Crystal Ball: Predicting NBA Champions for next FIVE seasons

Crystal Ball: Predicting NBA Champions for next FIVE seasons

All right, Nuggets fans. Welcome into Pickax and Roll brought by good friends here at Mile High Sports and at FanDuel. I am your host, Ryan Blackburn at NBA Blackburn on Twitter, part of the Mile High Sports podcast network. And I’m here. I am excited to talk about the Denver Nuggets and also what the NBA is going to look like over the course of the next five seasons. See these videos come out every now and then from YouTubers that I like, from podcasters that I like, and they do their own little predictions for what they’re expecting from the NBA. If you want me to do like a a full comprehensive prediction of, hey, here’s exactly how this year is going to go, then let me know. What I actually wanted to do was just kind of get my thoughts on paper of where I think the NBA is going over the course of the next five seasons and where some of the trends are that we could see. Uh some things I’ll also talk about in a Thursday episode that I wanted to do discussing expansion. I have a plan. I want to see that plan implemented. It includes a realignment of the schedule and the league and things like that. I’ I’ve got some things I want to break down there, but that is on Thursday’s episode. For now, let’s do a couple of segments. Let’s do one segment on burning questions for the Denver Nuggets over the course of the next five seasons and then the next segment burning questions for the next five seasons of the NBA. Uh basically like who are the next five champions going to be? Will any player pass Nicole Yokic as the best player in the world? Things like that. So, should be fun. I’m interested to hear your thoughts as well. So, if you want to keep a rundown in the comments section for things that you uh thought were interesting, then let me know. But the first burning question that I have for the Nuggets, and it should be everybody’s burning question for this upcoming season, can they win the championship? Can they win the championship in this season this year? I I don’t know what the answer is going to look like for that one. It does feel like Denver’s well lined up. Most people believe that the Nuggets had a really great off season. There are some uh folks out there that don’t necessarily think it was all that, but I tend to think that it was about as good as you could really expect. And there are still some things that they can do going forward. Although not a lot of trade fodder, not a lot of trade assets over the course of the next seven years. They’re going to have to wait patiently if things go wrong this particular season. But I do think that with the context that we have as it stands right now, I’m recording this on Monday night, August 4th. I think that they are going to win the title. Uh, this will get clipped, especially if they don’t actually win. A lot of people will be predicting and saying, “Oh, Ryan, you reverse jinxed them again. How could you possibly do that?” I’m just here to give you my honest thoughts. Last year, I thought that Denver was flawed. I thought that they were a team that was good, not great. I thought that they were well positioned to be the fifth or sixth or seventh best team in the NBA. And lo and behold, that’s exactly what they were this year. I think that they’re going to win it. I don’t think they’re going to be the best regular season team. I don’t think they’re going to be like, they may not even be the best playoff team, but ultimately they’re going to have the best answers. they’re going to have the answers that they need in this particular season. And that’s going to come from having a well-rounded roster that is very diver or very uh uh versatile that is very utilitarian for what they’re going to need from series to series. They’re going to be one of the best offenses in the NBA. And I think that the way that they’re built, as long as they’re healthy, they will have enough ability to mix and match what they need to do around Nicole Yokic and Jamal Murray especially. And as long as those guys are playing at the level that you need them to play at heading into the playoffs, I think that Denver is going to be just fine. You get some contributions from your young guys. You get some contributions from your veterans. You have a little bit more help during the regular season. So, it’s not going to be a situation where you’re just overwhelmed trying to get to the playoffs. That’s at least the hope this upcoming season. Whether it manifests or not remains to be seen, but I think that Denver, for where they are at right now, should be considered one of the favorites. Uh, read this out last week. Uh FanDuel has them I think tied for third in the NBA in championship odds behind the Thunder and with the and behind the Cavs. The Knicks, the Nuggets, and the Rockets are currently tied in the odds in