re not as sort of limited to certain spots of the court based off personnel. His uh off the dribble game is better than I thought. I mean, I talked about Michael Porter is really good at these little push shots around the basket. And I think Denver will miss it because Cam Johnson is good at regular shots, you know, jump shots, this or that, but he’s not quite as good. Michael Porter has natural talent. He’s like a natural scoreer. He does. He scores in ways that are not always pretty, especially around the rim, but he just had that great touch. But I think Cam Johnson has more off the dribble game than I was expecting in terms of, and part of this was it was asked of him in Brooklyn. I’d be very curious to ask him how much of this he added this last year because of the role, but he’s comfortable making like multi-art moves when there’s no advantage, but it’s like, hey, I turned the corner, I got to go here and oh, crossover behind the back, finish left. Like, he has the ability to do that a little bit higher than I think his reputation because he’s sort of talked about as this really, really, really airtight like role player, Duncan Robinson or something, but there’s more in between to his game, you’re saying? And I think it might be more recent the same way Male Bridges went to Brooklyn. Those were developmental minutes as a top option in Brooklyn and not just a a supplemental piece alongside the many great pieces that Phoenix had. And he was excellent in that role. But yeah, he got to he got to sort of be the guy a little bit and which is something that Porter never could do slashgot to do in Denver. Right. Um there’s also one other thing that’s the biggest difference, two things, but one in particular and that is the coffin corner. What is the coffin corner? We’ll talk about that on the other side. My teases, man, today. Yeah, dude. You’re on fire. All righty. It’s time to talk about Empire today. The absolute goats in flooring. Your best boat, best bet for flooring. Why? Because they’re actual flooring experts. It’s not just a thing they do. It’s not just part of the warehouse. So, when you’re speaking with an employee, you’re speaking to someone who knows exactly what they’re talking about, exactly what you’re looking for in this experience, which is the right flooring and the right colors for your space to see how it looks with your furniture in your house, and no surprises, no questions after this purchase. You have to be able to visualize it. You have to be able to see it. You want to get those precise measurements taken, have all your questions answered. 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Raising Can’s chicken fingers. One love, folks. One love. All right, back here. Let’s talk about the coffin corner. Over the years, this might have been the number one complaint I heard from people around on the Nugget staff, you know, people around the team, what have you, is that Mike is such a great three-point shooter from the corners, but hates being there. Kind of hates. You had to beg him to get to the corner. And so much of spacing is get your shooters to the corner because it opens everything up and you can’t get there. And he would be slow to get there. He would leave the zone often like kind of flay. He misses a shot or two and all of a sudden he’s like, “Well, let me go get the ball up here and try to do something with it.” and he would float and I know it was a recurring frustration for the team. Cam Johnson loves the corner. It’s not a coffin. They call it a coffin corner cuz you go there to die. It’s like oh might get to the corner. He’s like why? So space the floor. Sometimes your job is yes. Somebody guarded you there so you were never open but you did your job. We got to play fouron four. It’s why it’s called the c coffin corner. Cam Johnson took twice as many corner three-point attempts per game as Michael Porter Jr. Wow. twice as many. Twice as many. So, he’s really willing to sit there. He’s really willing to sit there. Loves to get there. I do remember those when Phoenix knocked Denver out. I do remember those. And so, some of this is, you know, you kind of look at that and go, “What was Brooklyn doing?” Well, that they were generating those types of looks. That’s probably part of it, but another part of it just shows you that he’s not a guy, I think Mike begrudgingly sacrificed for the team. I think Cam Johnson doesn’t consider these sacrifices. I think that’s what he likes to do and that’s one of the differences. But to me, I look at that and say when you get twice as many corner threes up some something there’s something there. And the hope is I and probably will be because he actually is a tremendous shooter that teams guard him as tightly in the corner as well because one of a lot of Mike’s value often and granted this is not typically what you expect for max contract value fair enough was that teams would take a defender of Kawhi Leonard’s quality and say you’re face guarding this guy in the corner don’t leave him don’t do anything else that created a lot more room for Jamal and Joic to work so Is Cam by reputation making that same sort of threat? He might because his numbers are great. Uh but yeah, you want to be you want you want teams to feel like