Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nick Ferguson in studio Dave on his way down from
the Coloro Sports Hall of Fame, and that's gonna be
a fun night downtown for everybody there. But we're excited
to be with you for the next hour, and then
we're gonna hand things off to the Rockies as they
take on the Brewers. We're continuing our conversation about the Nuggets, though,
because they have made not only local news but national
news with the firing of their coach and GM and
(00:21):
to help us break it all down, we head out
to the Koi Common Spirit Health Hotline and we're thrilled
to bring on Vinnie Benedetto, who's with the Denver Gazette
at v Benedetto on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Vinnie, thank you so much for the time, man. How
are you doing well. Been a little busy, but I'm
doing well.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I can only imagine. I can only imagine. So yeah,
let's start there. I definitely want to get some thoughts
on what you expect to see tonight, but let's just
start with the moment that happened yesterday. I mean, honestly,
my first reaction when I saw it, I wanted to
confirm that that was actually Sham's account that was tweeting
it out, like, I went through all the protocol of
like I'm not I'm not even gonna react to this
(00:56):
until I know it's real. What was your immediate you
thought when you all, first Michael Malone and then Calvin
Booth were dismissed.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah, I was pretty shocked. I don't to your point.
It felt like the night Lupa got treated. Where you're
double checking, you know, all the verifications, making sure you
know the follower count on the on the tweet is correct.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
And it took me a bit of process. You know,
it certainly wasn't.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
A shot that this happened. I think the timing for
me was the most surprising aspect of it all. H
you know, if it happened two or three weeks from now,
and you know, after a first or second round playoff exit,
you know, that wouldn't have shocked me at all. But
but the timing and the way it went down was
pretty surprising to me.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
Vinny, and these types of situation, everyone wants there a
pound of flesh.
Speaker 6 (01:46):
So I'll get your take on this. When we look
at the lack of.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
Effort and defensive performance that we've seen not just this
year and not just the past couple of games, but
just over the past three years.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
Who cares is a burden for that?
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Are we looking at the coaches fro An office GM,
or we just going O school and looking at the players?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, I think it's I think you can break it
down into a couple of things. You know, one of
the uggests biggest issues this year have been transition defense,
and for me, that's.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
A that's a player, that's an effort thing, that's not
a skiing thing. That's not coaching.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
But then when you get into the kind of the
half courts struggles and how teams have been able to
I'm thinking back to the Pacers game on Sunday where
Tyrese Haliburton was able to you know, attract or force
the second defender and pick the role sets and they
would just kind of repeatedly make the extra pass for
(02:45):
corner three.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
That to me is is a coaching thing.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
And you know, Michael Malone obviously or the brunch of it,
but you know, Ryan Saunders, one of the assistant coaches,
is the guy who's kind of been tasked with, you know,
orchestrating the deep So I think, you know, coaching staff
bears the largest responsibility for the half court struggles, and
you know, the general manager, front office part of it.
(03:11):
I feel like they've they've tried, you know, to address
some of the defensive needs with you know, drafting the
Christian Browns and the Peyton Watsons. Both those guys were,
you know, kind of came in as defensive upgrades over
or you guys that had high defensive upside. So I
think mostly it comes down to, you know, I'm putting
(03:34):
the transition defense on the players and Lackos kind of
want to, and I'm putting the half court defensive struggles
largely on the coaching staff.
Speaker 7 (03:41):
Vinnie Benedetto joining us.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
There's been I think more a more strong reaction, a
stronger reaction to Michael Malone being fired than Calvin Booth,
and especially knowing that he was in the final year
of his contract, they couldn't get anything done before the
season or early in the season. I don't think that
surprised as many people as Michael Malone, who still had
two years left on his contract. In your opinion, as
(04:03):
somebody that's around the team, was there potentially a scenario
where you actually hold on to Michael Malone and you
move on from the GM or do you do you
agree with the sentiment from Josh Cronkey from ownership that no,
we really needed a clean break from all of it.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, I think you could have hit one or the other.
It certainly, you know, would have made things a little
awkward for the remainder.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Of this season.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
But I think there's an outcome where, you know, yesterday
announced you know, Calvin Booth will not be getting a
contract extension, and then you give Michael Malone one last
shot over these three regular season games and whatever the
postseason looks like to.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
U his job. You know, if they you.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Know, surprise people and make the Western Conference.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Finals, you know, is that enough to keep Malone around?
I would probably say yes. But you know, I.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Certainly didn't have you know, conversations with that that the
Crounkies have had with.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
With people that are part of the team, and you
know they must have just since that things.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Were so bad that it they kind of had make
the move now, which I am still pretty surprised by it.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Now, Vinnie, this is gonna be hard for you to do,
But uh, I think about this whole decision from a
player's standpoint, If you personally are a player on the
Nuggets roster and you find out the way that you
find out that they're moving on from Michael Malone, how
does that impact the mental ability of the team, knowing
(05:41):
as though you still have three games remaining.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, I think it's it's gonna kind of come down
to the to the player. You know, Nicole Jokic is
it is certainly not the.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Type to pack it in.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
I you know, I don't think he was terribly involved
in this decision, but I think he's just kind of
one of those guys who shows up to work and
put this best foot forward. If you're one of the
younger guys who maybe felt like you didn't get a
fair shake, you know, maybe it's motivating for them, but
you look at the you know, nicolea Yokich, Jamal Murray,
(06:18):
Michael Porter junior.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Michael Maloon's the only coach.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
They've played for, So I think it might be challenging
more for you know, Michael Malone always went.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
To bat for Jamal Murray and kind of had his
back over the court.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
You know, this frustrating season with the injuries he's dealt
with in the in the slow start, So I think
for a guy like Jamal Murray it might be harder
than it would be for a guy like say a
a Julian Strauther or Jalen or a Payton Watson.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
So I think it kind of comes down to.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Different players on the team are going to feel different
ways about it.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
But I think it.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Should be reassuring that NIKOLEA. Jokic is kind of steering
the ship and he's not the type two. I don't
think what let a coaching change impact his levels by
in all right.
Speaker 7 (07:04):
Last one for you.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Vine always appreciates the time man, and I guess it
kind of leads us perfectly into what are you expecting
to see tonight?
Speaker 7 (07:11):
I mean this, this is so wild. The eyes of the.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
NBA on an eight PM game between the Sacramento Kings
and the Denver Nuggets are all going to be there.
I mean, of course we're watching earlier the LUCA game
in Dallas, but man, I can't wait to see this.
Do you think we're gonna see all of a sudden
a revitalized Denver Nuggets?
Speaker 7 (07:30):
I mean, what are your expectations?
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Not really, you know, I'm not really expecting much change.
It just doesn't feel like there's enough time for there
to be real change in terms.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Of scheme.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
On you know, thirty six hours notice for David Adelman
and the.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Rest of the coaching staff. Yeah, I would be shocked
if this was a if the Nuggets came out and
played visibly different. You know, maybe there's a rotation tweet
here or there. But I think it's really a tough
situation for a guy like David Adelman who has such a.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Short time frame to make changes, and to any any
change being made at this part of the season is
a comes a considerable risk. Given that the Nuggets are
going to start the night a tie could drop as
low as you know, seven or eight. So I really
just feel like they're they're kind of setting who they
(08:30):
are for this season at least.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I agree Benny, appreciate the time man, Thank you absolutely.
Heppy toy one guys, Benny Benedetto does a wonderful job
covering the Denver Nuggets for Denver Gazettes at v Benedetto
on Twitter.
Speaker 7 (08:45):
I agree with him.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I think that's the thing that we can potentially see
and Nick, you've referenced to several times as effort that's
the one difference. You're right, maybe rotations and maybe there's
some small tweaks there. I mean we found seeing if
like Russell Westbrook on plays like fifteen minutes. I mean again,
Jamal Murray's doubtful, so I don't think you can afford
to do that.
