Can the Nuggets Count on Internal Improvement From Their Bench? | DNVR Nuggets Podcast Live

Can the Nuggets Count on Internal Improvement From Their Bench? | DNVR Nuggets Podcast Live

[Music] [Applause] Get down. [Music] Oh, baby. Is everybody refreshed? Dude, three-day weekend. So fresh. So clean. This is the first 3-day weekend I think I’ve had since Is that awesome? I actually felt like oddly uh collected by doing that. You came back worse. What is up everybody? Welcome to the podcast live from the Toyota Lab stream by your front range of tours. Toyota, the official vehicle of BMDR. Nice little free day weekend and all kinds of things happen. So, we’re going to talk about them a little bit over the weekend the in the association, but also in our personal lives. Oh, probably a little bit less about that. And then the meat of today’s show is going to be about internal improvement. We heard those words from Josh Kroni himself last week. Internal improvement. Can the Nuggets count on that this year? Is that really the plan? How much do they need to rely on outside improvement? How much internal? We’ll debate that to help me with it. Harrison Wind. My plan for next season also internal improvement. I I thought about it a lot this weekend. Reflected a lot. Got a lot of things I can get better at myself. So, um next year I will be hoping to improve internally as well. Big big offseason for you, Wind. Big off season. You know, you have to get add some weight. Yeah. I don’t think I’ll be like making trades or any big signings or anything. Just internal development. I like it. You know what? It’s a lesson for all of us over here. The man who’s constantly making internal improvements, Dline Co. That’s right, guys. I got to tell you, this weekend, I think that I healed enough to look back at the Nuggets. I think that I made I think I officially turned the page. I allowed myself to watch some basketball. Did you really? And I bet you hated that. And slept and slept and slept. Yeah, it was beautiful. Are you coming back? Yeah. Come on in. And guess joining the show rounding it out. Hey, it’s Brendan Vote. Hey, what’s up everyone? We’re talking about internal improvement. We’re talking about the Nuggets uh yeah, moving through into next season and uh what we can all expect and what we can expect of ourselves. Oh, that seems timely. I’m expecting a big year from everyone. We all have to be just a little bit better. Uh we’re going to start with a little news roundup from the weekend. Are the Wolves cooked? Oh my god, dude. What a weird weekend of Western Conference basketball. First, the Timberwolves make a few little adjustments. Crush them. Crush them by 40 points. Dude, this sucks. Yeah. Around the association. There you go, Kale. And then, so you go like, okay, are the Wolves back in the series? Have they found something in this one to kind of give them some momentum? And then you go to game four and it’s a then the the Thunder make their adjustment. Close game. Could have gone either direction. You could have, but it did not. Instead, it is now a commanding 3-1 lead for the Oklahoma City Thunder. So, I guess you’re you’re hot to ch. Hot to chump. Yeah, that’s right. Hot to chomp. You’re hot to chomp. That is not a phrase. That is a phrase. You’re hot to chomp, dude. I’m ex extremely hot to chomp. And I’ll tell you, uh, yes, the Wolves are cooked. They’re done. The Wolves are cooked. Be it this game or next, the Wolves, my friends, are cooked. They’re put up all in in, uh, reality will have put up no resistance to the Thunder. Yeah, it’s just more to chew on in this off season where we’re focused on internal improvement. I don’t know how, dude. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Like, I’m going to watch the Thunder roll through the rest of the league and I just be left with a what if? What if they What if they used their substitution patterns better? What if they should try a permanent sub next game? They should try it. I’m with you. I’m with you, man. All of a sudden it’s all of a sudden it’s from like wow, what we’re proud of that ending to uh uh to like man, they kind of should have won that series. I’m telling you, like it’s going to like I’m going to be sleeping in a hyperbolic chamber filled with copium for an entire off season because I’m like it just feels like the Nuggets could have done something and then we’re going to have to look at the success of another team as evidence of our own success. It’s the worst place to be. That is the worst place to be. That is honestly the stupid It’s like so lame you don’t even want to say. So lame. You’re like, “Well, look how good we almost beat them. That’s why we just making the meme where it’s like took the Thunder to seven games. Hang the banner. Yeah, the banner goes. We’re making the meme ourselves. I know. We’re just living off pure copium at this point. We have nothing left. Uh but can you believe they took them to seven games? I mean, the Thunder defense is so good. Incredible. Anthony Edwards, what did he have last night? Not a lot of points, but not a lot of Not a lot of shots. They This is one of the things they took the ball out of his hands. Yep. It was honestly incredible, man. like that is such a good defense. I mean, they get to play where in a version of the NBA where fouls aren’t called. So, that’s that’s a thing they have going for them defensively. But, um I mean, they’re physical. They’re in your face. They’re so smart, so quick, so fast. Um it was it was impressive last night. I also feel like the Nugget series made them better. Yeah, they wouldn’t be this good if it wasn’t for us. No, this sucks. Actually, I kind of hate the banner. I know. I jokingly think that’s true when I’m with Adam. I think it sucks. Like totally true. They were I listen to the media sort of talking about it. You know, everyone’s going out to the court to do their hits with their shows and stuff after the game now. That’s a popular thing now. And um it’s just like, man, the the conversation in the locker room is they feel like they got the playoff experience they did not have by weathering the Denver Nuggets in a seven game series. And it’s like I did feel like once they got it, I’m like, “Oh, like how good does Kase Wallace look right now, dude?” cuz he is good. He is good. But also cuz they’re all just like, “Oh, we can do this, dude. Every single one of us can do this. All we do is give rise to dynasties around these parts. We did it with the Warriors. I don’t want to talk about it.” Yeah. Well, you you’re the one that brought it up. Why are we talking about this, man? But here’s the thing that I think and this is what like a discussion I wanted that gets it back to the nuggets because I think the way that the Thunder are winning is is important here and it is about in my opinion internal de uh development because a lot of these guys are just guys that came good over time through a process. They hired Chip England the greatest shooting coach in the NBA. He was with the Spurs for their dynasty run and now he’s over there with Oklahoma City. And it’s like a lot of guys that you know guys have talent in the NBA. They can do things. The one thing that everyone has to be able to do is shoot the three. So, it’s like, okay, we have a guy over here who’s a good slasher. We have a guy over here who’s a good on ball defender. Here’s a guy over here can do this, that, but everyone has to be able to shoot at a baseline level. And they have guys who are not known as being these great shooters who can shoot at least well enough to get the job done. So, one, they have an enormous amount of depth with that. And then two, they just have speed everywhere. And lastly, and this is the one I really want to center this around, there was conversation during the Nuggets first round series about whether the league has become a weak link league. Basketball has traditionally been your best player is the most important one. But is it shifting to where yes, but it’s about not having anybody that ruins the system? What they did to Anthony Edwards was they said, you know what, one guy knows how to create shots on that team consistently. Everyone else, eh, they’re not that good at it. So, we’re not going to let him go and let’s just see what happens. And you know what happens? They scored 126 points. That’s quite a bit the Wolves did. But it still worked to disrupt them out of their rhythm. And I just wonder if this is where basketball’s heading where every team is going to say, “All right, put three guys on Joic. Let’s see what the Nuggets do now.” Yeah, I think it very well could be headed in that direction. And I mean, the other thing about the Thunder is like all these guys can play like the all these guys can play in different lineups. They can play with SGA. They can play without SGA. They have like three big men that they can rotate in there. Kenrich Williams comes out of nowhere to play 12 minutes a game in this series. I can’t believe that works. Your second ever my guy afteric then Ken Williams. Did he play a minute against