Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
In studio to fun here Grant Smith back there producing
five six six nine zeros. The text line some of
those people were talking about phobios earlier. The saone I says, Orlando,
how do you feel about having surgeries? I don't mind
dental work, but I hate being put to sleep. I'm
the other way on this one. By the way, you could.
I can't have people cutting on me or doing what
you gotta knock me out.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
So, like like I said, with dandi work, you want
to see me act like a twelve year old little
boy for me in a dentist chair. But as far
as surgery is no problem with surgery. Yeah, like football season,
you have on season and you have surgery season. My
seven years that I played in the league, within seventy
two hours of that last game that I played that year,
(00:42):
whether it was in the regular season or the playoffs,
within seventy two hours, I was on operating table, like
fixing something. Yeah, I never got shut down. Like there,
some guys get lucky, they get to steal a year
and get put on IR.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I never got to steal a year. There's a contract
toll in those situations.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So like it really depends. So like when I got
to the Saints back in twenty sixteen, I had a
thing with my neat with my left knee specifically, where
if there was any more damage, it wouldn't be a split,
like they would not have to owe me, they would
have to owe me half the contract.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
They wouldn't have to owe me the whole entire soul.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
It was not fully guaranteed for injuries part okay partial, And.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Then sure enough, six days in it goes out and
they're trying to put me on IR and I'm saying,
the heck with this. My wife's pregnant. You're gonna cut me,
and I'm going to Colorado and I'm going to be,
you know, there for the pregnancy, and I'll do my
rehab there and I will let doctor Boblik do it,
you know, the team doctor that I've been around the
last four years. So sign me up any day of
(01:47):
the week for a surgery to fix something, because it's
fun man surgery. They sit there, they tell you to
count backwards from one hundred, and you sit there and
you try to fight, and you're like, okay, ninety eight,
ninety seven, ninety five, and then you're like, when's the surgery?
Happening like it's done. You know, excuse me, what do
you mean? You know, so surgeries. I don't have a
(02:10):
problem with surgeries. I look forward to surgeries. It's always
getting something fixed. But the dental chair hyperventilated. Yeah, that's
a big problem. I had to do, Uh, the wisdom teath.
I got my wisdom people way later than most people.
That was in my like mid to late twenties when
I got my.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, but they knocked me out or they were you know,
they're having to count backwards and.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I got I got pretty far.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I got to like the low eighties or whatever before
I finally was like, you know whateverous. I was such
a mess afterwards too. I think I was hitting on
the nurse in front of my mom like it was
of course, you think in your head you're smooth, like
I'm sitting there.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
You know, you know, you know, yeah, oh, I'm just
looking at all the type of game right now, killing.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
It, yeah, crushing it, And I was absolutely not. And
uh And to make matters worse, it was it was
in front of a mom, which was uh, which was great,
but yeah, no, that's that's a thing. I got to
be knocked out. I don't mind the surgery or whatever,
but you got you can't cut on me while I'm awake,
and then I'm a freak out.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, and today, like not only did I have the
dune disappointment, I also had like two nerve blocks shots
today and I was awake for that.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
So that's how my morning started.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
We dropped the kids off and yeah, went and got
two injections in my back and and I was awake
for that, but they gave me an epidural and then
they were able to give me some stuff to relax
and stuff like that. And that was perfectly fine because
they had to put an needle in and find it
with the ultrasound and the X ray and all that
for the exact spot. The only thing that felt weird
(03:39):
was when they injected everything, like all the fluid. I
was like whoa, because it just felt it like from
my glue to my hamstring, like it was a lot
of fluid that they're putting in there. And I've had
back issues since college. Yes, my sophomore year I found
out I had two deterior and disks L four L
five and I've been playing with that. So as long
as I keep my weight under control, all perfectly fine
(04:01):
to twenty five. My weight is very much under control.
But yet I've been having some back issues over the
last couple of months. My kids are wearing me out
a little bit too much, getting me on that ice
too much. I'm on it twice a week skating with them. Yeah,
and they're getting too good and I just won't let
my seven year old win and things, so you can
probably go on a little too hard.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Oh my d I love it, though, that's a I
can't ice skate, by the way. I cannot ice skate.
It's one thing I just I cannot do.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Never tried it, we never did it, or what I
didn't have it.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Where I was you know, growing I grew up in
the South, we didn't have ice skating, you know, anywhere.
And then when I tried to do it once again,
I'm just so bad at it as an adult, Like
I look like a newborn drafte, you know, like big
flailing rice. It's not pretty, but uh it's And then
you know, you get to the point where I'm like,
all right, well now I'm bad at this and as
an adult, so the desire goes away because I'm like,
I'm embarrassing myself out of here.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
So I think it's just like snowboarding and skiing and
you're not used to it, like because I try to
go snowboarder and then not still born, I tried to
go skiing and they're talking about oh this pizzathery and
you got to stop, and.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I'm like, my hips don't work like that, Like what
do you mean?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Right?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So with ice skating, you kind of grow up on it.
You learn how to use your edges, and you learn
how to get on them and stop and stop and
now generate power and now speed up really quick, and
it just kind of becomes a second nature type of
thing where if you just don't do it, it's the
hardest thing in the world to try to do as adult.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
And your muscle take the wrong muscles working out, like, oh.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
My god, put you on bed rush for the next fours.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Uh huh.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yeah. There's another one. There's another one where I thought
I was smooth.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I'm leading up on the rail some girl or whatever,
you know, and then next thing I know, my skates
are off from under Meea, she's over there doing like
a triple onuns or whatever, and I'm like, well, shot
that one down.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Just hold on to the rail bed next time you
get on the ice, just just they skate around on
the edge and just hold onto.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
The rail can't cannot ice skate to say, to save
my life. A two eight says, I had a moler
pulled with no anesthesia.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Bad idea.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Wow, just like by choice or just anesthesia just doesn't
work for that person.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I need to know the story behind that. Bryan's nuts.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, Brian says, who gets the wisdom teeth pulled without
doing on her A lot of people do.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
They just numb it up with the light of kaing
shots and do it like that.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I am never going to allow anybody to inject and
or cut on my mouth without me being knocked out.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
For me with the dentists, it's all about the drilling. Yeah,
that's what it is. I feel it.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, So even like headphones listening to music and just
like my heart is founding out of my chest and
like I am hyper ventilating, and like I am holding
Matt Mouk's hand and he's saying, hey, oh calm down,
calm down, You've had much worse. In twenty thirteen, Dude,
(06:50):
Week three, I had a labrum thing for every week
for the remainder of the season. That's the year that
we were the highest scoring offense. Every single game we
would go out there, I would warm up. After the
warm up, I would come in, There'd be two equipment
guys there. They'd peel my shoulder pads off of me.
One guy would throw me a towel. I'd put that
(07:11):
towel in my mouth. The other guy would throw me
another towel. I'd put it over my head and then
I would sit down and the doctor would grab the
ultrasound machine and he'd start moving it around my shoulder
to find the spot.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
And one week I.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Looked up and got a peek and saw the needle
about seven inches long. And that needle no tears brought
me to tears every single week. But as soon as
they find the spot, they shoot it up. It burns
for like fifteen seconds, and man, I'd go run into
a wall after that, right, and I was just perfectly fine.
