10-30-24 Vinny Benedetto with Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If Broncos Country Tonight's tackle here open Receiver, Let's go
on the official home of the Broncos. All right, all
night KOA Well, back to.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
The Broncos Country Tonight, Betsman Albright, Dick Ferguson's act Seekers
back There Behind the Glass Special Thanks to Hall of
Famer Steve Atwater for joining us in the last segment.
If you missed any parts of that, including when Steve
was about to murder me, uh, you.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Can go to Broncos.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Country Tonight dot com, slash podcast or where we get
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Let's go out to the Kay Conspert the hot line
and talk to our guy Vinnie Benedetto.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Got some nuggets questions. But VINNI, how you doing this evening?

Speaker 4 (00:49):
Doing well? Wish I wasn't following off a Hall of famer,
but I'll do the best I can.

Speaker 5 (00:52):
Well.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
I mean, look, he was the opening act. You gotta
everybody's gotta have a warm up act. And for Vinnie,
we we go out and get the best, uh. The
Denver Nuggets. However, they're warm up act, at least starting
the season through the first four games has not been
I think what the fan base had expected.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
The three ball hasn't exactly been there.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
They missed it, uh in an ordinate amount of shots
relative to I think what fans thought that.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
This team was gonna be able to do in terms
of scoring.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Is it's an early hiccup as they try to figure
this out, or is this team really just uh, not
that great at shooting the ball.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
Yeah, I think the last four or yeah, four haves
have been encouraging from from a shooting perspective. They've got it.
They've got as a team, you know, around forty percent.
But the uh, yeah, that Oklahoma City game. In the
first half of that Clippers game, it was certainly a
question if a shot was ever going to fall. So
I think, you know, big picture, kind of kind of

(01:45):
tough way to open up with Oklahoma City in the opener,
especially when you've got a second unit that doesn't or
at that point didn't have any like preseason minutes playing together.
And then yeah, just just really poor offensive kind of
float in those first two games. But uh, I guess,
I guess back to back overtime wins on the road
or are are some sort of still silver lining there.

Speaker 5 (02:07):
Well, Bennie, speaking of the back to back, those are
always difficult games to play in the NBA, And looking
at those two games, two overtime games, were you concerned
at all with the skill level or there I saying
the Nuggets players being tired for that one.

Speaker 4 (02:26):
I mean, yeah, like he obviously, you know, this early
in the season, it can be a real thing. You know,
some guys prefer to play themselves into shape, and you know,
you just look at the minutes that that the the
starters and the you know, key pieces of the rotation
were asked to play in both ends of those back
to back against teams of those caliber. You you would

(02:47):
really prefer to avoid those kind of workloads this early
in the season against I think what everyone would agree
to be kind of lesser competition. But you know the
fact that they had had enough juice to win both
those games and over time should be somewhat encouraging.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Talking with Video Benedetto, Nuggets beat Ryder for the Denver Gazette,
Caloro Springs Gazette as well at v Benedetto on the
Twitter Machine, you know, Vinnie, if the season started, we
knew kind of Christian Braun was going to be the
the you know, the off guard, starting off guard for
this team, and I I kind of questioned that.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
That move myself.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
I know, you know, hot, hot take microphone guy whatever,
questioning real basketball minds. But Braun always seemed to be
more like an energy guy that you bring in as
a sixth man to come off the bench, where I
felt like the shooting of Julian Strawther, or even if
he was, you know, not quite where he wanted to
be defensively, was something that you would prefer. Now I've
gone full circle on this because they need scoring off

(03:39):
the bench, But how do you view the starting of
Braun through four games and juxtaposed that with Strowther coming
off the bench, who's been red.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Hot from the field.

Speaker 4 (03:50):
Yeah, I think I think there's an argument to be
made that that Christian's probably been the second best player,
or at least the second most consistent player for the
n so far this season. And I've been of the
opinion that that Christian makes the most sense as the starter,
just because if you've got a backcourt of you.

