Best Nuggets Roster What If? And What Are The Major What Ifs For The Nuggets To Succeed This Season?

Best Nuggets Roster What If? And What Are The Major What Ifs For The Nuggets To Succeed This Season?

On today’s episode, we check out some what-ifs and what could be. Curious? Let’s dive in. You’re watching CS 105.1, where I talk about sports with good vibes. Let’s get it. [Music] How’s it going everyone and welcome. I’m CS Chandler here for another take of Nuggets basketball. So, as we’re still in this dog days of the off season, things trickling here and there of some sports news. Uh still waiting really for our season schedule to come out really right now. I think that’s the next big uh thing to happen for the Nuggets at least. I know uh there’s been a couple of rumblings within the uh league lately. I know Luca Donitz signed a three-year max contract with the Lakers and uh um Darian uh Fox did a a contract with the Spurs. Uh what else happened recently? I think that’s pretty much it, right? Not a lot going on and we’re in the offseason. So, uh and then uh couple of uh other I guess lots of podcasts going on, right? Uh MPJ seems to be going wild with his vlogging and uh there’s a a clip that he did of trying to give a homeless man money and the homeless man was like so far gone that he didn’t want money and then got a lot of criticism for having a camera shining while doing a good deed. But at the same time, like how else are we going to see good stuff if someone doesn’t have a camera on? So, I’m I’m kind of uh okay with uh people putting a camera on to do a good deed so that we at least see that and not all the constant toxic negative stuff on the internet. So, uh but it was just kind of a very MPJ thing to do to assume that someone else would be okay with having money. Uh he he’s has that childish aspect to life still. So, uh, but then, uh, the other thing that was really a great take was Joe Mazoula was on a podcast. I don’t I don’t know what podcast it was, but he was on a podcast recently. And if you don’t know, Joe Mazula is the head coach of the Boston Celtics, and he was talking about the play of game today. And obviously when you talk about that, you talk about Joic. and he was talking about how Jokic plays like a water polo athlete and it makes a lot of sense. It was a very good take the way that he palms the ball and he lets guys gather really close into him and then he will just like tap a ball to someone else or into the basket or whatever. He does very much play water polo basketball essentially and he does play water polo he did before. So it makes a lot of sense now uh the style of basketball that Jokic plays. He also uh connected Joel Embiid to soccer. There’s a lot of soccer uh within Joel Embiid’s style. So a lot of interesting things there. But I wanted to take some time to kind of, you know, while we’re still in these dog days, talk about some uh some whatifs, if you will. So my uh first thing was to kind of construct a roster based purely on Nuggets players, former or current. So my kind of thought was uh the best starting lineup using only current or former Nuggets at their peak. So they have to be at their peak, right? So we’re going to go into our starters first. This is the starting lineup for the best possible Nuggets team you could have ever had uh getting all of the previous players at their peaks to play at at one time. So, this is definitely we are stretching it here, but you know uh just a what if like what if they all played at the same time at their peaks and they were all on the same team? Uh what would it be like? And this is my opinion. So feel free to comment in the the section there of what you think your best roster lineup would be. But for me, this is mine. So starting lineup, this is the starting five. Obviously, you have to go with Nicole Joic as the five starting five. I mean, to not would just be insane. He’s the best player uh right now of the world and he’s the best player uh when he retires. If he continues on and is able to uh get in a couple more championships, he could easily retire as one of the top five greatest uh players to ever play the game. So, uh and then at the four, we would have AG, Mr. Nugget himself. I mean, he pretty much almost got us uh to the finals for the second time by himself this uh last playoffs with a hamstring issue uh or the calf. No, it was the hamstring. It was a second uh grade hamstring strain. Yeah. So, you know, plus he also did the calf issue all all season. So, I mean, AG uh got to love him. his heart, the way he plays. Uh, AG is my four. Then, uh, number three, I know there might be some, uh, you know, heat against this, but you can’t discredit the fact that Melo was definitely one of the Nuggets best players of all time. I know he didn’t get us a chip, but he did get us to the Western Conference Finals, and he was a very good player. He actually did more for Denver, I would argue, than he did for the Knicks, cuz he never brought the Knicks to a conference final. So, I got to have Melo as as the three the uh um small forward. And then uh at the shooting guard, someone who I feel like is very underrated, not talked about much, should need