(07:46):
So needles has never been something that bothered me, and
the surgeries never bothered me. But man, uh, you want
to see big old turn into little.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Oh come check me out of the d Yeah, no,
I get it though.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I definitely uh, I definitely get I gotta be I
gotta be knocked out. NFL had some rule change proposals
come up this week. I don't know if you're a
fan or not a fan of of any of these. Now,
the Lions pulled their playoff seating thing, which I was
not a fan of.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
I still believe in divisions. Not everybody does.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I still believe in divisions, and I'm like, if you
win your division, you get a home game.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
I've always I always felt like that.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
There are people who like to cite the NFC North
from last year where you had the Vikings and the Lions,
and you're right.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
It meant so much right at the end of the
season where some games want to rest guys and you
know you're trying to get as healthy as possible, but
there's so much relying on this game.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And that's so I understand their point in that. But
then I always default to just win your games and
then you don't have to worry about you know.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
The easiest way to get to the postseason is if
you take care of your division. But unfortunately, if you're
in that division with the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions
now the Bears, good luck for the next couple of years.
But like we've seen that before for many years, for decades,
(09:15):
we saw that with Baltimore and Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, where
not only was it a goblet of division, it was
the most physical division in football. So you're coming out
of that thing and you're banged up, like, guys need
to go, you know, hit the re like, can.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
We get a bye week?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Can we get an ice tub on the flight?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Playing the AFC North used to be the you know,
the impetus for trying to get a second bye week,
you know, or whatever, which, by the way, I am,
I am a proponent of I believe the one rule
that I will say that I would propose if I
were an NFL team is bye weeks before Thursday night
football games. Right, it makes no sense to play on
short weeks like that when you could just do it
(10:01):
after a bye week and then you get the ten
days off after that. It improves the products because you're
not playing on three days rest. Like to me, that's
that's the one rule that I would absolutely throw out there.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Okay, so hold on, hold on breaking down for me,
So you would.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Every if you're gonna play on Thursday night, you get
an automatic bye week the week before the Thursday night
football game, so you're not playing Sunday, and then Thursday
you're playing the previous Sunday, so you get like ten
days rest.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I would love that because that's the one week everybody dreads. Yeah,
like it circle the calendar comes out, where's the Thursday
night football game? And you're saying, man, I can't believe
that I got to get through this and my body
feels like crap, and how do I You don't even
when we play, you play Thursday night football game. You
(10:44):
don't even get to go against the defense. It's offense.
You're on this field all week. Defense. You're on that
field and you're going against trash bins or scout players,
and the scout players are not doing anything. Like I've
literally watched guys like Elvis Duomerville go like this, Yeah,
I got him, like set Hut get walk off the
line of scrimmage. I have him, Wow, Bond Miller, set Hut,
(11:07):
I have him. Like they're not running, they're not doing anything.
Because your body, you're coming out of a game and
you're lucky if you're feeling like you're fifty percent and
now you got to play a game in three days
and you're wondering how hell am I even gonna get
there towards all the beautiful things, I'll tell you that.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, I mean, and the Broncos have two of those
this year. You got a Thursday night football game November
six against the Raiders as a home game, but you're
on the road the week before at Houston, so you're
losing the you know, the travel coming back, you're losing
some of that. And then you have another one. Christmas
is for playing the Christmas game. You're playing Sunday. You've
got a home game against the Jags, and then you've
got to travel to Kansas City on Christmas to play
(11:46):
Thursday night football. For me, like the way that we
structure these bye weeks. You know, you should give everybody
two per season, and if they if you're playing a
Thursday night game, it's an automatic bye week before the
games would be better. We're not looking at guys, we're
roughed up bodies conservative game plans because you only had
three days to even do it in install and to me,
it is a no brainer. Improve the product rule that
(12:08):
I don't understand why they don't already do.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
And the other aspect of it, from a coaches aspect.
You know, in twenty twenty one got the unique luxury
to be a part of that San Francisco forty nine
ers staff, and man, it is a absolute grind sitting
there knowing that, Okay, we got a Thursday night game
next week, we're playing this Sunday. I have to get
(12:31):
my work done as fast as possible, but also stay
fully dialed into this game plan because we have to
win this game. But come an hour after that game,
everything needs to be done because coaches are going straight
from the game right into their office and they want
the cutups and they want to start putting together the
game plan because you don't get that day off. Guys
(12:53):
are going to be in for half the day tomorrow,
but you're already going to be starting to talk about
certain concepts and things like that. So I actually like that.
I've never thought about that. That would help out a lot,
if you know, leading up to a Thursday night game.
Here you get a bye week first, but then you
also get to then you also get on the back.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, you get the ten days on the back, and
so you're getting a full, almost a.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Full rest of recovery It makes the Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Game a marquee event because everybody's getting plenty of prep
time for it and safety. I mean, you know, guys
are not coming up with banged up bodies as much.
You're getting proper time.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Recover that word if I'm rust though, But do you
think guys would be rusty though?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I mean, are guys rusty off the buy?
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Some guys are, if you if you spent the buy
going out and you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I mean coaches are always going to sit there and
always talk about what's going on and we're not getting
enough effort. Well, you guys look like you guys still
are on the buy week, so you're always going to
get that no matter what. And it's up to players
to be professionals in that situation and go execute the
game plan. But I do like that because guys, man,
(13:57):
you walk into a football season. You show up in
July for training camp, and your body feels amazing and
you feel like one hundred percent, But the reality is
you will never feel even close to one hundred percent
until March or April the following year, so you're getting
ready to go through an absolute gauntlet. So I would
like that, and I think that there are different ways
(14:20):
to finagle some things, and maybe you do that for
one of the bye weeks when because we know we're
going to eighteen games, it's only a matter of time.
So maybe you do that for one of the bye weeks,
and then the second bye week we keep it the same, yeah,
floating where now it's on the back end. You get
the mini bye week and you're able to, you know,
get some extra preparation for the team that you're getting
ready to play.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
You could almost even and we got to break here
a second, you could almost even make if you do
the bye weeks before, you could almost even make the
Thursday night games over there in London or whatever, you know,
because you've got plenty of travel time now, plenty of
travel time coming. B Well, it loves to get that
perm Love the per dam hate the tax bite though,
because it's like forty percent of your check.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah, yeah, don't love that. Yeah, that's why you're playing,
no sense.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Yeah, one of the one of the one of the
worst things about it.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
The Vikings have back to back games over there this
year too. I wonder if those players, I mean, I'm
sure they're aware now, but I wonder how many of
them knew beforehand when they were when they're the.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Sex's gonna be kind of like, yeah, sex's gonna be
a little like two weeks.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
We got Ryan Blackburn from My High Sports coming up next.