Speaker 6 (04:09):
Know, Jamal Murray, Julians Strauther.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
And Michael Porter Junior. One of those guys is gonna
have to guard the Shade Gilgess Alexanders of the world,
and that would be I think a pretty tough ask
for each of those three guys. Whereas you know, I
thought Christian did a you know, really a pretty decent
job guarding you know, Oklahoma City's MVP candidate. So I
think I think, just from a fit perspective, the starting

(04:34):
lineup needs Christian's defense more.

Speaker 6 (04:37):
Than the second unit.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
Well, you know, the second unit, you've get it. You've
got Russell Westbrook or Peyton Watson, guys who could kind
of pick up those kind of defensive assignments. And Julians
Strauther shooting and scoring ability which was like remarkable throughout
the preseason and he's really carried that over into the
regular season in an impressive way. But I think that
Julian skill set is just a better fit with that

(04:59):
second union. It. But you know, it's it's neither of
those guys have played poorly by any means, so it's
a it's really a good problem to have for these Nuggets.

Speaker 5 (05:08):
You know, everyone was kind of concerned about what Russell
Westbrook's impact was going to be on the Nuggets, especially
on that second unit. What did you make of his
performance the other night?

Speaker 4 (05:21):
Oh, last night, he was he was great, And but
you know, you can't say the same for those first
three games. And I think what that that group is
gonna need from him, and it's kind of a tough
needle to thread. They're going to need him to play
kind of with his head on fire, you know, just
kind of relentless aggressiveness and an attacking mindset. But they

(05:43):
also need like some steady consistency from him as well,
and so it's like tough to ask anyone to do
both of those things. And you know, I don't know
how much of the struggles in the first three games
can be chalked up to the fact that that group
hadn't played it all in the preseason because because Peyton
Watson had missed all of it. But yeah, last night

(06:03):
was certainly you know what the Nuggs were looking for.
You know, he's not gonna make both this threes every
night or go ten to ten from the line, but
just the the willingness to kind of take on some
of that scoring responsibility for the second unit and kind
of run the show there. I thought it was pretty
impressive last night.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
We talked a little bit earlier about, you know, the
first couple of games, it didn't look like any shots
were gonna fall. Two guys who specifically struggled, Jamal Murray
and Michael Porter Junior. Thus far, what is it going
to take to get these guys on track as they
are part of the core four when you add in
the extension today Aaron Gordon and of course Nicol Jokic.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
Yeah. For Michael Porter Junior, I like to think it's
just a bit of a shooting slump. After the first
two games, I went back in looked at you know,
he famously started three of sixteen from three point range.
And I went back and you know, kind of looked
at each of those sixteen three point attempts where they
were coming from. You know what kind of you know,
what kind of quot shot he was getting, And it

(07:03):
was really kind of jarring, just like the quality of
looks that he was getting, Like he was getting great
looks that he that we've seen him make over and
over and over again. There was just he happened to
be a touch shorter, touch long. There's only like one
or two really bad mises amongst those sixteen shots, and
I think, you know, he bounced back last night and
hit four to three, So I think, I think, I

(07:24):
don't think there's much to worry about on the Michael
Porter junior front. Jamal Murray, on the other hand, like
that opening game was was really tough for him, and
it makes sense why, Like Oklahoma City is stocked with
some of the game's best perimeter defenders and they have numerous.

Speaker 6 (07:41):
Bodies they can kind.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
Of throw at him to you know, disrupt his rhythm
or make even advancing the ball into the front court
a challenge. And in the three games since that opener,
you know, he's had two pretty solid scoring nights and
the one night he didn't shoot it well, he he
grabbed nine rebounds and dissed out.

Speaker 6 (07:59):
Step and assists.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
So yeah, I was I was probably as concerned as
anyone after that opener. But you know, these these last
three games, it feels like he's he found ways to
make an impact whether or not the shot is falling.

Speaker 6 (08:12):
Well.