Speaker 7 (09:07):
That would be the one noticeable difference.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
If all of a sudden, Jalen Pickett plays thirty five
minutes tonight and Russell Westbrook is more of a reserve player.
Speaker 7 (09:16):
That would be interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
But yeah, I mean we're talking about a couple of days, right,
I mean this we found out about this yesterday, and
I mean they've had a couple of days off. But
David Adelman was not the guy until yesterday afternoon. New
yesterday morning that that is probably true. But the upper part,
the effer part, is all in the players. That part
is their control and has nothing to do with any
(09:39):
changes with coaching.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
You know, that's an interesting bet that you bring up
to look at the game to see how many minutes
Russell Westbrook actually plays versus Pickett.
Speaker 6 (09:50):
I'm interested in seeing that. But usually what we see in.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
Situations like this is, and no matter what the sport,
a coach getting fired all of a sudden.
Speaker 6 (09:59):
There's this new energy. Now some will.
Speaker 5 (10:01):
Look at it and say, well, as they often say, well,
the coach lost the locker room. So now you're seeing
a more invigorated type of locker room playing together because
the dark cloud has been lifted. If those guys go
out and they play well, well, let me back up
for a second. There's two narratives, one if they play
(10:22):
well and another if they don't play well. The one
that is sure to be said is that, yes, the
dark cloud has been lifted, and the culture that Michael
Mulong was trying to establish wasn't getting through to the players.
You can tell by the number of games that they
lost in close games and then if they were to
(10:43):
say lose the game, oh, it's business as usual. I
mean the Kronkeys overlooked an ongoing issue that they should correct.
Speaker 6 (10:51):
It a long time ago.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
So for me, at the end of the day, you know,
players play coaches, coach, cheerleader.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
Year.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
You have to go out there as a player no
matter what, and you have to make sure that the
name on the back of your jersey you live up
to it every single time, no matter what the situation is.
Speaker 6 (11:11):
And these players themselves.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
They are accountable too, Ryan, because their coach got fired
because something wasn't happening on the court and it involved
them as well.
Speaker 7 (11:22):
Yeah, what kind of leadership did they take of that? Right?
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I mean, that's that's exactly what you're going to see,
Like how are they feeling as far as their responsibility
for the position that they put themselves in.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
I really, hey, boys, you got to go out there
and win tonight because winning tonight makes me look good.
Speaker 6 (11:38):
I mean, could you see a situation where that is
a speech?
Speaker 7 (11:43):
But you have champions. I don't even know if what
David Allman can say.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I mean, he'll say whatever he's going to say, right,
but you have champions. You mentioned it from the very
first segment of the show. Leadership, the leadership in the
locker room, leadership on that roster. This is their moment.
Nicole Jokic, whatever Jamal Or he's gonna be there, won't
be playing, he's doubtful of the game, but he'll be there.
What kind of leadership sort of steps into this and
(12:07):
and they're not gonna say, hey, let's let's play well
for You're gonna play the way for yourself. Really, but
to Venny's point, you are what you are. You get
three games left in the regular season. You're trying to
scratch together however many wins you can get to keep
yourself out of the plan that that is goal number one.
Speaker 7 (12:27):
Yeah, you'd like to to show up and play.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
And I'm kind of joked with you guys at the beginning,
like what if what if they show up and all
of a sudden have their best defensive performance, Like that
would be wild to watch. And if you're Michael Will,
you're chucking things at your TV because you know, you
know they're capable of this at any time, and you're
you'll be furious. But at the same time, yeah, I mean,
that's that's sort of what happens, right interim bump.
Speaker 7 (12:49):
You see it all the time, not predicting they're gonna win.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
To night.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
They are favored by four and half. For what it's worth,
even with all this happening, they're favored by four and half.
Keep yourself out of the plan. That is goal number one.
And it's not to say that that sounds such a
bad place to be. And I know that if that
ends up being the case, we'll talk about the scenarios
that end up working in their favor, because if you
get to seven, right, you don't want to be the eight.
Speaker 7 (13:12):
Oh my god, you don't want to be the eight.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
But if he gets seven, you're taking on Houston, a
young Houston team that people think are a little bit overrated.
Speaker 7 (13:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
The Nuggest actually might be favorite in that series. I
think they'd be favor in the Lakers series too, even
though they'll be traveling. In fact, i'd say, as I'm
looking at the standings here, I don't know if there's
a series besides the Thunder that people wouldn't take a
look at it and say, I like the Nuggets chances
to make this thing six or seven.
Speaker 6 (13:41):
Well, here is what Adelman is gonna say tonight. It's
the team.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
If he hadn't said it last night in a team meeting,
none of us expected to be here.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
Well, this is where we are, man.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
We've got three games remaining in the season. They have
its choice. Either we can kind of sorry for ourselves
based on what happened and lose these next three games,
or we can mand the hell up and go out
there and play the way that we should have played
all season long. And oh, by the way, we all
share a part and what happened. There's two people who
(14:16):
have been fired, Booth and Michael Malone. No matter how
you feel about it, we have all let them down.
So we need to go out here collectively starting tonight
and play Nuggets basketball.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
That's the only thing that we can do tonight. And
I think with a speech like.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
That, it's gonna fire guys up to go out because
we know some of the guys on this roster now
they're not gonna be here next year. So you have
an opportunity to go out and end the season, whether
it's in the playing game or no matter whatever, it
is in the positive way.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
And that's the way that they should approach it.
Speaker 7 (14:57):
Can't wait.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I'm I don't know if I've I'm trying to think.
Besides maybe this last Timberwolves game or I was very
excited to see what they were gonna be able to do. Right,
I thought the Semberwolves would win, but even going to
double overtime and the way that game played out, I did.
Speaker 7 (15:14):
Not see that coming.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
But as far as anticipation for a regular season game,
this is pretty high up there. I want to see
what they're made of. I want to see what they're about,
you know, like you just don't you just don't know
what they're about. And it's looked so bad. This the
final quarter, the fourth quarter of the Pacers game was
a miserable there's a miserable fan experience if you're a
(15:37):
Nuggets fan. It looked like it looked like they checked out.
It looked like, despite the fact that it was a
close game and as a game they really needed, they
just didn't have it.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Could part of that be that they're superhero that they
have in Nicola Jokich. They're starting to realize that even
with Nicola carrying the team the way that he's been
carrying them and they're still losing games, that that was
in itself an issue that they were starting to lose faith.
(16:11):
Not the fact that they were losing faith and coach Malone,
but they were losing faith in their ability to win
and overcome adversity with Nicole. I mean, that Minnesota game
was crazy. He's scoring sixty one points and the.
Speaker 7 (16:27):
Loss.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
So it's almost like being a kid and seeing your
father get beat up in the fight and not looking
at him the same.
Speaker 7 (16:34):
Way again, did you ever see something like that?
Speaker 6 (16:37):
Yeah, So a lot of kids fathers take als.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Okay, yes, I I haven't experienced that.
Speaker 7 (16:44):
That's a that's a world that I've lived. I've never
seen my dad fight.
Speaker 6 (16:47):
Oh good for you.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
Yeah, I've seen a lot of dads in my old
neighborhood take als. And and that kid coming to school
elementary school the next day.
Speaker 7 (16:57):
It was rough, tough. Yeah, because it's not just the
dad take it in the al You're right, did you.
Speaker 6 (17:01):
Say it l too?
Speaker 7 (17:02):
You're taking it l too?
Speaker 6 (17:03):
Oh that's your dad. Oh yes, let me tell you
what happened.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
So it's kind of similar to watching Nicola Yolkis go
out there and give his best every single night and
not having a supporting cast and feeling as though if
our superman came, carry us across the finish line, and
how are we gonna get there?