no matter how good Murray and Yokic are, I can’t just leave this guy wide open from this spot. I think Cam is that guy can be that guy. But but Mike certainly was. That Clipper series is a great example for everything he couldn’t do out there with the injury. They still were thinking we absolutely have to be guarding this guy and that that made a difference. The other thing he does that I love and this was a note I heard from one of the Nugget coaches today just kind of sitting and talking. Um, you know, I saw Christian Brown taking deep threes. It he did a little shooting drill afterwards and there was a coach talking about, yeah, man, like it’s good for these players to be comfortable taking deep ones because it just open it gives you extra spacing if everybody’s out. Cam Johnson loves taking deep threes. He took four times as many deep threes as ZJ. That’s the fascinating note. And Porter was so visibly uncomfortable when he had to shoot sort of beyond his established range. And that is a really interesting habit. I kind of want to ask him more about like when he picked that up, if he’s always sort of sat a little deeper, been more comfortable or if that’s something he sort of recognized as the game evolved in his in his tenure. Mike, I think what it was with him, if I’m just playing shot doctor here, he jumps so high on his three and I just wonder if it adds to more variation like the deeper you go or what have you. Cam has a very solid shot to him. He gets it up very quickly. He’s one of the quickest releases in the NBA. I think I put it out on Twitter, something like 34th out of 200 guys to qualify. So, it’s like on the higher end. Michael Porter a little bit slower, but of course he jumps so high and his release is second highest only to Victor Wimbeyama. But, so I think both guys will have the spacing in terms of quickness. You have to close out hard. But Cam’s shot is just so set. It’s just so common, so repeatable. And he loves to take that deep one. And I’m so curious when I see Christian Brown working on it and then Cam Johnson who naturally does it. Both guys good shooters, good cutters. That’s the other thing is it allows you to run into the catch sometimes a little bit more and get ahead of steam downhill. So I’m just curious if Denver these little things can like multiply compound to create even more spacing for you. That would be wonderful. even more spacing would be wonderful, which I I’ve sort of thought would is more about the other personnel, but that’s an interesting way to look at it. Well, what happened with Oklahoma City in the playoffs this year, it just it felt like their ability to collapse the paint and close out, that’s what makes them special. They’re so fast to react and they have so many guys that are just sprinting at all times. But now it’s like, yeah, you have to close out an extra two feet. You know, that’s one more step or a half a step or something. So having a guy that just kind of likes to take him again four times as much as MPJ. And I had somebody reply to me when I put this on. It’s like, “Yeah, but he shoots 33%. That’s not a good percentage or what have you.” It’s not about that. It’s about the spacing that it provides because for every one of those shots. Are you just drag there’s probably two possessions where you dragged a defender open and now Joic has a little bit more room. Right. No, it’s a great point. So I kind of like this with the Mike Danton really revolutionized the game. If you remember Ryan Anderson back with um the Houston Rockets when Danton was there, big guy 610 shot threes. He him and they had Eric Gordon and he deliberately had them both on each wing standing four feet behind the line for that reason is he was like we’ll take a 30% three from you guys if it means you’re either getting wide open or the defense is keeping the paint extra open. um this this audition I think as far as the prospect of David Adelman getting more innovative and creative. I think this helps. I think this helps a lot. And I think they’re very conscious about what ways do we need to be different this year, not just kind of run it back with new personnel. Yeah. Um defensively, so those are the things offensively. I do think his ability to keep the ball moving is going to be felt a lot. I predict that this year will be the year of the ball is popping. And I even think there’s a chance that Joic sets a new career record in assists per game. I don’t know if he’ll play enough minutes. He played 37 minutes to get to 10 this year, right? But I would not be surprised if Joic averaged 11 assists next year. Just more games where the ball is popping. Just the ball’s p like nobody’s better when there’s multiple rotations at like completing the, you know, completing it. And I just think that there’ll be more possessions where one action flows into the next. Ball finds its way back to yoke and he’s like there’s where they’re out of position. I love it, man. I absolutely love it. Um, defensively, I think there’s a big difference here as well. And number one, fewer mishaps, ability to pull off more complex rotations, but the biggest one to me is that it should free Aaron Gordon up to be the power forward. Power forward typically is going to be your weak side rim