05-15-25 KOA Sports Hour 3 with Orlando Franklin

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Walking up to Broncos Country tonight at six o'clock Nuggets
and Thunder Game six six threats, And I want to
correct something very quickly. Thirty two teams now in the
NHL because they added the Seattle Crack and the biggest
gool To Knights a couple of years ago.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
So my bad on that.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
But yeah, thirty two teams now still seven in Canada
that have not won a championship since nineteen ninety three.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
That is still correct.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Still a couple teams in Canada with my seven. Hey,
do you know there was twenty three people, twenty three
guys on that team that that team that won that
Stanley Cup that were from Canada. So it was the
Montreal Canadians team Canada right there. Okay, that's why they
won that, That's why they won it. Yeah, So if

(00:44):
we could ever get back to about twenty two to
twenty three guys on a team in Canada.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
Is that absolutely?

Speaker 2 (00:53):
That's the issue.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (00:55):
So you think the Americans are basically screwing up the
Canadian teams, the proof is in to put many Americans
on each roster.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
The proof is in the putting. You got twenty two
guys when when will we ever see that ever again?

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Well, Canadians are hoping before they die. Where we are right,
we are, especially to Toronto, mayple leice. We are.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Let's see if we could get twenty two Canadians on
a roster.

Speaker 4 (01:20):
We see what happens.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Minutes ago, David Adelman says that Jamal Murray is still questionable,
definitely sick. Though we heard a report there from Kathy
from Fox thirty one that the expectation is he is
going to play the number. As you mentioned, Dave has
not moved off of five and a half, which means
Vegas also expects Jamal Murray to play tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:39):
I think, without even knowing what kind of sickness, I
would expect him to play. Maybe maybe he's not going
to have, you know, a full tank of gas, so
to speak. Maybe the sickness limits him in terms of
his energy level. I don't know, but they got it,
you know, they got to find a way to win
with him, and he's got to a way to do

(02:01):
the best he can or whatever the illness is. And
Denver's got to find a way to win a game
one game and then send that thing to game seven.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Very excited about it. Looking forward to it.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
We'll check out with other guy, Anthony Rody is going
to be out there for a beat, just to get
the lay of the land, the scene. He's been sending
out some really cool videos, by the way, on our Twitter.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Page at Kawa, Colorado.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
The latest one on nicolea Jokic woman up there on
the court, So that's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
We'll have him down there.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Grant Smith's All's going to be down there to representing
Koway five six six nine zeros are Kawai comas Spirit
health text line. I want to ask you, did you
see this Caleb Williams story earlier today about Seth Wickersham.
Holy cow, this thing has been I mean it's been
burning things up on social media.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
So to catch everybody, Y have.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Seth Wickersham's working on a book about Caleb Williams and
the report that he has in there is that and
Caleb he admits this. Now, this is a This is
after Marty with the Chicago Bears admitting that he and
his dad had talked about before he was drafted by
the Bears that they did not want to do it.
They were going to try to force their way out
of that situation. Apparently Caleb kind of fell in love

(03:04):
with Kevin O'Connell with the Minnesota Vikings, and he wanted
to be drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. This is a
quote from Caleb's father, Chicago is the place quarterbacks go
to die. That was the quote that they were talking about.
Can we force our way out of this situation now?
Chicago said, Ryan Pole said, hey, we're gonna draft you

(03:25):
no matter what. So they were trying to basically pull
kind of a John Elway slash Eli Manning situation. They
got cold feet, they decided not to do it, but
sort of a fascinating acknowledgment here. I thought the more
interesting thing coming out of this report was that he
was talking about watching film last year and he said

(03:49):
that he would watch film alone. He never got instruction
or guidance from any coach. Quote, No one tells me
what to watch. All I did was just turn it on.
And I thought to myself about how often we've talked
about young quarterbacks coming into the league, and how often
it seems like the league fails them or teams failed them.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
In what universe do you think.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
It's acceptable that a coaching staff would take a young
quarterback and just say yeah, you're you're good, figure it out.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
On your own.

Speaker 5 (04:18):
Well, if that's true, that's pretty that's that's pretty bad.
With respect to them. Caleb Williams dad not wanting Caleb
Williams to go to Chicago.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
I'm not mad at him.