Speaker 5 (08:12):
This season hasn't been exactly the way that you know,
Nuggets fans have expected in great granted, you know, the
back to back wins for the Nuggets, But all four
of these games have been tough games, tough games where
they had to grind it out. Fatigue as being a factor,
and you know, my concern and I wonder if.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
You have the same concern too as well.

Speaker 5 (08:30):
Long arduous season the NBA is is there kind of
a concern that you have for Nicole and Jokic and
the possibility of the team just kind of exhausting his
ability because he's having to do so much.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
Yeah, I mean, he's certainly doing more than you would
like him have to have to do at this point
in this season. Like if you just looked at the schedule,
the games that Toronto and Brooklyn would be games, you know,
over the course of the season where you'd like to see,
you know, the Nuggets have a big enough lead where
he gets to rest. And on the flip side of that,
not only is he not resting, like he's having to
carry the team too close overtime victories. So yeah, I

(09:07):
think that's something that has kind of been an issue
for the Nuggets in the last couple of years, is
that they really struggled to put teams away and get
the extra rest on nights where the opportunity is there,
and you think back to last season, you know, there
were there were conflicting reports on, you know, depending on
or who you talked to on you know, the team's

(09:28):
level of fatigue or what it took out of the
team to kind of be the hunted on an every
night basis coming off the championship run. So I think
that is a real thing, the kind of the gradual
tiring out over the season. So it looks like we
got most of our problems out of the way in
terms of downtown at least.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
I twenty five is sorry about that video.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
I guess we went some crossover traffic there from the
traffic department.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
Didn't mean to interrupt your answer.

Speaker 4 (09:52):
No, yeah, I was just going to wrap up there
by saying, you know, over the course of the season,
it would certainly be a good thing for the Nuggets
to have more of those nights where you know, they're
up twenty with five minutes ago, and Malone can get
some of the best guys in, get some of the
third unit guys in, so so jokers and Jamal and
the rest of the starters are not having to play,
you know, thirty five to forty minutes a night.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
With Vinie Benedetto at Vivenedetta on on Twitter, Denver Nuggets
beat reporter for the Gazette, both here and down there
in Colorado Springs. Anny, as we as we look at
this team, I mean, again, admittedly four game sample size,
is there anything you think this team is missing right
now that they're going to need to have for a
stretch playoff run.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
I mean, I think this is probably a little bit nitpicky,
but I think.

Speaker 6 (10:39):
The two things you can point to are.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
A reliable backup big you know, Dario Sarich was was
kind of brought in to be that guy, and you know,
Monday in Toronto they had to go away from him
and they had to the previous.

Speaker 6 (10:54):
Point about getting tired over the course of the season.

Speaker 4 (10:57):
They had to use their playoff rotation from last year
with with Aaron Gordon being the backup five.

Speaker 6 (11:03):
They had to use him as as nikolay.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yoak's back up. And that's that's a lot to ask
of anybody.

Speaker 6 (11:09):
And so I think that would.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
You know, either either a more consistency from Dario or
seen if they've got anybody else on the roster who
can give them consistent minutes, there would be big and
then even below that on on the wish list, I
think would be a better option at the third point guard.
Right now, it doesn't feel like Michael Malone has as
much as any trust in Jalen Pickett to be a

(11:32):
serviceable NBA player. And the only other kind of true
point guard and he's not even that is Tredy Alexander,
a rookie who's on a two way contract. So if
the Nuggets get to the point of the season.

Speaker 6 (11:43):
Or there's a stretch where Jamal Murray.

Speaker 4 (11:45):
Or Russell Westbrook need a couple of games off, filling
those backup point guard minutes, I think is going to
be something that human need to address.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
Well, Vinnie, we appreciate it as always.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
Follow him at v Benedetto on Twitter for all the
latest and I enjoyed your your piece on the bets
kid Man's that's good stuff.

Speaker 6 (12:04):
Awesome. Appreciate you guys, yep, take care of any.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Bed at Detto talking about the Denver Nuggets. We come back.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
We're gona jump right back into the Broncos talk right
here on Broncos Country at Night on KIWI