Talk a little bit about the David Adelman Uh full
time Higher. Now you guys, listen to Broucos Country down here,
can't Wait Bends with All Bright, Orlando Franklin and Studio
Gratsmith's back there producing five six sixty nine zeros. The
text on We did get a follow up on the
(15:39):
molar without anesthesia.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
He said it was just a quick, bad decision. I
rolled with it.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
They had offered anesthesia. I'll never not get anastesia again.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I had to. I was like, man, that is uh,
that is a brave soul.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So whenever I learned my lesson a long time ago,
whenever it comes to medical procedures and they're offering drugs,
you take drugs every time, every single time. You don't
even hesitate.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
What do you give me? Yeah? That sounds good.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Sure, there's a log game that I can't quite pronounce.
We're we're totally good with that. Let's go out to
the KWA Common Spirit Hotline. And bring on our guy,
Ryan Blackburn at NBA Blackburn on Twitter that covers the
Denver Nuggets for Mile High Sports at the pig Ax
and Roll podcast, co hosted Locked on Nuggets, Ryan, How
you doing this evening.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
I'm doing well, guys. I definitely recommend going under for
the surgeries as well in my senior year of high
school or junior year of high school. Excuse me, that
one was a super painful one.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, that's yeah, we were. We were all under the
same knock me out. I'll figure it out after afterwards.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Knock me up. Big day for the Nuggets today they
removed the.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Interim tag from David Adelman, making him the franchises next
head coach. Obviously, Uh became the interim back in April
after Denver fire Michael Malone with three games left in
the regular season the Nuggets. I think you know, I'm
torn on this decision. Orland and I were talking earlier.
I'm tord on this decision.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
One.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
I have a strict rule about never hiring the interim
coach simply because you know, if you're going to flush
things out and all that kind of stuff, And Rolanda
made some good points on that earlier. On the one hand,
I think David Anelman earned it by what he did.
But on the other I have this firm don't hire
the interim rule. Where do you come down on this hire?
Speaker 4 (17:27):
I think it's probably a good hire. I think the
order of operations is definitely a little off for Denver
because usually teams in these situations when they hire both
their general manager and their coach, you would like for
them to have organizational alignment. But now ownership has effectively
told the next general manager, hey, we love your decision making,
(17:48):
but I'm going to make the big decision in terms
of getting the next head coach in the door. That
being said, I do think that Adaman earned the opportunity certainly,
and I think the team really feels good about him internally.
They feel really good about him as a player development guy,
somebody who can connect with a variety of players all
throughout their roster and helped them achieve better heights than
(18:10):
they were achieving under Michael Malone. Whither that actually happens
or not, I don't know, but I think Adaman, just
the way that he handled the playoffs, he proved that
he's a head coach. He's been a hockam out of
the in the NBA for a long time.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Ryan, oftentimes we see a head coach get hired, and
we were talking about this earlier in the show, and
I know it's a completely different sport, but I looked
at what the Miami Dolphins did when they hired Mike McDaniels,
where he was able to bring in a whole new
offensive coaching staff, but he wasn't able to touch that defense.
And Big Fangil was a part of the defensive staff,
(18:42):
a tenured guy, but Mike McDaniel as the head coach
of the Dolphins wasn't able to look that way and
make decisions over there. With David Adaman now becoming named
the new Nuggets head coach, full time head coach, how
much control do you think he's going to have when
it comes to, you know, putting together a coaching staff
(19:04):
and moving forward, because you know, if if you hired
the head you fired the head coach, you fire the GM.
Obviously there are some other things that need to change
behind closed doors as well.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Of course, And I think it's a good point, just
given where Denver is at and the kind of reset
that they needed. My feeling is that the organization. Josh
Cronki specifically feels that once the burden of the Michael
Malone Calvin Booth feud was kind of excised from the team,
everything got back to being reasonable and everybody was back
(19:41):
on better footing. And I don't know how many changes
internally they feel like they need in terms of kind
of changing the structure now that they have shifted. What
I will say is that Adaman, they talked about it
a little bit today. Josh is going to give him
and he'll have to say, certainly, I don't know if
it's full autonomy. Obviously, those conversations behind closed doors can
(20:04):
be a little bit more decisive than what somebody like
KANKI will be willing to share publicly. But I do
think that they're going to look at it, and it
wouldn't surprise me if they bring in a fresh new
voice or to somebody that could be an associate head
coach or some other made up title that basically says, hey,
(20:26):
we really trust this other guy as well.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
In regard to that, Orlando made a great point earlier
about because we were debating, you know, the Michael Porter
junior conundrum, whether or not you keep him around whether
you move him in an attempt to get more depth,
et cetera, et cetera. Obviously you lacking the draft picks
and everything else, could you bring on a coach specifically
to try to inject something into Michael Porter Junior to
(20:50):
get him to be the guy that he could be?
Because you know, there are rumors out there today that
you know they largely want to stand pat with the
roster they've got if that's a case, and I hope
they don't, because I do think they need some shas here.
I mean, don't you almost have to bring in a
dedicated coach to push.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Michael Porter Junior.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
I think there's certainly a feeling there that if they
want to breathe to be status quo with their roster,
then they have to continue to change things around that
roster to help them develop as much as possible. I
think that's a great point and one that if you're Denver,
you better not waste this opportunity of change and make
sure that the change that you are making around those
(21:30):
players helps them become the best versions of themselves that
they can be. We will see what it ultimately looks.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Like, but with.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Regard to Porter, it's almost a situation of, yeah, it
would be nice if they could trade him, It would
be nice if they could shift away from him, but
teams aren't going to take him then, like they're just
not going to take that chance, because on top of
them having the two years for basically forty million per
season left, they are continuing like those teams would want
(21:57):
to have Michael Porter after that contract and they just
don't trust his health. So not to mention his skill
set hasn't exactly translated to the playoffs each of the
last two years either.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
So it's tough.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
They're caught between a rock and a hard places. And
one of the reasons why you're hearing a lot of
talk about internal developments and staying consistent and not making
major changes is because they can't.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Ran.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I want to switch scars a little bit to some
of the older guys on this team. You know, a
guy like DeAndre Jordan brought in for his veteran leadership,
what he brought to the locker room. You know, he
was able to help this team win the NBA Finals
a couple of years ago.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
And now you.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Bring in a guy like Russell Rustbrook and you know,
like it or not, rest of Rustbrook's always going to
give you that effort. Now, he might have a couple
of plays a game where you're scratching your head and saying,
what the heck did he just do? And he's the
rookie in this league, but he gives you effort night in,
night out. When it comes to those type of players,
(22:58):
what do you think, David Adams and you know the
Kronk organization will do moving forward? Or do you keep
those guys around, especially for the fact that Nuggets don't
have that first round pick, they don't have that second
round pick in this year's draft clause, and you've got
to find a way to get better some way.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
Yeah, it's gonna be interesting because they don't have a
lot of guys that are on expiring contracts. I think
it's Russell Westbrook if he opts out of his player option,
it's DeAndre Jordan, It's black O. Chances are and maybe
there's another that I'm not remembering right now, But yeah, ultimately,
Denver is in a situation where they are going to
have to make some trades in order to free up
(23:38):
some of those roster spots, for sure, But I do
think that somebody like Russell Westbrook they would like to
have back. The experiment with him went pretty well during
this year, and they certainly needed everything that they got
from Russ up until kind of things went a little
bit haywire in the second round and he sustained a
(23:58):
hand injury. With Andre Jordan, he puts together a massive
off court role and as a as a veteran leader
that the team trusts and loves to have around. The
question is can they afford that kind of role given
that their bench has been so bad over the course
of these past few years.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Can they afford that anymore?