Speaker 5 (04:35):
Right, the draft is set up and teams basically decide
where you are going to spend your first part of
your career, and very very very few guys have enough
leverage that they can say hold up, nope, we're not
doing that. So for the very very few guys that

(04:59):
have that leverage, like John Elway, like Eli Manning, I'm
not mad that they use that leverage. Now, I think
what his dad said pretty much is a fact. When
I meant I'm thinking about the quarterbacks that have played
in Chicago, I mean the last great quarterback to play

(05:21):
in Chicago.

Speaker 4 (05:24):
And go.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
I mean you say Jim McMahon.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
I think Jim was a really good player.

Speaker 5 (05:32):
I don't think Jim was a Hall of Fame player, right,
I just and I don't think Jim would will go
down as one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever played. Now,
if you want to say one of the greatest competitors
and tough and all that. Absolutely played in a Super
Bowl championship team.

Speaker 4 (05:50):
But I mean the last Jay Cutler.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
That's who comes to mind for me is Jake Cutler.
But even look at the ends of his career and
it looked like he completely checked out.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
And there's a reason for that. There has to be
a reason for that.

Speaker 5 (06:06):
I mean, he got them. He was the quarterback when
the Bears went to the NFC Championship game and lost
to the Packers. I believe in Chicago was that the
NFC championship game. That was when Aaron Rodgers was playing
for the Packers.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
I mean, Rex Grosman got him to the Super Bowl.
But that's not he's.

Speaker 5 (06:25):
Yeah, no, you're right, You're right, he sure did so.
I mean, you go back into the Bears, you want
to go way way back. The Bears won when the
NFL Championship in like sixty three. I think that was
Billy Wade. They beat the Giants, And as a kid,

(06:46):
I just remember watching on TV and the only team
here in Denver back then that you could get it
was Channel seven. We watched Chicago Bears like virtually every week.
Just remember watching that team.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
But it's been.

Speaker 5 (07:02):
I mean, I think Chicago has has had the least
amount of success at quarterback over their entire franchise of
any NFL team playing today.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
They've never had a four thousand yard passer.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
Never, And you look at that in today's world like
that's the expect Like that's kind of the standard what
you expect, even if you're not even a top tier quarterback.
You're thinking with the athletes that you have, the wide receivers,
how these coaches are designing and out for to force
feed certain guys to get to four thousand yards. You

(07:39):
would think that that's not an issue, but yet people
tend to struggle all the time because of that. I
look at last year Cliff Kingsbury and what he did
with Jaden Daniels and the success Jaden Daniels had, and
a lot of that is just because there's thirty two
of these jobs in the world when you look at
the National Football League, doesn't mean that these coaches know

(08:01):
how to develop these players. So I get it, Chicago's
never had that guy to go over for four thousand
yards and it's where quarterbacks go to die and all
these different things. But a lot of that is pointed
at the people behind the scenes, the people that are
not playing the game, because you really have to design

(08:22):
these playbooks now as far as what do these guys
do well and how do you get more of it
in the playbook. The NFL is so constricted as far
as what you can do and how much time you
could spend with these guys. Even when you show up
to OTAs. The first couple of weeks that you show
up to OTA's, you're in a classroom. You're not allowed

(08:42):
to go out there on the football field. You're not
allowed to run routes, you're not throwing to wide receivers,
you're not doing anything.

Speaker 4 (08:49):
You are in a classroom.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
They're teaching you the playbook and you're lifting weights. That's
your first couple of weeks. Your next couple weeks, yeah,
you're allowed on the field. You can't even put defense
out there. You put up cans. That's what you're doing.
Here's a three technique, something that doesn't move. It's a
garbage can. So how do guys actually get better? And
then for the last couple of weeks of OTAs, that's

(09:12):
when you do your you know, your eleven on eleven
and your mandatory mini camp and them your training camp
stuff and all these different things. But quarterbacks never get hit.
And I think that if a quarterback doesn't have to
have the fear of getting hit, and it's oh, let
him throw, let him throw, how are you really developing
a guy? Because if you're just going to allow him

(09:33):
to throw, there's no real time clock in his head
now where now he can hold on to the ball
for five seconds and complete that route and it's, oh,
great throw. You know, you threw it right on the money.
But if your left guard got beat and you have
a big three hundred and thirty pounds human being in
your face, can you still make that throw with the
fear of getting hit.

