March 17, 2024 • 42 mins
The state of the Mavericks and the MVP race and the playoff seeding chase in the West are the areas of focus on the latest edition of The Saturday Stein Line. Special guest: Adam Mares of DNVR Sports joins us to talk Nuggets, Nikola Jokić and more.
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(00:02):
Welcome to the Saturday Steinline with MarkStein, presented by Panini Trading Cards and
Collectibles. On ninety seven to oneThe Freak, the official homes all Dallas
Mavericks games, hosted by legendary NBAreporter and publisher of his substack, the
Steinline. Here's Mark Stein. Lovethat music, Love it. Hey,
(00:26):
everybody, Welcome in to the SaturdaySteinline, presented by Panini Trading Cards and
Collectibles. It is great. Let'sbe back in our cozy little studio now
that I'm back in the country.Last two shows had to assemble those from
(00:48):
five thousand ish miles away, sothis will be more like it, more
of what you're accustomed to getting herein the Saturday lunch hour. We are
basically down to the final month ofthe NBA regular season. Tomorrow is Saint
Patrick's Day and then it is legitfour weeks left on the regular season calendar.
(01:11):
It's the last four weeks for theplayoff seedings to be sorted out.
It's the last four weeks for MVPcandidates to state their cases. From a
local perspective, what does this mean? The Mavericks are thirty eight and twenty
nine as we speak, down totheir last fifteen games. The simple math
(01:36):
tells us it would take a twelveand three finish to get to fifty wins
for the second time in Jason Kiddsthree seasons as head coach. I suspect
a twelve and three finish is outof reach. Most likely at this point.
That would be easier to forecast ifwe knew how soon Luka Doncic can
(01:59):
return. Will probably get that answertoday. We might even get that answer
while we're on the air. TheMavericks are practicing as we speak, and
so there will be a health updateforthcoming during this hour, most likely from
the aforementioned Jason Kidd, I wouldsay the sixth seed in the West that
is still within reach. You haveto say Sacramento appears to have the cleanest
(02:25):
path to finish sixth and grabbing that, but Dallas still has a shot at
it, And man, is thesixth seed valuable. It doesn't sound like
much, but it's really valuable thisseason, not only for the obvious reasons.
(02:46):
If you finish sixth, you're automaticallyin the playoffs. You don't even
have to mess with the playing round. But I think this season in the
West, in particular with what's goingon in Minnesota. The Wolves are gonna
be without Karl Anthony Towns for therest of the regular season. We don't
(03:06):
know if Towns will be back forthe playoffs, and even if he is,
it means that the Wolves are gonnahave to work him in on the
fly, get try to get himreacclimated. Without practice time and prep time,
They're just gonna have to throw himin there. It really does strike
me that Denver and Oklahoma City therethe number one seed is going to either
(03:30):
the Nuggets or the Thunder. Iknow Kat is not everyone's cup of tea,
I grant you that, but withouthim, Minnesota is asking a ton,
offensively tons of Anthony Edwards. Andnow look after the other night after
(03:52):
Thursday night, with the Mavericks hangingright there with the Thunder without Luka Doncic
in an now national televised, nationallytelevised game, second night of a back
to back, the Mavericks could certainlymake the case that they should feel good
about facing Oklahoma City in the firstround. But I would think pretty much
(04:16):
anyone would rather play Minnesota given theuncertainty about Karl Anthony Town's return, than
the Thunder in the first round,and certainly Denver. Wherever Denver ends upseted
one, two, or three.You do not want the Nuggets in round
one. The Nuggets are the defendingchampions. We're going to see them in
(04:38):
here tomorrow afternoon at the AAC andthey know exactly who they are. You
want to play the Nuggets as aslate as possible. I would. I'm
not buying get them early. No, don't get them early. Stay away
from the Nuggets. Again, numbersix is not typically something you would get
(05:00):
excited about. But again, let'spretend you still buy a newspaper every day.
When you looked at the Western Conferencestandings this morning with your proverbial ceial,
just look at it. Phoenix withKevin Durant, Devin Booker, and
Bradley Beal, your Mavericks with LukaDoncic and Kyrie Irving, the Lakers with
(05:27):
Lebron James and Anthony Davis, theGolden State Warriors with Stephen Curry and Klay
Thompson, and Draymond Green, allof those NBA luminaries as a breakfast time
this morning, as of lunchtime thismorning, we're all headed to the play
in tournament. Two of those teamsand those superstars that we just mentioned,
(05:51):
they're not even gonna make the playoffs. Tough out here in the Western Conference.
Man. Now, the more pressingquestion question for Mavericks purposes, before
we can really tackle are they ableto move up from their current number eight,
is how much time Luka Doncic willmiss with that hamstring issue that held
(06:15):
him out Thursday night. The goodnews is, as Jason Kidd announced to
reporters assembled in Oklahoma City, MRIcame back clean. I don't think there
is grave long term concern. Butlook, you could make the case hold
him out Sunday against the Nuggets.As much as you know he would love
(06:36):
to play tomorrow afternoon against his goodbuddy Nikola Jokic. Do you hold Luka
out? There are only two gamesduring the week at San Antonio on Thursday.