Speaker 4 (24:18):
If you have a guy like Doron Holmes, who was
playing he was injured for the entire year this past year,
then it's a little bit different. But because Duran was outs,
because black of Chancter was outs, because Darius Arvis was bad,
because they have so many empty chairs on that sideline, Ultimately,
it's very difficult to justify having a veteran on our
(24:40):
an off court leader, despite how important that position actually is.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
I with Ryan Blackburn at NBA Blackburn on Twitter, He's
covers the Nuggets from Mile High Sports. As we look
forward to this offseason for the Nuggets, what what should
we be looking at, like, what are players out there
that we can add that will help fill this thing out.
I mean, obviously you you know, you mentioned two of
the guys that were hurt than you're coming back, and
(25:05):
those will be plus ads. But is there a player
or two out there that we should have our eye
on that you think or are helping to surround Nikola
Jokic with the type of talent he needs to be
competing for championships in the back half of his prime.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Ryan, you got to have somebody on the top of
the whist list.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
I'm going to it now. One player that I've always
thought would be a great fit for Denver with Ao Desumo,
who plays for the Chicago Bulls. He's a bench player
over there, kind of split's time between six man starter
duties things like that. Denver needs to find cheap alternatives
on like within their roster, within the means that they
(25:47):
can that they can get in a trade, and I
think they he'd be a great candidate for that, because
what does Denver me They need other ball handlers that
can take pressure off of Jamal Murray, they need more
perimeter defense, and they need some outside shooting. Ao would
provide a little bit of those three, but in terms
of kind of larger names, it's gonna get tough because
(26:07):
if they don't want to trade, or they don't or
they can't trade Michael Porter, Jamal Murray, guys like that,
they just don't have the money to match up with
all of these other teams and the draft picks to
match up with all these teams in order to create
a good deal. So expect a lot of fringe moves,
a lot of guys that nobody's going to know except
for me, And it'll be very interesting to see what
(26:30):
ultimately happens with this offseason. But right now, it's it
is a barren wasteland.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
I would call it.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Ran You mentioned something that I thought was extremely interesting.
You talked about perimeter defense and a guy that strikes
me that was crucial to the Nuggets winning their Fires
finals is you know, Aaron Gordon, and this year you
could tell that he was hobbled and he wasn't one
hundred percent. What are your do you do you see
(26:58):
him getting back to that form that we saw a
couple of years ago or was that just the top
and at the top of Mount Rushmore and as good
as it got when it came to him playing two
way basketball. I thought he was better offensively this year,
but I definitely thought with watching games that there was
a big step back on the defensive side. So just
(27:20):
want to get your quick talks on that.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Well, So Aaron dealt with those injuries, and he's in
a tenuous situation right right now because they just signed
him to this extension and he's about to have a
kick in a four year, one hundred and thirty five
million dollars extension or something akin to that, and so
he's entering his twelfth season. And usually these players that
are these athletics, physical power forward types. You'r Blake Griffins,
(27:46):
your Paul Millsaps, your Zach Randolph's, the traditional big power forwards.
Those guys they started dropping off a little bit from
a physical perspective, and often, like if they don't develop
their games, they fade out a little bit. What Aaron
did this year as a shooter was incredible. He should
absolutely be lauded and credited for the way that he
(28:09):
stepped up amid a whole bunch of turmoil and internal
and personal drama and just tragedy that he has had
off the court, so I think that he's still a
guy that they can count on. He's Nikolay Yokich's favorite
teammate that he's ever had. Anytime, you could keep those
two happy and pointed in the same direction. I think
(28:29):
it's a good idea. But the chemistry that they have,
the versatility that Aaron has, the willingness to go out
there and battle and do the things that you need
to do to win. You know this, Orlando, Like, how
valuable is it for somebody to say, screw all that
we were gonna go win tonight, no matter what my
situation is, it's invaluable.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Time with Ryan Blackburn at NBA Blackburn on Twitter, was
there any name out there you wanted the Nuggets to
consider outside of David Adelman? The guy I wanted is
probably gonna wind up with the Phoenix job Quinn. But
is there anybody out there that that you were maybe
hoping that they would give serious consideration too.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Not really, because what you're looking for in those situations
is a guy like Chris Quinn, where hey, it's a
and at this stint that has done a really good
job or have been around a great organization.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
For a long time.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Somebody like Chris Quinn of course, with I believe Miami would.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Have been nice.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
But I do think that there are not as many
of those guys as you would hope, and a lot
of them are just tied to these other organizations that
you're just never going to get. The other thing is
Michael Maloma is being paid a lot of money. Guys,
Like they fired him before his extension actually kicked in.
It was going to be a very very pricey extension.
So I don't think that they were going to go
(29:47):
out there and really go searching, go digging for a
pricey coach. It's just not something that they would want
to do. That ownership has ever really wanted to do,
is pay multiple coaches at the same time.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Understandable, Ryan, We appreciate it as always. You guys can
find him at NBA Blackburn on Twitter and man, yeah,
we'll have to get you back in here once we
get a general manager named and all that. I'm I'm
hoping to go outside the organization here.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
We will see Bruce Brown, by the way, another name
that I'm sure you guys are very familiar and has
been very adamant about his love for the Denver city.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
So We'll see whether he makes an appearance. I was
talking to him last week. He was ten.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
He was ten people ahead of me while we were
both graduating from the University of Miami, and I was
telling them, welcome home. Let's come on back to Denver.
Cowboy Bruce Brown so definitely been politic and so hopefully
comes on back.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
We got the inside of scoopy. We're gonna get to
Orlando on this. We're gonna get some recruiting on here.
Absolutely what he brought to this, he would.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
Love it more than Bruce Brown back to be with Denver.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Love it, love it. Hey, Ryan, we appreciate you is
always Bud.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Thanks Thanks Lenda.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Yeah, thanks, I have a great day. Ryan Blackburn my
sports NBA A black part on Twitter. I didn't know
you were recruiting Bruce. Orlando's always this is the thing.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Orlando's like, Uh, He's the reason we hit that lyric
about the uh silent geez and the Lasagni or whatever.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Yeah, he's moving silent, like sir, always moving and silent.
Come on, won Hawan, cowboy Bruce Brown back here. What
he did, the way he was able to come off
the bench, the way he was able to create and
the way that he earned minutes with the starters. Man,
he checks all the boxes and he's a two way
(31:40):
basketball player. He's going to give you that up for
a dip if Michael Malone doesn't make that substitution. You know,
with under a minute and a half in, I don't
know that Michael Porter Junior gets that rebound. I know
he's seven feet tall, but I trust Bruce Brown to
get the rebound and get and steal that possession to
win the finals, where I just don't trust MPGA to
do that in that situation.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
I trust Bruce Brown.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I trust Bruce Bruce to get hors Oh No, I
know we got to hit a break Broncos Country, and
I'd be back right after this
In studio to fun here Grant Smith back there producing
five six six nine zeros. The text line some of
those people were talking about phobios earlier. The saone I says, Orlando,
how do you feel about having surgeries? I don't mind
dental work, but I hate being put to sleep. I'm
the other way on this one. By the way, you could.