Speaker 4 (09:52):
We've got a text or three h three five two? Oh.
Don't you think it sets a bad precedent? Though?

Speaker 5 (09:58):
If quarterbacks start refusing bad teams? I think it's so
it's so unlikely that a quarterback would have that kind
of leverage. And even though it's being reported in Seth's
book that Caleb Williams's dad talked about not wanting him
to go to Chicago and that's where quarterbacks go to die,

(10:19):
the reality of it is he went to Chicago. So
you stopped and thinking about all the drafts over all
the years, how many guys have really been able to
say Nope, I'm not going there too that. I remember
John Elway and Eli Manning, Shadure.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
I think in Dion thought for a minute that they
might be able to do something.

Speaker 5 (10:37):
I think that wound up hurting. I think that logic
really backfired on on Shedor when Coach Prime came out,
I mean number one.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
He came out.

Speaker 5 (10:48):
He talked about the team that actually drafted him in
the fifth round. He talked about, you know, I like
what they've done in the off season, but and I'm
paraphrasing here, but we're not interested in going to Cleveland.
I mean, in hindsight, that's that's not probably the right
way to look at it.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
No, it's always bad teams that are looking for quarterbacks
as well. It's not a good team. There's not a
playoff team looking for a quarterback. No, Typically it's always
a bad team that saying, hey, we need a quarterback.
In Webster Stielers, Mike Tomlins found a way to win
without big bend there and found a way to have
a positive record.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
You mentioned Cliff Kingsbury, and I think that that's such
an undervalued point of this entire conversation and about where
these guys go and the type of coaching they're going
to receive.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
I mean, you look at bon Nicks going with Sean Payton.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
It's one of the reasons why we were so excited
about Boone Nicks here in Denver, because we knew Sean
had the buying and belief in him. Cliff Kingsbury, by
the way, could have been hired by the Bears, but
they went with Shane Waldron for some reason, even knowing
they were drafting Caleb Williams and Cliff had worked with Caleb,
they just still decided to go with Shane Waldron. But yeah,
I mean, that is the undercurrent of this entire conversation.
It's not just about the developing of the quarterbacks. It's

(11:59):
about where they go in the plan for them.

Speaker 4 (12:02):
You know.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
For Caleb Williams, when when I found this information out
today about well, at least again according to him, that
he didn't have guidance on watching film as a quarterback,
it certainly reframed.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
My thoughts about how he had the season he had
his sixty eight sacks. It was sacks sixty eight times last.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Year that refrains that a little bit, don't you think,
Like when we think about what he could be, and
especially now with Ben Johnson as his coach, there.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
Were games last year where it was a one score
game and he's throwing the ball fifty three times in
a one score game. It makes absolutely no sense to
your point.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah, And I also think this.

Speaker 5 (12:36):
I think if you go back and look at Caleb
Williams in his two years at USC, he had a
lot of success throwing off schedule, and I mean I.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
Thought he was really athletic.

Speaker 5 (12:49):
He's got a plus arm, made a bunch of throws successfully.
But that is not a winning recipe in the NFL, right,
That's I mean, you're still think about it that little
bit how Russell played what he was here. Russell, you
playoff schedule when you're forced to playoff schedule, but when

(13:12):
you've got good protection, you got to stand in the
pocket and read and the ball's got to come out.
And what I saw really from Russ and I think
Caleb to a certain degree too, is they go back
with the idea that hey, I'm going to buy myself
some time. I'm going to pinball out of pressure and
then I'll create enough time that I can find somebody

(13:35):
that is.

Speaker 4 (13:35):
Open after four or five seconds.

Speaker 5 (13:37):
More times than not, you put your offensive lineman in
an unwinnable position because they.

Speaker 4 (13:43):
Don't know where you're going to be, and you just you.

Speaker 5 (13:46):
Can't sustain success in the NFL playing that way, I.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
Think you could win, but I don't think you could
win the big game.