Sorry, at San Antonio on Tuesday, home to Utah on Thursday.
(06:56):
It's a really light week for theMavericks after the Denver game, before they
play some really pivotal road games.You know, they've got that baseball series
looming with the Kings on March twentysixth and March twenty ninth, two straight
games against Sacramento. Such a weirdschedule though. There are two off days
(07:17):
between those back to back games inSacramento, but the first of those games
against Sacramento is the second night ofa back to back. March twenty fifth,
MAVs at Utah, March twenty sixth, MAVs at Sacramento, then two
days off then March twenty ninth.So I'm sure Luca would love to play
(07:40):
tomorrow against Jokic. I'm sure theMAVs would love to have him back out
there because you're gonna need your twostars to beat Denver as well as the
Nuggets have played since the All Starbreak. But again, I do wonder,
is there that temptation to go thecautious route and you know, give
(08:01):
him a little bit of extra timeto rest that hamstring before the stretch run
and the playoffs. And like Isaid, I've got my eyes peeled as
best as I can. It's alittle I'm gonna be upfront with you,
it's hard when I'm here in studioand monitoring fifty screens as it is,
(08:22):
it's hard to keep an eye onMAVs Twitter. But I will do the
best I can and hopefully once JasonKidds starts speaking and my reporter colleagues who
are at practice start reporting on theLuca latest, I will pass that along
to you. I do have afeeling we will get a Luca update before
we're off the air here. Ofcourse, the Saturday Steinline runs until one
(08:46):
pm, presented by Panini Trading Cardsand Collectibles. Let's see if that update
does come in. You know,the Mavericks also lost Josh Green on Thursday
night to that really nasty ankle twistwhen he landed on Derek Lively's foot.
Daniel Gafford went down to against theThunder, but Gafford was able to stay
(09:09):
in the game and keep playing.So look, dealing with injuries, these
Mavericks know nothing else. Thirty threedifferent starting lineups already this season. They're
in the hunt to lead the leaguein that category, and that's a massive
challenge for Kid. It's been achallenge all season. Late in the season
(09:31):
still, the Mavericks are still searchingfor the best combinations that they can put
on the floor. And that's notjust because of the trade deadlining. Because
there are newcomers, key newcomers tothis team who've only been here for five
six weeks. It's just it's achallenge to put it's a challenge to assemble
(09:56):
a good defense around Luca and Kayro. That's just an unavoidable reality. Other
teams they have their issues too,though. Phoenix has one of the toughest
remaining schedules in the league. Andthat's why I do think it's gonna be
(10:16):
Sacramento or Dallas that finishes sixth.The Warriors are one in five without Stephan
Curry. They're due to get Curryback tonight when the Warriors play the Lakers
in LA. But that ankle injurythat prevented Curry from playing here on Wednesday
night, he didn't even travel whenthe Warriors were here in Dallas. Really,
(10:39):
that really kind of derailed Golden Stateor knocked them, knocked them aside
when they had finally started building upsome momentum, the Lakers and the Warriors.
I mean, if we talk abouthow hard it is for the Mavericks
to move up from eight to six, it's going to be hard for the
Lakers or the Warriors to move upfrom their current nine to ten slots.
(11:05):
So Dallas has to feel good thatit still has a shot here to get
up to number six. And really, Sacramento and Dallas, they have so
much in common these teams. Therub for both of these clubs really the
challenge. Can you get to aleague average defense? Can you get to
(11:26):
fifteenth in the league in defense?And both teams would be absolutely thrilled to
get that high in the defensive ratingtable, and neither is particularly close.
Again, as of this Saturday morning, Sacramento awoke with the twentieth ranked defense
in the NBA, Dallas stuck miredat number twenty two. That's bottom ten.
(11:50):
There is only one other team inthe bottom ten besides the Mavericks that
has a winning record and playoff aspirations, and that's Indiana at number twenty five.
The Pacers are twenty fifth. Everyoneelse in the top ten sub five
hundred, and most of the teamsare way way way below five hundred.
(12:11):
Atlanta and Utah eight games under.Everybody else's very lottery bound. So I'm
really lasered in on this stretch run. I think it's the most fascinating element
of the season still on the board, this race for number six. How
the West playing teams line up.That's the most interesting section of the standings.
(12:33):
To me, we know Boston isgoing to win the East, certainly,
that the top seed in the Westis still up for grabs, and
New Orleans is making some noise.New Orleans is trying to steal that number
four seed from the Clippers and bumpthe Clippers down to number five in the
West. The Pelicans have been playingso well since February first, but I'm
(12:58):
just being candid. For me,the six through ten section, that's what
really has my attention, and moreso, honestly, than the MVP race.
I think Nikola Jokic has seized controlof the MVP race. Now,
if Oklahoma City can swipe the numberone seed in the West away from Denver,
(13:20):
I might have to offend offend,I might have to amend that statement
because nobody had Oklahoma City winning theWest coming into the season. I think
Luka Dancic is clearly top three.I think Luca's ahead of Jannas Antetokumpo.