terms of like who they think is most likely to win the championship or who has the the best odds is what I’ll say. And that seems fair. That seems pretty reasonable. I wouldn’t go that far in either direction for for any of those other teams. But for Denver, when you have the best player in the world, when you have a triedand-true strategy that took the champs last year to seven games, I think it’s fair to give them the benefit of the doubt. So, we’ll see what happens, but I think that Denver is well positioned for 2026. The second burning question, how long is this window for the Denver Nuggets? You hear the term windows for a lot of teams? And I think for most of those teams, it’s about like how long that superstar is there, how long that superstar is at the peak of their powers, and how long they could be justifiably called a top five vers seven player in the NBA. like pretty clearly. Uh you think about Steph Curry and the 2022 Golden State Warriors. Steph was clearly in that category. He wasn’t better than Jokic. He wasn’t better than Giannis, but he was in that category for yes, he can be the best player in a series, be the best player on a championship team. 2023, obviously Joic was great, best player in the world. 2024. Jason Tatum wasn’t crazy in terms of like, oh yeah, you’re definitely top three, but I think he’s been one of those guys that’s been perennially like top five to seven over the course of the past few years. And that I think affords him the and affords the Celtics the reality that they could win a championship any given year as long as he’s on their team. and they built a team that was very very good that didn’t fully rely on Tatum and that really helped. And then you’ve got 2025 with OKC and Shay was obviously a top two, top three player in the entire world. So I think as long as Joic is in that category, Denver’s window is open. The question is how long Jokic will be a top three to five to seven player in the NBA and whether Denver can build not just a a good roster around him but a great roster around him as Jokic’s time at the top gets a little bit shaky uh because eventually it’ll happen like father time is undefeated. Jokic will eventually, whether by his own choice or not, start falling off in terms of, oh yeah, you can’t necessarily rely on him to be the very best player in every single series. And if that’s the case, if that’s what ultimately happens, like could that happen two years from now, three years from now, five years from now? I’m not sure how long that is. So, this is one of those factors for Denver as they try to navigate these current seasons. How aggressively do they go towards these upcoming years? And so, that takes me to burning question number three for Denver. What can be done to maximize that window? Uh, and so if the window for Denver is, we’re gonna say three years, that you can have a good roster around Jokic before some of those flaws ultimately starts showing forth when Jokic at 33 years old or 34 years old starts to look a little bit more shaky. I think that’s a fair question mark. So three years, let’s say, let’s say that’s where the window is. What do you do? like you can do a couple of different things I think for maximizing that window. The first thing you can do is try to make the most of the next three years, the absolute most. And so that’s one of the things that Denver did with the Cam Johnson trade. They traded Michael Porter Jr. and a 2032 first round pick seven years out into the future in order to maximize these next three years. And one of the reasons that they did that was so that they could get Yonas Valenunis, so that they could get a true backup center. They think he’s going to be on the roster for at least this year. Whether he’s on the roster for longer than that, who knows? But certainly for the short term, they have game plan to try to get as good of a roster as they can, adding Tim Hardaway Jr., Bruce Brown, guys like that. They’re paying a lot of money to their starters. They will continue to do so if they pay Christian Brown. So you can either maximize those years and the way to do that these next three years is continue to trade future assets, continue to trade younger players, get older, get guys that are ready to win right now and then you try to do so. It’s not a guarantee that it will work, but if you’re giving yourself, let’s say, the highest percent chance that you possibly can to win the title, like I think that even though I think Denver will win 2026 finals, I think that there’s like a 15% chance, 20% chance that they ultimately do it. I just think it’s going to break their way. if they wanted to give themselves a 20 to 25% chance that it ultimately happens, you’re probably trading somebody like Payton Watson or Julian Strawther for current help right now. Guys that you really need right now, but then in three years, you would have hoped that Julian Strawther