the Nuggets of meaningful? No. because they are so deep that what they can do is say Aaron Wiggins you’re playing 18 minutes a game is against the Nuggets you’re not playing at all this series Kenri Williams you’re in it’s just like these guys are just good they’re just really good players because the because the Wolves don’t have a they have so they can say all right we’re going to throw you out there and go they’re not going to post Goar up to take advantage of this mismatch so now we have a versatility to switch everything so they have all these different pieces and it just It’s the versatility is crazy and that’s why and then they do have Jaylen Williams who has been up and down and throughout the playoffs but more but he’s been more up lately and it’s the whole idea of we can throw traps at Anthony Edwards at half court and get the ball out of his hands. What does Minnesota do? If you do that to Shay, well, we have another guy who’s at least can elevate in this way. And this is where again we’re just thinking about roster construction with Denver. And it’s one of the reasons I don’t think Denver’s that far off. But it is the thing of this is the new NBA, man. It’s all about adjustments. It’s a more cerebral league. It’s more of a coach’s league than ever. And it’s more about does the coach have enough cards to play because the roster is versatile enough. Yeah. I also think, you know, thinking back to the the many decisions Calvin Booth made and his many philosophies, I think he was right about you need young guys because they just have the energy, they have the juice, they have that spark to them. And like the Nuggets at times in the playoffs looked old, you know, they looked like the older team, which which they are, but you know, obviously these might have not have been the right young guys, but um just the the youth that OKC has and just how poised those guys are is crazy. See, yeah. But here’s the problem is that when you’re looking at you’re saying like, well, you should we should structure or a team should structure themselves like OKC. It just means that they just hit on every player like they we have as many players. It’s just we don’t have as many good ones or draft picks, right? I mean, that’s Yeah, they But the draft picks theoretically should be used for players that are good. It’s just a coincidence, though. This is my big thing is this happened with the Spurs where they always got it. I just don’t think it’s a coincidence that their guys hit. Well, no. I mean, they just have a really good GM. I mean, yeah, they’ve stockpiled like useful pick after useful pick after useful pick. They have picks and players. can get it wrong and which to your point they’ve gotten a lot of these right, but like they could get it wrong and just reload. Like they they they they they’re better and this is a credit to them of course to to the front office. They’re better suited for this kind of like invest in the youth, invest in the bench, and then keep optionality around you. Like they they have all the picks in the world to make that work. And this is why for me as is what has changed my thinking about the Nuggets and where they’re headed because I think there’s a lot of like you got to trade. Can they get KD? Can they get this or that? And look, that is one path, but even if you got those guys, you’re still gonna have to be able to have this versatility behind them. Otherwise, teams will just overload and force it into Vlaco Chan. Like, you have to build both depth. And if they sign KD after if they if the Thunder make a play and bring K Well, they’re not going to get KD. Can you imagine? Well, I mean, they might get worse. They’re trying to win though, D. Well, I’m just saying like he joins the 73 win Warriors and then he joins like my god. Yeah, it would be lame. Uh, but this is it’s why to me as I start thinking about because a lot of this is like I go into the year my default setting is you can’t trust Don Holmes. You cannot go into next year trusting Julian Strawberry. And my updated take as I’m watching this is you can’t just count on those guys, but you also probably do need them. So, it’s probably two or three veteran pieces or just more established pieces, but it’s not replace 10 or 11 people you can draw on to solve different problems because every series will call for something just a little bit different. And Denver was close even though they had a roster that didn’t do any of that. They they weren’t really able to solve that many problems. They just happened to have a guy in there. And by the way, they just like kept pushing the square peg into the round hole and eventually they got it through like in a couple games because they have crammed it right through because they have Yogic and he’s freaking amazing. And this is what sucks because we’ll never This is the one where we’re doing the Copium. This is a true absolutely copium. If you’re a Thunder fan, clip this, post it on the internet. I don’t care. It’s Copium. But it’s also true. Look at what the Thunder are doing to every good player they’re going up against. And then watch Joic put up 28 13 and six. I know it on 50% shooting which was down for him and you go that’s like a heroic effort against I will say somehow the consensus online reaction in game two of the Western Conference Finals was that wow Joic is really good he’s really good man circled back to go you know what this Jokic guy have you seen this guy so ex dude it is hilarious how many revelations people have to have about granted we did it ourselves but it’s like so long ago like catch up. But we also did get the people starting to chirp up because Shay had a phenomenal game last game. I mean, he really made it to a bunch of really tough shots. 40 points, nine rebounds, 10 assists, and you’re already getting the that’s the best player in the NBA. That did drive me nuts. Get lost. Hey, just prepare yourself. Mid-range is nice though. But I thought I thought Joic was clearly the best player in the NBA, but he’s the MVP is below him. No, that was uh last week. Oh, we have nothing. That was last week. We have nothing. This is what happens to lose boys. But all right, man. Uh those are our takes from just over the weekend. Thought we’d might as well get them out of the way. On the other side though, now we are going to talk about internal improvement because like it or not, Nuggets fans, it is going to be a big part of their building over the next year and beyond. You will take it, you will like it. We’re going to talk about what it would mean for the team to find internal improvement from each of the guys realistically next year. 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Go to lucy.co/dnvr and use promo code DNVR to get 20% off your first order. Lucy has a 30-day refund policy if you change your mind. Again, that’s lucy.co and use code dnvr to get 20% off. This is the fine print. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age and every order is age verified. warning. This product contains nicotine and nicotine is an addictive chemical. All right, we’re back here. Segment two. Throw us a like if you’re enjoying the show. Make sure you’re subscribed. Do it anyway. Even like even if you hate the show, do it. Um I’m going to go ahead and let’s go through the Nuggets roster here and let’s talk about meaningful internal improvement. I’m going to cross four guys off the list and I don’t know if you guys will all agree with me or not. I don’t think Joic is going to be meaningfully improved next year. Does it mean that he won’t be better? But I’m just saying I don’t know that we should is I just don’t know what it would be. Like there’s not like a tear jump to what if he’s like scoring 30 points a night. I mean he kind of has already done that kind of but like what if he is I just don’t know that that’s like what we’re counting on next year is Juel Yoke’s just going to rise raise raise his game. We never count on it. I also don’t know if that’s the key right now. Yoke’s good enough, man. Like Yoke can solve every problem in a playoffs if they’re just going to stick three guys on him. Like what are we building towards? So Joic I don’t think Aaron Gordon does. He did improve his three-point shot. I don’t think he can’t adjust his game, but if we’re counting on like, oh, but next year AG is going to carry us to five more wins. It’s like, I don’t think that’s happening. I don’t think it’s happening with Michael Porter Jr. Nope. And I don’t actually think it’s happening with Jamal Murray. I think he can be more consistent. Although, we’re done for holding our breath. What are we doing? What are we doing? Even if he is, I just don’t think he’s going to be like a meaningfully different player. He might be He will score 21 points a game at year’s end. Yeah, that’s going to be how might not take quite as many threes as we would like, but have some time off in the middle. Can he carry the nonic minutes though? Not quite actually. But the nonkic minutes throw them out there with four bench guys. Yeah. Should we do that? So those