I think he's ahead of Jason Tatum. I think he's ahead of anyone else
you want to mention here, butthe Joker and SGA. They're gonna be
(13:46):
hard for Luca to pass at thislate juncture and certainly if he has to
miss another game or two because ofinjury. But we got lots to cover,
lots to see, lots to airlies, lots to dissect over these
next four weeks, and we gotlots to come on this edition of the
(14:09):
Saturday Steinline. Adam Modes of DenverSports. He's gonna join me direct from
the Rocky Mountains after the break becauseI want a Denver minded preview of tomorrow's
game. I want to talk toAdam about all these topics, the top
of the West Race, the SundayShowdown, the MVP Chase, and we've
(14:33):
got some good stuff prepared for thethird segment as well. So lots to
come on this edition of the SaturdaySteinline. One reminder, because I do
not want Maddie to get upset withme, please text us use the Steinline
text line two one four seven eightseven one nine seven to one or eight
(14:56):
one seven one eight set eight oneseven seven, eight seven one nine seven
one. I'm gonna try to getI'm gonna try to speak English for the
rest of the show. We'll seeif I can pull it together here two
one four seven, eight seven onenine seven to one or it's eight one
seven, seven, eight seven onenine seven one text us. Maddie is
(15:18):
keeping an eye on the Steinline textline, and as I said, Adam
Modes of Denver's Point of Denver Sportsjoins me next after the break here on
ninety seven one The Freak. It'sthe Saturday stein Line with Mark Stein,
presented by Panini, trading cards andcollectibles on your official homes Dallas Mavericks Games
(15:39):
ninety seven one A freak live radiopeople. It keeps you on your toes.
You never know what's gonna happen.But I think we are ready.
The Saturday Steinline dribbles on now,presented as always by my pals at Panini,
and we're gonna go live in justa moment. But first a reminder,
I already told you about the textline two one four seven, eight
(16:02):
seven one nine seven to one oreight one seven seven eight seven one nine
seven one. Use the Steinline textline to send us a message, or
if you have the iHeartRadio app,Maddie and I keep making please for talkbacks.
Click the microphone on the ninety sevento one feed on the iHeartRadio app.
You can leave us a message.You can ask a question that we'll
(16:26):
consider for answering on the show.Use the microphone app so we can make
you make your voice heard on thisshow. All right, enough of that
huge game tomorrow at the AAC,And that's why I wanted to go direct
to Denver to consult with a trueNuggets expert, and not just an expert.
(16:47):
This man is an entrepreneur, oneof the founders of DNVR Sports.
He also co hosts the All Citypodcast with my pal Tim Legler of ESPN,
the former Maverick, and we've beenrunning a lot of Tim Legler clips
lately. They all come from Adam'spodcast. Let's bring him in now,
(17:10):
Adam Modes from DNVR Sports, Sir, thank you so much for joining me.
I hope everything's good out there.Everything's great and quite the introduction,
Mark, I appreciate that, andalso a perfect pronunciation of the name,
very rare well executed well, onlybecause you helped me with the cheat code
on that. But we're not gonnareveal everything. How big I mean,
(17:32):
the Denver Nuggets are the defending champions. You're probably not as fired up for
a matchup against the Mavericks as theview here from Dallas. But tell me
from the Denver perspective, How biga game is this Sunday ABC matinee that
looms tomorrow. I don't know ifit is big. You're kind of hitting
it. You're right that Denver's beenplaying such great basketball. They've almost taken
(17:53):
the edge out of the regular season. And of course there's positioning jocking for
that one seed in that Denver hasto be aware of. But I think
there's probably a calmness right now amongstNuggets fans, and certainly seems to be
a calmness amongst the team because they'replaying so well that all these other,
you know, the individual games oreven the seating feels a little bit less
important. Nonetheless, it is aSunday matinee. It is two of my
(18:17):
favorite players to watch in Luca andNicola, So it'll be a fun one.
Yeah, And that don Chic Jokicfriendship gets so much attention at All
Star Game. We couldn't take oureye off these guys. How big of
a conversation point is the closeness betweenthose two guys among your audience? Well,
(18:38):
it certainly sort of raars up everyAll Star break when those guys,
you know, have their bromance they'reclearly good friends, and it's fun to
see. You know, for years, Jokic would go to the All Star
Game and feel like an outsider,and you would kind of watch him in
the various activities and things, andyou can kind of just pick up,
Okay, this guy probably doesn't havehis circle in the NBA. Luca obviously
(19:00):
is his closest friend amongst the superstarplayers in the NBA. So every year
it's just fun to see him.As far as conversation about you know,
what does the friendship mean or thisor that. I don't think the Nuggets
fans are enjoying their moment right now, and hopefully that moment keeps going.