Speaker 4 (13:54):
I don't think you can win a super Bowl that way.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
And when you look at a guy like Lamar Jackson,
his hole in higher game since he's gotten the National
Football League has been able to what can I do
with my legs? How could I buy myself a little
bit more time? But that has caused injuries, and yet
he has not played in the Super Bowl. He hasn't
even made it there yet. Right, So I do think

(14:18):
that you could win some games, but it's not sustainable
and you're certainly not going to get to the big game.
A lot of football is saying, my receiver is going
to be at a spot, my tight end, my running back,
they're going to be at a specific spot. And some
of these quarterbacks they're letting that ball go because they
have worked at a thousand times and they trust that

(14:39):
he's going to be exactly where he needs to be,
and we're going to move the chains now on third down,
we're going to get a fresh set of downs. But
when you continue to just live in this world up, oh,
we could just run around, something extraordinary is going to happen.
Even the year Russell Wilson they won the Super Bowl
when they beat us back in twenty thirteen, I put

(15:00):
that on that defense, the leasion of Boom right the
first play of the game.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
It's a safety.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
That defense was the number one defense in the National
Football League that year, going against the number one offense,
and we were a on time offense.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
Yet we still lost in them. And I don't put
it on Russ.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
I give it all the flowers to that defense and
what that defense was able to do. But now you
put Russ as a player that can play on schedule
and everything is on time. You're blowing out teams. Now
when you match that up with a good defense or
a great defense.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
A quick question here, Dave, and actually I'm really curious
what you'd say with this. I imagine you'd say, Bo,
would you rather have Bo Nicks or Kaleb Williams?

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Right now? You were really high on Kayleb.

Speaker 4 (15:43):
First of all, you're leading the witness counselor you're right?

Speaker 2 (15:46):
Sorry about that? Uh?

Speaker 5 (15:48):
Would I rather have bow Knicks or Kleb Williams. I
would take bow knicks, But that's not listen. I was
higher on Caleb Williams than a lot of people with
him coming to the league, and I exious to see
with Ben Johnson as the head coach and play designer,
I'm anxious to see how Caleb Williams looks this year.

(16:09):
My guess is Chicago is going to be a much
much improved team because there's going to be and I
think you'll see Caleb Williams play more on time. I
think the ball will come out. You know, you look
at Jared Goff Jared Goffs not a very good athlete,
and look at how he played in the Detroit offense. Now,
Detroit has a lot of guys in Chicago has some

(16:32):
guys on offense. But I think the scheme, I think
you'll see Caleb Williams throwing the ball more on time
this year than he has maybe in his career.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
I'm looking forward to that.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
I think you're probably right where we appreciate Caleb Williams
for the upside that he offers. I mean, there's a
reason he would number one overall. But I really love
Bonix's floor. I really like the consistency you get out
of bow Nicks. And once again, if we're saying here
in Denver, it's definitely Bo because the head coach wants
him here.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
This is his handpicked guy.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
Also both Sorry no I say, but I think more
like in a vacuum. I wonder how the NFL community
after last year. I wonder how the NFL community would
be that question.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
I think where you got to look at when you
look at Bo Nicks. He did something that I've never
seen done before, and that was developed throughout the course
of the season during his rookie year week one, week two,
staring down wide receivers, telegraph in his passes, letting you
know exactly where he's going and to where he ended

(17:39):
at the end of the season. It was incredible the
way he was able to develop week after week after week.
And that was with the whole entire playbook. Sean Payton
did in the whole anything back. He forced Bo to
elevate his game and come to where he wanted to
get him to. And Bo said okay and accept the challenge.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
When we come back, we'll talk about the huge game
tonight between the Nuggets and the Thunder. We'll check in
with our Anthony Rodd, who's live from Ball Arena Game
six between the Nuggets and the Thunder from Ball Arena.
Nice intro music there, Zach, and to help us break

(18:20):
it down live from Ball Arena, Anthony Rodd is out there.
He's been sending all sorts of cool videos and photos
out from our social media accounts at kwait, Colorado.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Joins us Now, Anthony, my friend.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
How are you, gentlemen?

Speaker 6 (18:33):
I'm doing great currently, as you saw in those videos,
standing still at the baseline underneath the Nuggets soup right
here inside Ball Arena, right to rock and roll.

Speaker 4 (18:41):
So what time game time is?

Speaker 5 (18:42):
Six thirty? I think what time it's five thirty? Have
they already open the doors?

Speaker 6 (18:49):
Yeah, the doors are now open, so fans are starting
to flood in. I'd probably say in the last fifteen
twenty minutes or so by night count.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
I've been saying here at Court Science since about four fifteen.