Speaker 1 (17:22):
On the Ka Commas Spear Health text line five six
six nine zero, guys, I think there are two major
reasons that the Nuggets fell apart. KCP and Bruce Brown
are smiling big right now. Also, when you're starving as
long as the Nuggets were, you finally win a ship
and get the big bag, Jamal Murray, you're not hungry anymore,
fat and happy, doesn't win championships, it is time to
(17:44):
get hungry again. You know, there's a point there actually,
And I remember when Emmanuel Sanders talked after the Broncos
won their championship in twenty fifteen, he said, we were
kind of lost in the sauce afterwards, kind of feeling
yourself a little bit like Man Dynasty, remember Michael Malone
in the Parade Dynasty, Dynasty Dynasty, And at that point
(18:08):
you felt like the Nuggets might be able to build
on something because Nikola Jokic in the middle of in fact,
maybe even on the early side of his prime. Jamal
Murray was sensational through large parts of the postseason. Christian
Brown had just gotten there. He looked really good. Obviously,
Aaron Gordon looked phenomenal. I mean, they had production from everybody.
(18:29):
Even Michael Porter Junior had a couple of nice moments.
And then yeah, Bruce Brown and KCP. I don't know
about the KCP and Bruce Brown smiling big right now.
The Nuggets couldn't pay everybody, right, Bruce Brown where to
get like forty seven million or something like that. They
couldn't afford him. They could offer him like eight I
(18:50):
was like Yeah, that's all they could offer him. They
had no option for that KCP. Maybe there was a scenario,
maybe I can't remember that was last year, if there
was a scenario for them to be able to afford KCP.
But Burst Brown, I know for a fact that there
was just really nothing that they could do. I don't
know if they are celebrating the demise of Michael Malone
(19:10):
and the Nuggets as we sit here right now. But
the other part of that where you start to believe
your own press, you start to believe, well, we have
the best.
Speaker 7 (19:19):
Player in the world right now, and boy.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Nikole Jyokich just gonna bail us out of a lot
of things, and you start to live in that world.
Speaker 7 (19:27):
I could see that.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
To cos malone point that he made.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
Two weeks ago when he was talking about his guys
not watching film, this is to me what he was
talking about.
Speaker 6 (19:38):
He never called guys out by name on any of.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
The rants he's ever made. But for me, I just
had an idea of maybe who he's talking about, because
once you win a championship, that hunger sometimes go away,
and you can see it with how some guys play,
and maybe because that they just thought that they can
hit the light switch, and maybe that's one of the
reasons why they didn't study, and now it is one
of the reasons he's not fired.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
All right, we'll come back. I want to get into
a little bit of a conversation. We were talking a
little about the Broncos earlier and about the draft coming up.
The advantageous spot there. They haven't picked twenty, but there's
another opportunity that could present themselves for the Broncos in
the second round. We'll get to that coming up next.
(20:25):
As the Lakers are taking on the Mavericks. Got Lee,
I'm trying to think, like, what's what's the rooting interest there?
I guess it would probably be for the Mavericks, right,
because the Mavericks are thirty eight and forty one. I
don't think the Nuggets. Well, the Nuggets could catch the
Lakers three. I mean theoretically, So.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
You root for the MAVs tonight, I guess you, yeah,
you guess you're room for the Mavericks.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
Yes, root four.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
It it's so weird because for the Nuggets, and I
do want to get the Broncos here in a second,
but it's so weird for the Nuggets because.
Speaker 7 (20:55):
In a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
They just got to focus in and take care of business. Right,
If you win these games, you keep yourself out of
the play in. You win these three games, and you
guarantee yourself six at the worst. And that's if everything
goes against you, as in everybody else wins their games
and you're at least in the six. But we're scoreboard watching,
which means you get a chance to root for some
(21:18):
of these outcomes. Like last night, we were rooting for
several outcomes. A couple of them happened. It was nice,
but did not happen so well. So I don't know,
I find myself in this weird spot. Sacramento is can
only they locked in a play.
Speaker 7 (21:33):
In game spot?
Speaker 1 (21:34):
They can only kind of move a little because they're
thirty nine wins, so really they're not between nine and ten.
Speaker 7 (21:40):
They're just kind of hanging in there. So nevers have
something to play for here.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Not only can they potentially move up to nine instead
of being at ten.
Speaker 7 (21:49):
But for the reality is is those.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Two teams are kind of locked in where they're at.
There's not much much good. They're gonna face each other.
Mavericks Kings are gonna play in the play in. That's
just what it is.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
So basically what the Nuggets should do from here on out.
They should have shirts t shirts made with TCB.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
On them, right, just kind of a.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
Reminder refresher for every single guy. Okay, well, we got
to take care of our business.
Speaker 7 (22:18):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
That's it.
Speaker 7 (22:19):
Take your business.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
I mean, if they had they done that before, we
wouldn't be having this conversation.
Speaker 7 (22:24):
To say it. One thing I was thinking about.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
We were talking about the Broncos earlier and the opportunity
in round one to possibly trade back, and it was
along the lines of the Steelers at twenty one might
be in the quarterback market, or at least the Broncos
can sell to other teams that they're in the quarterback market,
and hey, come come get your guy, Come get Jackson
dart or should or Sanders if he happens to be there. Okay,
So the Broncos I think, would like to trade back.
(22:50):
If they can't, it means they can acquire multiple picks.
I said, I said a couple of days ago to Dave,
and I hate admitting when I'm wrong, but I think
I might have been wrong.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
Don't look so so shocks, you.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
Know, I was about to say something, but I said,
you know what, you don't have to let me not
step on this.
Speaker 7 (23:09):
Just just let it happen.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
This is a moment, so I'm not going to step
on it at all, So please continue.
Speaker 7 (23:17):
You have a long runway, I said, Todave that.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Because you're in the window that you are in, you
should be aggressive in targeting players, even in the first round,
maybe even adding a second first rounder. Like getting aggressive
targeting players that help you in this window because you
have your quarterback.
Speaker 6 (23:39):
I'm sorry, I got to back it for a second.
What Windo, are you looking through?
Speaker 7 (23:44):
I'm looking through that.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
You have. You found your quarterback, You've paired that with
your coach. You've already made the playoffs. The expectation this
year is to advance beyond the first round, the wildcard round.
In fact, your expectation is to win the division, which
means you want to add players that help you now.
Speaker 7 (23:59):
You did so in free agents. Every ad so far
has been.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Somebody that you expect to impact.
Speaker 7 (24:04):
You now and into the very near future. Correct, correct,
everything you've done so.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I made that argument today, but upon thinking about it
for a moment, I think that would be unnecessarily aggressive.
I think the aggressive if you're going to take an
aggressive approach, it should be more in the second round,
maybe the third round, but the second round more than anything.
Speaker 7 (24:27):
It's not saying you have to get up to the
top of the.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Second round, but I do think there's gonna be some
interesting players there. There always is, right, There's always guys
that were like, I cannot believe this guy made it
today too, Like in melk Heiper's mock, for example, and
we've been referencing it over the last couple of days.
Speaker 7 (24:43):
And I'm not specifically basing anything on milk Hiper.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
I'm just saying in his mock, I mean you're talking
about a Mecho Buca pick thirty six.
Speaker 7 (24:54):
That's a little surprise. We think he's going to go
in the first round.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Luther Burden going to the Patriots of thirty eight, Walter
Nolan defensive tackle going to thirty nine.
Speaker 7 (25:03):
These are all guys that.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
In whatever mocky you probably subscribe to, is have been
the first round all all this entire time, and all
of a sudden here there at the beginning of the
second round.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
But point of it is, they're picking in fifty one.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I think the aggressive move is to give yourself a
couple of second round picks, and you could say at
fifty one, but just use your third rounder in a
package to get back into the second round. Because honestly,
say you pick Ted McMillan at twenty or whatever you pick, right,
you pick a player at twenty is blue ship player.
