The Denver Nuggets STRUCK GOLD with Cam Johnson Trade

The Denver Nuggets STRUCK GOLD with Cam Johnson Trade

On today’s episode, summer league just finished up. We’ve got some notes from a presser that happened earlier today. I’m going to tell you why Cam Johnson is the perfect fit for the Denver Nuggets based off of his own words. This is Locked on Nuggets. You are Locked on Nuggets, your daily Denver Nuggets podcast, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. Welcome into Lockdown Nuggets, your daily Denver Nuggets podcast, part of the Lockdown Network. Your team every day. Thank you so much for listening to each and every episode. Uh, thank you for sticking around for a late night episode. It’s Friday night here, recording immediately after the Denver Nuggets finish up summer league. We’ll get into that in the third segment. There’s a couple of things that happened earlier today that I would like to address up front. Uh we’ll get into all of those. It’s just me on this particular episode. Swip’s got the day off. Uh it is his birthday today. So everybody go make sure to wish him a happy birthday both on social media and also in the YouTube comments down below. Would be awesome if you could. Uh and Matt Moore of course will be back later next week when he gets back from vacation. So, they stuck me with the late night Friday episode. So, congratulations, guys. Thank you so much. Uh, no, this is something I love to do and wanted to be able to do. And we get to talk a little basketball, talk a little nuggets before things kind of wind down. It’s going to be very interesting to see how the rest of the offseason continues to go because we may not have a ton beyond this moment. So, take it while you can. This episode, it’s brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use code lockdown NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Uh, my name is Ryan Blackburn. I am the host here at Lockdown Nuggets, co-host with with each of those two guys, as well as a host over at Mile High Sports on the Pickax and Roll podcast. Make sure to go check out that one as well. Uh, really interesting day today. Really interesting stuff. and was glad to be in attendance for a presser that happened earlier today. I don’t have enough time within the context of this show to give you all of the information. I wrote a little bit about it at milehighports.com. So, make sure to go check that out. It’s on the website right now about Cam Johnson, but his intro pressor as well as some other things that were stated earlier today. But, I’m going to give you the cliff notes. I’m going to give you some important quotes, some important things that I think are very like they’re they’re they’re a big deal. They’re at least a big deal to me. Uh the most important thing was about Cam Johnson. We’ll talk about him in the first segment. We’ve got some other tidbits from that presser in the second segment and then third segment we’ll do summer league takeaways. So without further ado, Cam Johnson, really well spoken guy, really important uh perspective on basketball. I think that he is bringing to this Nuggets team. It came through in all of the answers that he had earlier today. He talked about facing Denver and said, quote, “It’s a tough style to play against and the fact that they can attack from so many different angles. Now, me being a part of that, I’m really excited. That’s the kind of basketball I want to play where kind of everybody’s in tune with each other and able to play off of each other and, you know, just be able to generate the best possible looks. That’s a great sign.” Whenever you can talk about somebody that just is very much focused on generate the best basket, that guy’s going to work out. It it just is going to happen. He is about the right perspective when it comes to for a Nuggets team. It it may not be for every team, but certainly for a Nuggets team that is built around player movement, ball movement, and playing off of Joic’s skill set. John Wallace today talked about identifying Cam as a trade target. quote, “He was a guy that was on our radar. We were looking for a seamless fit. Given his versatility both offensively and defensively, it made a lot of sense. You know, through hours and hours of talks and negotiations, kind of getting that reassurance amongst ourselves, he’s made sense. It’s the right decision.” Uh, so it was uh I I was talking to Ben Tenzer and joking with him after because he gave me a quote on draft night that was basically like, uh, you know, I don’t know if we’re going to we’re going to really focus on the trade market. We’ll probably more focus on free agents, free agency, not really going to be focused on trades. Obviously, he can’t say that they’re focused on trades, but clearly at that point, they had been talking behind the scenes with with the B uh the Nets, excuse me, and just hilarious that that was kind of the perspective that