I can't have people cutting on me or doing what
you gotta knock me out.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
So, like like I said, with dandi work, you want
to see me act like a twelve year old little
boy for me in a dentist chair. But as far
as surgery is no problem with surgery. Yeah, like football season,
you have on season and you have surgery season. My
seven years that I played in the league, within seventy
two hours of that last game that I played that year,
(00:42):
whether it was in the regular season or the playoffs,
within seventy two hours, I was on operating table, like
fixing something. Yeah, I never got shut down. Like there,
some guys get lucky, they get to steal a year
and get put on IR.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I never got to steal a year. There's a contract
toll in those situations.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So like it really depends. So like when I got
to the Saints back in twenty sixteen, I had a
thing with my neat with my left knee specifically, where
if there was any more damage, it wouldn't be a split,
like they would not have to owe me, they would
have to owe me half the contract.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
They wouldn't have to owe me the whole entire soul.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
It was not fully guaranteed for injuries part okay partial, And.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Then sure enough, six days in it goes out and
they're trying to put me on IR and I'm saying,
the heck with this. My wife's pregnant. You're gonna cut me,
and I'm going to Colorado and I'm going to be,
you know, there for the pregnancy, and I'll do my
rehab there and I will let doctor Boblik do it,
you know, the team doctor that I've been around the
last four years. So sign me up any day of
(01:47):
the week for a surgery to fix something, because it's
fun man surgery. They sit there, they tell you to
count backwards from one hundred, and you sit there and
you try to fight, and you're like, okay, ninety eight,
ninety seven, ninety five, and then you're like, when's the surgery?
Happening like it's done. You know, excuse me, what do
you mean? You know, so surgeries. I don't have a
(02:10):
problem with surgeries. I look forward to surgeries. It's always
getting something fixed. But the dental chair hyperventilated. Yeah, that's
a big problem. I had to do, Uh, the wisdom teath.
I got my wisdom people way later than most people.
That was in my like mid to late twenties when
I got my.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, but they knocked me out or they were you know,
they're having to count backwards and.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I got I got pretty far.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I got to like the low eighties or whatever before
I finally was like, you know whateverous. I was such
a mess afterwards too. I think I was hitting on
the nurse in front of my mom like it was
of course, you think in your head you're smooth, like
I'm sitting there.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
You know, you know, you know, yeah, oh, I'm just
looking at all the type of game right now, killing.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
It, yeah, crushing it, And I was absolutely not. And
uh And to make matters worse, it was it was
in front of a mom, which was uh, which was great,
but yeah, no, that's that's a thing. I got to
be knocked out. I don't mind the surgery or whatever,
but you got you can't cut on me while I'm awake,
and then I'm a freak out.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, and today, like not only did I have the
dune disappointment, I also had like two nerve blocks shots
today and I was awake for that.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
So that's how my morning started.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
We dropped the kids off and yeah, went and got
two injections in my back and and I was awake
for that, but they gave me an epidural and then
they were able to give me some stuff to relax
and stuff like that. And that was perfectly fine because
they had to put an needle in and find it
with the ultrasound and the X ray and all that
for the exact spot. The only thing that felt weird
(03:39):
was when they injected everything, like all the fluid. I
was like whoa, because it just felt it like from
my glue to my hamstring, like it was a lot
of fluid that they're putting in there. And I've had
back issues since college. Yes, my sophomore year I found
out I had two deterior and disks L four L
five and I've been playing with that. So as long
as I keep my weight under control, all perfectly fine
(04:01):
to twenty five. My weight is very much under control.
But yet I've been having some back issues over the
last couple of months. My kids are wearing me out
a little bit too much, getting me on that ice
too much. I'm on it twice a week skating with them. Yeah,
and they're getting too good and I just won't let
my seven year old win and things, so you can
probably go on a little too hard.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Oh my d I love it, though, that's a I
can't ice skate, by the way. I cannot ice skate.
It's one thing I just I cannot do.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Never tried it, we never did it, or what I
didn't have it.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Where I was you know, growing I grew up in
the South, we didn't have ice skating, you know, anywhere.
And then when I tried to do it once again,
I'm just so bad at it as an adult, Like
I look like a newborn drafte, you know, like big
flailing rice. It's not pretty, but uh it's And then
you know, you get to the point where I'm like,
all right, well now I'm bad at this and as
an adult, so the desire goes away because I'm like,
I'm embarrassing myself out of here.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
So I think it's just like snowboarding and skiing and
you're not used to it, like because I try to
go snowboarder and then not still born, I tried to
go skiing and they're talking about oh this pizzathery and
you got to stop, and.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I'm like, my hips don't work like that, Like what
do you mean?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Right?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So with ice skating, you kind of grow up on it.
You learn how to use your edges, and you learn
how to get on them and stop and stop and
now generate power and now speed up really quick, and
it just kind of becomes a second nature type of
thing where if you just don't do it, it's the
hardest thing in the world to try to do as adult.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
And your muscle take the wrong muscles working out, like, oh.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
My god, put you on bed rush for the next fours.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Uh huh.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yeah. There's another one. There's another one where I thought
I was smooth.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I'm leading up on the rail some girl or whatever,
you know, and then next thing I know, my skates
are off from under Meea, she's over there doing like
a triple onuns or whatever, and I'm like, well, shot
that one down.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Just hold on to the rail bed next time you
get on the ice, just just they skate around on
the edge and just hold onto.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
The rail can't cannot ice skate to say, to save
my life. A two eight says, I had a moler
pulled with no anesthesia.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Bad idea.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Wow, just like by choice or just anesthesia just doesn't
work for that person.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I need to know the story behind that. Bryan's nuts.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, Brian says, who gets the wisdom teeth pulled without
doing on her A lot of people do.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
They just numb it up with the light of kaing
shots and do it like that.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I am never going to allow anybody to inject and
or cut on my mouth without me being knocked out.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
For me with the dentists, it's all about the drilling. Yeah,
that's what it is. I feel it.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, So even like headphones listening to music and just
like my heart is founding out of my chest and
like I am hyper ventilating, and like I am holding
Matt Mouk's hand and he's saying, hey, oh calm down,
calm down, You've had much worse. In twenty thirteen, Dude,
(06:50):
Week three, I had a labrum thing for every week
for the remainder of the season. That's the year that
we were the highest scoring offense. Every single game we
would go out there, I would warm up. After the
warm up, I would come in, There'd be two equipment
guys there. They'd peel my shoulder pads off of me.
One guy would throw me a towel. I'd put that
(07:11):
towel in my mouth. The other guy would throw me
another towel. I'd put it over my head and then
I would sit down and the doctor would grab the
ultrasound machine and he'd start moving it around my shoulder
to find the spot.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
And one week I.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Looked up and got a peek and saw the needle
about seven inches long. And that needle no tears brought
me to tears every single week. But as soon as
they find the spot, they shoot it up. It burns
for like fifteen seconds, and man, I'd go run into
a wall after that, right, and I was just perfectly fine.
