Jamal Murray, Bruce Brown the MOST POLARIZING Denver Nuggets Players

Jamal Murray, Bruce Brown the MOST POLARIZING Denver Nuggets Players

On today’s episode, there’s a lot of expectations for the Denver Nuggets this year. Is that right? It’s probably right. What are the Nuggets going to do? How are these Nuggets going to react? How are these players going to react in what is a very, very volatile season here at Locked on Nuggets? You are Locked on Nuggets, your daily Denver Nuggets podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome into Locked on Nuggets, your daily Denver Nuggets podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Thank you so much for tuning into today’s episode where we’re going live, we’re going often uh doing our best on this offseason content. Happy August to everybody as we we fully transition into this Deep’s off season. Uh Matt, the the most important thing that’s probably going to come out of August this year is the schedule will probably drop in the middle of the in the middle of the month. That’s my that’s my expectation. It’s probably about August 15th, August 20th. Yep. Should be right. Um I think sometimes it’s been earlier, sometimes it’s been like the 9th, but I would expect it to be the week of that 15th that you were referring to. I would expect it to be um not on the 15th, probably either the 14th or 12th is when they’ll probably drop it. He is Matt Moore of HP Basketball. Make sure to go check out the Action Network, the Denver Dig, the Substacks, everything in between. I’m Ryan Blackburn of Mile High Sports and the Pickax and Roll podcast. Make sure to go check out both of our stuff as well as Swiper stuff uh on the Swiper Cam and Players Choice channels as well. This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarchoney. Use code locked onnba at monarchmoney.com/lockon NBA for 50% off your first year. Uh folks, we’re going to talk about a variety of things on today’s episode. Later, we’re going to go over kind of like the the free agency pool has definitely slowed down in terms of a whole bunch of guys that we would expect to have signed by. Now, I want to ask Matt whether he’s surprised about various guys not signing yet. Fair expectations for Bruce Brown. Everybody assumes Bruce Brown’s just going to slide right into that six-man role. It’s going to be easy, easy as cake. Uh what are we what are we thinking about that and whether that’s actually going to happen? Uh, but first and foremost, Matt, I let off with Jokic is one of the most steady players in league history, I would guess, from like what what you’re expecting on a night-to-ight basis and especially over the course of these last five years. Aaron Gordon, I feel like, is a very steady player when he’s healthy. Christian Brown, you know what you’re going to get. But I wanted to ask you, and I wanted to ask kind of the chat as well, who they think the boom or bust nuggets are this season that could either take Denver into a championship into a championship caliber year or kind of sink the ship. And and you don’t want to put it all on one player or two players or anything like that. That’s not the the goal of the assignment. But these are the players with the highest level of volatility. Who do you think has the highest level of volatility on this year’s Denver Nuggets roster? Oh, it’s a great question. I think look, I I expect it to boom, but I’m going to say Cam I’m gonna say Cam Johnson. Oh, interesting. So it the the biggest reason is Cam is having to come in and adapt immediately to playing around Nola and KP was able to do that and Bruce was able to do that and that worked out awesome. But like some guys take a while and I think Cam is absolutely kind of like very sharp basketball IQ guy. Um very thoughtful with how he approaches the game that’s going to get it. But also, if he doesn’t shoot well and we’re in January and I’m having to be like, “Yeah, but like look at all these other things that he’s doing and he’s been really good at this and all the other and he’s shooting 35% from three.” Then you and I are going to be arguing about him on the show and people are going to be frustrated because Mike shot 40% pretty much every year. Shot 39% or better almost every year. And so he’s going to have to make those shots on top of like having to adjust. Um, so that one I do think is kind of like a boom or bust because if it booms then it’s then we’re it’s going to be like, oh my god, not only are the starters better, but the bench minutes are better. All of those things are are are better. And so it’s it is a huge differential here of they were good enough to win a title with Michael Porter Jr. If they are better with him with Cam Johnson, what does that mean? Um, and I want to kind of give that