But it's a rare instance where afan base always looking around, always wanting
to improve. This is a rareinstance where the team sort of feels,
(19:22):
you know, content, and andI think everybody just kind of content to
enjoy the moment. So, Imean, it is a different kind of
close to the season, isn't itfor the Nuggets. I mean, last
season we kind of saw this team. I don't know if ease up is
the right word, but the Nuggetsdid not make a late regular season drive
(19:45):
with the flourish to the finish line, whereas this season they've been so good
after the All Star break. Iknow this Nuggets team isn't as deep as
the team that won the championship,But is this a better team all around?
Just because maybe Jokic and Murray areeven better than they were. I
just I don't know. As anoutsider from a thousand miles away. I
(20:08):
just this is the team I trust. The Denver Nuggets are the only team
that I really trust right now whenwe're talking about championship potential. I mean,
I think you're right. First ofall, the depth piece of this,
it's really hard to quantify because people, forget Denver's bench, including Bruce
Brown, were not great in theregular season. Last year. Bruce had
(20:29):
his moments and he really looked goodwhen he played alongside the starters. But
when you look at just the numbersof how did the team perform when Yokic
was not on the court, theyalmost perfectly mirrored what's going on this year.
So I say that to say thatin the playoffs, you shorten the
rotation to seven or eight guys,and all of those bench players who were
up and down were consistently good.When they were flanked by Nikola jokicch or
Jamal Murray or two or three differentstarters. I think the same thing is
(20:55):
going to happen this year. ChristianBrown has been playing phenomenally. Obviously,
he was great in the playoffs lastyear, but he's really coming rounding into
form again this year. Defensively,Peyton Watson looks like a better defender than
anybody Denver had on the bench.He's young, he's green, but he
has so much length and he's soimpactful defensively. He's leading all non centers
in block rate. He blocks anenormous amount of shots. He's an incredible
(21:19):
one on one defender. So Ithink Denver's depth is comparable to last year.
What's different about the Nuggets this yearcompared to last year. Maybe there's
some individual talent increase between a Nicolaand Jamal. I mean, those things
are hard quantify with how good thoseguys were last year. But the connectedness
of this team, which really peakedin the playoffs. We saw this team
(21:40):
really come together and lock in inthe playoffs. Denver's been doing that over
the last eleven games. Coming outof the All Star Break, they look
like the playoff team we saw lastyear, not the regular season team,
the playoff team, and it actuallyreminds me of all teams if you remember
in twenty fourteen, the San AntonioSpurs out of the All Star Break won
nineteen games in a row, andthey kind of came together for the first
time that year and looked like titlefavorites, not just a good team.
(22:03):
Denver kind of looks like that tome, where they are playing so connected
and have such harmony in their offenseand defensive movements that it just looks like
a better a team with even betterchemistry than what they had last year.
Adam Modes from DNVR Sports and theco host of the All City podcast that
(22:23):
airs multiple times a week with formerMaverick Tim Legler of ESPN, You should
definitely check it out. And asyou guys can tell, I'm sure this
man knows the Denver Nuggets inside andout. So MVP race, we know
Jokic probably is not losing a lotof sleep worrying about it, but it
does appear that he has control therace so far. I think Sga and
(22:48):
then Luca would be the closest pursuers. What kind of discussion is going on
in the Rocky Mountains about Jokic maybewinning MVP number three, Well, I
think he probably deserves it. Ithink the betting lines reflect that, and
I know there's some good challengers therethe guys you mentioned. The conversation has
(23:10):
been this year. I think lastyear, for various reasons well publicized,
Nicole I think ran from the AllStar or from the MVP Award. He
shut it down early, I thinkto rest a little bit. But also
I think there was an element ofit's becoming a distraction, it's becoming this
thing that's taken on a separate meeting. I think there's something with Nicola that
has taken place over the last severalyears, this transformation of accepting who and
(23:33):
what he is to the league,who and what he is to this team,
and where his place in history is. I think all great players,
especially ones that have kind of comefrom under the radar, which his backstory,
obviously nobody saw this coming. Ithink there is a little bit of
a either reluctance or not really understandingwhat it means to be the league's best
player. This year, after winningthe title, I think Nicola carries himself
(23:55):
a little bit differently than he hasin years past, And what I mean
by that is he seems more comfortablebeing the best player in the NBA,
saying like, no, I don'tmind, now you're going to bring all
these distractions to me. I've won, I've proven it. He plays like
he believes he's the best player inthe NBA, and so this year almost
feels completely different than last year,and that he just seems to be accepting
(24:17):
this. No, I'm the topdog, You're gonna have to take it
from me, whereas last year hejust felt a little uncomfortable with that,
probably because he didn't have a titleand all of the sideshow conversations that came
with it. I can't resist askingyou this. I promise I'm not trying
to get you in trouble. Butthree times now you've said Nicola, which
is the way we know Michael Malonealways is telling us to say it.