(25:36):
Somebody that you have is the highest guy on your board.
You just take a running back at the second round. Okay,
assuming you didn't get one in the first you could
trade back into the second round and you get another
blue chip player. Mason Taylor, the tight end at LSU
that Ben talks about.
Speaker 7 (25:52):
All the time of ECT.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
He's going to be available right around that spot you
could come away in this draft.
Speaker 7 (25:57):
Imagine a world. Let's just use mel Kiper.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
You got Teed McMillan, you got Quinn Shawn Judkins, and
you got Mason Taylor. Those are your first three picks.
I mean, who cares that you didn't get him at
late in the third round. You got him in the
second round. Would you not be doing backflips if you
got those three picks in your first couple of days
of the draft, Well, I wouldn't be.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Doing backflips because I don't want another.
Speaker 6 (26:20):
Surgery, but I would be I'd be ecstatic about it.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
But I like your approach, but your idea theoretically, but
my approach would be different.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
It goes back to what I said before. Now, what you're.
Speaker 5 (26:35):
Saying being aggressive, right, I like that idea of being aggressive,
but let's apply it to a different strategy, right, Because
the idea is we're going to be aggressive. The way
we're going to be aggressive is the more picks that
we have. So now as you start to move throughout
the draft, you have now more draft capital to now
(26:57):
move back up and acquiritizes that ordinarily you might not
have been in a position to select, because right now
I think the Broncos might have well maybe six six
picks in this draft.
Speaker 7 (27:09):
They have seven, okay seven? They got one, two, three, four, three, six.
Speaker 6 (27:14):
Okay, so seven seven picks.
Speaker 5 (27:16):
Yeah, So now we know some teams out there they
are like twelve. Right, you're making your team better and
we know ifrom guys's not gonna make.
Speaker 6 (27:24):
Make the roster.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
But the idea is that you you bring it in
picks to add suppose of depth. So to me, at twenty,
you do a little what Sean Payton said that he
did last year when before they picked bo Knicks. Okay, well,
teams are gonna call the Broncos don't have to call
any teams right now.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
Teams are gonna call them and say, okay.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
Well, well we got teams I mean talking about moving up.
They want the spot. So so what is it worth
to you? Well, what are they offering you for? No, no,
tell me what you're willing to give me for. It's
not about what they're offering. What are you willing to
give me for? Get those picks still stay in the
first round, swap positions.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
Whatever team that is.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
You've added maybe another's first second round for twenty twenty
five or first for next year. And then now you
go in the draft and then you say, okay, well,
as guys who you thought were projected by these my
drafts to be taking my certain teams at a certain point, they're.
Speaker 7 (28:18):
Still on the board, right, that's exactly right.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
Now you can add these guys and then you can say, well,
you know what, we got it first next year. We
don't care about next year because we're gonna use that
money to go and get betteran guys, So what we're
gonna do with building for the future. We take that
twenty twenty six first round or move back up and
you get someone else. That's being aggressive for me because
you're stopping pouling picks because at the end of the day,
(28:43):
in my mind, the way that Sean Payton looks at
this thing, it's about two people and two people over them,
Sean and Bo, right, and if Bo does well, Sean
does well too as well. So now it's about filling
out the That's why they were aggressive, and they made
the move defensively in the draft, so it gives them
(29:05):
an opportunity to make these choices in the draft.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
And by the way, I'm not saying that my hope
is that they come away with three offensive players though.
Well no, I'm painting a picture here using melk Hiper's mock.
If they go D line to twenty, I'm thrilled. I
am like over the moon because I think that's you
got to continue to invest on strength.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
Well, I don't think a lot of people in Bronco's
country would be happy with that.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Well they should be, because you just watch the team
that continues to do that in Philadelphia Eagles win a
Super Bowl. That's what they do, they continue to invest
in the trenches. They invest specifically on that side of
the ball because guess what you can have injuries is
a rotational position. And those blue chip players they stack
up and they matter. The Broncos are in good shape
(29:51):
on the defensive line, which could always be better.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Well, it's just like Mike Shannan used to tell me
when I play for him, we don't use timeouts for defense.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
So in this case, in this case, this league is
about offense and building weapons.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
And I just told you Sean is thinking about bo
because he's thinking about himself and saying, okay, well, and.
Speaker 6 (30:11):
I totally get it.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
As offensive coordinator and a literary regia is, I got
to make him look great and I set myself up
to as well.
Speaker 6 (30:19):
So now you want to go more offense than you
go defense, and I expect that.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
They already said they'renna take running back, and I expect them,
we're going to take one within the first three picks.
That's going to happen. So they're gonna go offense in
one of these picks. It's just more an acknowledgment of
stick true to your board, like that's that's kind of
what I feel and then again, listen to the offers
if they make sense for now and into the future.
Speaker 7 (30:42):
I'm with you.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
I love that.
Speaker 7 (30:48):
I don't know even things up in the series.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Tough one last night, although it was nice seeing Zach
Veen out there in his first major league start, got
a bunt single. Maybe he can do a little bit
more tonight against the brew crew like Shelby's down there
hanging out. But man, he dressed head to toe and
his Brewer's gear yesterday with us, and of course he
got to celebrate a dub. So hopefully the Rockies can
get back on track tonight. Sends a tallow on the mound,
(31:12):
and he's been really really sharp early on the Mavericks
Lakers games underway. Luke, of course out there run around
his former I guess his former team Dallas, Go Mavericks, said,
every Nuggets fan go Mavericks, and I think in general,
everybody that hates the Lakers, go Mavericks quickly before he
(31:33):
gets to show me the money. The Avalanche got some
pretty awesome news today sort of. I think Gabe Landsgog
has been loaned, if you will, to the Colorado Eagles
on a conditioning stint. So Gabe landisgog the captain? Could
(31:54):
he could he possibly maybe on his way back. You
don't get this far because this is obviously the farthest
he's been since the injury since I mean since the championship, right,
I mean he hasn't played since then. He's in a
conditioning stance sort of. They're gonna check in with him
here in a couple of days. The playoffs are on
the other side. The Abs, of course, are going to
(32:17):
play the Dallas Dallas Stars. More to the Mavericks. They're
gonna play the Dallas Stars. Al Right, man, could be
a pretty cool lift.
Speaker 7 (32:25):
What do you think?
Speaker 5 (32:25):
Yeah, this is a great first step as a guy
that's had knee injury, had knee surgery twice. The first
part is getting back on the horse, meaning for him,
getting back skating and building his conditioning because you got
to think how long has he been outside of the game,
and this conditioning is a huge part of it. Usually
(32:46):
when a guy has an injury and he's not well conditioned,
his body tries to balance himself and it ends up
in another injury.
Speaker 6 (32:53):
So this is kind of the first step. It would
be great.
Speaker 5 (32:57):
Can the captain make it come back, I mean giving
I guess the phrase captain comeback? You know, reviottalizing it, right,
I'm just saying it just it just set up perfectly,
at least it did in my head.
Speaker 7 (33:10):
So didn't come back?
Speaker 6 (33:12):
Will it not be captain comeback?
Speaker 7 (33:14):
I don't totally honest I say that, But.
Speaker 6 (33:17):
What captain comeback? Say it with me. It's okay.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
You can't do it because you won't do it. You're
wanting the same thing. You're wanting this first step to
lead to a last step. Well, he's back on eyes.
Speaker 7 (33:29):
I just know that it'll mean so much.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
I mean, whatever role, because he's obviously not gonna be
a full time player, even if it's a power play,
whatever role he's in it, it's gonna be big for
this team.
Speaker 6 (33:41):
Captney comeback.
Speaker 7 (33:42):
Can't do it.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Don't do that.