four guys, and I’m not trying to I do hope and look, it is realistic to think that all of these guys can add something new to their game. But I just mean meaningfully different from this year. The only argument you could make for meaningful internal improvement from those four guys is it is a new coach. And I do wonder if Adelman, you know, has ideas for how to use Michael Porter in a different role collectively if they’re Yeah, collectively because it’s like, you know what, our style, we added to our style, not changed it, but added to it in a way that we, you know, oh, we were leaving something on the table. And I I think he can because a lot of the first reaction to them hiring David Adelman was like, they need fresh eyes. Yeah. They they need a new voice. like this is, you know, just a offshoot of Michael Malone. I think David Ottoman’s his own coach. Like I think he’s got a lot of very different ideas for Michael Malone. I think he sees the game very differently. I think just he has baked in philosophies that are polar opposite of Mike Malone in a lot of ways. So, I’m expecting things to look meaningfully different next year. Just based on what I know about David Adam, based on what people are saying, I think he’s his own coach. And um I would not look at this as just an extension of Michael Malone by any means. I would agree. I think that’s kind of what both Aaron Gordon and Josh Cony hinted at too when they said, “Hey, this guy hasn’t gotten a training camp yet, right?” Like what David Alderman that was a a manag that managerial job he just had was a cleanup job. Salvage what you can and get out of there with your heads held high. Now he gets a chance to put his fingerprints on and he crushed it. And he crushed it. But to your point, he was unbelievable honestly looking back at it, I feel like. But to your point, not necessarily informative on what is Adelman’s vision, right, for the players on the roster, not just the the but what does player development mean? Who are you willing to play? How are you willing to use them? All those things Adam just described. We don’t know that yet about Adelman. So I’m with wind that it’s a bit assumptive to just say it’s a retread. Yeah, I I don’t think it is at all. Honestly, I and one of my things was, you know, coming into the year, I felt from conversations with people that the assistants didn’t necessarily feel like they had a strong voice that there was like, you know, I’m kind of doing turning in my reports and I do my thing, but it’s not like I’m going to contribute to the direction we’re going. And that’s not even a knock on Michael Malone. This is his style. He felt, you know, I’m leading the way. And so maybe so I do think that means Adelman maybe wasn’t like it didn’t get everything he wanted to implement and probably not even a whole lot. So okay that’s internal improvement part from those guys. But then you talk about the rest of the roster and let’s start with Christian Brown. So he’s the guy that’s playing a lot and I think he’s the guy that at most feels like we know exactly what we get from him. But I actually think that Christian showed some things throughout the course of the season in small doses of actually having more to his skill set. Now I don’t think he’s ever going to be a crazy like some people are like he’s going to be the first all-star. I don’t see that but I do see an offense where he’s just trusted to handle the ball a little bit more in basic reads and we saw it a little bit. I mean he’d have little side step through the legs pull up in the mid-range and stuff like that. You don’t want him overextending, but I actually think that there is some of that to his game where it’s like, you know what, we just got to allow Christian to be a bit more aggressive in half court because in a playoffs it might come down to can he make a threeon- two decision because they’re trapping Marian. Yeah. I mean, no, there’s nobody that improved more dramatically last year than Christian Brown. He He did things that none of us thought were possible of him. I mean, he’s now for me, like I look at him, I’m I don’t know where I don’t know where to place his Empire floor, you know, like he can like I don’t know like he’s his finishing at the rim was like something I never thought possible. And he started to get really confident with his three-point shot. I probably am like I imagine you guys are think that that can’t necessarily be his like thing that he does. Like I don’t think you can ever really count on his three-point shot, but I don’t know, man. There’s just I just can’t. He’s just like another guy that I don’t know what he can be, but I know that I’m betting on him, you know? I’m curious about like I think in Christian’s and by the way, the contract extension that I’m about to reference could be ongoing, right, with restricted free agency. So maybe it’s not something that’s solved quickly, but I think Christian did have a sort of reallocation of effort on the floor as a starter that was about maybe trying to get in the $30 million conversation. And that’s not to say that it was against winning. It’s just if you had one game to save your season, you’d say I want Christian Brown to be Josh Hart, right? Not Giannis. I think if that makes sense. Obviously, you take Giannis. You get my point. Um but the but like I I think in the regular season across 82, it’s man, if I’m just running in transition, I can score 15 points per game and I can get paid and and helped the team win, by the way. But then in the playoffs, you saw like I think in the playoffs, he finally became the point of attack defender we wanted him to be. um not a perfect one, but he was there. I thought like going for the 50/50 balls and stuff like that, but there was a half court dynamic that reared his head, which is he’s another one of these guys teams are not guarding. Yes. In the playoffs, it’s why it’s different from he shot 40% from three this year. But it’s like, yeah, but there are guys that you’re like, he’s a regular season shooter. He’s not a playoff shooter. And and that’s the bucket CB is in right now. Well, I would put it this way. CB made teams punished teams for leaving him open because all his shot he shot 40% this year 39 and a half percent. They are almost all wide open and in the playoffs it’s like yes but that might be your only offense. He might get four looks in the fourth quarter and you have to be confident not just that he can make those or whatever but it’s like no our whole offense comes down to it’s just going to be him. Well, he shot five threes a game in the playoffs. Five is is a lot. Five a game. He only shot three a game in the regular season and he shot 30% on those threes in the playoffs. And I don’t know how good of a three-point shooter he will be. But that to me is like so now we get into where can he actually improve. To me number one is he has to be a better three-point shooter. He has a bit of a slow, very set shot. He gets into it slowly and that’s the sign of a guy who’s not a great shooter. So it’s like very mechanical like okay my elbow’s tucked. I get under it or whatever. This offseason he has to become a little bit more confident of a shooter. He has to be a guy who lets it fly next year. Not in that he’s taking a bunch, but just that it’s not I still felt like there were times this year where he’s secondguessing whether or not he should be shooting or not. Next year it has to be a hey man, you’ll have some like one for eight games. You just have to Mike Porter has it. You have to have it. You can’t have too many of them. I think ZB is going to be a guy throughout his career who just like steadily improves his shot until he just gets to the point where like you don’t improve anymore. You get to like 40 41% or something and you just stay at that level. I mean, he was at 40 in the regular season last year. I I think maybe he takes even a little bit of a jump next season cuz he just works that hard. He’s always in the gym. But, um, the hesitancy, you’re totally right. Like, he still had that at times this year, even in the regular season. It’s like you’re you’re too good of a player, you’re too good of a shooter to be hesitant to shoot open threes. But what would we predict him to be next year? How good of a shooter? I think internal improvement the jump he took from last year to this year I think he takes from this year to next year as a shooter he shot 38 12% from three last year 39 points I think he takes the same jump next year but the volume though is the point right cuz I mean he took 224 which is like per minute actually less than last year and the volume has to go up it has to be quicker release so in there I think he will see a small improvement and I also think this is one of my theories I think a lot of guys were nervous about missing shots because they could get yanked and I think he got over that cuz he became above it. But I still think there was lingering parts of that and I just think I’m curious if next year that goes away for for him if if it’s like he plays a little bit more