Peyton Watson & Cam Johnson on the Denver Nuggets Competing for an NBA Title and Nikola Jokic

Peyton Watson & Cam Johnson on the Denver Nuggets Competing for an NBA Title and Nikola Jokic

Just the way that he’s able to do exactly what he wants, you know, no matter the cover is just is crazy. He didn’t even mention what was that 40 2020. 30 2020 30 2020. He had that. But that doesn’t make sense. No, he wasn’t even tripping on that one. Now it’s just like a good game. Good job. Solid game. He missed a few shots. He should have made that game. It’s just crazy. [Music] [Music] welcome to the young man in the three as always presented by 342 Productions and our friends at Wondery Media. Cam, who are we with? We’re here today with another Denver Nugget teammate, Payeyton Watson. Yes, sir. Payton’s coming off a great season with Denver. Uh continues to get better year by year. Has a bright future ahead of him. Thank you, my man. It’s It’s good to be here. Thank y’all for having me and it’s good to be working with you now. I think we I think we got some big things ahead. So, I’m excited for it. How would you describe what Cam is walking into? I would describe it as just like the perfect opportunity to do something like really major. Like to win a championship is is really hard to do in this league and it’s only a certain amount of teams that you feel like really have the DNA to do it and the roster and just the locker room presence to do it. But um our team has always been super tight-knit. Um obviously um acquiring Cam and acquiring Tim um that’s gonna be huge for us. But you know just to have their veteran voices in there will be great. But I think it’s a great locker room. I think it’s we got some special players obviously and I think we got all the makings of what could be really a special team. So I’m excited for it and I think you should be too for sure. What have you liked about your time in Denver so far? Um I would just say just the authenticity. Um, I feel like the fans are super authentic. I feel like everybody truly loves the team and it’s not just one of those things where people go to the games and they’re on their phones all game and posting about where they’re at. They’re actually engaging in the game and they’re sports fans. So, I think that Denver is a super great place to well for me to start my career or for you to be now. I think you’re just gonna you’re gonna you’re gonna get some fans that’ll be with you forever. You know, man, I I’ve been walking around. I’ve been in Phoenix, you know, I’ve been around um here and when I was in Denver, I didn’t know how many Nuggets fans there were. Like there’s Nuggets fan coming at like, oh, I’m from Colorado. I’m a Nug I’m a Nuggets fan everywhere, right? I’m like, I didn’t know that Nuggets fans was everywhere like that, though. It’s pretty cool to see. I was really excited to see that. No, it’s crazy cuz you start to really realize when you in Denver that it’s super centrally located in the country. So, you know, there’s people always moving to Denver or moving from Denver to West Coast where I’m from or even, you know, to the Midwest as well. So, um there’s Denver fans everywhere. Like I I had my um my first camp the other day um out in California, you know, where I’m from. And there was a girl who had who was from Denver and they traveled all the way to LA just to go to my camp. So, that was super special. And like you said, they’re they’re everywhere. It’s a great sports city in general. Broncos like they just they’re they roll deep on everything. I heard I heard even the Rocky stadium has been great crowds. I haven’t even been I was trying to make it to a game but I haven’t been this year. We’ll pop out. Yeah. No, we about to pop out to one for sure. But um even our um our hockey team, the Avalanche, they won the championship the same year we did, I believe. So um you know, it’s it’s a good sports town for sure. And I think that with the continued success and the the team and the talent that we have right now, it’s a super bright spot for um Denver sports for sure. What’s it like being a teammate of the of the two men of those two together of Jamal and uh Yoke? Uh it’s you know it’s great um just to kind of learn from them. Um, from day one, I’ve always kind of um just looked at what they’ve done and kind of spectated from afar when I really wasn’t playing. And I was just always watching they were do their work habits and what time they were getting to the gym, what they were eating before the games. And um, they’re just two super, you know, consistent dudes. They’re consistent with their work. They’re consistent in their approach to the game, their demeanors. like it seems at times like guilt can be emotionless and things like that, but when you’re really around him on a day-to-day basis, like he’s the biggest jokester, bro. He’s the most animated person sometimes. Uh, but I just feel like when both of those two get on the court, they’re killers. And obviously playing alongside him, they just make the game easy. Um, and they just draw so much attention themselves that it opens up um, you know, spots for myself. you um you got on the court a lot as your career has progressed through effort, defense, being in the right spot, taking advantage of opportunities. Where do you see your game grown from here and where has it grown so far in in your time in the league and time in Denver? I definitely just say um just becoming a more consistent shooter has already has done a lot for me and opened things up. I remember earlier in my career, like last year when I first started really playing and even at the beginning of this year coming