Nick Ferguson in studio Dave on his way down from
the Coloro Sports Hall of Fame, and that's gonna be
a fun night downtown for everybody there. But we're excited
to be with you for the next hour, and then
we're gonna hand things off to the Rockies as they
take on the Brewers. We're continuing our conversation about the Nuggets, though,
because they have made not only local news but national
news with the firing of their coach and GM and
(00:21):
to help us break it all down, we head out
to the Koi Common Spirit Health Hotline and we're thrilled
to bring on Vinnie Benedetto, who's with the Denver Gazette
at v Benedetto on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Vinnie, thank you so much for the time, man. How
are you doing well. Been a little busy, but I'm
doing well.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I can only imagine. I can only imagine. So yeah,
let's start there. I definitely want to get some thoughts
on what you expect to see tonight, but let's just
start with the moment that happened yesterday. I mean, honestly,
my first reaction when I saw it, I wanted to
confirm that that was actually Sham's account that was tweeting
it out, like, I went through all the protocol of
like I'm not I'm not even gonna react to this
(00:56):
until I know it's real. What was your immediate you
thought when you all, first Michael Malone and then Calvin
Booth were dismissed.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah, I was pretty shocked. I don't to your point.
It felt like the night Lupa got treated. Where you're
double checking, you know, all the verifications, making sure you
know the follower count on the on the tweet is correct.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
And it took me a bit of process. You know,
it certainly wasn't.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
A shot that this happened. I think the timing for
me was the most surprising aspect of it all. H
you know, if it happened two or three weeks from now,
and you know, after a first or second round playoff exit,
you know, that wouldn't have shocked me at all. But
but the timing and the way it went down was
pretty surprising to me.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
Vinny, and these types of situation, everyone wants there a
pound of flesh.
Speaker 6 (01:46):
So I'll get your take on this. When we look
at the lack of.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
Effort and defensive performance that we've seen not just this
year and not just the past couple of games, but
just over the past three years.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
Who cares is a burden for that?
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Are we looking at the coaches fro An office GM,
or we just going O school and looking at the players?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, I think it's I think you can break it
down into a couple of things. You know, one of
the uggests biggest issues this year have been transition defense,
and for me, that's.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
A that's a player, that's an effort thing, that's not
a skiing thing. That's not coaching.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
But then when you get into the kind of the
half courts struggles and how teams have been able to
I'm thinking back to the Pacers game on Sunday where
Tyrese Haliburton was able to you know, attract or force
the second defender and pick the role sets and they
would just kind of repeatedly make the extra pass for
(02:45):
corner three.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
That to me is is a coaching thing.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
And you know, Michael Malone obviously or the brunch of it,
but you know, Ryan Saunders, one of the assistant coaches,
is the guy who's kind of been tasked with, you know,
orchestrating the deep So I think, you know, coaching staff
bears the largest responsibility for the half court struggles, and
you know, the general manager, front office part of it.
(03:11):
I feel like they've they've tried, you know, to address
some of the defensive needs with you know, drafting the
Christian Browns and the Peyton Watsons. Both those guys were,
you know, kind of came in as defensive upgrades over
or you guys that had high defensive upside. So I
think mostly it comes down to, you know, I'm putting
(03:34):
the transition defense on the players and Lackos kind of
want to, and I'm putting the half court defensive struggles
largely on the coaching staff.
Speaker 7 (03:41):
Vinnie Benedetto joining us.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
There's been I think more a more strong reaction, a
stronger reaction to Michael Malone being fired than Calvin Booth,
and especially knowing that he was in the final year
of his contract, they couldn't get anything done before the
season or early in the season. I don't think that
surprised as many people as Michael Malone, who still had
two years left on his contract. In your opinion, as
(04:03):
somebody that's around the team, was there potentially a scenario
where you actually hold on to Michael Malone and you
move on from the GM or do you do you
agree with the sentiment from Josh Cronkey from ownership that no,
we really needed a clean break from all of it.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, I think you could have hit one or the other.
It certainly, you know, would have made things a little
awkward for the remainder.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Of this season.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
But I think there's an outcome where, you know, yesterday
announced you know, Calvin Booth will not be getting a
contract extension, and then you give Michael Malone one last
shot over these three regular season games and whatever the
postseason looks like to.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
U his job. You know, if they you.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Know, surprise people and make the Western Conference.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Finals, you know, is that enough to keep Malone around?
I would probably say yes. But you know, I.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Certainly didn't have you know, conversations with that that the
Crounkies have had with.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
With people that are part of the team, and you
know they must have just since that things.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Were so bad that it they kind of had make
the move now, which I am still pretty surprised by it.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Now, Vinnie, this is gonna be hard for you to do,
But uh, I think about this whole decision from a
player's standpoint, If you personally are a player on the
Nuggets roster and you find out the way that you
find out that they're moving on from Michael Malone, how
does that impact the mental ability of the team, knowing
(05:41):
as though you still have three games remaining.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, I think it's it's gonna kind of come down
to the to the player. You know, Nicole Jokic is
it is certainly not the.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Type to pack it in.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
I you know, I don't think he was terribly involved
in this decision, but I think he's just kind of
one of those guys who shows up to work and
put this best foot forward. If you're one of the
younger guys who maybe felt like you didn't get a
fair shake, you know, maybe it's motivating for them, but
you look at the you know, nicolea Yokich, Jamal Murray,
(06:18):
Michael Porter junior.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Michael Maloon's the only coach.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
They've played for, So I think it might be challenging
more for you know, Michael Malone always went.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
To bat for Jamal Murray and kind of had his
back over the court.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
You know, this frustrating season with the injuries he's dealt
with in the in the slow start, So I think
for a guy like Jamal Murray it might be harder
than it would be for a guy like say a
a Julian Strauther or Jalen or a Payton Watson.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
So I think it kind of comes down to.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Different players on the team are going to feel different
ways about it.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
But I think it.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Should be reassuring that NIKOLEA. Jokic is kind of steering
the ship and he's not the type two. I don't
think what let a coaching change impact his levels by
in all right.
Speaker 7 (07:04):
Last one for you.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Vine always appreciates the time man, and I guess it
kind of leads us perfectly into what are you expecting
to see tonight?
Speaker 7 (07:11):
I mean this, this is so wild. The eyes of the.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
NBA on an eight PM game between the Sacramento Kings
and the Denver Nuggets are all going to be there.
I mean, of course we're watching earlier the LUCA game
in Dallas, but man, I can't wait to see this.
Do you think we're gonna see all of a sudden
a revitalized Denver Nuggets?
Speaker 7 (07:30):
I mean, what are your expectations?
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Not really, you know, I'm not really expecting much change.
It just doesn't feel like there's enough time for there
to be real change in terms.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Of scheme.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
On you know, thirty six hours notice for David Adelman
and the.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Rest of the coaching staff. Yeah, I would be shocked
if this was a if the Nuggets came out and
played visibly different. You know, maybe there's a rotation tweet
here or there. But I think it's really a tough
situation for a guy like David Adelman who has such a.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Short time frame to make changes, and to any any
change being made at this part of the season is
a comes a considerable risk. Given that the Nuggets are
going to start the night a tie could drop as
low as you know, seven or eight. So I really
just feel like they're they're kind of setting who they
(08:30):
are for this season at least.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I agree Benny, appreciate the time man, Thank you absolutely.
Heppy toy one guys, Benny Benedetto does a wonderful job
covering the Denver Nuggets for Denver Gazettes at v Benedetto
on Twitter.
Speaker 7 (08:45):
I agree with him.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I think that's the thing that we can potentially see
and Nick, you've referenced to several times as effort that's
the one difference. You're right, maybe rotations and maybe there's
some small tweaks there. I mean we found seeing if
like Russell Westbrook on plays like fifteen minutes. I mean again,
Jamal Murray's doubtful, so I don't think you can afford
to do that.