Speaker 5 (19:00):
Any chance you can grab a ball, go out, knock
down a free throw before the thing starts.

Speaker 6 (19:07):
You know, I gotta tell you, Dave, I should because
working on his free throws for a significant amount of time.
About thirty minutes ago was DeAndre Jordan. I think, respectfully,
he's got to get out even more so you can
even disappointment with himself. Obviously one of the better free
throw shoes. We remember the hack of Jordan from a

(19:28):
years past. But man, if if he's gonna shoot free
throws out there like that, I think he would even
give me the opportunity.

Speaker 4 (19:33):
I should have asked him for the ball.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Hey, can you tell us what's going on with Jamal Murray?

Speaker 1 (19:38):
We saw some of the quotes a little bit ago
from interim head coach David Adaman. He said that it's
going to be a true game time decision for him.
You've heard anything more than that.

Speaker 4 (19:48):
Yeah, you said it.

Speaker 6 (19:49):
Yeah, within the last couple hours, obviously, we had heard
that Jamal Murray is going to be questionable with an illness,
and like you said in this pregame press availability, head
coach David Adelman said that he's definitely sick. Found out
this morning and there they're legitimately talking about it being
a decision. All the way up until tip off. They've
had discussions about who had started in his place. So
it's it's very serious. This is this is definitely a
conversation of not only if he's going to play, but

(20:10):
how much you're going to get from him. Notably, not shockingly,
outside of all the players who have come on practice,
I have not seen any of Jamal Murray out here whatsoever.
You got to imagine he's going to be getting those liquids,
trying to rest up as much as you can, to
try to make it even even a possible decision there
game time. But yeah, it's it's a it's a real
possibility he misses this game, and even if he doesn't,

(20:30):
how much you're going to get out Jamal. So we'll
have to see. But I've not seen him out here yet.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
What have you seen it as far as just the
pregame warm up? Have you seen anything different? Is it
just the usual status quo? Anybody doing anything different? Michael
Porter Junior working on any that corner three that he
just loves to take. Have you seen anything differently today
in pregame warm up?

Speaker 2 (20:51):
Well, I'll start right there.

Speaker 6 (20:52):
Michael Porter Junior was out here for just a little bit,
but I don't know, you know, I know for a fact,
like Jamal Murray, for example, when he comes out, he
doesn't stay out very long. But I feel like in
the times that I've seen Michael Fort Junior warmup out here,
I think he usually goes quite a bit longer than
he was out here.

Speaker 4 (21:07):
He did.

Speaker 6 (21:07):
He wasn't out here long, I want to say, maybe
being generous, about five minutes. And honestly, he was hitting
some stuff early, but he started to struggle right before
he went in, so I don't know if he was
soon a little something obviously in that shoulder that we
know that he's dealing with. But his warmups did not
last very long.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
I will tell you.

Speaker 6 (21:21):
I know these guys are professionals and typically they're going
to hit just about everything in warmups. But man, I
gotta tell you, watch for Peyton Watson in the corner
on those threes tonight. He was nailing everything in the corner,
specifically from three. Christian Brown got a little hot later
on in warm ups and so so so we'll see
obviously Joker out here just doing his thing. But but
you know, and then in terms of attitude, I'll say

(21:42):
on this as well, everyone obviously wants to know what
the pressure on knowing that.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
To do or die situation.

Speaker 6 (21:46):
It's been a bit of a mix mostly, I would
say for definitely early on from Christian Brown and from
Peyton Watson, definitely loose. Those guys are having fun out
here like they always do with all the assistants out here.
Joker outside of one image of him kind of messing around,
have a bit of a crazy eyes face with one
of the assistant coaches. Other than that, he was all business.
So it looks like he's gonna be ready to go
off again on this game. But yeah, we'll have to see.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Anthony appreciate it man again.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
We'll follow along on Twitter at Kaway Colorado. Great stuff
was always my friends. You always appreciate it, all right.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
Anthony Rodds Why from ball Arena.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
I don't know, Dave that that news of Javal Maury
doesn't sound great?

Speaker 2 (22:21):
I gotta be honest.

Speaker 5 (22:22):
Well, no, no, it didn't sound great when we first
started the show, as he was listed as questionable.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
So what was the noise you made?

Speaker 4 (22:34):
Then?