off injury in the preseason, um teams were sagging off of me and um for me that was honestly not something that affected me mentally cuz you know sometimes when you’re wide open it’s like is this the ethical shot to take if they’re always leaving me wide open? But my teammates and my coaches encouraged me to continue to shoot them and rep them out. And as I’ve become a more productive shooter, um I think I shot like 46% or something from the corners last year. Um and 35 all around. I just think continuing to sharpen that part of my game and shoot well all around the arc, learning some things from yourself, Tim. I shot with Tim this morning and it’s just the consistency in every single shot. Um and things that I’m picking up on um that are making me a better shooter and making me more of a threat. So I think that that’s something that definitely has, you know, brought me more success. But just everything, learning the game more, becoming more comfortable, learning how to play off of people, when to cut, when to space. Um, it’s been big for me. And I’ve actually played a lot of forward and that’s something that I never really had to do. But, you know, when you in the league, you might have to that the number don’t matter. You ain’t never set a ball screen before, but you’re running into all these small small actions and things that help free up guys. So, um, it’s definitely some, it took some learning for me, but as I’ve gotten better at it, I’ve just found myself, you know, with more easy buckets and able to, you know, create things for my teammates as well. This has just been the shooting. We talk about shooting all the time, but it’s just reps, right? Like, like when you guys get in the gym, this is just this is just habits in terms of your advice. Yeah. I mean, a lot of it is habits. And then we talked about this with Tim on the pod the other day is like I I like to have an approach that that tries to transfer it over to the game. Yeah. Because the mental pressures of shooting when you’re just shooting catching shoots, you’re able to catch a rhythm. There’s no defense and there’s really no punishment for missing. Like in the game, you know the feeling deflating feeling of missing a wide open three. You know the feeling of being 0 for four, 0 for five. And it affects the next shot. As much as we want to say it doesn’t, it does 100%. So I try to mimic those pressures in in a in a workout type environment, whether it’s competing, whether it’s competing versus just makes versus misses, shots on the move, um fatigue shots. There just so many ways to approach it over my career. That’s how I’ve um I think become a a better shooter. 10,00%. I I would agree with you 100%. I think a lot of times for me it like the reps definitely matter, but me and um one of the guys I trained with, Derell, right? Played in the league for a long time. We call it be you got to be nerdy. So every single shot you got to really focus in on whatever mechanics work for you and things that allow you to, you know, shoot your best and optimize that. So yeah. Yeah. So like the important part about that especially in an NBA sense is that with an 82 game season and not much time in between like in college I was a all of us were able to go back to practice and get live reps to find a rhythm back. Yeah. So say I had a bad shooting game or two games like I have time in between to try to get that back on track%. But in the league if you’re off you might be rolling into if you’re 0 for seven you might be rolling to the next night you got to play three games and five nights. Exactly. So there’s not much time to just get away and work on it. That’s why being nerdy really comes into play because then you can get back to the basics quicker and try to kind of undo the slide that you’re on or or or keep a hot streak going. Exactly. We were talking we were talking before you got here about some of the challenges of being a young gifted but young sort of inexperienced player on a really good team on a team that has champions expectations and the pressures that go with that. There’s obviously pressures playing in the league in general, but when you are like, okay, if I have an 0 for four night, I’m not sure I’m going to see the floor, especially your rookie, you know, your rookie year or your sophomore year. How have you managed to juggle that those anxieties over time? Um, I think it’s definitely something like Cam said that affects you, you know, um, just the es and flows of the NBA season. When you first get to the league, I don’t think anyone understands how many games it is and how many days in a row you have dedicated to perfecting your craft over and over and being pushed. Like for me, it was just all about finding a even kill mindset to the point where it’s like, okay, I have a bad game this game. I know what I did before my last good game to prepare. I need to go back to that and I need to go back to the basics and whatever. Whether that’s if you feel your best when you’re being super aggressive rebounding so you get a feel for the ball in your hands or you go to the free throw line, you sink some free throws, then the basket starts to open up for you. So I think it’s just, you know, discovering all those things within, you know, NBA season that helps you with those things for sure. What do you What do you think about defensively? I mean, you’ve had you made such an impact, you know, since you’ve come into the league, but that your transition from college to the pros and what that was like for you in terms of the, you know, the physicality, the speed, everything. I mean, I think a lot of times it comes down to the discipline