Speaker 7 (09:07):
That would be the one noticeable difference.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
If all of a sudden, Jalen Pickett plays thirty five
minutes tonight and Russell Westbrook is more of a reserve player.
Speaker 7 (09:16):
That would be interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
But yeah, I mean we're talking about a couple of days, right,
I mean this we found out about this yesterday, and
I mean they've had a couple of days off. But
David Adelman was not the guy until yesterday afternoon. New
yesterday morning that that is probably true. But the upper part,
the effer part, is all in the players. That part
is their control and has nothing to do with any
(09:39):
changes with coaching.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
You know, that's an interesting bet that you bring up
to look at the game to see how many minutes
Russell Westbrook actually plays versus Pickett.
Speaker 6 (09:50):
I'm interested in seeing that. But usually what we see in.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
Situations like this is, and no matter what the sport,
a coach getting fired all of a sudden.
Speaker 6 (09:59):
There's this new energy. Now some will.
Speaker 5 (10:01):
Look at it and say, well, as they often say, well,
the coach lost the locker room. So now you're seeing
a more invigorated type of locker room playing together because
the dark cloud has been lifted. If those guys go
out and they play well, well, let me back up
for a second. There's two narratives, one if they play
(10:22):
well and another if they don't play well. The one
that is sure to be said is that, yes, the
dark cloud has been lifted, and the culture that Michael
Mulong was trying to establish wasn't getting through to the players.
You can tell by the number of games that they
lost in close games and then if they were to
(10:43):
say lose the game, oh, it's business as usual. I
mean the Kronkeys overlooked an ongoing issue that they should correct.
Speaker 6 (10:51):
It a long time ago.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
So for me, at the end of the day, you know,
players play coaches, coach, cheerleader.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
Year.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
You have to go out there as a player no
matter what, and you have to make sure that the
name on the back of your jersey you live up
to it every single time, no matter what the situation is.
Speaker 6 (11:11):
And these players themselves.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
They are accountable too, Ryan, because their coach got fired
because something wasn't happening on the court and it involved
them as well.
Speaker 7 (11:22):
Yeah, what kind of leadership did they take of that? Right?
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I mean, that's that's exactly what you're going to see,
Like how are they feeling as far as their responsibility
for the position that they put themselves in.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
I really, hey, boys, you got to go out there
and win tonight because winning tonight makes me look good.
Speaker 6 (11:38):
I mean, could you see a situation where that is
a speech?
Speaker 7 (11:43):
But you have champions. I don't even know if what
David Allman can say.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I mean, he'll say whatever he's going to say, right,
but you have champions. You mentioned it from the very
first segment of the show. Leadership, the leadership in the
locker room, leadership on that roster. This is their moment.
Nicole Jokic, whatever Jamal Or he's gonna be there, won't
be playing, he's doubtful of the game, but he'll be there.
What kind of leadership sort of steps into this and
(12:07):
and they're not gonna say, hey, let's let's play well
for You're gonna play the way for yourself. Really, but
to Venny's point, you are what you are. You get
three games left in the regular season. You're trying to
scratch together however many wins you can get to keep
yourself out of the plan that that is goal number one.
Speaker 7 (12:27):
Yeah, you'd like to to show up and play.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
And I'm kind of joked with you guys at the beginning,
like what if what if they show up and all
of a sudden have their best defensive performance, Like that
would be wild to watch. And if you're Michael Will,
you're chucking things at your TV because you know, you
know they're capable of this at any time, and you're
you'll be furious. But at the same time, yeah, I mean,
that's that's sort of what happens, right interim bump.
Speaker 7 (12:49):
You see it all the time, not predicting they're gonna win.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
To night.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
They are favored by four and half. For what it's worth,
even with all this happening, they're favored by four and half.
Keep yourself out of the plan. That is goal number one.
And it's not to say that that sounds such a
bad place to be. And I know that if that
ends up being the case, we'll talk about the scenarios
that end up working in their favor, because if you
get to seven, right, you don't want to be the eight.
Speaker 7 (13:12):
Oh my god, you don't want to be the eight.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
But if he gets seven, you're taking on Houston, a
young Houston team that people think are a little bit overrated.
Speaker 7 (13:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
The Nuggest actually might be favorite in that series. I
think they'd be favor in the Lakers series too, even
though they'll be traveling. In fact, i'd say, as I'm
looking at the standings here, I don't know if there's
a series besides the Thunder that people wouldn't take a
look at it and say, I like the Nuggets chances
to make this thing six or seven.
Speaker 6 (13:41):
Well, here is what Adelman is gonna say tonight. It's
the team.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
If he hadn't said it last night in a team meeting,
none of us expected to be here.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
Well, this is where we are, man.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
We've got three games remaining in the season. They have
its choice. Either we can kind of sorry for ourselves
based on what happened and lose these next three games,
or we can mand the hell up and go out
there and play the way that we should have played
all season long. And oh, by the way, we all
share a part and what happened. There's two people who
(14:16):
have been fired, Booth and Michael Malone. No matter how
you feel about it, we have all let them down.
So we need to go out here collectively starting tonight
and play Nuggets basketball.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
That's the only thing that we can do tonight. And
I think with a speech like.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
That, it's gonna fire guys up to go out because
we know some of the guys on this roster now
they're not gonna be here next year. So you have
an opportunity to go out and end the season, whether
it's in the playing game or no matter whatever, it
is in the positive way.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
And that's the way that they should approach it.
Speaker 7 (14:57):
Can't wait.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I'm I don't know if I've I'm trying to think.
Besides maybe this last Timberwolves game or I was very
excited to see what they were gonna be able to do. Right,
I thought the Semberwolves would win, but even going to
double overtime and the way that game played out, I did.
Speaker 7 (15:14):
Not see that coming.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
But as far as anticipation for a regular season game,
this is pretty high up there. I want to see
what they're made of. I want to see what they're about,
you know, like you just don't you just don't know
what they're about. And it's looked so bad. This the
final quarter, the fourth quarter of the Pacers game was
a miserable there's a miserable fan experience if you're a
(15:37):
Nuggets fan. It looked like it looked like they checked out.
It looked like, despite the fact that it was a
close game and as a game they really needed, they
just didn't have it.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Could part of that be that they're superhero that they
have in Nicola Jokich. They're starting to realize that even
with Nicola carrying the team the way that he's been
carrying them and they're still losing games, that that was
in itself an issue that they were starting to lose faith.
(16:11):
Not the fact that they were losing faith and coach Malone,
but they were losing faith in their ability to win
and overcome adversity with Nicole. I mean, that Minnesota game
was crazy. He's scoring sixty one points and the.
Speaker 7 (16:27):
Loss.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
So it's almost like being a kid and seeing your
father get beat up in the fight and not looking
at him the same.
Speaker 7 (16:34):
Way again, did you ever see something like that?
Speaker 6 (16:37):
Yeah, So a lot of kids fathers take als.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Okay, yes, I I haven't experienced that.
Speaker 7 (16:44):
That's a that's a world that I've lived. I've never
seen my dad fight.
Speaker 6 (16:47):
Oh good for you.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
Yeah, I've seen a lot of dads in my old
neighborhood take als. And and that kid coming to school
elementary school the next day.
Speaker 7 (16:57):
It was rough, tough. Yeah, because it's not just the
dad take it in the al You're right, did you.
Speaker 6 (17:01):
Say it l too?
Speaker 7 (17:02):
You're taking it l too?
Speaker 6 (17:03):
Oh that's your dad. Oh yes, let me tell you
what happened.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
So it's kind of similar to watching Nicola Yolkis go
out there and give his best every single night and
not having a supporting cast and feeling as though if
our superman came, carry us across the finish line, and
how are we gonna get there?