free is a little bit more um shoot from the hip. Yeah. And I mean look, we’ll see too like again the contract stuff maybe it affects some of this to That’s true. you needed to shoot 39% to get the deal to get right versus if he just has the deal. Is it game to game? Whatever you need to win, I got you. But I think he can become a meaningfully better shooter. I don’t think Christian has this endless well of like skill or talent. You know, he came in as like a hard hat player. He has so much to Yeah. Yeah. But but because of that, I also think on that same principle, you can bank on some improvement. Like Christians is a guy who’s going to want to get better and work to get better. That’s the craziest part about him is that he like I really just thought he was just a tryhard, you know, right? That’s kind of but like his finishing was like it was probably the best on the team. I couldn’t really square the two and it doesn’t look particularly skillful either. It just is the most effective finishing on the entire squad. It’s crazy. So I actually think he is more skilled than I thought, but I also agree with you that he’s not going to be like too saucy. But you know what? NBA, man. You don’t need Austin Rivers had a good take the other day on his show where he was talking about guys like your ability to like play with the ball and do stuff. It’s that you have to watch the new NBA unless you’re a star. You don’t need that. Can you make a straight line drive? And this is what I’m talking about with Christian where I think there’s untapped potential in him. So shooting is number one. I think he’ll make a modest improvement there, but he’ll probably still be a guy that you’re a little nervous in the playoffs about the zero sum of it all of him just making him. But two, I think he can be a guy that you allow to bring the ball up more, which we need to free Jamal Murray up in the playoffs. And also a guy who can attack one-on-one better than he does this year because he has shown a little bit of it. Not that you’re giving it to him in a five on five half court set, but that when teams trap Jamal and you swing it to him, is he a guy that you can count on now? Oh, Kase Wallace just rotated over. Well, guess what? You’re giving up 30, 40 pounds. Can he just get around him to draw the next defender and now it’s a wide openen Michael Porter three? I swear he really honestly just needs to come become the next uh McConnell. DJ McConnell like that. That’s a point guard though. What’s that? He’s a point guard though. Well, I know a lead passer. Yeah, but he I’m just saying like that skill set. He can shoot the three. He can be a tryhard that I like I feel like uh CB needs to add a mid-range to his game a little bit because I don’t know that his his three-point shot will ever be that great. But I I do like the ability for him to either cut or stop and pop. And like it just seems like there’s a lot of opportunity for mid-range shots that this team isn’t using. Um I think he needs to just improve his handle. That’s what I was going to say. It’s handle to me because there were, you know, I know they were going against great defenses, great on ball defenders, but he got spooked a couple times just picking up his dribble like not really sure where to go with it. Uh specifically against the Thunder. And um I mean he’s a two guard, like he’s a shooting guard. He should have a better handle I feel like than he does. Um functional. It’s never going to be crossovers. It’s just going to be like he’s good at you. Just got to have more confidence in it. The good news is that’s something you can work on literally by yourself. I think so, too. I don’t think we’re going to see a physical improvement from him. He’s already a top specimen for He did get a haircut. He did. So, what do you think of it? By the way, really got rid of the boys cut. I don’t like that. He is such a little boy cut kind of guy though. That’s the problem. A little meaner though with this more menacing. Yeah, he’s in a man’s league with a boy’s cut. We don’t need that. All right. Do you think he keeps it for the season? I hope so. Or is this just a summer thing? It looks so much better. He’s got to keep it. Hey, we got to do Edgier Brown. Uh, we won’t talk about his contract today. We’ll probably get to that some point this week cuz that’s a big talking point. He might price himself out. The Nuggets control it. They could always risk it and go into next year, but I you obviously like to lock your guys up and he might be worth a lot of money. So, but we’ll get to that at another time. We’re just talking about interior uh improvements for the moment. All right, let’s take a break on the other side. Payton Watson. This one might have less consensus. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. We’re gonna find it out. Uh, are you guys looking for banking that plays at your pace? 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Get some adult beverages. I brought some Miller lights to the crib cuz I knew Always a good choice. Always a good choice. And it’s light and they’re easy to drink. They taste good. And you know, people tend to swap stories over Miller Lights. If you head out on Kfax to any of the wonderful bars, including this one, and you enjoy some Miller Lights, chances are you’re going to make some new stories. You know what I mean? It’s great for story time. It’s great for making stories. It’s great for watching the Nuggets. It’s great for watching the Nuggets win. Great for watching the Nuggets lose. That’s what we do here at the DNVR Bar. Uh oh, that’s right. How do It’s 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. So yeah, I didn’t realize till I turned 30 what was the hype about light beers. They matter. They’re necessary. They’re necessary. And that’s why I go to Miller Light. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerlike.com/dnbrr to find delivery options near you. Or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere that sells beer. You’ve seen it. It’s Miller Lightite. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. All right, we’re back here. Segment three. Let’s move on to Payton Watson now. So Payton Watson also up for contract extension unlike Christian Brown and maybe there’s a little discount to be had there on his behalf as one takeaway from from sort of his slower development under the Malone regime. I think number one area of improvement for me and this is easiest one. It’s strength. I think Pton Watson’s biggest like shortcoming in his first three seasons in the NBA is that he doesn’t look that different than when he was drafted. But one summer of true dedication. Some guys just never bulk up and look big. I think he’s a little bit of that because he’s a little bit of a skinny guy. You know, he’s not KD though. But he’s not KD. I think that he can come back next year meaningfully stronger. And I think a lot of his issues are actually downstream of that, including finishing. But let’s just start from strength. I think this could be a big offseason. Strength can help you finishing. Absolutely. It can help you with rebounding. It can help you defensively also. And I mean, the way we’re trending, they need Payton Watson to to level up like all facets of his game, but I mean, I’m with you. Um, it’s gonna be his fourth year in the league, you know, third year with the Nuggets pretty much. Um, like this is definitely time and I I think building up his body strengthwise is a great place to start. Um, he definitely has to get stronger. I’m kind of curious like what position he’s going to play more of next year with Don Holmes coming back into this thing. Is he going to play more three? Maybe he played a lot of four this year in the last couple years, but um finishing is like an area he definitely needs to take a step in. And like I feel like if he was stronger, some of those layups that he goes up for and he gets the ball stripped or, you know, deflected or something, he holds on to a couple more of those. And even his drives though on even on offense like sometimes he’ll get get bumped off his line a little bit. Yeah. The little bit of the MPJ where you’re like that dislodged the ball from you like be stronger. Yeah. I think people would be so willing to buy some of the defense stuff if he could finish at the at the rim. Yes. I think it would like I mean it’s it’s the loudest thing in the world. It is. It’s it’s one of the least palatable weaknesses like from a fan perspective. True. Because Yeah. You’re right. Especially cuz the whole thing is turn defense into offense, right? So he’ll make this unbelievable recovery play and then he’s on the break and you’re just going, “Well, hang on. Wait, not not reset the offense. Wait, hang on.” Every time, right? So that’s like, you know, someone in there said he needs to stop settling for the corner three. I actually disagree. Like the corn David Adam said it in the playoffs. If they’re guarding Joic like this, you need to be able to take and make the corner three in the regular season from just the corners. Payton