or Pton Watson would have really helped you for this upcoming season, especially as Joic continues to age, continues to get worse. and he’s not getting worse yet obviously, but if that does eventually happen, you at least have a little bit of a buffer. You at least have the opportunity to say, “Okay, these guys could help extend our window.” So, one of the things that Calvin Booth tried to do was extend the Nuggets window. That was the reason why he added so many young players when he did. It’s why he wanted to invest in the development of those young players over the course of the two years after they won the championship. He didn’t do it the correct way. We’ve gone over this a million times, but you can understand why he did it because the more time and the more development you put into some of those younger guys, you have at least a little bit of belief that they can take over for larger roles when it’s necessary. So, does that look like Denver trading Aaron Gordon for a younger forward? Does it look like, hey, extending Christian Brown or Cam Johnson? Does it look like trading Jamal Murray for a couple of worse players right now, hoping that one of those guys gets better in the future? Um, I don’t think that that’s viable, but it’s at least something that they would have to look at if they wanted to extend their window. Um, they could also like there’s a a variety of different ways they could look to extend the window. One thing that they could also try to do is to get into the 2026 draft. Uh they have a first round pick right now. What if they decided to trade up? They could, but it would take a lot of assets and it would be pretty dangerous if they decided to do so. Number four, Nuggets fans like to complain about Jamal Murray, but is there actually a way to improve upon him if things go wrong? Like it’s one of the things that I’ve heard over the course of the last week or so and obviously the entire off seasonason. Like everybody has their opinion on Jamal Murray. Everybody thinks that Denver, oh if they just traded him for Trey Young, if they just traded him for Luca, if they just traded him for X, Y, or Z. First of all, those trades don’t really exist. Yes, Luca got traded. Yes, Trey Young’s like uh his uh actual like trade value is probably not super high, but like if you’re the Atlanta Hawks, what does it what does it benefit you to actually make that move? What does it benefit the Lakers to trade Luca Donuch to Denver? Why would they do that? There’s no vi like there’s just no viable reason for them to actually try something like that. I have Murray as like the 38th best player in the NBA or so heading into 2025 2026. The question and the one that I would try to ask people, how is it even viable? How is it even possible to trade for a better a player that is better and acquire somebody that is better than Jamal Murray? Like is it even possible at this point? And like let’s say your answer is I’ll just trade for James Harden. Okay. How much longer does James Harden actually have? Are you actually like are you actually maximizing the window or are you potentially cutting that window off if Harden retires in the next couple of seasons or becomes a worse player over the course of these next couple years, which would not surprise anybody. Uh, so in the comments, if you actually want to uh give me the name of a player that is quote unquote better than Jamal Murray and your actual plan for acquiring said player uh because that’s where I where you lose a lot of people on the legitimacy on the likelihood of such a thing. I just don’t see it as a viable way for things to happen here and it just would not surprise me in any way, shape, or form if you were entirely wrong. So, we’ll see what it ultimately looks like. But that would be my my plea to people is that if you’re actually going to complain about him, like is it just going to be complaining for the sake of complaining or do you actually have a way that makes sense that the other team would agree to to actually make a deal? Last number five, how do the Nuggets react if Nicole Joic doesn’t sign an extension next off season? So, Joic, as everybody knows, was eligible for a contract extension this off seasonason. How would it look and what would the reaction be if he didn’t sign it next year? He would have one year left on his deal after that before a 2027 2028 player option. Uh Luca Donuch just re-uped in with the Lakers and had a massive contract that he’s getting. He’ll be like the reason why he signed a three-year extension is because he’s going to sign a supermax uh for 35% of the salary cap in 2026, 2027, one of the two. Uh when he has 10 years of NBA service, I think it’s 2027. uh that will be the expectation for him but and for Bjokic the expectation is the same. He’s already crossed 10 years of NBA service. So every contract that he can get is a max at 35%. So this year like