Speaker 1 (17:22):
On the Ka Commas Spear Health text line five six
six nine zero, guys, I think there are two major
reasons that the Nuggets fell apart. KCP and Bruce Brown
are smiling big right now. Also, when you're starving as
long as the Nuggets were, you finally win a ship
and get the big bag, Jamal Murray, you're not hungry anymore,
fat and happy, doesn't win championships, it is time to
(17:44):
get hungry again. You know, there's a point there actually,
And I remember when Emmanuel Sanders talked after the Broncos
won their championship in twenty fifteen, he said, we were
kind of lost in the sauce afterwards, kind of feeling
yourself a little bit like Man Dynasty, remember Michael Malone
in the Parade Dynasty, Dynasty Dynasty, And at that point
(18:08):
you felt like the Nuggets might be able to build
on something because Nikola Jokic in the middle of in fact,
maybe even on the early side of his prime. Jamal
Murray was sensational through large parts of the postseason. Christian
Brown had just gotten there. He looked really good. Obviously,
Aaron Gordon looked phenomenal. I mean, they had production from everybody.
(18:29):
Even Michael Porter Junior had a couple of nice moments.
And then yeah, Bruce Brown and KCP. I don't know
about the KCP and Bruce Brown smiling big right now.
The Nuggets couldn't pay everybody, right, Bruce Brown where to
get like forty seven million or something like that. They
couldn't afford him. They could offer him like eight I
(18:50):
was like Yeah, that's all they could offer him. They
had no option for that KCP. Maybe there was a scenario,
maybe I can't remember that was last year, if there
was a scenario for them to be able to afford KCP.
But Burst Brown, I know for a fact that there
was just really nothing that they could do. I don't
know if they are celebrating the demise of Michael Malone
(19:10):
and the Nuggets as we sit here right now. But
the other part of that where you start to believe
your own press, you start to believe, well, we have
the best.
Speaker 7 (19:19):
Player in the world right now, and boy.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Nikole Jyokich just gonna bail us out of a lot
of things, and you start to live in that world.
Speaker 7 (19:27):
I could see that.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
To cos malone point that he made.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
Two weeks ago when he was talking about his guys
not watching film, this is to me what he was
talking about.
Speaker 6 (19:38):
He never called guys out by name on any of.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
The rants he's ever made. But for me, I just
had an idea of maybe who he's talking about, because
once you win a championship, that hunger sometimes go away,
and you can see it with how some guys play,
and maybe because that they just thought that they can
hit the light switch, and maybe that's one of the
reasons why they didn't study, and now it is one
of the reasons he's not fired.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
All right, we'll come back. I want to get into
a little bit of a conversation. We were talking a
little about the Broncos earlier and about the draft coming up.
The advantageous spot there. They haven't picked twenty, but there's
another opportunity that could present themselves for the Broncos in
the second round. We'll get to that coming up next.
(20:25):
As the Lakers are taking on the Mavericks. Got Lee,
I'm trying to think, like, what's what's the rooting interest there?
I guess it would probably be for the Mavericks, right,
because the Mavericks are thirty eight and forty one. I
don't think the Nuggets. Well, the Nuggets could catch the
Lakers three. I mean theoretically, So.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
You root for the MAVs tonight, I guess you, yeah,
you guess you're room for the Mavericks.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
Yes, root four.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
It it's so weird because for the Nuggets, and I
do want to get the Broncos here in a second,
but it's so weird for the Nuggets because.
Speaker 7 (20:55):
In a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
They just got to focus in and take care of business. Right,
If you win these games, you keep yourself out of
the play in. You win these three games, and you
guarantee yourself six at the worst. And that's if everything
goes against you, as in everybody else wins their games
and you're at least in the six. But we're scoreboard watching,
which means you get a chance to root for some
(21:18):
of these outcomes. Like last night, we were rooting for
several outcomes. A couple of them happened. It was nice,
but did not happen so well. So I don't know,
I find myself in this weird spot. Sacramento is can
only they locked in a play.
Speaker 7 (21:33):
In game spot?
Speaker 1 (21:34):
They can only kind of move a little because they're
thirty nine wins, so really they're not between nine and ten.
Speaker 7 (21:40):
They're just kind of hanging in there. So nevers have
something to play for here.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Not only can they potentially move up to nine instead
of being at ten.
Speaker 7 (21:49):
But for the reality is is those.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Two teams are kind of locked in where they're at.
There's not much much good. They're gonna face each other.
Mavericks Kings are gonna play in the play in. That's
just what it is.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
So basically what the Nuggets should do from here on out.
They should have shirts t shirts made with TCB.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
On them, right, just kind of a.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
Reminder refresher for every single guy. Okay, well, we got
to take care of our business.
Speaker 7 (22:18):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
That's it.
Speaker 7 (22:19):
Take your business.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
I mean, if they had they done that before, we
wouldn't be having this conversation.
Speaker 7 (22:24):
To say it. One thing I was thinking about.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
We were talking about the Broncos earlier and the opportunity
in round one to possibly trade back, and it was
along the lines of the Steelers at twenty one might
be in the quarterback market, or at least the Broncos
can sell to other teams that they're in the quarterback market,
and hey, come come get your guy, Come get Jackson
dart or should or Sanders if he happens to be there. Okay,
So the Broncos I think, would like to trade back.
(22:50):
If they can't, it means they can acquire multiple picks.
I said, I said a couple of days ago to Dave,
and I hate admitting when I'm wrong, but I think
I might have been wrong.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
Don't look so so shocks, you.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
Know, I was about to say something, but I said,
you know what, you don't have to let me not
step on this.
Speaker 7 (23:09):
Just just let it happen.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
This is a moment, so I'm not going to step
on it at all, So please continue.
Speaker 7 (23:17):
You have a long runway, I said, Todave that.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Because you're in the window that you are in, you
should be aggressive in targeting players, even in the first round,
maybe even adding a second first rounder. Like getting aggressive
targeting players that help you in this window because you
have your quarterback.
Speaker 6 (23:39):
I'm sorry, I got to back it for a second.
What Windo, are you looking through?
Speaker 7 (23:44):
I'm looking through that.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
You have. You found your quarterback, You've paired that with
your coach. You've already made the playoffs. The expectation this
year is to advance beyond the first round, the wildcard round.
In fact, your expectation is to win the division, which
means you want to add players that help you now.
Speaker 7 (23:59):
You did so in free agents. Every ad so far
has been.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Somebody that you expect to impact.
Speaker 7 (24:04):
You now and into the very near future. Correct, correct,
everything you've done so.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I made that argument today, but upon thinking about it
for a moment, I think that would be unnecessarily aggressive.
I think the aggressive if you're going to take an
aggressive approach, it should be more in the second round,
maybe the third round, but the second round more than anything.
Speaker 7 (24:27):
It's not saying you have to get up to the
top of the.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Second round, but I do think there's gonna be some
interesting players there. There always is, right, There's always guys
that were like, I cannot believe this guy made it
today too, Like in melk Heiper's mock, for example, and
we've been referencing it over the last couple of days.
Speaker 7 (24:43):
And I'm not specifically basing anything on milk Hiper.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
I'm just saying in his mock, I mean you're talking
about a Mecho Buca pick thirty six.
Speaker 7 (24:54):
That's a little surprise. We think he's going to go
in the first round.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Luther Burden going to the Patriots of thirty eight, Walter
Nolan defensive tackle going to thirty nine.
Speaker 7 (25:03):
These are all guys that.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
In whatever mocky you probably subscribe to, is have been
the first round all all this entire time, and all
of a sudden here there at the beginning of the
second round.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
But point of it is, they're picking in fifty one.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I think the aggressive move is to give yourself a
couple of second round picks, and you could say at
fifty one, but just use your third rounder in a
package to get back into the second round. Because honestly,
say you pick Ted McMillan at twenty or whatever you pick, right,
you pick a player at twenty is blue ship player.