he shared. Uh so, I I gave him a little bit of crap for that and he left. It was a it’s a good moment. Ben is a a good guy. He is he is somebody that I’m going to enjoy talking to and I I have some thoughts uh graces in the comments. I’ve got some things that I’m going to talk about in the second segment as well that are very important to you specifically. Um Cam Johnson on playing for a winning team. Quote, “I want to win. I want to win a championship and obviously we have the pieces to do it here. That’s what I’m most excited about.” Great. Uh, pretty baseline answer obviously, but he is all about like there’s there’s always going to be that question of is the guy that you’re bringing in about the right things? He just wants to win. The Nuggets just want to win. They don’t really care how it’s done. It’s mostly just about getting the job done. Cam Johnson uh is a basketball nerd. That comes clear clearly through in all of the answers. And I mean that in the best way possible because you have to be a basketball nerd in a lot of ways to love the game the way that he does. Uh he said quote just and this is kind kind of talking about his Phoenix experience and growing up and learning the game just watching observing seeing how the game developed seeing kind of the reads the mindset the work everything that goes on behind the scenes. And so I’ve always just tried to cultivate that. I’ve tried to cultivate that since I was little. I used to sit down with a little notebook in my bedroom and draw sets. I mean, it’s just I always loved the game. I always loved the mental side of the game. I’ve always prided myself on that. I connected with him on that because I did the same thing for football. People don’t know this. I was a football guy for sure. And it’s clearly uh it’s it’s I I’m surprised even that I’m kind of doing the basketball thing because I was doing that for the football side of things as a young kid drawing up plays in my like in a little in a little uh composite notebook with that marble background uh that that marble cover. Uh so Cam is is clearly cut from that same cloth and uh I I sympathize with that completely. I think he’s going to fit in well with this Nuggets team. And the Nuggets clearly they they have a lot of basketball nerds on their team. Jokic is going to love Cam Johnson and the way that he is very willing, very able to go back and he’s going to be willing to go back and forth with him on the X’s and Osman’s going to love to deal with that. It’s going to be great. So, I’m I’m very curious to see how they handle it for sure. Um, him is in the comments asks, “Do you think a JV press conference will happen?” Probably not. I do not think that that is going to happen, but I do have some details from the JV presser or the JV question at the presser that happens. So, will be interesting to see. Gosh, the the uh Discord is just going off right now. I gotta mute this thing. Oh, cuta. Holy crap. These guys are just killing me. Um, okay. Actually, I don’t even know how to do that. So, um, other notes, other quotes. Here’s a long one from Cam. I asked him a question about playing next to Nola Joic. Uh, because he’s been asked everything. He’s like, “What’s it like to play next to Nola? Uh, what’s it like to uh be playing next to the MVP? What do you what do you think about Jokic?” Things like that. Everybody’s going to get asked about that. I I sympathize with these guys when you’re an NBA player and especially when you’re talking about the Nuggets, you have to ask it in different ways. And so I asked him what is his best skill playing next to Jokic. And he said quote, and it’s a long one. I’d say relocation. Relocation around the perimeter, whether that’s finding the open spot for a three or a cut. I know maybe his best ability is just understanding where he is in space and where his teammates are in space at all times. And so one thing that I’ve always worked on in my career to take the next steps to be able to be on the court to be able to play get playing time is finding windows offensively. And so you know in playing with the player like Yoke I find a spot and there’s a high chance that he’s going to get uh going to put the ball on me the pass on time on target. So for me it’s going to be a lot of just where I’m just you know playing off of the guys on the court and then making reads off of that. And that’s how I love to play. That’s my favorite kind of basketball. No notes. Perfect. Just just perfect. It’s going to be a great fit. And I continue to believe wholeheartedly that this Nuggets team has struck gold with the Cam Johnson trade. I talked about this on pickaxe. the fact that they were able to do this deal and they only had to give up a first round pick while saving the money that they did while creating the space that they did to go out and get a backup center. Like that they could not have done any better with the way that they handled this