protector because it’s the lowman. Center is in pick and roll, so he’s out, you know, guarding and rotating all this. So, you have a low man. Aaron Gordon often over the last couple years would have to take the secondary perimeter scorer. So Christian Brown will take one or KCP would take one and then AG would have to come up so that Mike didn’t have him. But that put Mike as the low man which he was mixed. Sure. You know sometimes he was great cuz he has athleticism slow to get over there and also just doesn’t always read it right. I mean the thing with Mike is he would some you be laid or whatever. So, if you allow that to be your free safety, if AG gets to be your free safety more often, I think Denver will feel that, especially in the numbers of like why is their defense better, AG gets to be the backside rim protector. That would be awesome. And it would be awesome for AG, too, cuz we we have sort of stopped talking about him defensively. And maybe it’s because of that burden. Yeah. sort of mixed with the physicality he brings to offense, mixed with the fact that Gordon is was originally an athletic archetype of player that has picked up some injuries, man, and is getting older. So, maybe that would just be an easier way for him to be an impact defender without asking the world of him, too, in terms of getting out there and covering some of those guys. I think uh I just don’t know that you’re going to spend your offense, especially in a postseason, using your third or second or third best offensive guy tacking, Cam Johnson, over and over again. I don’t think there’s a lot of teams that are designed to do that. So now you can leave him to play as good, you know, play positional defense and you leave Aaron Gordon as the help. So I’m I’m just really excited about it. I can tell you the Nuggets are very excited about it as well. Um I think that he is on the short list of players that if I was building a roster from scratch, you know, you’re going to have your superstar, you’d pick here or there, but if you were like you get one superstar and then you have to fill it out with role players. Cam Johnson probably makes my team somewhat often. You know what I like a realistic roster where you’re like you can only spend so much and you’re going to have a role players here or there. Cam Johnson to me as your fifth highest paid starter is about as good as it gets in my opinion. You and I have talked about this too. The the real big three moment I think one of the big takeaways from that were like the diminishing returns on having an established third option. Yep. First of all, how hard it is to do like ask Kevin Love, ask Chris Bosch, Hall of Famers, right? But like that was a struggle for them at times and you’re in this weird spot where the ball’s probably not coming to you as much. You don’t just get to establish rhythm every night. But fans, teammates expect you to hit the shot and and often it’s just like a w it’s a open three and you’re cold. It’s a hard thing to do. It also I think we’ve realized is maybe not the wise thing to do and as the way and this CBA has I think sort of accelerated that realization that it’s really about lineup versatility, depth, the amount of good players you can put on the floor at the same time and not just about trying to be as topheavy as you can. And Porter really was like Porter was the third option. Aaron Gordon was probably the third best player, the third most important player, but Porter took the third most shots. He was the third leading scorer. He was that guy. He was waiting to take those shots. And in in Joic ball, it it just sort of seems like if you can get away from that, if it can be more about eight to nine guys that can just sort of play smart, read and react, balance basketball, that’s for the best. I don’t know if it would be fair to call Cam Johnson the third option. The same way I don’t know if it was to call Michael Porter last year. I think you have Jokic as your first option. Yeah. Jamal Murray is the dance partner and by extension your second option and then everybody else is the third option. The third option is what happens behind those things. And sometimes you’ll play through Aaron Gordon cuz he’s big and he’ll have mismatches especially in transition. I don’t know that you’ll necessarily play through Cam like oh we’re running the play now to give him the ball to everybody get out the way or anything like that. So I don’t even know that it has I think it probably never should have been thought of that that way. The fact that MPJ had a max contract makes us think that way. I think the Nuggets now are going to have a first option, a dance partner, and then basketball. Yeah, which is what I’m getting at. And I think that’s I think that’s a the state of the league right now. Yeah. And b that’s probably Jokic ball. That’s probably Jokic ball. So, I’m excited for it. I actually love Cam Johnson. I think this is uh the number one reason to be optimistic about the Nuggets right now is cuz I just think this starting five makes sense. I will say the injury stuff is concerning. Um, not majorly concerning because they haven’t been like catastrophic, but it is worth noting that Cam Johnson hasn’t been as healthy as Michael Porter over these last handful