should be talked more about, not just within Nuggets world, but within the NBA world. There needs to be a reckoning for ousting this guy Ma Mahmud Abdul Rau. He at his peak he was one of the best players in the league. And it’s a shame that he got ousted because the the way he was playing he was easily going to be one of the best point guards of all time I would think. And so that for that reason alone, I got to have him as the two the shooting guard. And then my uh personal uh favorite point guard uh has to be Jamal Murray, the blue arrow himself. Got to be as the starting one uh point our point. Uh he brought us to a championship along with Jokicage. I know he’s had some dog days uh during the regular season. He she kind of shows up late and he has really hasn’t even been a playoff Murray in a while. But I have a good feeling in this next coming season he’s going to be definitely back. But regardless of that, he is him when he wants to be. And I love Jamal Murray. I love him for that. So there’s your starting five. Now we go into the bench. This is the second string. All right. This is second string of five. These are the people that would uh eat up the non-kage minutes. And then so at the backup five I would have Dmbbe Matumbbo. You cannot say uh uh anyone else was the second best center of all time in Nuggets without talking about Dbe Matumbo. This guy was amazing amazing shot blocker. Definitely one of the greatest centers of all time. Uh just even defensively one of the best defensive players of all time if not one of the best like maybe like the top five. I would put him in the top five of best defensive players of all time. Shame that he passed not even a year ago. Uh great player. Uh forever grateful for how nice he was to me and my mom uh when I uh got to meet him. So the Ke Matumbbo number five, the backup four would be obviously Chris Anderson, the Birdman himself. Uh just a great asset to the Nuggets when he was in here. Uh it was uh a shame that he uh got had to go to uh Miami, but uh great great player there. And then the backup three, the backup small forward to Melo would be MPJ. I know a lot of people hate MPJ, but he was a part of the championship starting five for one. And he was projected to be the one seed when he was drafted. It was only the fact that he had the back issue that he started to go further and further down the drafting lane. And actually, thankfully for that, we were able to land him. And I will forever love MPJ. He is definitely one of the best Nuggets to ever wear a Nuggets jersey. So, got to have him as a three. And then the backup two to Muhammad Abdul Laruf would be CB uh Christian Brown. I mean the the Jay-Hawk can fly. He can uh you know poster Goar Lopez chat like you got to have him. The fire that he brings, the intensity, the never quit attitude, the must-win attitude, the we just got our asses kicked. Well, now we’re going to battle back and show you that that wasn’t a one-time thing kind of attitude. Like, got to have him on the team. I mean, say what you will about how young he is right now. I definitely think he is going to be a great player. Uh, a little longer he’s just stays because when you look at the gap between just the his uh uh second year and third year, like the growth there is just phenomenal. I’m really excited to see how uh much better he gets himself uh to this next coming up season. So, and then the backup point guard to Jamal Murray for me has to be Johny Bilips. I mean, he was he was great. He’s a part of that Western Conference uh final return that Melo brought the Nuggets first in like 20ome years, right? The first one being in the 80s. So, got to love Chanty Bilips. Uh, plus also Colorado native or you know original Colorado um born and raised in Colorado played for us like got to love Chanty Bilipss. Much love for him. And then that’s your uh your second string. So that’s the bench for the second string. Now let’s get into the third string bench. Now, I understand that many some of these players you might have ranked higher or maybe not uh lower than me. I understand that. But again, this is my lineup. So, for my third string lineup of Nuggets players, the guys that maybe you would uh swap in depending on the the um the opponents lineup or on the trash minutes or whatever, you would have uh our backup backup five as Paul Milsap. I mean, what he did in the bubble for the Nuggets, uh, he was definitely a great defender and shot blocker. Uh, he averaged a lot a decent amount of points, too, for being a five. So, got to have Paul Millsap as the backup five. And then my backup for power forward would be an Antonio Mcdice. I remember when I was a little kid going to all the Nuggets games and seeing him and just amazed at what he could do and he had a phenomenal career. Could have been even better. I wish that he would have stayed a nugget but you know the business is what the business is and it’s going to happen. Uh people are going to get traded and everything go away but still and Tony Mcdise was a phenomenal player. I loved him as the uh power forward. So, got to have him as our backup. Backup four. The backup three to MPJ and Melo would be Alex English. Now, I