thing. And so I think Cam is going to be basically the absolute perfect option for them. And it just makes a lot of sense. He’s got to stay healthy. He’s got to continue to do the things that are very important, but it’s one of the reasons why I’m so high on this team at this point. I had concerns heading into the off seasonason. I thought it was going to be very quiet. They basically said that it was going to be very quiet and then they made a perfect trade to create some opportunities for themsel to just be the best version of their team that they possibly can with the resources that they have. So, we’ll see whether they stick the landing or not. like they still have to go out and play and be good, but I do think that they have a very good start here. So, when we come back, we’re going to talk about uh some other details from this trade uh not trade, but from this presser, including some stuff from John Wallace and Ben Tenzer about Yonas Valenunis and the first apron. We’ll be right back here on Locked on Nuggets. All right, let’s talk about game time. We’ve all been there. Logging in early, waiting forever to get concert tickets to go on sale only to lose your spot for a show you’ve been dying to see. Live music should be about making memories, not dealing with the stress of ticket shopping. That’s where game time comes in. Game time makes getting tickets faster and easier than ever. prices actually drop as it gets closer to showtime and you could save up to 60% off with their killer last minute details. Uh I recently went to a show um over at uh over at Ball Arena actually and it’s just really nice to be able to go into the app and to actually see the panoramic seat view that they have. Obviously, I’ve been to Ball Arena a lot, but if you’ve ever been to an AR or not been to an arena before, now you don’t have to worry about that if you just use Game Time. There will be no surprises on the viewing that you were going to get. With Game Time, the price you see is the price you pay. No hidden fees. Take the guesswork out of buying concert and show tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code locked on NBA. L O C K E D O NA for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. We’ll be right back on Locked on Nuggets. All right, we are back. Locked on Nuggets. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. Hit that like button. Hit that subscribe button. would really really appreciate it. Okay, got some more quotes from Ben Tenzer, John Wallace. Uh, obviously Cam Johnson was the big story for everything that happened in that presser, but there were some other important tidbits. We It was the first time that we were able to ask them questions since the start of free agency. And obviously, a lot has changed, a lot has happened. So very important for Denver to and for like Nuggets media to get the good questions out of these guys. John Wallace talked about the strategy in free agency. He said, quote, I think one of the biggest things we looked for with all the moves is being able to adapt to what the league may throw at us on any given night without sacrificing our baseline and our fundamental approach to the game. Uh that comes through in all of this. They have more versatility than they ever have before really. Uh even that 2023 team, it was still very very very focused on six guys and it was the starters plus Bruce Brown. Christian ultimately developed into the player that they needed late, but it took some time. Uh he he wasn’t ready initially, but they had to kind of play him through it because he was the right guy and they knew he was the right guy. But Jeff Green, they they were in and out of the lineup with him as he was injured. Flaco Chantar, Zeke Naji, guys like that. DeAndre Jordan was really struggling. Now they don’t really have to worry about like whether they’re going to be able to piece together a bench. They will. It’s it’s just about who is going to be the right piece for the right time. And it’s going to allow them to rest some guys. I really do think that this is a deeper team than they’ve ever had, at least in the Jokic era. So, actually, you know what? That may not be true. Like 2019, 2020, those teams were probably deeper if I’m being honest, but the top end talent was not as good. Like, the Nuggets were not the Nuggets. Jokic was not Jokic. Murray was a different version of himself, less consistent. Cam Johnson’s Cam Johnson. Aaron Gordon’s Aaron Gordon. So, not a surprise that they’ve gotten better on that front. On the Jonas Valenunis front, Bennett Durando asked, quote, “Are there any remaining or lingering concerns that Yonas Valenunis will not be on the team for opening day?” Ben Tenzer responded, “No concerns.” That is the going line for Denver from this particular presser. Kind of interesting to see. Interesting to see the way that that is being framed. No concerns on the Nuggets front. I think that they are right to