(24:38):
But I know you actually went toSerbia and did an amazing documentary that people
can find online just with background ofJokic's rise to prominence and just basketball history
in Serbia, which is fascinating,in which, frankly, is something that
I've been following and covering myself sinceVlade Deva. It's way back in nineteen
(25:00):
eighty nine was the first. Myfirst NBA story was writing about when the
Lakers drafted Vlade Divats. So whenyou went to Serbia, what do they
think of us saying Nicola instead ofNikola? What do they say? They
always correct me on it, Andyou're so right about this. It's so
funny you brought it up. Imake such an effort to get all of
these things right, right with differentplayers. And obviously I fell in love
(25:23):
with Serbia when I went out there, and the culture and the sports history
and everything else. But this isthe one like vestige of my pre enlightenment
that still hangs on for whatever reason. They tell me it's Nikola. I
will tell you that. Jokic himselfsays he does not care. He actually
doesn't mind the American pronunciation. Butyou are right. The correct pronunciation is
uh Nikola. Yeah, I've Imean, it's you know, it's funny
(25:47):
because Nikola Vucevich, you know,when I when I asked him, I
you know, it just it,you know again, it's it's really not
that big of a deal. Ifit doesn't bother Yokic, it shouldn't really
bother a pest like me, ButI, like I said, I couldn't
resist hitting you with that one.Adam Modees from DNVR Sports, our guest
here on the Saturday Steinline here onninety seven, won the freak. What
(26:08):
I would also love for you toexpound on just the approach you guys have.
I don't even know if I canproperly give the full background, but
you guys started this site in Denver. You now have sites I believe in
Chicago and Philly and Phoenix. Ihope I got them all right. But
in Denver, you guys also havea restaurant attached to your content machine.
(26:32):
So what I was hoping is painta picture for us what is a what
is a Denver Nuggets game day liketomorrow playing on NBC in the afternoon,
and then what happens at the restaurantafter just kind of walk us through this.
Well, Tomorrow's Saint Patti's Day,so it's going to be an especially
you know, crazy and wild dayat the DNVR bar. But you're right
(26:53):
the way it works, it's athree story building, really a four story
building. The top two floors arestudios and offices for us where we do
all of our podcasts and live shows. The studio floor is a mezzanine floor
overlooking the bar, so there's aglass wall where if you're at the bar
you can look up and see uson air. You can listen to the
show right live from the bar,and then the bar is a sort of
home base. Our style of coverageat d NVR is, you know,
(27:18):
we try to split the difference betweentraditional journalistic models and maybe fan style blogs
that arose in the early two thousands. We try to split the difference there
where we're covering them as credential mediamembers and trying to be objective and honest
about everything as possible, but buildingcommunity because if we're watching sports, it
makes a lot more sense to enjoywhat you're doing and enjoy, you know,
(27:38):
to be emotionally invested in it.So we try to split that difference,
and then the bar just becomes aphysical space that is representative of our
online community. So day of tomorrow, Saint Patty's Day, he'll probably be
a wild one from early go,but once that game starts, that our
bar is the place to go ifyou're a Denver Nuggets fan. I'm very
glad we've cultivated that over the years, but it is like, why watching
(28:00):
it in an arena, there's chancepeople will start being in the tables,
defensive chance, different things like that, high fives, and it just becomes
a really cool arena like atmosphere atthe bar from opening tip to the final
buzzer sound, and then afterwards ofcourse it just becomes a social club for
Denver Nuggets fans. So it's areally cool thing. We had a vision
four years ago and to see itsort of come I mean, obviously the
(28:22):
Nuggets winning a championship really helped usbuild us the ABS. By the way,
we also cover the Avalanche. TheAvs won a championship in that window
as well, so we're on abit of a heater. But it's a
really cool to see this vision wehad come to life and to hit in
ways even greater than what we envisioned. And so now in the other cities
the sports bar element has not yetbeen attached correct. It's really difficult.
(28:44):
We have learned that a media business, you know how difficult it is,
how many have popped up and folded. Well, the restaurant business is the
exact same. And if you thinkabout these last four years. You know
COVID, we actually opened I don'tknow if you knew this mark, but
we opened the two days after theNBA shut down. So we're opening a
sport bar. Nuggets them sports bar, and we opened it on Friday,
March thirteen, twenty twenty, whenthe eleventh is when the NBA folded.
(29:07):
For obviously several months, so wehave been surviving the restaurant business. Even
though we have a really nice modeland it's working, the restaurant business is
just a whole different beast. Sothe plan is, yes, to open
this in every market, but thatpart has been slower than we hoped.
So after you guys opened two daysinto the NBA's COVID shutdown, how long
was it before you could actually havecrowds in your restaurant. I mean it
(29:30):
must have taken ages well if youremember. So during that bubble run,
which was an incredible bubble run forthe Nuggets, I think we were allowed
like ten people into the bar.They had those rules where if it's this
square footage, how many people youcan get in. Ours was like ten
or twelve. So we ended upthrowing parties with ten people and it was
pretty funny, but you know,it was obviously a really memorable moment in
(29:51):
time for the Nuggets, that bubblerun two three to one comebacks, but
it took probably a full year anda half before we were able to really
open it up and see the visioncome to life. And so there's a
postgame pod after every game, dayor night, right, yep, correct
awesome shows as well. And youguys do the you do four letters for
(30:11):
every city, no vowels. Isthat kind of the that's kind of the
the format vowels. You know,the thought of it was, you know,
ESPN everybody recognizes that as as thesports. So we just thought d
n v R p h n X, chg O and Chicago and now phl
Y. So it's not even valves. It's just meant to sound like the
(30:32):
call letters for a market. Allright, sir, if DLS ever comes
up, keep my number. Ilove what you guys are doing, man,
oh trust me, man, you'dbe the first call mark. I
appreciate you. Adam Modes from DenverSports helping us get ready for tomorrow afternoons
huge Matine Nuggets at Mavericks and hopefullywe are still awaiting a health update.