one because like the easy ones are the young guys. It’s Peyton and Julian. Like that’s the easy ones I think to say. I I don’t even know if it’s the easiest ones for me. I I feel like the two easiest ones are Jamal Murray and Bruce Brown. Um and I know that that’s going to like I last last week I did an episode about Jamal Murray being now underrated for for the Nuggets and I think that that is true. But I also know that like the wide range of outcomes with him is kind of how I envision it where he could like there is still a world where he is an all-star for the Denver Nuggets and has solidified things, is leading the bench unit, is allowing Jokic to get rest, things like that. There’s still a world where that happens and that is the case. Is it the likely world? I don’t think so. I think that there’s also a world where he’s injured for the entire season or or he’s a little bit hampered or there’s some there’s some definite things that are holding him back and and maybe holding the Nuggets back from being the level that they need to be. And a lot of it stems from hey, you had the twoman game with Jamal and Nola that kind of like there were some great factors in 2024 that definitely helped, but also some things that really hurt Denver from that ceiling uh from that side of things, especially in that Timberwolve series. uh but you were kind of beholden to whether those guys were going to be at their best or not in that particular season and ultimately they weren’t. So, and this is more of a Jamal thing than a Nola thing that year, but I do think that there’s a lot of pressure riding on Jamal still, especially after you trade Michael Porter Jr. And the natural inclination for a lot of people and has been over the especially when you get to the the reaction that happened from that episode last week is there are still a lot of people that are like, “Okay, now that Mike’s gone, we’re going to turn all of our frustrations and all of our potential issues onto Jamal Murray.” Yeah. But I think it’s more of like the fan reaction, right? Okay. If we’re talking about how far they can go, like Jamal’s going to miss between 15 and 20 games and he’s going to give you 21 and six. Yeah, that’s if he does if he does better than that, then it’s an exceptional year and that’s great. If he does significantly worse than that, if it’s like 20 and four, then something went badly wrong. But I I don’t really think you can expect that. Like I don’t know how Jamal can be a boomer bus player when he is at this point very consistent 21 and six. Like that’s who he is. He’s going to have a couple nights of 35. He’s going to have a couple nights of 15. He’s going to have a couple of stretches of bad shooting. He’s going to have a couple months playing great. And like that’s who he is. I don’t know that he’s like a boomer player because I do think that he is he is consistent in and the problem is like his consistent level is never high enough. His overall average consistent level is not high enough for what fans want. Yeah. And that’s that’s honestly fair. Honestly, the way that you described him kind of how I view Cam Johnson coming into this season where there will be a couple of games where he goes over 30. There will be a couple of games where he goes under 10 and it’s mostly going to be in that 15 to 20 range for the vast majority of the season based off of the the opportunity that he gets and the gravity that he pulls just from that that small forward spot. Can I can I hit those? Sure. So CJ Scratch Torres says all the pressure is on Murray now. If you don’t perform then it’s time to ship him off. What does that mean? Right? Because people were really frustrated with him when he averaged 21 and six. He missed time with a hamstring injury. struggled but made several key shots versus the Lakers. had what I would say five bad games versus the Wolves and his last like two of his last three were really good maybe four bad game five bad games total four but like game five game seven were good in the Wolves series and then he was like he was good last year I don’t I don’t know how you really complain about him in the playoffs um unless I went back and looked at it by the way playoffs were way better than I remember un unless you’re just using it to prop up one other guy like some people then I think you have to be kind of happy with it. So the question is like what does that look like if he doesn’t perform? Yeah. What does that mean? Right. Because and I you know I I just I will also say I’m not going to be on here being like you got to get rid of him if Jamal suffers a suffers a significant injury. Guys get hurt. I’m kind of done with blaming guys about stuff that we don’t know about. Yeah, that’s fair. I’m kind of I’m kind of done with it. I don’t