aspect, especially when you have like a archetype like myself where I’m long, lanky, my feet are quick, I can move laterally, but it’s the littlest things like a a veteran guard might pump fake you or get into your body, pump fake you, and then pivot again and shoot. like it was all about for me getting down the timing and being more disciplined when I defended because I always felt like I had the potential to. And I always kind of intrusively feel like if somebody’s targeting you or somebody’s going at you, that’s almost like a sign of disrespect. So, you always got to be solid on defense and be able to, you know, hold your ground. And the more and more I grew into my talent for that, I also grew the mindset of you have to be patient with it. this I can block this shot, but would it just be better if I contest it so I don’t foul or I don’t jump for a pump fake? So, it was just gauging those things and still kind of trying to stay true to who I am, which is a defensive playmaker. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the cool part of that is like in basketball in general, you have um you know, it’s easy to look at games from overall bird’s eye view, but when it comes down to it, especially being a young player on a really on on a team with championship aspirations where it feels like your leash is is very very short, is like there’s things that you can control and there’s things that are a lot harder for you to control and things that you can always control. Your effort, your attention to detail, where you are on the court, how you communicate and things like that. So when you kind of make those be the markers of how you performed and you know early on you might get three shots in a game, two, three shots in a game, you might not even shoot, you know what I mean? So when if you if you’re hanging your hat, if you’re you know living and dying by box scores in that instance, it’s going to be really tough on you mentally. Yeah. No doubt. No doubt. I think it’s, you know, you got to be able to like, like I said before, just um stay even kill, especially in those times where you wish you could like I wish I got more looks or I shot two for five, but I feel like if I would have shot seven shots, I would have been four for seven. Like there’s always those thoughts in the back of your head, but at the end of the day, what I always try to do is be glass half full and understand that, well, if I shot five shots and I make all five, I end up with 14 points. You add some free throws here, I make a two threes. That’ll get you to 14 points, which for our team is amazing because we got Yoke who’s going to get 30. We got Jamal who’s going to contribute 25. We had Michael who was going to get 18. Ag, you know what I’m saying? So, for me, it was just all about filling in those little gaps and just, you know, trying to be as efficient as I can with what I get. For sure. What what’s been your coming off this playoff run, your perspective on the the balance mentally with both the Clipper series and then OKC just the back the the es and flows of of what came with that? Um I definitely say that um the the playoffs are definitely a testament to resilience. like you got to be able to lose a game or lose two games in a row and still maintain the the vision and the mindset that you can win still. Like, and that’s something that my partner Dame um who works with me has instilled in me a lot is just to never lose hope with any of this stuff because we’ve seen it before. Teams come down from 3-1 or 3 0 like it’s crazy. So, you never know what can happen, you know, and once you get that momentum back, you just got to ride it as long as you can. But um this you know this playoffs was definitely you know it showed us that like you got to be healthy at the right times and you know you can never predict it like with with Jason Tatum and Tyresese Hallebertton in the primes of their career prime physical shape probably and something just happens and it’s just like damn that’s the nature of the sport. But um it was all about I think you know being able to go deep on your bench this year like you saw OKC and the Pacers they went 9 10 deep and that really helped and saved their starters a little bit of you know extra rest so that they were able to come in and close when it was needed. Um, and I think that that’s why our front office was aggressive with making trades like for you and um, for Tim just to have that extra little spark cuz you know two, three, four, five points can win you a ball game, you know. Absolutely. There’s a lot to be learned from playoff basketball, too. Yeah. And I’m sure you’ve seen it in a lot of series. You’ve been in a lot of good series, you know what I mean? And you’ve seen a lot um, you know, coming out on top, losing tough ones. What else have you learned from those series that that you can take with you to make yourself a better player? Um, just to take advantage of every opportunity for sure because I feel like uh me personally over the last two years we had shot we were this close to being able to win it all. Now, you can’t operate on hypotheticals and what if we beat this team, do we beat the next team? But we lose two game sevens. We go out on two game sevens where we gave, you know, our all in that series. And you just got to learn to take those opportunities when you can. Like I feel like when we won the championship my rookie year, it was all I knew. So I kind of took it for granted like, oh, we could win again next year and the year after that. But, you know, every team has their year and you got to take advantage of those opportunities when they come and really