of years. And whether or not Cam Johnson can make it through a full playoffs and be healthy at the right time is it’s at least noteworthy. I think it is. I think it’s the big question to ask about Cam. I think there’s an easy argument to make that, you know, his years in Brooklyn are probably not the most I have to play every second so we can win a title. if he’s dealing with stuff, maybe he he kind of looked out for his future or took it easy. Maybe if he was in this situation, he might play through more of it. But it’s worth not like Porter eventually turned himself in the last three years into a guy that plays as much as as almost anyone. And Cam, I don’t think has played more than 65 66 games in any season of his career. You do want him available. And Porter did work really hard to keep himself available and played through some stuff he probably shouldn’t have. Yeah. cuz other guys were not available. So that’s that’s one thing that we hope doesn’t manifest with Cam. It is it is at least on paper a small concern. Uh Kale, the chat, you having an issue here? Are they talking? For whatever reason, we’re doing Jamal Murray Discourse on July 8th. We’re we’re far from Jamal Murray discourse, man. I just feel like that’s not uh um the chat the chat just wants to talk about it. I mean, look, they can talk about it. They talk about it. I think Jamal’s going to be good. I think I’m I don’t know that we have to go into Jamal discourse here. I do want to spend some time though because this everything happened so fast that Michael Porter trade came out of nowhere. Yeah. You know, like it was it was kind of jarring. And we haven’t had a proper chance to pay reverence to Michael Porter Jr. who I think despite being a guy there’s a lot of guys who have come through in this era that are have mixed reports. You know, fans like and love. I think MPJ is going to get out of here more or less unscathed. I think fans are going to only appreciate him in the long run. I I did check the the Nuggets official thank you MPJ post. How’d it go? Lot of love. Lot of love. Lot of love. Honestly, I think this is some version of a happy ending. I think so, too. I would much rather, of course, that they won. Of course, if they won, maybe it wouldn’t be the end. Endings typically h carry some sort of negativity with them. Um, but ultimately, I’ I’ve said this before, the player they bet on needed to get a third surgery did not end up being the player they they paid for. He did end up being available, a good player, an essential reason why they won an NBA championship. And then you go from there, the CBA has changed, the contract is brutal. Is it are they even going to be able to pivot from this? And honestly, they were able to pivot. Yeah. Now, it cost them an asset. That matters. I’m not ignoring that. But ultimately, well, you won a title with him and what did it take to get rid of him? You added Cam Johnson. I mean, this is not a tragedy. We’ve had though vote like Will Barton to me, Gary Harris, Paul Milsap, Monte Morris. Those are the four guys that weren’t part of the championship that it’s like a little sad. I mean, again, it’s life, not like I’m losing sleep over it, but I would have liked for those guys to have been a part of it in a perfect world. I’m glad MPJ was part of it. You know what I mean? Like, it was meaningful that he gets to be a part of that. And that’s why I think fans will over time very quickly for get over all the frustrations they might have had with him and only remember that they had this laser that was really fun. 610 J.R. Smith. It was it was really fun, man. And while he did not end up blossoming in to the max contract player after the surgery, he was still a good player. Like it’s not they Mike played a very key role in them winning a title, not the final series. He was bad in that series, but he was good. He was he was a good Denver Nugget, man. The real finals was against the Lakers anyway. And he finishes as an extremely efficient Denver Nugget and he’s the most efficient most efficient Denver Nugget of all time. Second on the on the three-point makes list. He made an impact here. And then let’s switch now to the Porter perspective who he’s told us before he may not play past 30. Yeah. Gets his title, gets to be a part of something important alongside an all-time great. Now Porter gets to pivot a little bit. Maybe get some shots up, man. No one’s going to yell at you in Brooklyn. Play a little more. I don’t want to say free because that implies that like playing with Jokic is somehow a bad thing. No, but it wasn’t free. But it wasn’t free, right? And and Brooklyn doesn’t really have much better to do than let you get some shots up right now. So, I think on some level Porter’s probably ready for the change, too. I think he’ll have a wild year, man. I think he’ll have a couple of like six-point games, and I think he’s going to have a couple 40s. Couldn’t agree more. That’ll be kind of funny to watch. I think it’s it’s it’s honestly not that tragic of an ending. and and I hope Porter goes to Brooklyn relatively harmless and spreads his wings and flies. Man, uh the last thing about Michael Porter and then we’ll go in to kind of remember some of these big moments, but the last thing is he