feel that way for a variety of reasons because it is a guaranteed contract. They’ve clearly talked to Yonas and his agency. I think they feel pretty strongly about it. Greece is not going to feel pretty great about that. Panathanos is not going to feel great about that. But ultimately, like it was always kind of a a red flag when you’re having somebody get out of a $10 million guaranteed contract. So, I understand why it’s such a big deal because getting a player at that level is very difficult. But Denver is clearly counting on Yonas. He has been framed whether it’s by David Adam and some of the interviews that Katie Wi’s done with him whether it’s by the lock or by the front office folks everybody is very much framing this with the yeah Jonas is going to be an every night player he’s going to play an important role behind Nicole Joic Denver’s very excited to have a guy of his caliber they’ve never had that before at least to this degree while Joic has been at this level so going to be very interesting to see Um, god love this. Supernova in the comments says, “Now that I am sub subscribed to the locked on nuggets, my wife loves me and my kids want to be around me. Thanks Locked on Nuggets and thanks Ryan.” You are welcome, Supernova. If I didn’t stutter through the beginning of that, then it would mean a lot more. I know. So very very important to uh to not stutter when you are when you are uh getting complimented. So thank you. Um, I talked to Ben, actually Ben Tenzer on the 15th roster spot. This is important. I asked him if there’s any pressure to fill that roster spot. And here’s the direct response that I got. Quote, I wouldn’t say there’s pressure. We’re going to be patient right now. We feel really good about where the roster’s at. And if we feel like it’s important to add a 15th, we will, but no pressure right now. So, kind of the way that I’ve reported this, the way that I’ve talked about this from a structural standpoint, the Nuggets do not have to rush this thing. It’ll be interesting to see whether they actually add anybody. Somebody in the comments tonight was like, “Malcolm Brogden, yeah, it would be great.” Uh, Russell Westbrook, not sure if he is in the cards for Denver. The way that the Nuggets are talking about this thing, I do not think he’s in the cards. That’s something that I’ve discussed before, but it does feel like Denver may go into training camp without adding a 15th man. That is at least on the table. So, keep that in mind. Their roster is good enough. There will be options. They want to keep the buyout market open. And one of the reasons for that, I talked to Ben Tenzer after the presser. I won’t share all of the details that I went into, but uh one of the important notes that I wanted to get some clarification on was Denver being a first apron team and above the cap team. Kind of where are they classified from a a cap standpoint? And Ben told me no, they are not a first apron team. They are not hardcapped under the first apron. They can go over if they want to. they have the flexibility because adding Jonas with the trade player traded player exception this year that’s not something that hardcaps you. It’s not something that you are concerned about. Um Denver, they have the ability if they want to to go over the first apron. There is a like I think a desire because of the cap rules to not do that. Uh but Ben also was kind of talking about the Nuggets. They had to check with the league on several occasions because of how complicated this situation was. Uh they checked with the league three, four times or so just to make sure, hey, just so we’re clear, this is all good. We’re not triggering anything that we won’t we don’t want to trigger. This is not a problem. And they said no. So Benzer is doing a great job here. The Nuggets have really manipulated this thing to the way that they they need to. And Grace says it here. I did this for you, Grace. Uh, we finally have a GM who understands the CBA. I fear they do understand it. They get it. Uh, but Hurricane says the cap expert. I man, I’m not kidding you. Everybody in the league, and I mean everybody, still trying to figure out what the hell’s going on. They there are so many complicated rules uh with the aprons with the uh triggering of different things on different dates with different like manners and and ways like they’ve made this more complicated on purpose to try to give some of these teams that are in between the aprons a little bit of flexibility. So, it’s kind of tough because like for example, one of the things that Denver could have done if they did not get Valenunus is they could have traded for somebody else using the mid-level exception of all things. Like it would have hardcapped them like the non- taxpayer mid-level exception. It would have hardcapped them at the fair the first apron. That would have done it. But they found something different. They found a different way to