the only reason why he didn’t sign it is because he could get three years as opposed to four. I actually don’t necessarily think that that’s the reason why because I just think that that money will be there if he wanted it on the end of that contract if he so chose. Uh I think that one of the reasons why he didn’t sign it is because there’s some pressure that he is applying to the Nuggets and he knows that he doesn’t have to rush anything at all. And that is something that I think Nuggets fans, Nuggets people around the organization have to keep in account is that it is all about like making sure that that guy is happy. everything, whether that is players, coaching, practice facilities, front office, whatever it is, like it should all be about trying to help that guy succeed and making sure that he’s happy and making kind of like the the Giannis situation, making sure that they’re doing everything that they can to ensure that he stays. U I think that they have done that. I think that like this past offseason was a very good indication that they are willing to do what it takes. Uh but if they are also like going to go into the roster into the season with 14 players and the big reason why they’re not signing a 15th is to try to save luxury tax money. That’s not super encouraging. Like that’s not very competitive. I I understand why from a repeater tax and first apron standpoint, but um you could stay under the first apron and still sign a 15th man. Like that is still a possibility. So, I wonder what is going to happen with that. I’m very curious what happens in a year from now if Jokic doesn’t sign it. I think that he will. I don’t have any reason to believe that he won’t, but I didn’t really have that much of a reason to believe that he wouldn’t sign it this particular season. So, we’ll see what happens. Maybe I’m wrong. Uh maybe this is much to do about nothing. But something that I’m thinking about, something that I will continue to think about, especially if things don’t go perfectly for Denver in 2026. When we come back, let’s do burning questions around the NBA for the next five seasons. We’ll be right back here on Pickax and Roll. I wear back pickaxe and roll. Ryan Blackburn here. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. Hit that like button. Hit that subscribe button. Would really, really appreciate it. Okay, second segment. Let’s talk about some burning questions around the NBA. What’s the NBA going to look like over the course of the next five seasons? I’m curious to get your thoughts on that in the comments down below. As well, let me know who you think the next five champions are. Here is who I have predicted will be the next five champions in the NBA. 2026, I believe the Nuggets will win it. I believe that they’re going to get it done. 2026, the Denver Nuggets will be NBA champions. Nicole Jokic will be finals MVP. It will be a massive celebration for him and it will be a nice reminder to the NBA masses that despite the fact that we’re in the second apron era, despite the fact that there hasn’t been a repeat champion over the course of the last eight seasons, the Nuggets are still one of the dominant teams of the 2020s because of Nicole Joic, because of the kind of seasons that he puts together or the kind of player that he is. So, we’ll see what ultimately looks like with that. But 2026, I think the Denver Nuggets will be NBA champions. 2027’s really tough. I currently have the Cleveland Cavaliers as NBA champions in 2027. Basically, that will be Evan Mobley’s sixth year. He will start to really be coming into his own. I think uh Donovan Mitchell will be towards the tail end of what his peak should be. Darius Garland will be coming into his own I think a little bit. 2019 was when he was drafted. He had a couple of major injuries. Obviously, it takes time sometimes, but I do think the Cavs still have the foundation for what they need. They still have a lot of depth. They still have a lot of star power. If they don’t get it done in 2026, I think they’ll be one of the teams that gets it done in 2027. I am a little bit worried about their salary cap structure. I am worried about what happens if they don’t ultimately get it done in 2026. So, this is a dangerous pick. This is one of those ones that I don’t necessarily feel great about, but I do think that they have certainly the talent to get it done, but they can’t win it in 2026 because I think the Nuggets will. So, I have them in 2027. 