(30:53):
On Luka Dancic. We do notyet have Dontic's status for that game,
but Jokic number fifteen pretty sure he'sgoing to be there and a problem for
the Mavericks. All right, westill have one more segment to come here,
the Saturday Steinline that's next here onninety seven won the Freak. This
is Durkin Whitzky and you're listening tothe Saturday Steinline with my guys. Steiny
(31:15):
on ninety seven won the Freak guy, my unbossle, thank you for sticking
(32:07):
with us on the Saturday Steinline,presented by Panini Trading Cards and Collectibles.
That was a fun moment Wednesday night, out of the public eye. Frankly,
I had no idea about it untilthis thing made its way to social
media. In the house for thatgame Wednesday night, a much needed Mavericks
(32:27):
win over Golden State. The Slovenianband FECh Tari, and I probably really
hope I said that close to correctly. FECh Tari. That clip you heard
was the band serenading Luka Doncic himself. That's a Luca song that they sang
directly to number seventy seven. Whenyou listen to it, listen, my
(32:53):
Slovenian is not where I would likeit to be. But you could certainly
pick up the multiple verses there thatmentioned Luca's name. It was late Wednesday
night when that happened. He hadto leave the game with left hamstring soreness
in the fourth quarter. I sawthe whole thing the way it unfolded.
(33:14):
He'd already been trying to treat theinjury earlier. In that fourth quarter,
he had heat on when he wason the bench, came in for one
play, threw a lob to DanielGafford. Gafford throws it down for a
dunk. But Luca when he landed, he clearly felt something you could see
in his face. He didn't likehow that landing went. Warriors called time
(33:34):
out. Luka Doncicch went right toJason Kidd, told the coach he needed
to come out of the game,went straight to the locker room for treatment,
and then after a lot of postgametreatment, is when Luca emerged to
hear the song, and he genuinelyseemed to love that moment. We are
(33:55):
still awaiting official word on Luca's statusfor the matine against Denver tomorrow. He
badly wants to play in the game. I don't think that comes as a
huge surprise, but he was goingto have to be reevaluated based on how
things look today. And as Isaid, the Mavericks are practicing as we
speak. I was hopeful that wewere going to get the Luca update before
(34:19):
we get off the air. I'mnot so sure that's gonna happen because we're
only on for eight or nine moreminutes. But obviously he wants badly to
play against his very good friend NikolaJokic, And as I covered in the
first segment, gotta be tempting forthe Mavericks to say, you know what,
skip this game, skip Tuesday nightin San Antonio. Maybe buy a
(34:39):
little bit of extra rest before thiscrucial stretch run. A couple more things
I would like to share. I'mgonna start with some words directly from Jason
Kiddy did a radio visit earlier thisweek with the voice of the Mavericks,
Chuck Cooperstein game Wednesday night before theGolden State Game, Kid talked about some
(35:05):
tweaks to some recent tweaks to theoffense that have been implemented trying to ease
the on ball load on his MVPcandidate. And this is Jason Kidd talking
about the chat with Luca in whichhe sold him on these tweaks. You
know, I think it was aconscious ept for on both of us.
(35:28):
I talked to him about it,you know, being able to have other
guys start to play. As youknow you've been doing this a long time.
You know, you feel good whenyou get to start to play because
you feel like you might be apart of maybe getting a layup or setting
the screen to help help a teammate. And I thought Luca has done a
great job of letting the other guysstart to play and the ball is finding
(35:51):
him, and then we can getinto the pick and roll and he can
do what Luca does at a highrate score or find find the open guy.
And so we kind of taken alook at letting d Jones start the
play or getting pj involved of touchingthe ball to make a play for a
teammate. So it's been a consciouseffort on both Luca and I to be
(36:13):
able to talk this and he's fullybought into it, and I think it's
helped him too, because now he'sgetting a lot of catch and shoots where
other guys are driving and he's beingleft wide open. I think this highlights
yet again the key and open linesof communication between Kid and his star player,
(36:36):
both his star players, to behonest, but it is such a
significant thing, and I have tosay every night, game to game,
there is so much made about rotations, and you know, let's make coaching
competency all about particular rotations. Firstof all, just to be clear,
(36:58):
in the OKC game, both DanielGafford and Derek Lively, they struggled defensively
when Josh Getty was not in thegame against a five who can shoot it,
and Okase obviously has that with ChetHolmgren. You could understand why the
Mavericks see Maxi Klieba with his mobilityas the better defensive option, especially in
(37:21):
a situation where the MAVs are gonnastart rotating and trapping to try to get
back in the game and cut intoa deficit. More generally speaking, when
you've got Luca and Kyrie on thefloor, what we've seen since the trades,
Moxie and PJ and the best wingthat Dallas can put alongside their two
(37:42):
stars, that's been their best lookdefensively. Lively's gonna get much better at
this as time goes on. Heneeds more time. Again, the young
man is only twenty. But beyondall that minutia, I'm gonna keep saying
it coaching success in the NBA.I will continue to assert this for as
(38:02):
long as I do this. Itstarts with your roster, your talent.