make it happen. So, uh, the entire league, not just the Nuggets, the entire league is still trying to figure this thing out. Some teams are doing it well, other teams are not. Uh, I do think that Denver is in pretty good hands here, though. They have shown, I think, that they are more than willing, more than able to get this done. And it’s nice to see that they have executed this in a manner that I I definitely respect. I think that this makes a lot of sense. Finally, John Wallace quote on if the Nuggets are championship contenders kind of tapered off those expectations a little bit, but that’s what a a good kind of executive does in this situation. He says, quote, obviously the league, the season has to play itself out, but you know, do we feel confident? Yes. But like I said, there’s a lot of basketball to be played. These guys have to gel. This is a very important point for people to re to realize and recognize. Not every team that is built to be a championship contender ends up winning. And there are a variety of reasons for that. Like I thought that Dario Sar was going to be a pretty good fit for Denver last year. Turns out he just couldn’t play. Like maybe there’s a possibility that Yonas is like that. Or maybe like Bruce just can’t hit a three or Tim Hardaway just can’t guard or whatever. Denver’s in a situation where they have enough, I think, to kind of make up for some of those deficiencies if something like that were to happen with one or multiple guys. But I do think that they are now in a position like where anything can happen. You just you don’t know. You can’t just predict it all offhand entirely. So, it’ll be interesting to see how they handle it. But, I do think this team feels pretty confident. That was a tepid response from John Wallace, but I do think that he feels and the Nuggets feel very good about the way that things have gone. Uh, I can say that pretty pretty strongly. They feel they feel good about where they’re at. Okay, let’s take one more break. When we come back, we are going to discuss summer league. The game just ended right before I went live here. Some really good stuff from the Nuggets in their final game. We’ll talk about some of those takeaways and some takeaways overall here at Locked on Nuggets. All right, let’s talk about Open Phone. If you’re running a business, you know that every missed calls money left on the table. Think about the last time you had an urgent need, maybe for a plumber or a service provider. If the first person didn’t answer, did you wait? Probably not. You probably moved on. That’s why you need Open Phone. Open Phone is the number one business phone system built to streamline and scale your customer communications all from an app on your phone or your computer. Open Phone lets you manage business calls and texts from a single app. If you’ve ever been in a situation, now we’re we’re in a different spot in the in the podcasting business. Uh especi especially kind of the the host business, but I can tell you I’ve been having some problems with Teams just like opening that up. Uh I I got to imagine that open phone would really help me in some of these situations. Uh they will absolutely help you. The shared inbox feature they have is a game changer. Your team can just jump into any conversation instantly without missing a beat. Open is offering my listeners 20% off of their first six months at openphone.com/lockedonba. That’s op f. Let me start again. op ph ne.com/locktonnba. And if you have existing numbers with another service, open phone will just port them over for no extra charge. Open phone. No missed calls, no missed customers. We’ll be right back here on Locked on Nuggets. All right, back at it. Final segment of Locked on Nuggets. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. Do you guys like how I tried to spell phone with a with an F? That was pretty cool. I’m tired. It’s late. Uh, so we’re all fallible here. Summer League takeaways. I I wrote some things down for for each of the players that I thought were prevalent. I’ve got like nine notes, 10 notes here. Stick with me on this one. Don Holmes, I thought he looked progressively good. like first game, really good start, shot the ball well, did some good things off the dribble, wasn’t really challenged that much. Then he was challenged in the in the second game, and then he looked a little bit better in the third game, and then he looked really good in the fourth game. Uh looked more and more comfortable as time progressed. Doesn’t really surprise me that it came with the as a center where the ball’s in his hands a little bit more. You’re involved in the primary action a little bit more. Sometimes in the modern NBA, like think about in 2000 for example, a one four pick and roll is not surprising. It’s just not like you have the five on the baseline. You have the four that can do a pick and pop or you’re just going to roll and you’re going to roll