2028, I have the OKC Thunder going back. I think that one of the things that I’ve recognized from Denver, is that they were so stagnant over the course of the last two seasons from a roster standpoint, in part because they were trying to hold on and recapture what was great in 2023. I am not saying that that’s going to be exactly what OKC does, but they really didn’t change their roster at all in like for this off season. And I wonder if they react the next year being like, “Okay, well, if they lose to Denver, then they’ve lost to the eventual NBA champions. if they lose to uh the Lakers or whoever, if they lose to the Spurs and WBY, if they lose to like one of these other top teams, you don’t want to overreact. So then you don’t change enough in that following season and then you have lost kind of who you were. And so I think they’ll be close. I think they’re going to be very much in the thick of it over the course of these next couple years, too. Like they could very well go back to back. I think the most likely scenario is that they kind of have what happened to Denver and they get bounced a little bit over the course of the next couple of seasons before regrouping, retooling, becoming the best version of themselves in 2028. 2029, I’ve got the Los Angeles Lakers. It will be their once a decade championship. Like this is just what happens at this point. They traded for Luca Donuch. They have LeBron James this year and then things are going to get a little bit hazy over the course of the next couple seasons. I do think that if you have to because it starts to get hard kind of squinting and looking out at the future and thinking, okay, what are these teams going to look like at that point? 2029, Luca Donuch will be in his 11th season and he’ll be one of those guys that it’ll be crazy if he hasn’t won a championship by then. I think that by that point, 2029, the Lakers will be able to turn over their books. They’ll be able to retool around Luca completely. It’s going to take a little bit. It’s not going to be perfect unless they do recruit somebody like Giannis immediately or like they they swindle Paulo Bankro or somebody of that nature like from one of these East teams or from any team. But I do think that the Lakers at some point are going to get back on top and it sucks but that’s just what happens for them. I think that they get it done in 2029 and then 2030 is the Spurs. People think that this could happen even a little bit sooner. I actually don’t think that’s the case. I think that the Spurs are going to be one of those teams that’s pretty good over the course of these next couple seasons, but is never ultimately going to be great. Dear Fox just signed a contract extension. I’m not sure if he’s going to be a part of the best version of the Spurs. I’m not sure about it. Like to me, he almost feels like bridging the gap in between like at the very beginning of Wimb’s prime, but ultimately Wemby’s going to have to learn a lot of lessons just like every superstar in NBA history. Going to have to learn a lot of lessons. He was drafted in 2023. He’s had a lot of burden put on to him very soon in his NBA career. But Joic didn’t win his first championship until the eighth season of his career. LeBron didn’t do the like he did the same thing. Michael Jordan I think took seven years. Shay Gilis Alexander just recently I think took seven years. Giannis took eight. Like these guys take a long time. And so Gmbi drafted in 2023. 2030 will be his seventh season. I kind of think that’s just going to be around the time where things really coalesce for them. But you can also see Nuggets, Thunder, Lakers, like there will be some other teams. The Rockets are going to be dominant over the course of this stretch. There’s a lot of competition for the Spurs during that time. They’re not just going to own the West during that entire stretch. It’s going to be very competitive. So, curious to see what ultimately happens with it, but I think the Spurs ultimately get it done once, but it’ll be a lot later than people expect. Okay, moving on to different questions. Number seven, will any player pass Nicole Yokic for best in the world and when will it happen? Uh, in the next five seasons. I don’t think current stars are going to. I actually I don’t think that there’s ever going to be a time where Sheay is better than him, at least in the next five seasons. I don’t think there will be a time where Giannis is better. I I they’re close in the same tier, but Giannis is gonna age a little bit worse than Joic’s. He’s meant like he’s so physical. He’s so athletic. Obviously, NBA medicine has prolonged the careers of a lot of these guys. And Giannis is still going to be dominant and running and dunking and doing crazy stuff for a long time. But I just don’t think that that version of him is going to be the best in the world. Luca, could he bounce back and be the best in the world? There’s at least a possibility. I still think that he is he still takes two inefficient shots on a consistent basis. He can make them like at a very high level for the kind of inefficiencies that they are, but taking like step back 30footers on a consistent basis is like your go-to shot. It’s not sustainable. If he can get to a place where physically he is dominating, he’s getting to the spots that he wants to get to, continues to make