know this might be controversial. You might have him as the starting uh three or you might have him as the second string three, but for me, I just loved NPJ too much and I had to give love to or credit to Melo. So, Alex English got to still have him on the team though. There’s no way you can’t have Alex English on a not on the Nuggets team at all in in this kind of, you know, whatif scenario. So, Alex English comes in as number three. And then same thing, David Thompson, he’s going to be my backup two. I know some people might have him as the uh starting two or the backup two, but he’s my backup backup, too. and there’s no way I’m not going to have him on the uh I’m not not going to have him on the the team. So, David Thompson is that, too. And then for me, I got to bring in some fire. And I loved this one season that we had of him. I wish he was on the team for next season. It’s a shame that he’s not going to be, but got to have Brody as the backup backup point guard. I loved what he did. And love him or hate him, I mean, he just makes the game very interesting to watch. You are like even if he’s bricking or if he’s throwing passes that to no one basically to the crowd, like it’s still a roller coaster of emotions that are you he brings. And when he’s on, he is on and he brings that fire. I love it. So, I got to have him as the backup backup point guard. So, there is my uh whatif roster lineup of the uh the first, second, and third string players, 15 guys there. Let me know in the comments what you think, what your uh if you agree with me or if you would switch out some people or if you have a completely different lineup, you know, uh I I seriously doubt any Nuggets fan or any any basketball fan would have anyone other than Jokicage as a starting five, but you know, let me know if you did. So, the other thing I was going to talk about was what are the biggest factors for the Nuggets to win this season. So when we walk down this path, just thinking ahead, trying to figure out, you know, what’s going to happen with the team, we have a great lineup so far. It looks very de deep. We have it seems to be a very deep roster right now, but it’s all on paper. So we’re just working with on paper kind of stuff right now. Uh, I think just from what we’ve seen before, uh, one key factor is Jamal has to show up this season. He has to. It would be phenomenal if he showed up in the first games. Like even like the first 15, 20 games and he averaged 20 to 25 points in those games. Maybe even 28. you know, you to be able to make an all-star, he would have to average roughly around 28 points. So, that would be phenomenal. If he if he averaged 28 points in the first 20 games, man, that means that we’re doing something right. Uh, and then the other thing I would say is key pieces of the bench. Well, actually, no, before I go into that, I would actually have to say Cam Johnson is a big what if right now. We haven’t seen him play on this roster. Yes, we can assume that he’s going to be amazing on the roster. I know a lot of people would say anyone other than MPJ is already going to be an upgrade. I get that. I don’t agree with it completely, but I get it. MPJ was there for vibes. He didn’t have much vibes this last season, so, you know, it was definitely weird. We’ll see going into the season. I hope Cam Johnson uh shows up and we get some exciting moments with him. I I do have a feeling we’ll get at least at least a handful of exciting moments, but if we get a lot more than that, then it’s going to definitely be worth it. So, um now moving on to key pieces in the bench that I really hope uh stand out is well uh there one last thing too. Health. health for the starters. The health has to be there in order for us to win this season. The calf strains like AG uh missing out on what was it like 30 games or so. That that that really hurt us. Not having AG in the lineup really hurt us because he is definitely one of our best defenders. He’s one of our biggest guys. He’s one of our strongest guys. and we were just losing the uh 50-50 ball as well as the rebounding without him there. He also is great at just musling up a dunk or or a layup. So, and also he’s been very well at the three line. So, just health in general, health from all of the guys. uh Murray, AG, uh CB didn’t miss a lot, but you know, it always sucks when you have your none uh the the players in your starting lineup missing games, especially Jokicage. So, if everyone else is healthy and they’re all contributing the way that they’re supposed to be contributing, that’s going to ease up the load that puts on Yageic. And so, Yokicage will not be as beaten up. He’s going to get more rest time. So, that is definitely something that we need to watch out for and hope for. And if that happens, we’re winning. Next thing is bench. So bench, I want to see if Julian Strawler gets better. He needs to show up. It’s his third season now. He needs to show up now. Uh he needs to show up. And then uh and and plus with that, like I want to see his ball handling increase. Uh I want to see his shot making, especially his three. He’s he like he was really drafted for being the like kind of like the next MPJ. He was