(07:46):
So needles has never been something that bothered me, and
the surgeries never bothered me. But man, uh, you want
to see big old turn into little.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Oh come check me out of the d Yeah, no,
I get it though.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I definitely uh, I definitely get I gotta be I
gotta be knocked out. NFL had some rule change proposals
come up this week. I don't know if you're a
fan or not a fan of of any of these. Now,
the Lions pulled their playoff seating thing, which I was
not a fan of.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
I still believe in divisions. Not everybody does.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I still believe in divisions, and I'm like, if you
win your division, you get a home game.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
I've always I always felt like that.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
There are people who like to cite the NFC North
from last year where you had the Vikings and the Lions,
and you're right.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
It meant so much right at the end of the
season where some games want to rest guys and you
know you're trying to get as healthy as possible, but
there's so much relying on this game.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And that's so I understand their point in that. But
then I always default to just win your games and
then you don't have to worry about you know.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
The easiest way to get to the postseason is if
you take care of your division. But unfortunately, if you're
in that division with the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions
now the Bears, good luck for the next couple of years.
But like we've seen that before for many years, for decades,
(09:15):
we saw that with Baltimore and Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, where
not only was it a goblet of division, it was
the most physical division in football. So you're coming out
of that thing and you're banged up, like, guys need
to go, you know, hit the re like, can.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
We get a bye week?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Can we get an ice tub on the flight?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Playing the AFC North used to be the you know,
the impetus for trying to get a second bye week,
you know, or whatever, which, by the way, I am,
I am a proponent of I believe the one rule
that I will say that I would propose if I
were an NFL team is bye weeks before Thursday night
football games. Right, it makes no sense to play on
short weeks like that when you could just do it
(10:01):
after a bye week and then you get the ten
days off after that. It improves the products because you're
not playing on three days rest. Like to me, that's
that's the one rule that I would absolutely throw out there.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Okay, so hold on, hold on breaking down for me,
So you would.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Every if you're gonna play on Thursday night, you get
an automatic bye week the week before the Thursday night
football game, so you're not playing Sunday, and then Thursday
you're playing the previous Sunday, so you get like ten
days rest.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I would love that because that's the one week everybody dreads. Yeah,
like it circle the calendar comes out, where's the Thursday
night football game? And you're saying, man, I can't believe
that I got to get through this and my body
feels like crap, and how do I You don't even
when we play, you play Thursday night football game. You
(10:44):
don't even get to go against the defense. It's offense.
You're on this field all week. Defense. You're on that
field and you're going against trash bins or scout players,
and the scout players are not doing anything. Like I've
literally watched guys like Elvis Duomerville go like this, Yeah,
I got him, like set Hut get walk off the
line of scrimmage. I have him, Wow, Bond Miller, set Hut,
(11:07):
I have him. Like they're not running, they're not doing anything.
Because your body, you're coming out of a game and
you're lucky if you're feeling like you're fifty percent and
now you got to play a game in three days
and you're wondering how hell am I even gonna get
there towards all the beautiful things, I'll tell you that.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, I mean, and the Broncos have two of those
this year. You got a Thursday night football game November
six against the Raiders as a home game, but you're
on the road the week before at Houston, so you're
losing the you know, the travel coming back, you're losing
some of that. And then you have another one. Christmas
is for playing the Christmas game. You're playing Sunday. You've
got a home game against the Jags, and then you've
got to travel to Kansas City on Christmas to play
(11:46):
Thursday night football. For me, like the way that we
structure these bye weeks. You know, you should give everybody
two per season, and if they if you're playing a
Thursday night game, it's an automatic bye week before the
games would be better. We're not looking at guys, we're
roughed up bodies conservative game plans because you only had
three days to even do it in install and to me,
it is a no brainer. Improve the product rule that
(12:08):
I don't understand why they don't already do.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
And the other aspect of it, from a coaches aspect.
You know, in twenty twenty one got the unique luxury
to be a part of that San Francisco forty nine
ers staff, and man, it is a absolute grind sitting
there knowing that, Okay, we got a Thursday night game
next week, we're playing this Sunday. I have to get
(12:31):
my work done as fast as possible, but also stay
fully dialed into this game plan because we have to
win this game. But come an hour after that game,
everything needs to be done because coaches are going straight
from the game right into their office and they want
the cutups and they want to start putting together the
game plan because you don't get that day off. Guys
(12:53):
are going to be in for half the day tomorrow,
but you're already going to be starting to talk about
certain concepts and things like that. So I actually like that.
I've never thought about that. That would help out a lot,
if you know, leading up to a Thursday night game.
Here you get a bye week first, but then you
also get to then you also get on the back.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, you get the ten days on the back, and
so you're getting a full, almost a.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Full rest of recovery It makes the Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Game a marquee event because everybody's getting plenty of prep
time for it and safety. I mean, you know, guys
are not coming up with banged up bodies as much.
You're getting proper time.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Recover that word if I'm rust though, But do you
think guys would be rusty though?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I mean, are guys rusty off the buy?
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Some guys are, if you if you spent the buy
going out and you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I mean coaches are always going to sit there and
always talk about what's going on and we're not getting
enough effort. Well, you guys look like you guys still
are on the buy week, so you're always going to
get that no matter what. And it's up to players
to be professionals in that situation and go execute the
game plan. But I do like that because guys, man,
(13:57):
you walk into a football season. You show up in
July for training camp, and your body feels amazing and
you feel like one hundred percent, But the reality is
you will never feel even close to one hundred percent
until March or April the following year, so you're getting
ready to go through an absolute gauntlet. So I would
like that, and I think that there are different ways
(14:20):
to finagle some things, and maybe you do that for
one of the bye weeks when because we know we're
going to eighteen games, it's only a matter of time.
So maybe you do that for one of the bye weeks,
and then the second bye week we keep it the same, yeah,
floating where now it's on the back end. You get
the mini bye week and you're able to, you know,
get some extra preparation for the team that you're getting
ready to play.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
You could almost even and we got to break here
a second, you could almost even make if you do
the bye weeks before, you could almost even make the
Thursday night games over there in London or whatever, you know,
because you've got plenty of travel time now, plenty of
travel time coming. B Well, it loves to get that
perm Love the per dam hate the tax bite though,
because it's like forty percent of your check.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah, yeah, don't love that. Yeah, that's why you're playing,
no sense.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Yeah, one of the one of the one of the
worst things about it.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
The Vikings have back to back games over there this
year too. I wonder if those players, I mean, I'm
sure they're aware now, but I wonder how many of
them knew beforehand when they were when they're the.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Sex's gonna be kind of like, yeah, sex's gonna be
a little like two weeks.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
We got Ryan Blackburn from My High Sports coming up next.