Nobody achieves anything in the NBA withoutgreat players. But next up in terms
of importance, it is buying,especially when you have guys like Doncic and
Irving and Kid has a good bitof both from Doncic and Irving, and
that seemingly never gets talked about untilthis show brings it up or it ends
(38:29):
up on a certain substack. Nota small thing. This is a huge
thing. And again to illustrate withyet another example, it's why Mavericks assistant
coach Sean Sweeney. It's why you'regoing to see Sweeney on Slovenia's bench,
part of the coaching staff when nationalteam Luca tries to get his little nation
(38:50):
to the Paris Olympics in June andlast chance qualifying seventy seven is connected to
the head coach and the Mavericks' leadassistant before we go, A couple things
I want to thank. I seeCam from Denver checking in on the text
line. Greatly appreciated. I seeBobby from Colliville from the text line,
(39:10):
greatly appreciate it. Guys, thankyou for joining us again. Man,
so much going on right now.I'm trying to keep track of too many
things, trying to see if we'regetting any updates out of MAVs Land,
still waiting for those I got infull candor. My beloved Man City is
playing in the FA Cup right nowagainst Newcastle, so I'm trying to keep
track of all these things. Ido want to also just shout out Gafford
(39:34):
one more time, because he becamea wholly unexpected national newsmaker this week.
That streak of thirty three consecutive madebaskets from the field before he finally missed
one before he finally missed a putbackattempt right at the start of the Oklahoma
City game, and there it wenthis chance to set an NBA record.
He would have needed a three forthree start against the Thunder to break a
(39:59):
record set by the legendary Wilt Chamberlain. Thirty five made shots in the row
from the field way back in thesixties. But I really have to say
props to Gafford. He coped withthat lost opportunity so well, rebounded from
that early miss to finish with nineteenand fifteen against the thunder. Then Friday
(40:19):
morning, the the MAVs could onlyhave been back in Dallas for a few
hours. He pops up on FanDuelTV on their run at Back show to
talk about the myss. Talk usthrough what it was like on the floor
Thursday, knowing he had this opportunityto make history, what it was like
to hear some noise from Shay GilgessAlexander right before tip off whether his shot
(40:42):
selection was at all affected by thestreak. Let's listen now to what mister
Gafford had to say on FanDuel TV. Debbi Shay Jakespeare a little bit too.
He's like a former AAU team madeof mind. We joke around most
of the time when we played againsteach other. So he came up to
me before the game, like duringtip off, he was like, man,
you're gonna try to break the recordagainst us, huh. And I
(41:05):
think it just kind of played outfrom there. You know, it was
a really exciting day. For methough, you know, at the end
of the day, I just gotin a position, just whifted at the
end, whifted at the beginning there, and it was tough. It was
tough shot selection, not necessarily atthe end of the day. You know,
I dunk everything pretty much, youknow, So it wasn't really anything
too serious when he came shot selection. I wasn't a little bit nervous like
(41:25):
the last two games when I wasgetting closer to it. So it's like
every time that I was going tosleep or anything like that, I'm just
I was just having to force myselfto kind of think about something else at
the end of the day, becauseyou know, I was just like wired,
I was juice, I was readyto go. I was anxious,
I was nervous, I was excited. It was just like a bunch of
emotions all in the one pretty goodcandor there. I think Gafford took people
(41:49):
inside with those comments. All right, look, we gotta get going.
I just want to say before wego, I want to send my robust
thanks to everyone in slow who hasbeen listening to this show. I got
a notification after last Saturday show.According to Chartable, which does all kinds
of podcast tracking this little enterprise.We got as high as number sixteen among
(42:15):
all sports podcasts in Slovenia. Crazybecause very little Slovenian, as in pretty
much none get spoken on this show. Maybe it's because we had the great
is Tac Franco on for a wholesegment last week, but whatever the reason,
everyone here at ninety seven won.The Freak was tickled to see that
(42:37):
Fontie Superstae. You guys are greatall right now we really gotta go.