supposed to be the good uh sharpshooter that we have and uh he’s been really phenomenal with that floater. He really perfected the floater, but I want to see him get better at the three. I want him to be shooting close to 50% or averaging close to 50% uh over the season. That would be great. Uh then we need to see if Brucey Brown is him from the chip year or if we’re getting another an older version of Brucey Brown. Obviously, he is older, but you know, is he going to be playing older or will he play with the same effort and uh tenacity that he played in the uh 2023 chip year? We need to see that. Uh Harway Jr., He hasn’t played with us yet. So, we need to see how he plays with the rest of the uh the team. And I’m hopeful, always hopeful, but again, we haven’t seen it. So, uh that’s another big thing. Payton Watson, how has Payton Watson’s growth happened? That has he grown? He’s He’s in his fourth year now. It’s It’s like kind of do or die with Payton Watson. feel like if he doesn’t show up this season, as much as it would just suck, because I do really enjoy Peyton Watson. I love Swatson. There is no one uh better on our team for blocking shots than Swatson. But I mean, it’s his fourth year right now. He needs to be in the contention for defensive player of the year. If not, then I mean I it might be time to send him somewhere else. Uh also his uh shot making he needs to be better with the three but and a lot of people have said that part a lot of the u people have said the uh be better with the three. For me personally though I want to see him dunk successfully. Those one-handed dunks in transition. Got to work on those. There was way too many missed dunks this last season and the season before that, too. He It didn’t It wasn’t just a one season thing. He It’s been growing. It’s been there. So, I would love to see him get better in transition. Uh then the other thing is just to see how how uh present Valunis is. If he gives us the best version of himself, awesome. But if he’s going to be checked out and on just kind of waiting for the season to be over so he can go play in Greece and everything, then that’s also going to be a failed transaction that uh of getting him onto the Nuggets. We need to make sure that he is locked in and wanting to win a championship with the Nuggets. And then the other thing is just the the younger guys seeing how well they show up. Uh Don Holmes played a phenomenal uh summer league. Will he continue that in regular season? I know he he will get minutes. We’ll see that more so in preeason. And he is now the uh official new MPJ. He walks like MPJ. He’s nice like MPJ. I mean, he just needs to find his aggression. Needs to get a little bit more aggressive. and uh but I love him and I’m uh hopeful that he’s going to be a make a significant impact on the team. Uh but we need to see it. The other thing is Tamar Bates, he didn’t have as good of a summer league, I know, as he would have liked, but I still have a lot of uh hope for him. And plus now he has me hooked. He’s my guy. like after meeting him and his family, phenomenal people, love them, you know, just want nothing but the best for tomorrow Bates and I hope that he really shines out this season. Uh same thing with Spencer Jones. Spencer Jones needs to show up as well. And I love his mentality that it’s not just about personal accolades or stats. He is so locked into what he can contribute to the team. that team effort. I love that and that’s the kind of guy that I want on my team. So, I’m glad that he is on the team and I just uh hope that he continues to get better and add where he uh is kind of lacking a little bit. So, uh, and then I mean I’m kind of thinking that we will definitely need to see Hunter Tyson, uh, improve, but man, I would also say for him, if he doesn’t improve, uh, deadline, trade deadline, if you can get him off, get him off. Uh, same thing with Zeke Nagi. I mean, Zeke’s had a lot of time to show improvement. He had a couple of good games this last season, but it wasn’t consistent. He needs to be consistent. Same thing with Jaylen Picket. Jaylen Picket gave us some good uh games down the stretch there, but still he’s one of our backup point guards. He needs to be better as well. And someone that we is a go-to if not the Ben Wallace needs to find a way to offload those two uh contracts. So that’s pretty much in my uh as my view is what is a big whatif. And if these things fall into place, we are winning a championship. And there’s a lot of whatifs there. I just said a lot of whatifs. And so for a perfect world to happen, we are 100% winning the championship. But we always know that there’s not a perfect world. And so we know that there’s going to be some uh leaks here and there in this boat that we’re uh you know cruising down on. Uh I’m I’m just really not confident in Hunter Tyson. I hope he shows up. If he does, it’d be amazing, but I’m not confident in him. I’m My confidence is waning with Payton Watson. I really hope that he has his best year yet this coming season. I really hope Jamal Murray comes with being him at the beginning of the season and is in shape. I know so far we haven’t gotten that with him. So, it is something