Talk a little bit about the David Adelman Uh full
time Higher. Now you guys, listen to Broucos Country down here,
can't Wait Bends with All Bright, Orlando Franklin and Studio
Gratsmith's back there producing five six sixty nine zeros. The
text on We did get a follow up on the
(15:39):
molar without anesthesia.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
He said it was just a quick, bad decision. I
rolled with it.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
They had offered anesthesia. I'll never not get anastesia again.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I had to. I was like, man, that is uh,
that is a brave soul.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So whenever I learned my lesson a long time ago,
whenever it comes to medical procedures and they're offering drugs,
you take drugs every time, every single time. You don't
even hesitate.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
What do you give me? Yeah? That sounds good.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Sure, there's a log game that I can't quite pronounce.
We're we're totally good with that. Let's go out to
the KWA Common Spirit Hotline. And bring on our guy,
Ryan Blackburn at NBA Blackburn on Twitter that covers the
Denver Nuggets for Mile High Sports at the pig Ax
and Roll podcast, co hosted Locked on Nuggets, Ryan, How
you doing this evening.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
I'm doing well, guys. I definitely recommend going under for
the surgeries as well in my senior year of high
school or junior year of high school. Excuse me, that
one was a super painful one.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, that's yeah, we were. We were all under the
same knock me out. I'll figure it out after afterwards.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Knock me up. Big day for the Nuggets today they
removed the.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Interim tag from David Adelman, making him the franchises next
head coach. Obviously, Uh became the interim back in April
after Denver fire Michael Malone with three games left in
the regular season the Nuggets. I think you know, I'm
torn on this decision. Orland and I were talking earlier.
I'm tord on this decision.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
One.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
I have a strict rule about never hiring the interim
coach simply because you know, if you're going to flush
things out and all that kind of stuff, And Rolanda
made some good points on that earlier. On the one hand,
I think David Anelman earned it by what he did.
But on the other I have this firm don't hire
the interim rule. Where do you come down on this hire?
Speaker 4 (17:27):
I think it's probably a good hire. I think the
order of operations is definitely a little off for Denver
because usually teams in these situations when they hire both
their general manager and their coach, you would like for
them to have organizational alignment. But now ownership has effectively
told the next general manager, hey, we love your decision making,
(17:48):
but I'm going to make the big decision in terms
of getting the next head coach in the door. That
being said, I do think that Adaman earned the opportunity certainly,
and I think the team really feels good about him internally.
They feel really good about him as a player development guy,
somebody who can connect with a variety of players all
throughout their roster and helped them achieve better heights than
(18:10):
they were achieving under Michael Malone. Whither that actually happens
or not, I don't know, but I think Adaman, just
the way that he handled the playoffs, he proved that
he's a head coach. He's been a hockam out of
the in the NBA for a long time.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Ryan, oftentimes we see a head coach get hired, and
we were talking about this earlier in the show, and
I know it's a completely different sport, but I looked
at what the Miami Dolphins did when they hired Mike McDaniels,
where he was able to bring in a whole new
offensive coaching staff, but he wasn't able to touch that defense.
And Big Fangil was a part of the defensive staff,
(18:42):
a tenured guy, but Mike McDaniel as the head coach
of the Dolphins wasn't able to look that way and
make decisions over there. With David Adaman now becoming named
the new Nuggets head coach, full time head coach, how
much control do you think he's going to have when
it comes to, you know, putting together a coaching staff
(19:04):
and moving forward, because you know, if if you hired
the head you fired the head coach, you fire the GM.
Obviously there are some other things that need to change
behind closed doors as well.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Of course, And I think it's a good point, just
given where Denver is at and the kind of reset
that they needed. My feeling is that the organization. Josh
Cronki specifically feels that once the burden of the Michael
Malone Calvin Booth feud was kind of excised from the team,
everything got back to being reasonable and everybody was back
(19:41):
on better footing. And I don't know how many changes
internally they feel like they need in terms of kind
of changing the structure now that they have shifted. What
I will say is that Adaman, they talked about it
a little bit today. Josh is going to give him
and he'll have to say, certainly, I don't know if
it's full autonomy. Obviously, those conversations behind closed doors can
(20:04):
be a little bit more decisive than what somebody like
KANKI will be willing to share publicly. But I do
think that they're going to look at it, and it
wouldn't surprise me if they bring in a fresh new
voice or to somebody that could be an associate head
coach or some other made up title that basically says, hey,
(20:26):
we really trust this other guy as well.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
In regard to that, Orlando made a great point earlier
about because we were debating, you know, the Michael Porter
junior conundrum, whether or not you keep him around whether
you move him in an attempt to get more depth,
et cetera, et cetera. Obviously you lacking the draft picks
and everything else, could you bring on a coach specifically
to try to inject something into Michael Porter Junior to
(20:50):
get him to be the guy that he could be?
Because you know, there are rumors out there today that
you know they largely want to stand pat with the
roster they've got if that's a case, and I hope
they don't, because I do think they need some shas here.
I mean, don't you almost have to bring in a
dedicated coach to push.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Michael Porter Junior.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
I think there's certainly a feeling there that if they
want to breathe to be status quo with their roster,
then they have to continue to change things around that
roster to help them develop as much as possible. I
think that's a great point and one that if you're Denver,
you better not waste this opportunity of change and make
sure that the change that you are making around those
(21:30):
players helps them become the best versions of themselves that
they can be. We will see what it ultimately looks.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Like, but with.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Regard to Porter, it's almost a situation of, yeah, it
would be nice if they could trade him, It would
be nice if they could shift away from him, but
teams aren't going to take him then, like they're just
not going to take that chance, because on top of
them having the two years for basically forty million per
season left, they are continuing like those teams would want
(21:57):
to have Michael Porter after that contract and they just
don't trust his health. So not to mention his skill
set hasn't exactly translated to the playoffs each of the
last two years either.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
So it's tough.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
They're caught between a rock and a hard places. And
one of the reasons why you're hearing a lot of
talk about internal developments and staying consistent and not making
major changes is because they can't.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Ran.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I want to switch scars a little bit to some
of the older guys on this team. You know, a
guy like DeAndre Jordan brought in for his veteran leadership,
what he brought to the locker room. You know, he
was able to help this team win the NBA Finals
a couple of years ago.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
And now you.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Bring in a guy like Russell Rustbrook and you know,
like it or not, rest of Rustbrook's always going to
give you that effort. Now, he might have a couple
of plays a game where you're scratching your head and saying,
what the heck did he just do? And he's the
rookie in this league, but he gives you effort night in,
night out. When it comes to those type of players,
(22:58):
what do you think, David Adams and you know the
Kronk organization will do moving forward? Or do you keep
those guys around, especially for the fact that Nuggets don't
have that first round pick, they don't have that second
round pick in this year's draft clause, and you've got
to find a way to get better some way.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
Yeah, it's gonna be interesting because they don't have a
lot of guys that are on expiring contracts. I think
it's Russell Westbrook if he opts out of his player option,
it's DeAndre Jordan, It's black O. Chances are and maybe
there's another that I'm not remembering right now, But yeah, ultimately,
Denver is in a situation where they are going to
have to make some trades in order to free up
(23:38):
some of those roster spots, for sure, But I do
think that somebody like Russell Westbrook they would like to
have back. The experiment with him went pretty well during
this year, and they certainly needed everything that they got
from Russ up until kind of things went a little
bit haywire in the second round and he sustained a
(23:58):
hand injury. With Andre Jordan, he puts together a massive
off court role and as a as a veteran leader
that the team trusts and loves to have around. The
question is can they afford that kind of role given
that their bench has been so bad over the course
of these past few years.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Can they afford that anymore?