Watson had a good season in the playoffs that fell off a cliff. So yeah, man. Like if you’re getting on the floor next year in the playoffs, we can talk about all this development that matters. Chances are the look you’re getting the corner three, got to be able to hit it. But also these whatever it takes to get better in transition, if it’s if it’s strength, that checks out with me. Um if maybe this is just a deficiency, but he’s got to get better in that area and then you can start seeing some of the utility. I also think his three-point shooting. So we go back to game six of the series, he’s one of one. Game seven, one of one. Game one, one of one. Game two, one of one. two of three miss. So like he actually had cuz to him it’s not like he’s getting a ton of these. He’s getting one or two and if you had five straight games where you made them all it’s like hey that’s that’s not I did not hate a PW corner three. Like as far as outcomes went I was like look I’ll see this might go. He was 0 of three in game seven o of two and game six and both of those were killer but um I so all right strength finishing at the rim is a weird one because I don’t know how you improve that. You know what I mean? Like I mean what do what do we think of his touch too? Do we think Pwatt has good? He has weirdly touch on that short jumper though. Yeah, remember there was like a there was like a a good chunk of the season where all of a sudden Pton Watson could not miss a mid-range shot and we were like, “Oh my god.” I think you’re doing a little work calling it a big chunk of the season. It was a bigger chunk than I expected. I mean, it was it was enough for me to be cuz your point is your point is that touch is like several things around the wrist. Zero touch. Seven seven eight foot mini jumpers. Really good touch. three-point shot, no touch. So, it’s like I know, but he actually has decent touch. I I think um he’s just like really like he’s gangly. He’s gangly. He doesn’t He seems still like a Great Dane puppy. Like he really seems like he’s going to grow into his body. When you look at PW, you’re just like that guy has to in the his final form, he needs to look like Amen Thompson. like he needs to be that long, that rangy, but also strong enough and in control. There’s a lot of times like when the good news is they’re the same age. Yeah. Well, are they really 22? Yeah. Oh, yeah. But I’m not saying like he needs to like Aman Almond Thompson came into the league with a man’s body. Like he just showed up ready to go. Pwatt is not the case. Like he still clearly has growing to do. And you can just see he’s like not always in great control of his body. he doesn’t have great body control. Um, and I think there’s probably a lot of that is just like you have to like your internal strength has to develop and some of that is just by growing older fair. Yeah. But he needs to he just needs to get to that place where he is like he should be physically intimidating and he’s not currently. I just I still have a lot of faith in Pton Watson as a prospect. I just still think that he has and and the last piece for me would be I think he has to be better at the corner three and I think he’ll continue to work on it. But to me unlike Christian, he’s a guy that I actually do think has a more like slashing chops because he has long strides and he has is a pretty good passer. He’s made some good like on the moves passes. He hasn’t explored that part of his game very much and this is where I think it could be that Adelman trusts him to do it. But to me, this is where Denver has to invest in it in a playoffs. What are you going to have Payton Watson do? Is it just stand in the corner? I don’t know if that’s like a winning game. But is there some way that you could like think about it this year? You had Michael Porter, you had Jamal Murray. You had no other floor spacers. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could run uh Payton Watson pick and roll where those guys are off ball. Even if it’s not like that’s not our offense, but that’s our initiator. That’s our dummy action to get things moving. He can make choices. He can make choices. He just sets the table because also he’s going to have the weakest defender on him. So, can you do stuff? And to me, that’s where you have to invest in it, but I actually think there is untapped potential in Payton. And here’s the kicker. You could trade him. I don’t know if he has a ton of trade value right now. Your better bet in terms of the upside play is that Pton Watson makes a huge leap this year. I know. And so this whole idea of get this man off my team. I hate there’s a lot of people that hate Payton Watson. Get him off my team. Everybody hates everybody. I’m like, what are you getting for Payton Watson if you get him off your team right now? Good question. Not a lot probably, but you can get a lot from him if you can commit to the value of Nuggets is definitely more than what he gets. Here’s the other thing, man. AG went out, he started for a while. Nuggets did great. I know it’s regular season. I’m not saying he’s better than AG, but it does show you that playing with Joic, giving him these other types of minutes. It’s like there is an upside to that that’s worth investing in. It just never has had the sustained and a lot of it’s on him. I’m not trying to No, no, you’re right. It’s a It is a balance, right? I mean, I think like obvious obviously this is well litigated. Malone was trying to win some games. Calvin drafted one of the biggest projects you’ll see like two points a game. Like Peyton’s a project, man. Right. And so that was some of the sort of like that was in congruent right off the bat, right? And so there was something. So I I do think it’s both things. Like I think Calvin Booth drafted a player that wasn’t ready to help Jic off the bat. I do think he entered a system that was trying to be more win now despite being fed win later pieces into the machine. So, like there is there is a balance here, right? Like all these teams have picks, more picks than Denver. They’re they’re more committed to player development. I think that’s true. They have coaches more committed to it. I think that’s true. I also think Booth has kind of not drafted the best players. Like you just player development is part of it, but you like watch Terren Cheney Jr. and you’re like, “Oh yeah, that guy’s ready to play. That guy’s better. That guy’s ready to play.” And like the Wolves deserve credit for that, but also I think he was just ready to play. So there’s it’s both of these things to Adam’s point, I think. Um we have a third break. Yes. Uh, we’ll get to it in a second. I’m going to move on here then. I I am very I think Pton Watson will be the greatest bellweather though to the difference between Malone and Adelman. If it’s overstated or any of this because I do think that Malone put him in a tough spot over these last years. If Adelman puts him in there, it’s like maybe he there’s a reason for it, you know, like maybe there’s just players like that that archetype exists in the NBA and is can be really successful like a Jaden McDaniels, like a super valuable. That’s what I mean. a big stretch if you want to call him. That’s why they drafted him. I know. Exactly. That’s what I’m saying. It’s like so to give up on that arc type of player. Um, at this stage it would be Jam Daniels. He’s damn good, man. I know. A man Thompson, Assar Thompson, uh, there’s just a lot of guys that if you’re if you have that he’s like thicker. Dar East’s way stronger. He’s like more of a power forward than a small forward type. But there’s just there are a lot of them. And it’s like even Derrick Jones Jr. who’s a little bit taller, I think. But it’s it’s an archetype of Yeah. He’s really athletic and really long. So it naturally his defensive floor is really high and it’s just good. Again, if you’re count I think people get frustrated because of how much Denver was relying on Peyton Watson. He was their seventh guy and they had no other alternatives. But I think that he would be nice to be one of your 10 guys that you’re able to go to because he’s extremely valuable as one of the options and Denver needs that. Y um let’s go quickly to one other one just that’s a little bit of a shorter time. Let’s do Jaylen Picket since we only have three minutes here. You want you want to is ISO here? Uh, no. I just Here’s the thing, man. Here’s how I feel about Picket. I think he can be a really good backup point guard for the Nuggets, but the Nuggets need athleticism on ball. This is what Russ brought. And as much as I love Picket, he only he only works I think Picket can make the backup the second unit run. This is my this my crazy take in the regular season. But he would have to be surrounded not just with athletes, but you have to also have an athlete that can handle. And right now it’s that’s not Julian Strawler. That’s not Payton Watson. I don’t think it’s Deron Holmes. And so my worry is you get into a playoff series and it’s like Kase Wallace go fullcourt press pick it. It takes 15 