into space and it’s a little bit different. Now you’re doing one four. That five better be space to the corner or space to top of the key or else you’re not going to have any space to operate what you’re doing. So really interesting to think about whether he’s going to be better as a power forward or a center. I’m just not surprised that Don a little bit more comfortable at center. It’s the position that he played in college. So it’ll be interesting to see whether he makes that transition to power forward full-time. But I kind of think he can be an emergency third center for Denver and be okay. He did look a little bit shaky from a physical perspective initially, but that’s going to be a confidence thing. That’s going to be something that he continues to build back up. I’m excited to see where he goes from here with it. Hunter Tyson underwhelming in two games. That was unfortunate. Didn’t want that to be the case. Third season in the NBA. You would hope that he shows enough uh and maybe he did from like a a point like a playmaking standpoint. Just ball in his hands. It was a really tough situation for him to be in with where the team was at. He is not an off the dribble guy. Like that’s just it’s not his game to me. He you want him to be a guy that comes off of screens, that spots up in the corner, that hustles, that does the connective things, that like rebounds and shows that he’s out there with his hustle. That’s not the way that he was going to make an impact at this summer league. So, I think Denver kind of recognized that and said, “Yeah, you two games, it’s fine. We’ll see what happens at the beginning of training camp.” And whether he’s going to be a factor, I would not surprise I would not be surprised if he’s not much of a factor, but like to me, he’s their 14th man on the 14 roster spots that they have. And if you’re counting Spencer Jones, Tamar Bates, I think I kind of like Spencer Jones a little bit more right now. Uh, but we’ll see. Hunter can like his big barrier for the NBA last year. So, he just wasn’t making enough shots. He was too rushed. He every time he was going so hard on the defensive end got into his head a little bit. He’s just got to slow down, get more comfortable, hit the shots that he’s supposed to hit. It’ll be a little bit better if he can do that. But this summer league in particular, he shot like 32% 27% from three. It’s not good enough. It’s just not. Tamar Bates, he looked pretty good with the ball in his hands uh throughout the summer league. I was kind of surprised about Actually, no, I’m not really surprised about that. That was a lot of his game at college again doing the things that he’s supposed to do. I don’t think he’s going to be the ball in the hand guy for the NBA team. That to me seems like a stretch, but like hey, maybe it’s a skill set that because like you think about the the guards that Denver has. You’ve got Jamal Murray, you’ve got Christian Brown, you’ve got Bruce Brown, you’ve got Jaylen Picket. Tamar Bates, maybe he could be more of a scorer scoring type than those guys. Some of the stuff he was doing today was looking pretty good. Uh I think he needs to be more of a three and D type. Got better defensively as Summerly went along. I wasn’t impressed with him initially, but then he got better. That third game in particular was really, really good. Uh then he took a big hit in the head in this game tonight. didn’t re-enter after that. So, uh, he was he was more impressive to me, more impressive as summer league went along. Started making some outside shots. Looked pretty comfortable shooting both off the dribble and off the catch. So, that’s nice to see. You want to see him continue to do that. Spencer Jones, great work defensively in summer league so far, uh, or throughout this this time. He didn’t play tonight, but he did shoot a great percentage from three for summer league. I think it was at 45% the last time I saw it. That might have changed. Uh but looked fantastic from an athletic standpoint. I thought he was doing a great job of sitting down and guarding. He still needs to move those hips better defensively. He was like fouling pretty crazily. A lot of those were just from bumping into guys. Trying to be physical, trying to be in their in their space, but not necessarily moving as well as he needed to. But I really think that there’s something here. I think he can play pretty well defensively. So, been pretty impressed with the way that he handled himself, the way he’s kind of turned his uh from first to second year around. He looks like a better player than he was at the end of last season. So, credit to him for making the work count. Curtis Jones, big big performance over the course of these last few games. Had a had multiple 20 point performances. Had 22 points and eight assists tonight. He might have the inside track for that third two-way spot. I’m not going to sit here and say that I know which