that we uh would be very excited to see. I think he would impress a lot of people if he did. Uh and this is his year to be at All-Star. I don’t think that he’s going to get another chance at being an all-star. this is his last chance in my opinion I think uh for that because then he’s just going to get older and it’s not going to get easier. So uh usually it’s right around this era that you the players have their best opportunity to being an all-star. I think this is one of his last times. I mean that it is very true too that maybe he doesn’t want to be an all-star and I hope that he’s not intentionally tanking his stats to try to not be an all-star for the beginning of the season cuz he does always show up at the end of the season, you know, when it’s uh too late to be an all-star and then after the all-star break then he starts to play. It does kind of make me wonder maybe he is intentionally not doing well in the beginning of the season to not be an all-star, but you know, we’ll uh we’ll see how he shows up. And then uh um other thing too is uh Brucey B, Valenunis, Cam Johnson, Hardway Jr. are new assets. How well are they going to play? How well are they going to play with the team? Is the team going to have a uh cohesion? you know, are they going to play as one? Are they going to be the vibes are going to be good? Like that’s all something that uh um has yet to be seen. We haven’t seen any I don’t think cuz I don’t think that the team has even played together yet. I mean, Jokic is off playing uh Europe basketball right now. So, uh we don’t even know uh how the team plays together. So, it’ll be very interesting to see in September when they go into training camp a little bit more of the guys vibing together. So, hopefully that happens. But, there’s a lot of whatifs. I’m very excited about this team, but there are a lot of whatifs. And there’s a lot of whatifs though with a lot of teams right now, too. I mean, the Rockets also have a lot of whatifs. And then the I would say the only what um team that doesn’t have whatifs or maybe like minimum whatifs is the Thunder. Unfortunately, like they retained everyone there and if they all the only whatif for them is if they stay healthy pretty much. I mean, I’m very excited to see this Nuggets team playing at their peak against the Thunder and seeing how well we do, how we match, how well we match up now that we got two more uh backup bigs, uh Don Holmes and Valunis, like bring it on Thunder, bring it on. Uh, same thing with the the Timberwolves. We’ve got to crush the Timberwolves. I I think a successful season would be us sweeping the Timberwolves. Sweeping the Timberwolves and at least winning the series against the Thunder. Those two things. Also, sweeping the the Lakers, sweeping the Celtics, sweeping the Wizards. We cannot get swept by the Wizard. The Wizards again. The Wizards. The Wizards. Uh, we cannot get swept by them again. Uh, and then uh uh who else was annoying? Oh, I mean hopefully we’ll win against the Pacers again. I mean, we’ve had nine year uh what was it? Nine years or nine uh games uh winning streak against them that just crumbled and this uh home game last season uh Malone’s last game with the Nuggets. And that was the first uh Pacers win against us and it was in our house. So hopefully we can come back and win against them. Even though I’m not really a hater on the the Pacers, so you know, but it it would be nice to, you know, win the the winning games. The ones that we should be winning, we’d win. I also would say to a successful season would include at least one game that we crush the opponent and win a blowout by at least 40 points. 40 or more points. The Thunder have done it too many times. Like almost every other team has done it at least once or twice. It would be really nice to see the Nuggets finally do that. So, let’s see. Uh uh let’s we got to wait and see so far. playing the waiting game right now. Yeah, pretty much. Uh, but that’s all I got for this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please give it a like and subscribe. Share it out to your friends and family. And you’ve been listening to CS 105.1, where I talk about sports with good vibes. We’ll catch you later.

Building the ultimate all-time NBA roster isn’t as easy as picking legends—you need chemistry, fit, and peak performance. In this episode of C.S. 105.1FM, we dive into a high-level “what if” scenario: What if you could draft a starting five and bench entirely from past and present NBA players—only at their absolute prime? From the dominance of Shaquille O’Neal to the precision of Stephen Curry, the IQ of Magic Johnson to the grit of Jimmy Butler, we build lineups that could dominate any era. This is the basketball fantasy draft fans have always dreamed of.

Whether you’re a student of the game or just love deep NBA debates, this episode explores roster construction, era crossover battles, playstyle evolution, and all-time greatness. Let the legacy arguments begin. Also I’m looking for a co-host or someone willing to join the show. DM me on X @IronRoadProds. This is C.S. 105.1 FM where I talk Sports with Good Vibes.

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