I don’t have any expertise in understanding what a player’s conditioning level should be or how it impacts their injury status. If I want to be an expert in that, I need to go to school for a long time. I’m not going to do that because I’m 43. Pivoting to Julian Strawther and Payton Watson really quickly. Those guys, I think their roles are still unsettled in terms of what the expectation should be for them heading into the season. You had some bet you had some vets like Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valente. Those guys are expected to play and probably expected to play pretty significant minutes off of the bench. What does it look like if those guys boom or bust from a role perspective in Denver? Jaylen or not Jaylen, uh Julian can bust can bust and it will be very quiet. It’ll just be like, “Yeah, he never really got there.” Yeah. Like he, you know, he had that moment in that game in the playoffs and then just like he never really got there. Um, if he booms, then it’s going to be very interesting because it’s going to be like, okay, they’ve got Jamal and Christian and Bruce and Julian. Okay. Is that like it or like is that settled? Is he fourth guard? Is he does he move past Bruce, right? Like what if he becomes like a really elite a top level scoring threat? Um, I think Julian’s got a I still am very high on Julian Strawther. I still think he’s got a lot. But if he doesn’t play well, it’s just going to be like, yeah, you know, Julian kind of soaks up the rest of the minutes. He’s just kind of there. Versus Peyton Watson, I think it’s going to be it’s going to be a lot louder. Because if you just kind of look at where the roster construction leads you, I think Payton’s going to play in a lot of different spots this year, and that’s not always a good thing. I don’t know exactly what his role is. So, like, if he’s just a backup three, great. But he’s gonna the the big thing with Peyton is he’s gonna figure out something that he is great at. Like Julian, I can tell you like Julian is awesome at floaters. Like that’s what he’s great at. He needs to get the shot down, which I think will come. I have no reason to think he’s not going to be a great shooter. Um but like Payton, I need to know like what’s he great at offensively and defensively. What are the guys where it’s like you can put him on him and he’s going to lock him up. I don’t It’s great. It’s awesome to have the highlight blocks. That’s great. That’s terrific. I need guys that it’s like no, no, no. You can play Payton on him and he will lock him up. Yeah, he’s going to be I have to know what the elite stuff that Pton Watson does. He has ranged so much over the course of his first like three years in the NBA from what I expected him to turn into to what people are telling me that he is versus what he actually has become. I I’m still very still very unsure in terms of what to expect from him on a nightto-ight basis. Okay. When we come back, we’re going to expand upon Bruce Brown a little bit. talk about, hey, is six-man roll fair for Bruce Brown? What are we what are we expecting from him on the other side here at Locked on Nuggets? All right, let us talk about Monarch Money. You ever wish managing your money felt easier? With Monarch Money, it can. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning for a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more of a more than a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all of your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing all of your money, you’re also building wealth. Uh, one thing that I definitely need help with is subscriptions. I’m subscribed to so many different things in trying to uh become the best version of uh the podcasting and streaming and uh some over overall like personal interests. I’ve I’ve subscribed to too many different things that kind of help boost those little stuff. Uh Monarch Money definitely helps identify those problems, helps take them out a little bit and helps really outline what I can afford and what I can’t afford. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockdown NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com code locked on NBA for half off your first year. We’ll be right back on Locked on Nuggets. All right, back at it. Locked on Nuggets. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. Hit that like button, folks. Hit that subscribe button. Would really, really appreciate it. Matt, one of the reasons why I’m a little bit curious about Bruce Brown’s actual role with Denver is because everybody, I think, assumes that he’s going to just replace either Russell Westbrook from this past year and what Russ provided on a consistent basis or he’s just going to replicate what he did back in 2022 23 where he averaged about 28 minutes a game, was a pivotal piece of Denver’s rotation, started at point guard, shooting guards, small forward, you name it. Did everything was very good. But there’s been two years since that happened. He’s been in three different destinations, Indiana, Toronto, New Orleans. I’m curious for you. Are you just expecting him to pick up where he left off or is there a growing period that you’re expecting? No, I kind of expect I kind of expect to see him pick up where he left off regular season wise. Listen, if we remember, um I there was a little bit of burbling in the media room about Bruce throughout the year. He had a really great November, but then there were all these stretches where like he wasn’t shooting well and the defense wasn’t great and I wasn’t trying to single you out, but yes. Oh, no. I did it. I I was I was like, “Hey, you could you could could be better could be better at some of these things.” Um and then he was just like ready to go for the playoffs and it was like very clear that he was a 16 gamer. I think the other thing with Bruce is there are there are types of players who do not excel when the team is bad. And what’s funny is if you look at his BPM chart, EPM, any of the advanced metrics on him, right? I prefer EPM. it goes like starts off he’s a negative in Detroit and then in 2020 Detroit was actually a little bit better that season and it gets a little bit better and then he goes to Brooklyn and they’re actually like competing and so he like he gets better and better and better and then he goes to Denver and because he was playing with the bench minutes a lot he goes down a little bit and then he he craters so it looks like this it just looks like a bell curve and that he’s past his prime and that’s it it’s bad but if you look at it through the prism of bad team, okay team, good teams, bad teams. It makes a lot more sense. Then you’re like, okay, now like a lot of this I do think is going to be dependent on Well, I guess here’s a good question, Ryan. What if the offense or the non-Joker minutes is better because of the additions that they’ve made with Valenunis, I guess, THJ, Julian progressing, different lineup combinations, Cam able to stagger. If that’s better, does that take the pressure off of Bruce for having to be able to make shots? Can he be a plus in his minutes even if he doesn’t have a great offensive year? Oh yeah. Like I think that there’s an absolute world where like even Jamal staggers with the second unit and like there’s to me there’s a world where Bruce doesn’t even have to play some nights which is wild. He will like that’s the expectation. He’s not going to not play, but I I think that there’s at least a world where Denver has 11 guys and he could end up being the 11th if Julian Strawther is as good as you think he can be. Yeah. Um, you know, he shot 65% at the rim in 2023. And to me, that’s like very indicative of just like, hey, when Bruce doesn’t have anyone else to make things easy, Bruce is probably going to struggle a little bit in finishing. Like you watched it like he was having like he they were having him go out there with the Pelicans like go on out there and fill up the minutes while we tank our faces off. Yeah. Right. Um so those numbers just aren’t really indicative of anything. You know, you don’t have an opportunity to to really show what you can do. He was fine in Indiana, but they needed Pascal, right? And then Toronto was was just tanking and then New Orleans was tanking. And so there wasn’t really this opportunity for him to actually like contribute in meaningful ways. Now the three-point shot I think is interesting because look in 2022, the year before he joined Denver, he shot 40% from three and that was an outlier season based off the rest of his career. He had one season where he shot that way. Then he goes to Denver and he shoots 35.8%. But here’s the thing, 35.8% is fine. Like if Bruce just goes back to being a 35 to 36% shooter, if he’s just average, no problem. That’s great. That’s awesome. Because his steel rate’s still very high. like that second unit’s still g going to be thieving. Like they’re still going to be getting a high number of steals. And honestly, like Bruce being able to replicate that Russell Westbrook component is really significant because Russell’s really good at generating steals. And Bruce is able to generate those steals and they just have a little bit of a better floor offensively, then they’re going to be in a pretty good position, I think, to capitalize. Um, the other thing I will tell you because I’ve been doing I’m working on a thing for the dig about Yonas Valenunus is I was surprised at how many things differently JV can do because I was kind of like, oh, you can operate the pinch post and like