direction John Wallace and Ben Tenzer are going to go. They may feel like they want another big man. That wouldn’t surprise me. They may feel like they want another forward or they might like the scoring. They might like the scoring guard that Curtis Jones has shown that he can be shooting with confidence and like sometimes you just need somebody to go get you a bucket and he has that. like he’s a better scoreer I think than Tamar Bates better like I saw some really impressive passes from him out of pick and roll as well. So it’ll be interesting to see if that’s something that he can turn into. But um I liked what I saw. So I think he’s on an exhibit 10 contract if I’m not mistaken. So he will be with the Nugget summer with their G-League team, the Grand Rapids Gold. So maybe like he does elevate and get a third two-way contract based off of how he plays. But I think he’s going to get a training camp invite if he has an exhibit 10 contract. So nice to see him score. Nice to see him look pretty good from that front. And I think like a lot of Nuggets fans are his fan now. So that’s at least winning half the battle if you will. Reese Beakman to me looked okay. Good defensively, similar profile to Jaylen Picket. Not necessarily sure that’s the direction that Denver should want to go. They’ve already got Jaylen Picket on their roster. I kind of like the Curtis Jones profile a little bit more. Um, that’s just my personal opinion on like scoring wise. Like Denver doesn’t need more like Jaylen Picket’s kind of a traditional facilitation point guard. If you’re going to add another guy on a two-way contract, I don’t think you want to replicate that skill set. I think you’d rather have somebody that could be a different skill set that you can throw out there. Tyrell Harrison was the big center that started at the beginning of summer league. Played less and less as things went. Thought he looked a little bit more shaky, especially in that third summer league game. I want to say that he had seven turnovers. Not great, not awesome. Um, he did handle things pretty well at the beginning, but thought he still looked shaky by the end. Donovan Williams, great hustler, some good tendencies at forward. Probably not an NBA guy, but I enjoyed watching him play. thought he moved pretty well for an NBA or for somebody trying to be in the NBA. See what it looks like. Showed a little bit of scoring, a little bit of little bit of um shooting here. So, we’ll see what it looks like. And then the last name, K AE, uh the backup center that played for Denver in this game today, got his first major opportunity and made the best of it. super athletic big man going above the rim, catching some lobs, doing some rim protection. Looked pretty good from an athletic standpoint. I’m not sure if he’s a guy that they’re actually looking at, but uh Ka uh let me do my best pronunciation here. Kaichi Akabundo Eyogu. Uh KO is the the way that the ESPN pronouncers were pronouncing his first name or the beginning of his first name. So, we’ll see what it looks like and and whether he could be out there, but was impressed. He he was killing the Lakers. Like, he and Curtis Jones were dominating them. So, really nice to see that. That is always a thing that you would definitely hope for. So, overall summer league two and three, Denver did okay. Uh started off slow. I think it was pretty much identical to last year where it looked pretty weak at the beginning and then Denver got a little bit more comfortable throughout. They played some worse teams as they went and as it turns out when you play good teams at the beginning that could be tough. So is what it is. But Denver looked good against the Clippers and the Lakers. That’s um it’s just the playoffs all over again people. So it happens. Uh just just saying that’s u something the Nuggets fans could get used to. That’s all I got everybody. That is going to do it for this episode of Locked on Nuggets. I am over my tally already. Sorry about that. Uh Nick Angstad, my bad, man. Uh doing my best, but uh is what it is. Hope everybody’s having a great Friday night. Thank you for tuning into the show, hanging out with me on this particular episode. Really good stuff from Cam Johnson earlier today, from John Wallace, Ben Tenzer earlier today. And glad the Nuggets finished it off with a win. Have a great weekend. I should be back with you with uh Matt Moore on Sunday night. We’ll see if we kind of get back onto a normal schedule, but if not, you’ll hear from us later. Thank you so much everybody. Have a great night. Thanks for tuning in to Lockdown Nuggets.

Ryan Blackburn breaks down some important news and notes from today’s introductory presser for Cam Johnson. He breaks down Johnson’s interview, as well as thoughts from Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer, before doing some final Summer League Takeaways.

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