Speaker 5 (22:34):
I tried to figure out what letters constituted that sound.
But my guess is he'll play. I don't know how
well of play or how long you'll be able to
hang in there if he's got the flu or food
poisoning or something like that. But that's I mean from
a defensive standpoint, he can be replaced. I don't have

(22:57):
any idea how they're going to replace his offensive stuff.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
Well, we saw earlier in the year, right when Russell
Rustbrook was getting a ton of minutes. I think that
that would be the obvious, you know, solution. I don't
think that you know, all the decisions that we've seen
Jamal Murray make. I think that's where it kind of
questioned that because Restbrook could be a little bit of

(23:22):
a wild card at times. But I think that that's
where your two man game, especially at the top of
the key will come from also, which that would be
a nice rotation as well. But it didn't surprise me
to hear that Jamal Murray wasn't out there. I think
that you got to get as much fluids as impossible,
you got to be flushing that body as much as possible,

(23:43):
you got to be rushing your legs and just as
much rest everything that you could do.

Speaker 4 (23:48):
And you know, for.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
Football players, they have toward all shots and that's what helps.

Speaker 4 (23:53):
With the pain.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
I don't know what you do when you're not feeling well,
but just pump yourself as both such mighty ivs and
as much what's that's possible in this situation.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
I mean, to your point, on the offensive side of
the ball, he's averaging over twenty one points per game
in this just this series.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
So as much as there were times, as you mentioned during.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
The regular season when Russ Westbrook filled in and he
did a good job, I thought, I thought he did
a really good job. That's twenty one points per game
in this series that has already been very, very tight.
I just I don't think you have that expectation of
Russ if he's going to play majority of those minute.

Speaker 5 (24:28):
I think as important as trying to figure out where
the offensive production comes from. Should Jamal not play, I mean,
Westbrook would be as O said, I think he'd be
the logical candidate handling the ball. But Westbrook's not going
to play, you know, forty five minutes. So who's the

(24:51):
next option in terms of handling the basketball?

Speaker 4 (24:55):
Right?

Speaker 5 (24:56):
They ran in Game five, they ran Murray off the screens,
took him off the ball from time to ten when
they had ag bring the ball up. But you're not
gonna have Aaron Gordon bring the ball up all night
long either to get in into your offense. So Peyton
Watson really is not a ball handler. So maybe I

(25:18):
don't know, maybe Pickett plays. I think I think the
the reluctance to play Jalen Pickett is number one. He
hadn't played hardly at all in this series, and I'm
not even sure if he's been in the game. Number two,
from a defensive standpoint, who's you know, who's he going
to check? He's not gonna be SGA, right, So there's

(25:41):
some I mean, there's some issues I think from David
Adelman obviously if Jamal Murray can't go, but just differing
levels of basketball.

Speaker 4 (25:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
I think what I'm trying to get to though, is
you know, yes, Westbrook might have a big drop off
as far as the points quote goes, right, but he
can now look for that slasher, right, there has to
be continue his movement on that basketball court.

Speaker 4 (26:09):
I think he's for sure, and then you know, then
but then you find somebody can you continue?

Speaker 3 (26:14):
Like you got to try to find somebody for that,
right And a couple of years ago he was a
walking double double every single night, Right, I mean, so
we know that he has that ability in him. I
questioned his decision making in certain situations, but when he
is thinking passing, thinking getting his other teammates involved, you
could have still have a very productive and offens seriously agree.

Speaker 5 (26:36):
And if Jamal can't play, Westbrook's the primary ball handler.

Speaker 4 (26:40):
But when he's out of the game, then As has
to pick it up. But who who is who's in
the game of the backcourt? Right you get probably.

Speaker 5 (26:49):
Guy Christian, and I mean Christian is not really a
ball handler, not really. They've got some issues if Jamal,
I mean certainly, if he's not able to play at all,
they've got big issues. But if he's limited and can't play,
you know, in anything other than Spurts, they got to
find somebody that can just bring the ball to the court.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, averaging almost forty two minutes per game in this series,
and averaged yeah, at forty two in the Clippers series.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
So it's the offense production, it's the minutes.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Because we already said he's got like six and a
half guys in rotation right now, you know, I mean,
obviously it goes to eight, But the point of it
is is like the rotation is critical and this is.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
The the critical game, So I don't I.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
One.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
This one was troubling.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
I was coming into the day like odd Nuggets got
this game, feeling great about it. And then right before
we get on the air, he saw this questionable illness
thing and popped him like, hey, maybe.