has a character. Not in your traditional sense, you know, but just in that he’s kind of a weird guy and I think that’s part of the story is a huge part of the story. He was a unique personality, aloof, curious, cur curious, very curious. Mike Mike’s one, man. He’s one of one, man. one. And this is why I think over time people will he’ll fall into the J.R. Smith category, maybe even elevated because you win a title, but it’ll kind of be to this like, oh man, that guy could shoot goofy guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was our goofball. He could really shoot it. He won a title. All right, let’s go through your some favorite. You have these in order of your favorite. Least favorite to favorite. No, I have them in chronological order, Adam. Okay, we’re going to count down the top ones. Not what chronological means. The very first moment is Michael Porter Jr. for leaking Adam Silver’s phone number and adding lunch yet. Day number one. Day number one. Day number one. And this is a little bit of of early foreshadowing. The Snapchat. A brief moment of concern for us all. You could tell the guy was going to be mistaken. He was going to be mistaken prone. He said a lot on that Snapchat. This one in particular, I love. And yes, again, it’s not just that he shared it. It’s the lunch yet emoji at the bottom. sticker. That’s just honestly too good to be true. You do just picture him being so bored in these meetings when they’re having like serious conversations. Very serious conversation about your future lunch. Lunch yet? Yep. That’s our guy. Let’s get to the court. Let’s get to the first breakout game for Michael Porter Jr. This is of course in the year of 2020. Our Lord, January 2nd, the Indiana Pacers. This is That was 2020. It was 2020. Dang. Michael Porter two game run right here. at this time. It was his careerhigh. Of course, he’s barely played basketball to this point. 25 points on 11 of 12 shooting in Indiana. This was the game where he could not miss a shot. This was the game where he had the massive step back sideep into the corner that as you once pointed out, we slowly evaporated from his arsenal. But man, it was the sideep that covered like 19 ft from 19 ft. And that’s, you know, the handle and stuff, you probably never would have had ton of it, but this guy did used to move different. And this was one glimpse of it. 25 points on 11 of 12 shooting. And that’s when the conversation started to be, man, could this guy really be a piece that helps them win? So, he had two games in a row if I recall. I don’t know if you have the Sacramento. I don’t have I don’t have the Sacramento one, but I remember. Let me let me look here and see if I can like line up the dates. January 2020. You’re looking for Okay. cuz he had it was that game and I recall them being backto back and maybe they weren’t in my head. It was January you said January something and he has the is it the 19-point game he goes seven of 13, six of 10. Oh, no, no, this was before. No, here it is. So, I see it. It’s actually December and January. Okay. Yes. And there’s one game in between. So, he plays on the 29th and he goes 8 of 10. This is the game at Sacramento. Eight of 10. and they were all tough shots. Yep. And you’re kind of like, man, those were tough shots. And he went eight of 10, goes three of six the next night, doesn’t play as many minutes, only plays 11 minutes. And then he gets 23 minutes this next game, so separated by one game. And that’s the one you’re talking about, 25 points on 11 of 12. So we see him in a three-game span, and this is before he’d gotten on the court at all consistently. And we see him go uh out of 28 shots, he makes 22 of them. This was like our first glimpse. And I was like, is this guy just an 80% jump shooter? And by the way, at that point in time, he was He really was, man. Again, this is the guy they gave the contract to. It was a mistake in the end, but this was the guy they were looking at. Let’s stay in 2020. Let’s go to September. 2020 was an eventful year if you will remember. So, basketball. We don’t play basketball in September. No, they did this year, Adam. Shout out Mont Tres Herrell who once told police officers while being pulled over that Jookic was the best player in the league. Well, thankfully it was only while he was on the 76ers roster. Oh, that’s so good. That’s 100% true. Um, Harold tries to take a charge. This is in the bubble and Michael Porter Jr. sends him to the shadow realm. Remember this one? This is the one where his dad gives the eyebrow raise. That his dad was the star of that highlight, by the way, cuz it was such a trying not to give too much and then you see at the end he’s like, “Wow.” Of course, what most people remember from 2020 is game four. Michael Porter Jr. says, “After the game, maybe we got the got to get the ball to more people than just Yokic and Murray.” Very controversial quote. He said that before. I think this he said it before. Before I think he said it after game three after a loss or Yeah. Or game game four after game four. So Nuggets are down 3-1. It’s game five. Nuggets are up 102 to 100. Yeah. And Joic has the ball. Really is. Nothing is developing on this play. Nothing. No, he kind of he g Mike moves to the wing. Jookic