do like a little bit out of that and like sure you could post him up and instead I’m like, no, no, like you should be posting him up pretty consistently. Like you can duplicate it even more I think of the offense than I thought you could with Joker. You can duplicate a lot of that. Now again, no one no one is joker, especially not Yonas Valenos, but just being like, “Hey, my big guy is gonna absolutely kill you if you don’t double him because you’re running a small ball unit, so you better double.” JV reads it every single time. And Bruce will kill those those mechanisms. Like there are all these plays I watched with JV last year where it’s like it’s Keon Ellis cutting down the lane and getting easy stuff and Bruce Brown can do that. Yeah. So I I am very confident that Bruce is a guy where yeah, you need to make it easy on him. But there’s also players who they it it’s not good for them. Like they’re not good at the easy stuff. They need it to be hard and difficult and and be moderately successful at inherently low efficiency shots. Um I I think Bruce is going to be able to to pick it back up. Now, I could be wrong and that’s going to be a bummer if it’s if it’s not if it’s true. Like if Bruce just is more like the guy he’s been the last two years, it’s going to suck. But they also have Julian and they have alternatives and they have Jaylen. Like Jaylen played well the back half of the season. So they’re not sunk if Bruce Brown is in fact washed. There’s a world where he is. I don’t expect that to actually be the world that we live in. I I do think that he’s going to be very good. It’s it’s one of the reasons why am I on Denver is because you want somebody that can both operate on the ball and off the ball, have some defensive consistency. What’s up? Well, I’m just curious after the experience last time, right? Because I do think this is like an interesting situation. If he struggles, like how much of a benefit of the doubt are you going to give him, right? Because like I do this too much where I’m like he’ll be fine and it’s like narrator he was not fine. Um, and I think you too often are kind of like, oh no, I’m just saying shoot 32% for three over the last three weeks. Um, and I think we’re both kind of we we go to those extremes. So, I am kind of curious about your analysis approach on Bruce as well as the other guys, Timwood Jr., anybody new coming in as far as like what kind of benefit of the doubt you’re going to provide them. I I’ll need to see some positives. I’m if it’s if it’s entirely negative, if it’s where nothing is going right, you are not playing well in any way, shape, or form, I can’t at least like pick out something that you’re doing well, then yeah, I’m going to probably blow the whistle a little bit. But I in terms of like if Bruce is at least cutting and finishing well and operating in pick and roll or DHO’s with Jonas Valenunis, it’s going to be okay if he shoots 29% from three for a month. Like, I’m not going to I’m not going to be that concerned about that. If he is doing that for three months, then we’ll we’ll start to have some conversations. But in terms of just immediately reacting negatively, no, I I think for the entire team, honestly, I’m I’m feeling pretty good in that the the expectation that I have is that I’m going to be a little bit less like lower maintenance on this particular roster because I just believe that they’ve done the right thing whereas last year I did not. So, you also need it. You also need a break from stressing about them nightly. Yeah, it would be great. I I would I would like to uh would if there’s anything that we could get for this year, it would be for Ryan to just not stress about the Nuggets from day to day. Um, okay. When we come back, we’re going to talk about some free agents and some guys that have not signed in the NBA this year, including Russell Westbrook. What’s going on? Why have they not signed yet? Is Matt surprised about it? We’ll be right back here on Locked on Nuggets. 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Uh actually our uh mutual Mark Stein over at the Stein Line put out an article this afternoon and he does it every Sunday and he listed a variety of free agents and kind of his his own takes on on where some of these guys went. But the list and the the degree to how good some of these players were really surprised me because lot is being held up in two different mechanisms. Restricted free agency and the Golden State Warriors. Uh those two are are both very important within the context of today’s NBA. So I wanted to ask you about a variety of different guys. Like why do you think some of these three restricted free agents, Josh Giddy, Quinton Grimes, Jonathan Kaminga, why are these guys not getting deals right now in this