exhaust everything in the tank because it’s like you never know when you’ll get back there. Like when we won the championship my first year, DeAndre had played 15 seasons and that was his first time to the finals and his first time winning the championship on great teams with Hall of Famers. So you talk about Reggie Jackson, Ish Smith, like guys who played in the league for a long time and that was the only time they got there and they won. So um you never know, you know, how many chances you got you got at it. So um you really got to take advantage of them. Outside of the obvious, what were your favorite moments from the run from the champ run? Um, I would definitely say I mean it just almost felt like a dream to me because we just played so many elite, you know, players and we also were in great cities. Like we came and we played Phoenix and Phoenix was right. The valley was rocking. We we um went to six with them. They won two at their crib and it was rocking in there. Like I’m talking about super loud and Katie and Book just went on heaters. Like I’m talking about hitting everything in there. You know, sometimes there’s nothing you could do. like Joker had 56 one of the games we’d still lost out there. So, uh you know, I just take away from it being able to play in some amazing environments. Um and also just being able to watch it like some amazing performances. Jamal 30 points in the first half in LA one game when we really needed it. Like um it was just all around a great experience for me to learn more about the game and to learn more about what it takes for, you know, to be at the top. Yeah, you were spoiled early. For sure. For sure. For sure. But playoff basketball is what we all play for 1000%. You you’ve you’ve made it every year of your career and and had good runs and um had great series. Um I hope you never on the outside of it, but when you’re on the outside of it and that season ends, man, and you watch the playoffs, like one, you feel like, man, like this sucks. Real talk. Yeah. I feel weak. I feel weak. Everybody out there having fun. I feel weak. Real talk. And then on the other hand, it’s like that’s what we compete for, man. a chance to win championships is like we go out there, we play 82 games. Playing 82 games and and you know you’re not going to make the playoffs is is tough. Like you just getting beat up. But on the playoff teams that I’ve been on, you know, you coming down the stretch and you’re looking forward to what’s ahead like you get a boost like for sure,00 and it becomes its own season. So, um I’m really looking forward to that part about being in Denver is is the experience that you guys have and um those championship aspirations that we have as a group and I’m really excited to get to work. We we’ve talked from the outside looking in. We talked a little bit with Tim last week just about Joker in general. Um we can name every stat in the world, everything like this. Being with him, um he’s had a lot of crazy moments. He’s had a lot of crazy individual plays. He’s a lot he’s had a lot of crazy games. Do you have like a list of like three or four of your like, okay, these were the ones to me that stood out? Uh yeah, there’s definitely some performances that stand out to me. Like every time we go to Washington DC, like they have a huge Serbian population there and as soon as you walk in the arena with Joker, they’re going crazy like as if we’re the home team and every single time, no matter who’s on the other side playing center, I remember my first year was Daniel Gaffford. Um my second year, I think it was Jonas Valenunis, I think. But every time we go there, he has 50 and 20 rebounds or something. And it’s just always so crazy just because there’s a huge Ser Serbian pop population there. And that that’s always crazy to me that he could just flip it on and decide like I’m going to go get 50 tonight because there’s a lot of fans here. That’s pretty crazy. So it’s like it’s really it’s really crazy when he does that. Um there was one play that didn’t even go in this season where there was like.3 left on the clock and you know Joker is known for the heaves like he’ll take it every time there’s three on the clock and I was inbounding the ball off the free throw it was a make and he was like throw it up like a lob so I throw it up like a lob and he like volleyball smacks it down the length of the floor and it like air ball probably by four or five feet but he almost got got that to go. So that was one where I’m just like, bro, you’ll do like if there’s any time on the clock you’re trying to get the points, which is, you know, to me is a testament to still shoot however good he shot from three with all the heaves that he had was crazy. And he made two one off a Euro step and and I assisted that one, too, which was funny. Take the assist. We’ll take the assist every time. We’ll take the assist every time. But um and then one more I would just say when he has 60 this year 60 20 and 10 versus the Timberwolves it was just like every time down he was getting to exactly where he wanted to go on Rudy who’s you know considered one of the best defensive bigs in almost league history. So um just the way that he’s able to do exactly what he wants you know no matter the cover is just it’s crazy. He didn’t even mention what was that 40 2020 20 30 2020 30 2020 20 he had that but that one doesn’t make sense. No, we wasn’t even tripping on that one. Now it’s just like a good game. Good job. Solid game. He missed a few shots he should have made that game. It’s just crazy. The the thing we didn’t really talk about this too much um with Tim the other day, but with some of