seconds to get the ball at court and there’s no alternative. Yeah. I ideally you want somebody with a little more athleticism, you know, if you’re thinking about the guys that are going to be around him. Like you could play pick it there, but then you need athletes and ball handlers at the 2, three, four, you know. Um, and I don’t know if the Nuggets are going to have that off their bench next year. Pton Watson’s one. Deron Holmes is athletic if he ends up playing, but you also need guys that can get to the rim and beat their guy off the dribble. And I’m with you. I think Picket can run the offense. I think he can be, you know, the classic game manager, backup point guard, the Monte Morris type. Yeah. Um, I just wonder if they need somebody more dynamic there with the ball. The thing is, Picket had a good year and he didn’t play until game 49. Yeah. Well, you know what I mean? Like we went half a year without him playing at all. He was in the G- League and now you can imagine and now you sit and look and go like, “Hey, it was encouraging the back half of the year.” There were some He had some great moments, man. I think pick can I think can play in an NBA rotation? I do. I think it’s really more about those other questions of what is this rotation and is it built to maximize him and is that something you should be concerned about? What about his rate of growth Dline? He made a lot of progress this year. Is it like, “Hey, next year new coach, so fresh start for him and then you’re just in the rotation every night.” This is not a thing where you’re looking over your shoulder. It’s like you’re the backup point guard. Could it be like, “Hey, baby.” I pick. It’s weird because I actually felt really confident in him at season’s end and then I just couldn’t imagine a scenario putting him in to a playoff game because of how intense the defense I just couldn’t I like it just didn’t I couldn’t imag any and even as I imagine his uh skill getting better. I just can’t imagine him being the guy in a playoff game. It just doesn’t seem congru like it just seems like the game is so fast. It seems like you could just trap him and like just get him into into big trouble. I I still believe in his shooting. I still think like Vote says I he is most assuredly an NBA level player. Um, I just I don’t I don’t really see it for the Nuggets anymore. And I really I don’t know, man. I just don’t see it. I don’t because I feel like uh our our offense with our starting unit is slow and plotting. But but that’s because you have Jokic playing at the same speed that Picket has, which is why you aptly referred to him as like a mini Jokic like style player. I don’t know that you can do it at at this level if you’re not tall enough to see over your defenders. It’s Jaylen Brunson does. Jaylen Brunson is really fast and really like jerky jerky. I can’t imagine Jaylen Picket getting around guys like Jaylen Brunson does. Like I don’t know. Brunson is he’s got a little quick twitch. He’s got a lot of quick twitch and he’s a tough finisher and like Jaylen Picket’s really good. I just I don’t know man. I I just if I was if I was the front office I would be looking to find a team that’s on the rise that could use steady leadership and try to broker a trade with them for him. One thing I’ll say and then we have to go to break here. One thing I’ll say about pick it. You look at the Pacers, man. Why are they good? Why are they up in their series? I really don’t know. Because they have several players with super high IQ. And the more you put them together, the more it’s like if we had one yoga, that’s awesome. If you have two, it’s incredible. If you have four or five, they have like six of them. And it’s like, man. And so this is my hope with a guy like Picket is you could start to build in these lineups when teams are trying to trap you and you have a guys that yes they’re slow yes they’re this but they’re like well I know how to break this two on him I release I know where the ball goes quickly and it’s like boom we’re just getting open stuff every time it’s a long shot this is the one I obviously love pickup and I hope he comes back and I hope he plays but I agree with you that it is hard to see him going up against Kase Wallace and some of these guys at Caruso who are just insane and how physical and fast they are but at least there’s a path to All right, let’s take a break on the other side. We’ll get into Don Holmes and Julian Strawther. And we know a lot about Deron’s Holmes. We saw him play for one half of one summer league game. We got some takes to get off a year ago. Yeah, you sat next to him, dude. 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Go to ucalth.org for more info. UC Health Live extraordinary. All right, last segment here at the DMR Nuggets podcast and we have two very important players. We’re going to start with Julian Strawther. I’m going to start with the bad minus 4.5 box plus minus and it felt like that to me this year. By far the worst of any of the rotation players. Next worst Payton Watson at minus 1.8. So minus 4.5 is the advanced metrics are capturing when he was on the court. The team is getting murdered and he’s not putting up very efficient stats. Then you look at the three-point shooting, what he’s known for, 35%. He they are tough shots. He’s you know he’s kind of a gunner. I always said if the Nuggets could get through this year I thought he would be valuable in the coming years. They had to rely on him more than I would like. He did win him a playoff game which was awesome. So like you know it’s at least possible. But to me he is another guy where I look at last year it was all about Pton Watson. Next year I think is going to be about that too. But I’m hoping he starts from a higher floor. Next year might all be about Julian Strawther. Is he a real playoff player next year? Not a hold your breath and hope he makes threes, but a guy that you can just count to be a rotation guy and oh, he was off tonight, but he gave you some other stuff. To me, right now, it’s hard to imagine him being a positive impact player in a playoff game if he’s not making shots. I think he has to make himself that next year. Yeah, for sure. And he’s got to make himself that by getting better at the other areas of his game. Like, he does still need to become a better shooter. You know, for a guy who’s regarded as a quote unquote shooter, he’s not a very good one. He has some great he looks great at times and at other times he’s thrown up air balls. Misses misses. It’s actually crazy how bad some of his misses are. But then again, he can win you a playoff game with his shooting. We just saw that. Um but for me, it’s more about the other parts of his game really. It’s about his defense. Can he defend without fouling? Can he be trusted on the defensive end of the floor right now? because I didn’t really feel like there’s a lot of trust there with the Nuggets and him on that end. Um, he’s got to get better at like most facets of his game. I agree. First of all, I disagree with the chat. I do think he absolutely helped them win that game. A lot of the quotes after the game reflected that from people players. I’m not trying to I’m just just going to push back and say I really do think he helped them win that game. How did you say Well, I think he’s saying that’s the guy. No, I think he’s saying didn’t win them the game. But that’s the guy. Oh, that’s your guy. That’s him. That’s the guy. The guy that told me that that’s why he said this is a personal conc. I see. I wouldn’t say he won him a game, but he was all right. Was I just wouldn’t give Dline this really. So, he’s never going to let you have it. I think you guys are right on on the more pertinent points, honestly. Like, I think you guys are right about rounding out his game. You know, David Adam had that great quote after game six. He like didn’t want to talk about the shotm was his defense, dude. He’s like, “If he if he doesn’t play defense and we have to change our scheme, I can’t keep him on the floor.” But he did and they closed with him. So, I think Julian, I’ll tell you, I think Julian’s coachable. I think Julian gets it. I don’t think Julian’s offended. If a coach says your defense needs to be better, he probably says, “You’re right.” I think though, he also needs to be actualized as a shooter to justify a lot of these things. Like, I think I think Julian Stra can be a 40% shooter in the league. Right now, he’s a Right now, he’s a 35% shooter in the league. Let’s Let’s close that gap. Let’s close that gap. I do think Julian has like a very good base skill set. Yeah. Like he can grow on that. He can do everything like average to below average, but he can still do a little of everything, you know? Yeah. He can get to the rim. Doesn’t always look great, but he can do it. He tries to like he he tries to put his head down and get there. I think he’s a smart player, although he still looks like a little out of sorts defensively at times. It looks like it’s still a little too fast for him. Yeah, he’s slow reacting. Yeah, I feel like