(25:36):
Somebody that you have is the highest guy on your board.
You just take a running back at the second round. Okay,
assuming you didn't get one in the first you could
trade back into the second round and you get another
blue chip player. Mason Taylor, the tight end at LSU
that Ben talks about.
Speaker 7 (25:52):
All the time of ECT.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
He's going to be available right around that spot you
could come away in this draft.
Speaker 7 (25:57):
Imagine a world. Let's just use mel Kiper.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
You got Teed McMillan, you got Quinn Shawn Judkins, and
you got Mason Taylor. Those are your first three picks.
I mean, who cares that you didn't get him at
late in the third round. You got him in the
second round. Would you not be doing backflips if you
got those three picks in your first couple of days
of the draft, Well, I wouldn't be.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Doing backflips because I don't want another.
Speaker 6 (26:20):
Surgery, but I would be I'd be ecstatic about it.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
But I like your approach, but your idea theoretically, but
my approach would be different.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
It goes back to what I said before. Now, what you're.
Speaker 5 (26:35):
Saying being aggressive, right, I like that idea of being aggressive,
but let's apply it to a different strategy, right, Because
the idea is we're going to be aggressive. The way
we're going to be aggressive is the more picks that
we have. So now as you start to move throughout
the draft, you have now more draft capital to now
(26:57):
move back up and acquiritizes that ordinarily you might not
have been in a position to select, because right now
I think the Broncos might have well maybe six six
picks in this draft.
Speaker 7 (27:09):
They have seven, okay seven? They got one, two, three, four, three, six.
Speaker 6 (27:14):
Okay, so seven seven picks.
Speaker 5 (27:16):
Yeah, So now we know some teams out there they
are like twelve. Right, you're making your team better and
we know ifrom guys's not gonna make.
Speaker 6 (27:24):
Make the roster.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
But the idea is that you you bring it in
picks to add suppose of depth. So to me, at twenty,
you do a little what Sean Payton said that he
did last year when before they picked bo Knicks. Okay, well,
teams are gonna call the Broncos don't have to call
any teams right now.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
Teams are gonna call them and say, okay.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
Well, well we got teams I mean talking about moving up.
They want the spot. So so what is it worth
to you? Well, what are they offering you for? No, no,
tell me what you're willing to give me for. It's
not about what they're offering. What are you willing to
give me for? Get those picks still stay in the
first round, swap positions.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
Whatever team that is.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
You've added maybe another's first second round for twenty twenty
five or first for next year. And then now you
go in the draft and then you say, okay, well,
as guys who you thought were projected by these my
drafts to be taking my certain teams at a certain point, they're.
Speaker 7 (28:18):
Still on the board, right, that's exactly right.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
Now you can add these guys and then you can say, well,
you know what, we got it first next year. We
don't care about next year because we're gonna use that
money to go and get betteran guys, So what we're
gonna do with building for the future. We take that
twenty twenty six first round or move back up and
you get someone else. That's being aggressive for me because
you're stopping pouling picks because at the end of the day,
(28:43):
in my mind, the way that Sean Payton looks at
this thing, it's about two people and two people over them,
Sean and Bo, right, and if Bo does well, Sean
does well too as well. So now it's about filling
out the That's why they were aggressive, and they made
the move defensively in the draft, so it gives them
(29:05):
an opportunity to make these choices in the draft.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
And by the way, I'm not saying that my hope
is that they come away with three offensive players though.
Well no, I'm painting a picture here using melk Hiper's mock.
If they go D line to twenty, I'm thrilled. I
am like over the moon because I think that's you
got to continue to invest on strength.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
Well, I don't think a lot of people in Bronco's
country would be happy with that.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Well they should be, because you just watch the team
that continues to do that in Philadelphia Eagles win a
Super Bowl. That's what they do, they continue to invest
in the trenches. They invest specifically on that side of
the ball because guess what you can have injuries is
a rotational position. And those blue chip players they stack
up and they matter. The Broncos are in good shape
(29:51):
on the defensive line, which could always be better.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Well, it's just like Mike Shannan used to tell me
when I play for him, we don't use timeouts for defense.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
So in this case, in this case, this league is
about offense and building weapons.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
And I just told you Sean is thinking about bo
because he's thinking about himself and saying, okay, well, and.
Speaker 6 (30:11):
I totally get it.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
As offensive coordinator and a literary regia is, I got
to make him look great and I set myself up
to as well.
Speaker 6 (30:19):
So now you want to go more offense than you
go defense, and I expect that.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
They already said they'renna take running back, and I expect them,
we're going to take one within the first three picks.
That's going to happen. So they're gonna go offense in
one of these picks. It's just more an acknowledgment of
stick true to your board, like that's that's kind of
what I feel and then again, listen to the offers
if they make sense for now and into the future.
Speaker 7 (30:42):
I'm with you.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
I love that.
Speaker 7 (30:48):
I don't know even things up in the series.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Tough one last night, although it was nice seeing Zach
Veen out there in his first major league start, got
a bunt single. Maybe he can do a little bit
more tonight against the brew crew like Shelby's down there
hanging out. But man, he dressed head to toe and
his Brewer's gear yesterday with us, and of course he
got to celebrate a dub. So hopefully the Rockies can
get back on track tonight. Sends a tallow on the mound,
(31:12):
and he's been really really sharp early on the Mavericks
Lakers games underway. Luke, of course out there run around
his former I guess his former team Dallas, Go Mavericks, said,
every Nuggets fan go Mavericks, and I think in general,
everybody that hates the Lakers, go Mavericks quickly before he
(31:33):
gets to show me the money. The Avalanche got some
pretty awesome news today sort of. I think Gabe Landsgog
has been loaned, if you will, to the Colorado Eagles
on a conditioning stint. So Gabe landisgog the captain? Could
(31:54):
he could he possibly maybe on his way back. You
don't get this far because this is obviously the farthest
he's been since the injury since I mean since the championship, right,
I mean he hasn't played since then. He's in a
conditioning stance sort of. They're gonna check in with him
here in a couple of days. The playoffs are on
the other side. The Abs, of course, are going to
(32:17):
play the Dallas Dallas Stars. More to the Mavericks. They're
gonna play the Dallas Stars. Al Right, man, could be
a pretty cool lift.
Speaker 7 (32:25):
What do you think?
Speaker 5 (32:25):
Yeah, this is a great first step as a guy
that's had knee injury, had knee surgery twice. The first
part is getting back on the horse, meaning for him,
getting back skating and building his conditioning because you got
to think how long has he been outside of the game,
and this conditioning is a huge part of it. Usually
(32:46):
when a guy has an injury and he's not well conditioned,
his body tries to balance himself and it ends up
in another injury.
Speaker 6 (32:53):
So this is kind of the first step. It would
be great.
Speaker 5 (32:57):
Can the captain make it come back, I mean giving
I guess the phrase captain comeback? You know, reviottalizing it, right,
I'm just saying it just it just set up perfectly,
at least it did in my head.
Speaker 7 (33:10):
So didn't come back?
Speaker 6 (33:12):
Will it not be captain comeback?
Speaker 7 (33:14):
I don't totally honest I say that, But.
Speaker 6 (33:17):
What captain comeback? Say it with me. It's okay.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
You can't do it because you won't do it. You're
wanting the same thing. You're wanting this first step to
lead to a last step. Well, he's back on eyes.
Speaker 7 (33:29):
I just know that it'll mean so much.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
I mean, whatever role, because he's obviously not gonna be
a full time player, even if it's a power play,
whatever role he's in it, it's gonna be big for
this team.
Speaker 6 (33:41):
Captney comeback.
Speaker 7 (33:42):
Can't do it.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Don't do that.
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