your other teammates with with AG and I think with Jamal in particular, I mean Jamal was like the boogeyman to the Lakers, you know what I like you got Joker on your team, but like that’s the guy that they do not want to see. Game winners. I mean, he’s he’s a gamer, bro. Like, you talk about someone who just like kind of has a natural fire and competitive edge for the game. Like, he’s one of those people where when he feels the most challenge is when it’s going to bring the best out of him, I think. And that’s something that I’ve noticed with him from day one is that he’s a gamer. So, you know, when we beat the Lakers all them times, it started to just get so routine, like every time the ball was in his hands, you know, verse whatever covers they were giving him, he was making the right play, whether that was twoman game with Yoke or creating his own offense. So, I mean, he was big, but I mean, a lot of our guys played amazing in those games. I remember AG scored like 19 or 21 points in the paint one of those games versus the Lakers. Like, everyone just I don’t know what it is, but we play well. I don’t know if it’s because we take the match up personally or whatever the case may be, but you know, playing in the West against the Lakers, like their fan base is crazy. So, like I feel like it just adds a little something to it. Does your Long Beach Does that become tricky with your crew? It doesn’t become tricky with me because I’m I’m loyal to where I’m at. Um, but I was definitely a Lakers fan before I got to the NBA and obviously I forfeited that immediately, but I love it. I love to, you know, play well against them and win games against them. Um, to do that in front of our my home crowd and my family. Um, it means a lot to me. So, those games always mean a lot. And I’ve played in LA in the playoffs every year that I’ve been in the league. That’s cool. That’s really cool. Yeah, it was dope. It’s dope. I think, uh, it’s a crazy weekend, so we’ll probably close with this. I just wanted to get both your guys’ perspectives. You know, we’re taping this Friday night of summer league. um your advice to the rookies, to the guys who are the second year guys who are here now who are starting this journey going through this particular process of the next 10 days, but then also I mean you talked a little bit about earlier about you finding your legs in the league and just you know what they should be thinking about how they should be balancing themselves to put themsel in your position to put themselves in your position. Hey, you you could go first, Cam. The first thing I say is don’t be your own worst enemy. And I think that gets in the way with a lot of people. Um there’s a lot of talented people in the world. There’s a lot of good hoopers. Um the first thing I try to encourage everybody to do is just don’t be your own worst enemy. Yeah. Consistently do the right things. Um you know, give it your best shot. Be in the right spots. Be attentive. Pay attention to detail. Like these are finite opportunities, you know, and a lot of guys in in the summer league are fringe. you know, a good summer league performance puts them over the top and and they they get a contract or a bad summer league performance kind of takes them down in the front offic’s eyes. Um, so while that is a lot of pressure, it’s also a game. Have fun, be your best self, and and um just make the most of it. Yeah, I would definitely like Cam said, just always have an amazing attitude, always have amazing energy because that’s the type of stuff that people are going to look out for the most. Like I was talking to RGM John Wallace today um or actually yesterday at our summer league game and I asked him I was like how big a factor is body language and a kid’s approach and his energy in the game. He was like sometimes that’s more important than the game because it’s like you watch Cooper Flag say for instance yesterday. He shot five for 21 and he even said that’s the worst I’ve ever shot. But I still saw him blocking shots. I made him I saw him make the right plays, timely passes and and that’s the stuff that I look for because everybody knows when he gets comfortable, he gets his feet under him, he’s going to shoot better, right? he’s gonna, you know, being over there with Clay, Kyrie, and AD, like you couldn’t ask for better guys to kind of learn from. And I think that’ll do wonders for him. But I just like the way that he was playing hard. He was rebounding. He was he was still blocking shots, making the right plays, and that was something that stood out to me. It just like his body language. He was super e even kill. He never got down. Never got down on his teammates, and that type of stuff is important for sure. Yeah, that’s great. You’re super well said, Peyton Watson. We’ll be seeing you in Denver, my guys. I appreciate you. I have [Music]

Peyton Watson and Cam Johnson on the Denver Nuggets join the show! They get excited about their upcoming season on the Nuggets together and discuss their championship aspirations. Peyton also talks about earning playing time as a young player on a title contender, how he feels he’s improved in his first few years, and some of his favorite Nikola Jokic moments. Let’s go!

0:00 Intro
3:37 Playing with the Jokic and Jamal Murray two-man
4:35 Peyton’s growth as a player
8:16 Being a young player on a good team, adjustment coming into the NBA
12:28 Lessons from the playoffs
17:40 Favorite Jokic moments
20:24 Aaron Gordon as competitor
22:10 Advice to rookies

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Previously The Old Man and the Three w/ JJ Redick (ESPN / First Take) and Tommy Alter