Speaker 4 (27:46):
He plays and maybe he goes for twenty seven. There
it is, Meg's gonna go off. Flu game. Yeah, blue game.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
I'm here for it.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
Finally get our final moments here at KA Sports getting
ready for Broncos Country Tonight coming up here in just
a matter of moments, and then Game six of the
Nuggets and the Thunder Denver Nuggets on Twitter moments ago.
Jamal Murray is available out, Hunter Tyson and Deron Holmes
are the only players listen out.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
So Jamal Murray in Vegas? Yeah in the preseason? Correct?

Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah he did.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah, he's still working his way back from that achilles.
I I'm excited to see him next year. I mean
that the Nuggets for a second. Again, we're still playing basketball.
They don't have any draft picks they know first or
a second rounder in his upcoming draft, so you're gonna
have to have Dron Holmes show up and be a.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Contributor to this next year.

Speaker 4 (28:41):
I agree, all right.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
So Jamal Murray available Dave for a moment here in
Benjamin Albright joining us in studio. Hi, Ben, what's going on?

Speaker 2 (28:49):
How does that make you feel knowing that he's officially
good to go, Dave?

Speaker 4 (28:53):
Well, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (28:55):
With them reporting he's available, I don't know. I don't
know if I would read into he's officially good to go.

Speaker 4 (29:02):
He might. I mean, who knows how he is. So,
I mean, you know, all you hope is he can.

Speaker 5 (29:09):
Give you I doubt very seriously, if he's gonna he's
gonna get to his average in terms of minutes per
game played in this series or the previous series, which
what you say is forty two. Yep, you know, I
find it hard to believe he'll go forty two tonight.
Maybe realistically you hope he can give you thirty, but
it can be a quality thirty that he's you know,

(29:30):
if you're Oak City and you have that report, I
mean you're probably gonna tell you guys, listen, you got
to make him work. You got to hound him, you
got to get into him early. You've got to make
him expend energy on both ends of the court. So
we're just guessing in terms of, you know, how much
realistically Jamal can can give you physically.

Speaker 4 (29:52):
Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
But I think if I just had to put a
number on it right now, game six, win or go home.
I like Jamal Murray going out there giving us twenty
five minutes tonight. I don't think it's going to be
anywhere near what we've seen. I think you said earlier
that its average was what two forty two minutes, So
that that's the problem when you play okay, see, you
got to play two way basketball. You can't just go

(30:15):
out there and say, oh man, here we go. That's
a very good defensive basketball team. So they're going to
make you earn everything that you got on that side,
and you got to turn around. You got to turn
and play defense. That's what wins championships. That's what's going
to get forced a game seven. So I like Jamal
Murray going out there tonight with the flu game taking
care of business, but only about twenty five minutes, But

(30:36):
twenty five quality minutes.

Speaker 4 (30:38):
I'll take that any day of the week.

Speaker 7 (30:40):
It's interesting, you got a lot of people on social
media talking about this potentially being the Jamal flu game,
you know that kind of stuff. But the end of
the day, for me, this has got to be the
Michael Porter junior Rus Westbrook game that you guys have
to justify your continued existence on this basketball team.

Speaker 4 (30:55):
I mean, I like this, like you get bass. I
like it. You know, so yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
I don't know if they physically can move on from MPH.
I know they get talked about a lot.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
You can they can dumb that country. They'll find somebody
that I would say.

Speaker 5 (31:11):
I mean, if you had to bet your mortgage that
he's back next year or not back.

Speaker 4 (31:17):
I'm with Ben. When you don't have a first.

Speaker 3 (31:20):
Round pick or a sick you know, you're looking to
acquire some things and get your basketball team better.

Speaker 4 (31:27):
I like your players. I like what I've been saying.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
Justify your existence, why you should be on This's what
this is.

Speaker 5 (31:34):
If you get eliminated, you you better have been filling
that stasheet because you're not gonna be here anymore.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
He's just such a frustrated player. I mean, I don't
get it. Night and night out. He should have ten
rebounds every single night for this basketball team. You're seven
feet tall. I don't care that your shoulder hurts, you're
seven feet tall, Get down there and rebound. At the
very least, that's what you could do for this basketball team.