but I think he knows the game. Did he miss time his first year and his second year? How has he cobbled together just like one full NBA season yet? Do we He had a long run though to this year. I just I just mean um in general like he makes a lot of what look like rookie mistakes to me still all the time. Like the second he gets in he commits a foul almost immediately. He fouls three-point shooters. He loses control of his body all the time. he is not at all reliable in a variety of circumstances and I think he can be so much better and I kind of am betting on it. Like I think his shot is um I think I mean I think his he’s a we have like so many shooters that can’t shoot. He’s like we have so many great shooters that just can’t make a basket. But I don’t know man. I I think Julian’s got a little something. I I think he show the pizzazz the hoodbah that he showed in got some he’s got some swag in the playoffs specifically aura that was that was a big big game that was an elimination game and he had the nice little tight dribble through split the defense to get to the layup which was to me that’s the other part of his game I talk about Payton adding a handle and this or that I think that Julian can be a ball handler who attacks off the dribble a little bit more this year to me was his fake it till you make it year like he was playing like he was capable of something he wasn’t totally which is its own skill but your hope is that next year he actually is capable of those things cuz there was a lot of make it part yeah yeah he yeah he faked it now he needs right now he’s shoot it till he makes it which is not that often and I think somewhat predictably by the way game six at home was awesome like game seven they tried to play him he was so shook right so there’s there’s there’s the development part of this still of although I will say straw’s the one guy I think outside of injuries that Malone Booth like yeah all right I’ll play this guy I this guy has something. So, we’ll see what Adelman thinks. 100%. I saw some people on the timeline saying that, “Oh, that was the Malone guy, not the Booth guy.” That was definitely a They collaborated on that one. They did not want Malone did not want other guys. He didn’t want to keep adding young guys, but there was common ground on Straw there, I think, which you can understand. Um, so just to recap, we’ll get to Deron Holmes, Zeke Naji tomorrow. I guess we can pair them together because in some ways maybe they’re competing, maybe they’re together. I don’t know. But just to recap, I think we want Yeah, we’ll get to that tomorrow. Stay tuned. Uh Christian Brown, we expect to make modest improvements, but he was really good this year. So, bro, I don’t I don’t I’m putting no libs on this man until he shows me I shouldn’t. I’ve learned my lesson. I’ve seen guys that just get better and better, and I’ve seen guys that that bottle bottom out right away. He just his jump was so stark. He made a big one this year. It was It was remarkable, his jump. So, I’m not I’m not ready to say he’s done uh developing that haircut, dude. I will say this though about Christian all these other guys feel like they’re trying to like prove it to the team. I think Christian’s over that hump and that’s a big mental hump. When you’re trying to prove it to everyone else, Christian’s one of the guys now to where it’s like you don’t have to prove anything. He’s in the core. Yeah, we know who you are. Uh Pton Watson, I think there’s a chance that he makes a sizable jump, but there’s also a chance he doesn’t make any. And he’s he’s a huge wild card here. But I think I am going to bet on Pton Watson being meaningfully better. Julian Strawther I think will be better than he was this year, but I still think he projects to be an eighth guy in a rotation. And if you’re counting on him to be the seventh guy, I think we’re in tr Denver’s in trouble. They probably need to add at least one vet that is a buffer between your top five, maybe six if Payton’s there. And then the next guys, which would include Julian. So if Julian’s your seventh guy, I just think you’re in a tight spot next year. I But I think he could be a great I think he could be very good as the eighth or ninth guy next year if Denver builds properly. And then Jaylen Picket we’re unsure of but we think compet I mean in the regular season competent point guard that doesn’t ruin games for you which is not nothing in the regular season. Can I tell you my what I would do quickly my elevator pitch how I’m fixing the nuggets. I am trading Julian Strather. I’m trading Jaylen Picket. I am attempting to trade Tyson. I want I want bring value. I want I want vets that are um I want I want I mean I listen I’ve not done any of the leg work here, but just philosophically like I’m looking for teams that are really truly starting to rebuild and that have like the Hawks or something like that have like older guys. They have no business. They’re not going anywhere with them. I would look at the Raptors. I would look at like squads like that, the the Kings that aren’t going anywhere and kind of see if they have like a vet or two that maybe doesn’t get the run that they deserve or you know. Are you back to the depth problem though? Because you just cherry two rotation guys for one. I want I I want to first off free up roster spots for guys like I don’t think that there’s enough time to develop these guys and win as many championships as possible for the Denver Nuggets. I’m just like loading up on like guys that are true or that are tried and true and trying to take advantage of teams that are I just think it’s hard to load up. Like that’s the the word load up is the one carrying all the work here cuz I think Denver can add one or two of those guys. I think it gets unrealistic when you’re like if Denver can add four rotational veterans in an offseason. I don’t know. I mean, I have to see what I just mean like I I I’m kind of out on the development of those guys specifically. Okay. Strawther Strawther Picket Tyson. Yeah, Watson. Watson I’m 5050 on if if they can get a good deal for Watson. I I Christian and Payton are the ones that the two that I’m like, “Okay, those are the guys that I think that are going to be turn into guys.” Like Straw I’m 50/50 on, but I I kind of don’t want to go through it. I don’t want to go through it right now. I kind You don’t want to have the January where he’s in a rut and it’s like, “Dang it, what happened?” Yeah. I just I want to get I want to get a bunch of Jeff Greens, like guys near the end of their career that can play. All right, if you guys are enjoying the show, we’re going to go to super chats now on Overtime on the internet. Thanks for watching our Sash channel. Speaking of the Kings, did you see that trade rumor from Paul Pierce? Oh no. What was it? I threw it in the Slack. Nobody said anything. I I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t Paul Pierce out of nowhere. I mean, it’s not a trade rumor. He just said this. Paul Pierce out of nowhere said the Nuggets should trade Porter for Demar D Rozan. Man, this so weird to me. But D Rozan, how does he just think of that out of the blue? Yeah. How does Paul Pierce just come up with that specific Monica? I don’t know. That was a little weird to me. Tell you right now, that’s a guy that would help your bench like as a starter playing with the bench. Go get it. It’s just kind of weird that that he threw that specific trade. The Nuggets have two shooters. We were like, “What if we had one?” I know. I know. I know. You’re like, “Okay, so the one thing Mike does do is space the floor.” D Rozan won’t do that. He He will score though. The mic conundrum. We have to do a whole We need to do weeks and weeks on the conundrum. The last two. Well, we got some I know, but we It’s even more of a conundrum now because well, we’re going into a new paradigm. We don’t know if you can What? All right. What do we have? Super chats here. Oh, did we mention the Russell Westbrook news yet, by the way? Uh, surgery on his hand. Surgery on his hand broken two places. He put that out in his newsletter today. So that was not from the team. Yeah. And we were noticing very clearly Dev pointed out every single time he could only finish with the left. And so that may seems to be in keeping with this news. Okay, let’s do the super chats. Ryan B, the Thunder have developed guys. The Nuggets developed Pwatt into Jared Vanderbilt with hops. He has to improve his offense to play in the NBA long term. Oh, by the way, the guys playing meaningful playoff minutes right now include Thomas Bryant. There’s just I think he’s out of the rotation actually. Yeah, he played early in the series though, like meaningful minutes. It’s still something. It’s still something. The worst, most useless backup point guard who was averaging 20 a game for LA comes here is terrible. Now he’s in the conference finals. There is a pattern here. Mike Mullen Le actually allows us to trade for a backup center at the next year’s deadline. I love it. So that’s that’s something to look forward