Speaker 4 (24:18):
If you have a guy like Doron Holmes, who was
playing he was injured for the entire year this past year,
then it's a little bit different. But because Duran was outs,
because black of Chancter was outs, because Darius Arvis was bad,
because they have so many empty chairs on that sideline, Ultimately,
it's very difficult to justify having a veteran on our
(24:40):
an off court leader, despite how important that position actually is.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
I with Ryan Blackburn at NBA Blackburn on Twitter, He's
covers the Nuggets from Mile High Sports. As we look
forward to this offseason for the Nuggets, what what should
we be looking at, like, what are players out there
that we can add that will help fill this thing out.
I mean, obviously you you know, you mentioned two of
the guys that were hurt than you're coming back, and
(25:05):
those will be plus ads. But is there a player
or two out there that we should have our eye
on that you think or are helping to surround Nikola
Jokic with the type of talent he needs to be
competing for championships in the back half of his prime.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Ryan, you got to have somebody on the top of
the whist list.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
I'm going to it now. One player that I've always
thought would be a great fit for Denver with Ao Desumo,
who plays for the Chicago Bulls. He's a bench player
over there, kind of split's time between six man starter
duties things like that. Denver needs to find cheap alternatives
on like within their roster, within the means that they
(25:47):
can that they can get in a trade, and I
think they he'd be a great candidate for that, because
what does Denver me They need other ball handlers that
can take pressure off of Jamal Murray, they need more
perimeter defense, and they need some outside shooting. Ao would
provide a little bit of those three, but in terms
of kind of larger names, it's gonna get tough because
(26:07):
if they don't want to trade, or they don't or
they can't trade Michael Porter, Jamal Murray, guys like that,
they just don't have the money to match up with
all of these other teams and the draft picks to
match up with all these teams in order to create
a good deal. So expect a lot of fringe moves,
a lot of guys that nobody's going to know except
for me, And it'll be very interesting to see what
(26:30):
ultimately happens with this offseason. But right now, it's it
is a barren wasteland.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
I would call it.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Ran You mentioned something that I thought was extremely interesting.
You talked about perimeter defense and a guy that strikes
me that was crucial to the Nuggets winning their Fires
finals is you know, Aaron Gordon, and this year you
could tell that he was hobbled and he wasn't one
hundred percent. What are your do you do you see
(26:58):
him getting back to that form that we saw a
couple of years ago or was that just the top
and at the top of Mount Rushmore and as good
as it got when it came to him playing two
way basketball. I thought he was better offensively this year,
but I definitely thought with watching games that there was
a big step back on the defensive side. So just
(27:20):
want to get your quick talks on that.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Well, So Aaron dealt with those injuries, and he's in
a tenuous situation right right now because they just signed
him to this extension and he's about to have a
kick in a four year, one hundred and thirty five
million dollars extension or something akin to that, and so
he's entering his twelfth season. And usually these players that
are these athletics, physical power forward types. You'r Blake Griffins,
(27:46):
your Paul Millsaps, your Zach Randolph's, the traditional big power forwards.
Those guys they started dropping off a little bit from
a physical perspective, and often, like if they don't develop
their games, they fade out a little bit. What Aaron
did this year as a shooter was incredible. He should
absolutely be lauded and credited for the way that he
(28:09):
stepped up amid a whole bunch of turmoil and internal
and personal drama and just tragedy that he has had
off the court, so I think that he's still a
guy that they can count on. He's Nikolay Yokich's favorite
teammate that he's ever had. Anytime, you could keep those
two happy and pointed in the same direction. I think
(28:29):
it's a good idea. But the chemistry that they have,
the versatility that Aaron has, the willingness to go out
there and battle and do the things that you need
to do to win. You know this, Orlando, Like, how
valuable is it for somebody to say, screw all that
we were gonna go win tonight, no matter what my
situation is, it's invaluable.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Time with Ryan Blackburn at NBA Blackburn on Twitter, was
there any name out there you wanted the Nuggets to
consider outside of David Adelman? The guy I wanted is
probably gonna wind up with the Phoenix job Quinn. But
is there anybody out there that that you were maybe
hoping that they would give serious consideration too.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Not really, because what you're looking for in those situations
is a guy like Chris Quinn, where hey, it's a
and at this stint that has done a really good
job or have been around a great organization.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
For a long time.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Somebody like Chris Quinn of course, with I believe Miami would.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Have been nice.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
But I do think that there are not as many
of those guys as you would hope, and a lot
of them are just tied to these other organizations that
you're just never going to get. The other thing is
Michael Maloma is being paid a lot of money. Guys,
Like they fired him before his extension actually kicked in.
It was going to be a very very pricey extension.
So I don't think that they were going to go
(29:47):
out there and really go searching, go digging for a
pricey coach. It's just not something that they would want
to do. That ownership has ever really wanted to do,
is pay multiple coaches at the same time.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Understandable, Ryan, We appreciate it as always. You guys can
find him at NBA Blackburn on Twitter and man, yeah,
we'll have to get you back in here once we
get a general manager named and all that. I'm I'm
hoping to go outside the organization here.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
We will see Bruce Brown, by the way, another name
that I'm sure you guys are very familiar and has
been very adamant about his love for the Denver city.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
So We'll see whether he makes an appearance. I was
talking to him last week. He was ten.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
He was ten people ahead of me while we were
both graduating from the University of Miami, and I was
telling them, welcome home. Let's come on back to Denver.
Cowboy Bruce Brown so definitely been politic and so hopefully
comes on back.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
We got the inside of scoopy. We're gonna get to
Orlando on this. We're gonna get some recruiting on here.
Absolutely what he brought to this, he would.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
Love it more than Bruce Brown back to be with Denver.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Love it, love it. Hey, Ryan, we appreciate you is
always Bud.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Thanks Thanks Lenda.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Yeah, thanks, I have a great day. Ryan Blackburn my
sports NBA A black part on Twitter. I didn't know
you were recruiting Bruce. Orlando's always this is the thing.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Orlando's like, Uh, He's the reason we hit that lyric
about the uh silent geez and the Lasagni or whatever.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Yeah, he's moving silent, like sir, always moving and silent.
Come on, won Hawan, cowboy Bruce Brown back here. What
he did, the way he was able to come off
the bench, the way he was able to create and
the way that he earned minutes with the starters. Man,
he checks all the boxes and he's a two way
(31:40):
basketball player. He's going to give you that up for
a dip if Michael Malone doesn't make that substitution. You know,
with under a minute and a half in, I don't
know that Michael Porter Junior gets that rebound. I know
he's seven feet tall, but I trust Bruce Brown to
get the rebound and get and steal that possession to
win the finals, where I just don't trust MPGA to
do that in that situation.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
I trust Bruce Brown.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I trust Bruce Bruce to get hors Oh No, I
know we got to hit a break Broncos Country, and
I'd be back right after this
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