modern NBA? I think fans are probably sick of hearing about it from us, but there’s no way around it. It’s the new CBA. So, the owners built in a system where spending doesn’t make team building sense. And it took things like restricted free agency, which used to be like, look, we probably like, he’s a good player, he could be great, we don’t want to make him mad. Like Gordon Hayward got really pissed off when they made him go look for a deal and then he left as soon as he could because of that decision. Like Hayward talked about it like you poison the well, but that’s now worth it because of the salary constraints. If you would get a anybody if you get any good players on discount deals, you are ahead of where a lot of teams are. This is one of the good things about what the Lakers did is I was I wrote a whole thing on the Lakers this weekend and it’s going out on Tuesday and basically it’s like look is DeAndre Aiden was released for a reason. Marcus Smart was released for a reason. Um Jake Laavia was available for for a reason but they got them all for a combined 19 million AAV and that’s really valuable is having three playable guys at 19 million combined is really helpful. Yeah. Um likewise, if you are able to squeeze these guys and they’re not franchise players, which none of them are, why not? Because you can just keep squeezing and squeezing and squeezing until they get to the number that you’re like, “This is appropriate and this fits with our timeline constraints where we want to be financially in X year to make Y bid on whatever free agent or to be able to do this, that, or the other.” It just makes it easier rather than being like we’re going to pay through the nose just to keep you happy. It’s no longer what they want. So like because to me it’s like look is Josh Giddy worth keeping happy at the expense of getting him on a cheaper deal? No. Is Jonathan Kaminga worth it? Absolutely not. Under no circumstances. Is Cam Thomas worth that? No. But the Nets have kind of gone a little too far. Like they’re they’re pushing this I think a little too far because Cam’s actually if you compare him with a lot of guys it’s like oh Cam’s actually better. Yeah. So like they’re pushing it a little far, but this is going to be I think the new standard. These areas where it’s like you could squeeze them for money, but you don’t. Those are now going to be like, well, now we do. I think I’m not surprised by it. Obviously, like there’s so many one one of the things that really stands out with this CBA is that every contract that you’re signing that is not for a superstar player is automatically preventative from the next contract that you could sign for a star player, a superstar player, or getting the next good value. It’s just unfortunately how it works. Like my thing though is like I don’t know that the I think the days of of grabbing at stars is over. Oh, clearly. I mean, nobody’s going to free agency anymore. I just think it’s like one guy at 40 to 50, another guy at 30, and then you’re going to have to drop down to 20 or less for everybody else. Like the Magic are absolutely going to get squeezed. Yeah, they’re 100% going to get squeezed. You know, I think I think the Grizzlies are going to have tough conversations because they got two guys on Maxis. Like, I’m just not sure. It’s not It used to be like, how can you get three stars? And now I’m like, I don’t know if he could afford two. Like, that’s why like and I mean, Denver’s going to face the same problem, right? I mean, if there’s anything that that ends Jamal’s time here, it’s not going to be fans outrage over his shooting splits when he has pretty good shooting splits, but people are in those comments are complaining. Like, he’s an inconsistent shooter. The numbers disagree with you. Um, I think like Jamal that that’s going to be like a pressure point down the line. It’s just like look, can we really have 110 million wrapped on two guys even as a salary cap increases? Can we really do that? And I don’t know. I just don’t know. Yeah. And just because when you’re talking about and Grace says it here, you got to start talking. Yeah. I I know Grace. I’m just when I say 50 to 40 to 50, what I’m all I’m saying is that percentage of the cap like I am I am putting it at this current level at that at that level mark, right? In a couple of years I’ll be like one guy at 60 to 70 until these numbers start to go down. It’s uh it’s one guy on the the fun max as Brian Windor would call it, one guy on the big max and a whole bunch of role players. Yeah, that’s a much better way to describe it. Yeah. Nobody wants to hear percentages here, Grace. They were told they were being no math. Yeah. It’s as somebody who like does pretty well with math. It’s uh it is borderline sociopathic