gives him the ball and Joic is ready to reset. He’s ready to go post up. You can tell because Mike immediately shoots the ball. Throws two arms out in his classic right angle and this thing drains the bottom of the net. Mason Plumbley’s out on the court yelling, “Yeah, Mike.” Is this the Yeah, Mike shot. This is the Yeah, Mike shot. This is the Yeah, Mike shot that mean prior to that shot. How many buckets do you think he had in that game? Oh, I don’t remember actually. Zero. As I’m looking at game five, that was his first made shot. He was one of three on the game. One of two from three. Unbelievable. And it was the game winner cuz yeah, the Clippers are coming back. They were about to lose in five games to the Clippers. By the way, there’s like 12 seconds left on the shot clock. Yeah. And Porter just immediately shoots. Everyone on the court. What are you doing? And it’s like his his one of his most clean makes, too. Seven points that game. Four or four from the three-point line, one three-pointer. And it was the Yeah, Mike. It was the Yeah, Mike. Hell yeah. That makes it so much better. Let’s go to 2021. And in 2021, the Nuggets have to go into the playoffs without Jamal Murray. And in fact, Austin Rivers and Fudo Compazo are on the floor. And they somehow win a playoff series. They beat Portland in the first round. And I had forgotten, man. But Mike ended up being a big part of that playoff series. Now, real had a lot of good games. Real up and down as his classic Mike fashion. In the end, I think he averaged 18 points per game in this series. But he really, really struggles in games three and four, like really badly. And this is the conversation is heating up. Can Mike do this in the playoffs at all? Let alone with no Murray. In game five, Mike scores 26 points, grabs 12 rebounds on 10 of 13 shooting, including the dagger in double OT. That’s such a good dagger. The lob over Robert Coington, the pass that breaks Coington’s ankles for the alltime pass, man. It’s Mike right in the in the in the shooting pocket and Mike drains it. Says after the game, that’s who I am. That’s who I want to be. follows it up. Game six against Portland. The very next game, Mike hit six threes in the first quarter. Oh, that game is close out Portland. Mike goes for 26 points, five rebounds, four assists. I think he had 22 or something in the first quarter. That was the ultimate 22 in the first quarter. Yep. And it was and then and then from there, really not a good game. He did finish minus eight in that game. But they close out Portland and he was great in that first quarter. So those back-to-back games, Mike’s playoff moments without Murray. Yeah, love it. Forgot about the the the first quarter, man. He was on fire. In 2023, obviously, they win a title. That’s true for everyone. For me, man, it’s the Lakers series where Mike averages 15 and nine, shoots 42% from three on 8.2 attempts per game. He doesn’t necessarily have this huge moment so much as he hits a lot of good late threes. He he completes this dynamic that was supposed to make Denver unguardable, right? And it actually did in that series. Ask a Lakers fan. They just couldn’t. They they couldn’t guard Joic Murray and Aaron Gordon and deal with Porter in the corner. They just couldn’t. Then of course he really struggles in the finals, but he does get that one fun moment, the behind the between the legs clown car show layup. That is awesome, but he’s really bad in that series. Of course, he was good in the playoffs. Nuggets win a title. Mike will be remembered forever as a champion. I’m going to go to 2024 here, man. And I think we all remember that Mike was really good against the Lakers. Let’s go through the numbers. Mike averaged 23 points per game, 8.4 rebounds in that series. 55% from the field, 49% from three on 8.2 attempts per game. He owns the Lakers, man. Four makes on 8.2 attempts per game in that series. Was legitimately Denver’s second best player. Murray hits two shots in this series. Mike is out there in the fourth quarter calling for the ball, hitting big shots. This is Mike’s best playoff series. Yeah. And and uh it it was really really really fun to see. Of course, it didn’t amount to anything that season. There’s a real moment. There’s a clutch three with 115 left in game two. The Lakers are actually leading. Braun goes on a fast break and dunks it. Joic gets the ball. Tries to draw a foul. Remember this? Just kind of throws it up. Oh yes. AG save it. AG saves it. Grabs it. Rips it back to Porter from the wing who hits a pull up three over the contest. That’s Mike screams. That’s Mike’s big moment, exclamation point moment in that series. And of course, I’ve got some more dunking on Kevin Durant, dunking on Zack Collins and grabbing him by the throat. And I just want to point out Conga Hydra saying MPJ’s playoff averages are 13 and seven points per game. Honestly, not that bad as a third option when you consider that the last series he played in went so disastrously because he had one arm. Mike’s numbers before these playoffs where he played with one arm. His numbers as a third option in the playoffs were not that bad. Not that bad. As always, it was consistency. As always, it was in one matchup he might be really good, in the next