players better around him, and then just locks it in, then maybe. But I don’t really see it. Maybe Anthony Edwards does, but I I just don’t think that he’s got that kind of ceiling. Like there there are some crazy things that he does and like any game he could be better, but in terms of an overall season against all wide ranging players and teams, I don’t think so. Future Stars is where it really starts to get interesting. I think the only two guys that I really have a good pulse for are We Wy and Cooper Flag. It’s funny. Uh Cooper Flag, it’s a it’s a crazy one here. FanDuel has him as minus 185 for rookie of the year. Minus 185 is crazy. Trey Johnson is second at plus 800. That gap is not just borne out in, oh yeah, Cooper Flag is going to get all these opportunities. He’s going to be really good in his first season. It’s just reputation. Like, that’s where people see it and they see him as so much better and more talented and more impactful uh Vegas does to the degree that like minus 185 for any award is crazy, but Cooper is is clearly the the favorite for something like that for a reason. He’s very talented. Is he best player in the world material? I don’t know. I kind of feel like he’s closer to Tatum than he is closer to WBY in terms of oh yeah, he’s just going to be this all-encompassing dominant force. Like he’ll be great. He’ll be really, really, really great. But in terms of like best player in the world, I’m I’m still I’m still a little bit hesitant to think that that’s the kind of ceiling that he has with his player type. I could be wrong about that. I’ve been wrong about plenty of guys, but I do think that it’s kind of more likely to me that WBY is that guy. I think it’s going to take, like I said, three years. I think that that’s going to be the number. Like currently it’s 2025. I think in 2028 we are going to start to have the discussion of has Victor Webbyama passed Nicole Joic as the best player in the world. I do not think that conversation will have shifted to Giannis or SGA or Luca or anybody like that in between then. Maybe if those guys win then we’ll see. But I think 2028 is really when we’re going to start to see MVP awards going to Wemby. Uh the best player in the world conversations going to Weby. There will be enough head-to-head matchups by that point that the world will see what Wemby’s doing next to Jokic. And I think that there will be uh plenty of opportunities for him to pass him up in three years. Before then, I don’t think so. Next. Who is the next superstar to change teams? And how I kind of define that was current kind of top 12 player, maybe top 15 player, somebody who is like this is significant talent. Um, usually you see guys just resigning and extending and doing those things. I don’t think that any major trade is going to happen unless it’s Giannis. feels like it could be honest given the way the things have gone for Milwaukee, given the the Lillard situation and how that ended and what the roster looks like now as a result and going forward with the the dead money on that roster. Maybe Giannis just commits to Milwaukee and says, “Cool, we’re good. We’re going to make it work. I want to be here for the rest of my life. That’s fine.” It just doesn’t feel that way. like especially with the the way that like Shams and Mark Stein and guys like that they have been commenting on his future for a long time. Uh Bill Simmons has been commenting on it. These guys in the know are commenting on it on a very consistent basis. They know they have a feeling and I guess I have a feeling too. I think he’ll probably be gone. But if not him, I did predict that in like 2027 the Cavs would win the championship. If not, then if they don’t have that kind of success by then or if it doesn’t feel imminent that they will, I think that Donovan Mitchell will be gone. I think that’s the the next likely guy from that case. Um maybe LeBron, you could say if you wanted to. Uh is he still a top 12 guy? I think I had him in the top 12. Will he be top 12 by the time he actually moves? That is a fair question. And then sneaky one, Anthony Edwards. Like a lot of people talk about being in Minnesota, Kevin Garnett, uh, not necessarily having the ability to shine in a market like that. It’s not necessarily fair. I because we’ve seen it before in Denver where Jokic doesn’t get that shine. He doesn’t care. aunt might Anthony Edwards might care about stuff like that or being in a a glorious like glamorous market and playing for the Warriors or the Lakers or the Heat or something like that. I don’t know if that will happen. He’s under contract for another four years, but I see it happening in two where Wolves kind of regress a little bit. They’re in a really tough conference, tough situation with Rudy Goar, Julius Randall trying to figure out how to navigate the Rob Dillingham sweep stakes, things like that. I I don’t know. We’ll see what it ultimately looks like. But I do think that that’s where the superstars would go. Like if if you’re going to change teams, those are the kinds of players to be looking at. Two more questions. When will expansion actually happen? 