to try to deal with it from a an NBA cap perspective. Um other free agents and we’ll we’ll hit these guys quick before we get out of here. The Warriors guys, Kaminga is obviously holding up stuff, but you’ve mentioned this before. Al Horford, the Anthony Melton, Gary Payton II, all probably going back to the Warriors. And then if you get Kaminga back there, then their their roster suddenly goes from 9 to 13. Boring. Everything’s boring. I’m so bored with the Warriors. Yeah, there are things on this list I think are really interesting. Malcolm Brogman. I’d love him here. Is it just an injury thing? It’s got to be just the injuries. I mean, he’s clearly good enough to play still. Yeah, that’s not that’s not the question. That Ben Simmons is available. does Celtics are interested there. Um, you know, it’s funny it’s it’s really funny to me that Chris Buché is still available that the Nuggets were like there’s all this talk of the Nuggets potentially trading for Bouchet and Chris Buché is just out there as an unders free agent just like hanging and they they’ve got an open roster spot like if if the interest was in fact real then I mean it it probably was real but he was just the the version of the player that they were going to go for if they couldn’t get Valenunis probably. There’s so many good names. Precious Aua, Trey Lyles is still out there. Trey Lyles. VJ’s still out there, which makes me sad. I you Yeah, I mean I understand. Believe me, this is He’s going to go James Johnson. Like that’s the that’s the route that you’re probably going now. Um Russ notably. Yeah. I mean, where do you think Russ ends up? Is it still Sacramento? Yeah, probably. Don Wright. Don Wright would be a great 15th man kind of guy. Somebody that if he was okay not playing every single night, he would probably contribute to a pretty good culture. The the guy I want someone to pick up not the Nuggets just in general is Taylor Horton Tucker. He’s good. I’m telling you, he does stuff. He just does stuff. Yeah, I like I like where Taylor Horton Tucker is taking his game and he is not getting enough opportunity. Um, wait, is Caleb Houston still unsigned? Uh, I think so. Oh god, somebody needs to go get him. He’s a shooter, isn’t he? Yeah. Kind of surprising that that shooters don’t get picked up like that. Like usually all of them do. Hawks are reportedly set to sign him for a one-year deal. Okay. Well, Hawks have been doing a lot of smart things. So, I knew I knew I’d heard someone something from him. Uh Jeremiah Robinson, Earl, that’s a good 15th man. Um, Tory Craig, that’s that’s a bring him home. To me, that’s that’s one that if Payton Watson contract extension talks don’t work out and you trade him before the season, then Tory Craig is the perfect replacement. You think really you? So, okay, that’s Wow. I’m actually What you you would if you don’t get an extension with Payton, you’d rather do that than just squeeze him in restricted free agency? I So here’s I don’t know like obviously Payton is still extremely like he he is a high ceiling player to the point where you could see him being a starter in the NBA and it’s one of the reasons why Denver should try to hold on to him. However, we’ve seen this happen with the Nuggets before where rather than deal with a potential headache throughout the year for a guy like Bones Island was this way. Like you get guys that are in line with the direction that you’re going or you move on and that’s that’s at least something that they have done in the past. I think that Pton Watson is like in line with what they want to do. I think that he’s actually going to be very good this year. But if he is unwilling to sign for a number, um I personally I think the Nugget should just offer him like four years 48 million. Like that should be the number. Yeah. Okay. Well, let’s talk about this on Wednesday because this is fascinating that we are on different sides of this. This is interesting. We’ll talk about on Wednesday’s show. Uh Tuesday night, actually. Okay. Do that. Are we doing Tuesday night? I don’t remember. Doing Tuesday night. We have a new schedule. I’ll send it to you again. Okay. I I have it. But I just haven’t looked at it in a while. All right, everybody. That is going to do it for this episode of Locked On Nuggets. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. Who are your most polarizing players for the Denver Nuggets this upcoming season? Let us know after this week’s episode of Lock on Nuggets.

No Jinx returns with Matt Moore and Ryan Blackburn discussing the most Boom or Bust and Polarizing players on the Denver Nuggets roster. They expand on Bruce Brown and expectations facing him, as well as all of the unsigned NBA free agents.

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