he wasn’t. And it why it’s why he wasn’t a max player, but he was a good player. He was a good player. And he and he had some good moments in the Denver Nuggets. Nuggets one with Michael Porter went one game shy of the Western Conference Finals to the Western Conference Finals. One game shy of the Western Conf. No, no, no. And that one they lose in the second round pretty resoundedly. Then championship. Then one game shy of the conference finals. One game shy of the conference finals. It’s pretty good, man. It’s pretty high floor. When you consider that the third surgery happened at that point, the the the positive potential outcomes left on the table for Mike. Yeah. There weren’t a lot, man. Yeah. Here’s the other thing I think about fanhood in general is it’s okay to want and aspire for the optimum optimization of everything, but you kind of like what’s the point if you don’t enjoy I think Michael Porter is a good litmus test. I think the bar is actually way lower. or I think it’s probably Will Barton, but if you can’t enjoy Michael Porter, it’s like you’re probably never going to truly love your team. You know what I mean? You’re always going to have some guys that are not quite as good as you like. And it’s true and and it’s in the same breath, it is true that the injury sapped him, that he was overpaid, that this last year his engagement level waved uh and wavered. And I think the Nuggets just made a really good trade. I really do. Yeah. But I I think I think MPJ was a good player, man. And I think he was more or was that it? Those are my moments that I have listed. Yeah. Uh, are there any more? Is the chat pointing out any more, Kale, or anything like that? Not really. Everyone’s just really agreeing with Vot’s list. I think my favorite was honestly that Sacramento Indiana double header basically cuz it was like unwrapping a present and you were just like, my god, this guy is unbelievable. The other one are the three games he had this year where he really did shoot every time off the move on the DHO and he had the three games, the two against the Pelicans. Who was the other one against? I can’t remember now. where uh it was it was his best individual regular season stretch of hey as a team we’re going to let Mike cook here and and he and he showed that he was in fact a dynamic offensive talent even if he never ended up being entirely what Denver needed him to be. Yeah. Underrated just shout out uh he postered this year and I thought that was awesome. Oh yeah, that’s true. Uh if you guys want to catch super chats, head on over to overtime over on the internet. We’ll get to those. Yeah, Congo, those are good. Playoff averages of 14 points per game and nine rebounds. That’s those are good numbers. They’ll never they’ll never fully be in only three today. Nash Sweden, how long are we going to wait for Yonas? Any deadline? I’ll go ahead and say this. My prediction is that Valenunis is on the Denver Nuggets roster next year. My prediction is that he likes it and my prediction is that all of this becomes background like and we kind of forget about it. I don’t know that it resolves anytime soon, but my hunch is it does resolve um that that way. Maddox MPJ broken heart. I hope Horford picks us solves things well. I would love Horford as well. I know uh I don’t think it’s going to happen. I’ll tell you that. I I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t know that Horford, even if Big Val somehow doesn’t resolve, I don’t know that it uh it’s going to be Horford55ish. Since Summer League is about testing things, should I debut my new bit for the season Thursday? Also, when the Nets tweeted, “Yeah, Mike,” I shed a tear. I love that, man. It’s a good Wait, the Nets tweeted it. I I gotta go look that up. We got to look this up. Did this uh their their official like announcement post for the trade, they quote tweeted it with a hype video, and the caption was, “Yeah, Mike.” No, it’s awesome. And listen, even I even I think the Nuggets made a tremendous trade, but it’s all right. Just celebrate a guy a bit on the way out. Yeah, Mike. Not only all right, man. It’s good to do. Uh, we got one more show before we get to our summer league. Man, we’re going to have postgame shows for Thursday and Saturday. I’m very excited for it. Should be good basketball. Should be interesting. Watch on Thursday, too. Watch along on Thursday. So, you’re going to be with the fellas in prime time twice this week. It’s going to be great. Ready? Thanks for tuning in. Hit that like button. See you tomorrow. We all silly like the mayor.

The Cam Johnson for Michael Porter Jr deal is official. The fellas break down why they think Cam Johnson will actually be an UPGRADE over Michael Porter Jr alongside Nikola Jokic in the Nuggets lineup. Plus notes from Summer League practice. Adam Mares and Brendan Vogt come to you LIVE from the DNVR Bar to break down everything you need to know in this edition of the DNVR Nuggets Podcast!

Start – 0:00
Summer League practice notes – 3:15
What we’re looking for from Holmes – 16:00
Tamar Bates – 19:45
Comparing Cam Johnson to MPJ – 21:15
The coffin corner – 31:45
Cam’s defense – 38:10
MPJ’s best moments – 45:00
Superchats – 59:50

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