to. We’re back on that. There’s absolutely something to this, right? Absolutely something to it. And then on the flip side, there’s all the guys that played a lot of minutes that go leave Denver and are terrible. KCP obviously had a down year. Gary Harris fell off a cliff. Like there’s also anyone that goes to the Bruce Brown somehow became He’s not a good player anymore. And I mean Hardstein, he was just good. We know that. He was good. Yeah, he would have stopped fouling. I digress. He still fouls. He He never made that floater once in Denver. Not one time. He was over for 50. I It was releasing dead doves the same amount of minutes as Dario Sarich. It’s disgusting what he’s done. Tough trade as a backup center though is picking up three fouls in two minutes, I will say. God damn it. Okay, let’s go back to the super chats. Maddox, Maddox’s optimism with a new coaching direction. I think the likes of Peew, Strawther, Naji, and Picket will develop fast without the shame Maddox so hard for his negative comment that now he’s just all positive. Damn. I will tell you if they do if the Nuggets do find alignment, I do think we will all feel it next year. I really believe that. I just think I think you’re right. I think and this is the big thing we felt all the year was like the thing that sucked the most about this whole thing. It’s like we just we wasted so much time, dude. We didn’t develop anybody or whatever. Yeah. All right, Oliver Classic, you dismissed my comment before game six. I remember that. Oliver, there’s a lot of comments, man. Where that comment sucked where I said that Nuggets need a deeper bench and that the main problem is MPJ and Murray overpaid contracts. consistent second star and bench depth keeps some guys out a few pieces. I mean, dude, we’ve talked about this a million times. Yeah, I I don’t know how you could say we ignored it. Of course, we’ve talked about this. How do you They have two max contracts that they signed a long time ago. I know Murray just got the extension, but even last year that was a contract long time ago. Yes, that’s very difficult. It is part of the problem, but especially when one of them has a torn rotator cuff or the other one. Yeah. Is that the injury? No, I don’t know. problem to be clear. I was like tort that’s what I’m hypo like sure he did something his AC joint was a spring that’s my hypothesis which is by the way a six week injury all right here we go it doesn’t help you put a diaper on it or all right I’ll talk about that I might need to rethink that approach Mr. exquisite nugget vote. How do you feel about Pacers versus Knicks? Indiana and five. I feel like if the Knicks win this series, this this game tonight, it won’t be Indiana and five. How about that? Not very fun. That’s such a fun series. I love the Pacers. I’m a fan, man. I love high IQ hoops. They’re the only positive outcome remaining in my opinion. Dude, if you take sort of narratives and agendas and like what you want out of it, just like as a basketball fan, do you like watching the Pacers play? Clearly are playing the most appealing brand of basketball. It’s freaking fun as hell, man. Clearly. King Joseph. I thought Russ played above his contract. Yes or no? Yes, of course. The lowest possible contract. Russ was a good signing, man. Like I It was an amazing signing. Stop. Yeah. Full stop. We We We are supportive of it. But I quick quickly. I’m sorry. I Your Here comes I hate I hate viewing players through the lens of their contract. I know. It’s the worst. It’s the worst way of looking at a basketball player. I agree. Once you’re here, you’re just like, “Yeah, you’re trying to win, man. It doesn’t matter how much he made.” It’s like, did he mess up a lot when at big moments? Yes. Did he also win us some games? Yes. Are you willing to go through that again? Me personally, not particularly, but I’m sure I’m going to. That was almost so good for our West Street. Almost. Benjamin Talo tell him my vow. Thoughts on Trey Alexander, G-League Repeat of the Year? My thing on Trey is this. You have Picket, you have Trey. They’re both slow and so like you’re not going to be able to keep both of them. I think Picket’s going to be a better point guard for you. Trey, if you had a point guard, might be a better secondary ball handler or something. He’s the second coming of Jamal. He looks like him. He’s going to be Jamal. I just The Nuggets need to be on this roster, man. I just don’t think any that I’m worried about. Here’s what I think is Denver has their starting uh five and then you’re going to have uh Payton Watson for sure to me as as your bench. So now you need to fill out you need like a point guard, you need somebody who get into the paint, you need a backup center. There’s just only so many spots. And so Trey Alexander, a lot of these guys you go, they don’t check any of those boxes. They’re nice players, but yeah, I like his um like his skill set. I like the idea of Trey Alexander for sure. I just have a really hard time envisioning him being good next year. We get Trey Alexander on the summer league roster this year or not. We do. We should. Trey and Don would be a fun that’s fun enough. I’m worried about summer league not being interesting this year. That’s enough for me to be into it. I think they should. Uh, that’s another guy though that this is this is a this is a moment where you could probably he probably has more trade value just being being like, “Guys, this is the G-League rookie of the year.” I mean, Alexander has zero trade value, man. I’m sorry. Also, he’s on a two-way. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. I I like the idea of him, but I just I don’t know. Yeah. There’s nuggets have boxes to check, and he doesn’t check one even if he’s a nice player. Is there something you’re prioritizing right now? Unless you want a backup, do it. He’s great at it. Black. Oh, King Joseph again. Uh, more on the same point we just agreed with. Russ won about nine games starting when Jamal was hurt. Helped win the Clippers series. Isn’t that enough for a million contract bench player? Yes. Yeah, of course. Well framed. Agreed. Flaco Watts, are these offseason shows scheduled at a certain time? 2:15 Flaco for the rest of the time. For the for mountain time for the rest of the offseason. 2:15. Stick with us. Nick Bevela, appreciate the continued Great Nugs coverage, boys. Thank you. Needed that, buddy. I know everybody, you know, I feel like we all had to just go away mentally a little bit and regroup. Look at the big picture. What are we trying to do here? We’re creating community, you know, and the community doesn’t stop when the Nuggets get robbed by the refs, thrown out of the playoffs in an unjust way that will never be forgiven by me or anyone else. And we come together and we uh we you know, I’m already getting texts from Knicks fans. Pacers really, most of fans. David Adelman’s having a uh introductory pressor at Ball Arena tomorrow. Should be very interesting, man. I’m excited. You may remember me from last season and for 10 seasons before. I mean, that doesn’t really tell me this, but they got to decide on a GM soon, right? I think so. I feel like it’s maybe decided to say announced. I think Yeah, they have to announce they definitely have to keep up appearances here. Like, man, we we’re looked here. I think that was pay attention the whole time. Owner and governor Stan Kroni as well as the vice chairman I’m sorry Stan Kunky as well as the vice chairman Josh Cron probably have to decide on interim general manager Ben Tenzerson. Well we now know that interim head coach David Adelman has been promoted to Nuggets head coach. Also the also Tommy Balchettis not interim No assistant general manager assistant Tommy Balchettis assistant general manager but he’s an assistant to no one. Great point. He’s the assistant. Is he not the assistant to the interim general manager? I think so. I think you have to be the interim assistant. All right. That’s a good point. Thanks for hanging out with us. We’ll see you tomorrow. [Music] [Applause] [Music] So, we all s like the Yeah.

Can Peyton Watson, Julian Strawther and the rest of the Denver Nuggets bench take a meaningful leap next season? Is internal improvement a realistic strategy — or a hopeful one? The DNVR Nuggets Podcast team breaks down Josh Kroenke’s end-of-season comments and what they reveal about the team’s plan for building around Nikola Jokić. Is continuity still the path forward? Or does Denver need to look outside to build a real second unit? Plus, what should we expect from DaRon Holmes?

Tune in to the DNVR Nuggets Podcast for insights, analysis, and the ongoing conversation about the future of the Nuggets.

Adam mares, Harrison Wind, Brendan Vogt, and D-Line Co. come to you LIVE from the DNVR bar to break down everything you need to know!

Start – 0:00
ATA – 3:00
Meaningful internal improvement – 17:00
Christian Braun – 21:00
Peyton Watson – 32:30
Jalen Pickett – 42:00
Julian Strawther – 49:40
Superchats – 1:00:10

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