2028 or 2029 is my best guess. Uh based off of the way that Adam Silver has been describing things, I was pretty disappointed with the presser that he gave and the answer that he gave for expansion in like at the summer league press conference that he did. It was just kind of disappointing to hear after all of the momentum that it seemed like there was, he really like pushed it back and was like, “Hey, uh, we still got some things to work out.” What they have to work out is James Dolan and the owners that don’t want to split up that revenue check from one out of 30 to one out of 32. And I don’t blame them. I I understand like they want to make as much money as possible, but at some point expansion is going to be very lucrative for the NBA, for the entire NBA. And I would hope that by that time, maybe 2028, 2029, guys like Dolan and um the Mark Walter of the Lakers and all these other large markets that decide that they they’re willing to share by that point. Uh maybe they’ll be a little bit more willing when the time comes, but it’s going to be Seattle. It’s going to be Las Vegas. Apparently, Mexico City is also being considered, but I I just think that Seattle and Vegas are just readymade. There’s so many teams on the East Coast. There’s so many teams in the South. A Northwest team needs to happen. Like the Seattle SuperSonics need to happen. And Las Vegas obviously needs to happen with the expansion that’s already happened with the WNBA and the NHL. Like it’s very clear. Oh, and the NFL, like very clear that that market deserves another NBA team. And the final thing, burning question number 10, the craziest thing in my opinion that will be true in 2030. I’m going to make a bold prediction here. And you can make another bold prediction like what’s going to happen in five years that people are going to be like, “What in the world? How did you possibly know that? How’d you possibly predict that? But it actually came true. Here’s mine. 2030 or 2029 2030 will be the final season for both Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. They will both retire together in Golden State and be the supporting star to either Giannis Antompo or Paulo Beno in their final season. uh each of those physical dynamic power forward bigs will be awesome at that point still like I I still think that Giannis will be great. He has always had aspirations and visions of playing with Steph, but I think that KD is kind of underrated in this conversation. There’s a lot of people that don’t think he wants to go back to the Warriors and maybe that’ll be true now. It’s one of the reasons why that trade didn’t happen in this uh at the trade deadline between Phoenix and Golden State, but a Phoenix Houston trade did happen. He also signed a contract extension. But I kind of think he’s just going to play. I I think he’s just going to want to keep playing. 2007 draft. Like I think there’s a part of him that wants to be like LeBron and and wants to be one of those guys that just keeps playing and has fun doing it and is really enjoying the game. He’ll always be able to score. KD, I think Steph will always be able to score, too. He doesn’t have as many miles on him. And he previously talked about how he doesn’t necessarily feel retirement as soon. And when I hear that, I think, okay, that’s exciting. That’ll be great. But can Golden State actually build a contender around him? The answer is probably no, unless he takes at least a small back seat as a second best player or third best player or whatever. And by that time, like you’re probably not expecting him to be an allNBA caliber guy. You’re probably expecting him to be, okay, he’s just good. He’s just a very good version of himself. And who better to kind of help ease that along than one of the physical kind of athletic forwards from the East and Giannis or Palpo? Like I think that those two in particular would be pretty interesting fits in Golden State going forward. So, we’ll see what ultimately happens. But folks, that is going to do it for this episode of Pickax and Roll, brought to you by our good friends here at FanDuel. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. Hit that like button, hit that subscribe button on the way out. Let me know what you think will happen in the next 5 years for either the Denver Nuggets or the NBA. Thanks for tuning in. Talk to you guys very soon.

On the latest episode of Pickaxe and Roll, Ryan Blackburn shares his Burning Questions for both the Denver Nuggets and the NBA over the next five seasons, including who wins the next five titles, whether anyone supplants Nikola Jokic as the best player, and more.

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