Your radio home for the Dallas Mavericksis ninety seven to one. The Freak
Welcome to the Saturday Steinline with MarkStein, presented by Panini Trading Cards and
Collectibles. On ninety seven to oneThe Freak, the official homes all Dallas
Mavericks games, hosted by legendary NBAreporter and publisher of his substack, the
Steinline. Here's Mark Stein. Lovethat music, Love it. Hey,
(00:26):
everybody, Welcome in to the SaturdaySteinline, presented by Panini Trading Cards and
Collectibles. It is great. Let'sbe back in our cozy little studio now
that I'm back in the country.Last two shows had to assemble those from
(00:48):
five thousand ish miles away, sothis will be more like it, more
of what you're accustomed to getting herein the Saturday lunch hour. We are
basically down to the final month ofthe NBA regular season. Tomorrow is Saint
Patrick's Day and then it is legitfour weeks left on the regular season calendar.
(01:11):
It's the last four weeks for theplayoff seedings to be sorted out.
It's the last four weeks for MVPcandidates to state their cases. From a
local perspective, what does this mean? The Mavericks are thirty eight and twenty
nine as we speak, down totheir last fifteen games. The simple math
(01:36):
tells us it would take a twelveand three finish to get to fifty wins
for the second time in Jason Kiddsthree seasons as head coach. I suspect
a twelve and three finish is outof reach. Most likely at this point.
That would be easier to forecast ifwe knew how soon Luka Doncic can
(01:59):
return. Will probably get that answertoday. We might even get that answer
while we're on the air. TheMavericks are practicing as we speak, and
so there will be a health updateforthcoming during this hour, most likely from
the aforementioned Jason Kidd, I wouldsay the sixth seed in the West that
is still within reach. You haveto say Sacramento appears to have the cleanest
(02:25):
path to finish sixth and grabbing that, but Dallas still has a shot at
it, And man, is thesixth seed valuable. It doesn't sound like
much, but it's really valuable thisseason, not only for the obvious reasons.
(02:46):
If you finish sixth, you're automaticallyin the playoffs. You don't even
have to mess with the playing round. But I think this season in the
West, in particular with what's goingon in Minnesota. The Wolves are gonna
be without Karl Anthony Towns for therest of the regular season. We don't
(03:06):
know if Towns will be back forthe playoffs, and even if he is,
it means that the Wolves are gonnahave to work him in on the
fly, get try to get himreacclimated. Without practice time and prep time,
They're just gonna have to throw himin there. It really does strike
me that Denver and Oklahoma City therethe number one seed is going to either
(03:30):
the Nuggets or the Thunder. Iknow Kat is not everyone's cup of tea,
I grant you that, but withouthim, Minnesota is asking a ton,
offensively tons of Anthony Edwards. Andnow look after the other night after
(03:52):
Thursday night, with the Mavericks hangingright there with the Thunder without Luka Doncic
in an now national televised, nationallytelevised game, second night of a back
to back, the Mavericks could certainlymake the case that they should feel good
about facing Oklahoma City in the firstround. But I would think pretty much
(04:16):
anyone would rather play Minnesota given theuncertainty about Karl Anthony Town's return, than
the Thunder in the first round,and certainly Denver. Wherever Denver ends upseted
one, two, or three.You do not want the Nuggets in round
one. The Nuggets are the defendingchampions. We're going to see them in
(04:38):
here tomorrow afternoon at the AAC andthey know exactly who they are. You
want to play the Nuggets as aslate as possible. I would. I'm
not buying get them early. No, don't get them early. Stay away
from the Nuggets. Again, numbersix is not typically something you would get
(05:00):
excited about. But again, let'spretend you still buy a newspaper every day.
When you looked at the Western Conferencestandings this morning with your proverbial ceial,
just look at it. Phoenix withKevin Durant, Devin Booker, and
Bradley Beal, your Mavericks with LukaDoncic and Kyrie Irving, the Lakers with
(05:27):
Lebron James and Anthony Davis, theGolden State Warriors with Stephen Curry and Klay
Thompson, and Draymond Green, allof those NBA luminaries as a breakfast time
this morning, as of lunchtime thismorning, we're all headed to the play
in tournament. Two of those teamsand those superstars that we just mentioned,
(05:51):
they're not even gonna make the playoffs. Tough out here in the Western Conference.
Man. Now, the more pressingquestion question for Mavericks purposes, before
we can really tackle are they ableto move up from their current number eight,
is how much time Luka Doncic willmiss with that hamstring issue that held
(06:15):
him out Thursday night. The goodnews is, as Jason Kidd announced to
reporters assembled in Oklahoma City, MRIcame back clean. I don't think there
is grave long term concern. Butlook, you could make the case hold
him out Sunday against the Nuggets.As much as you know he would love
(06:36):
to play tomorrow afternoon against his goodbuddy Nikola Jokic. Do you hold Luka
out? There are only two gamesduring the week at San Antonio on Thursday.
Sorry, at San Antonio on Tuesday, home to Utah on Thursday.
(06:56):
It's a really light week for theMavericks after the Denver game, before they
play some really pivotal road games.You know, they've got that baseball series
looming with the Kings on March twentysixth and March twenty ninth, two straight
games against Sacramento. Such a weirdschedule though. There are two off days
(07:17):
between those back to back games inSacramento, but the first of those games
against Sacramento is the second night ofa back to back. March twenty fifth,
MAVs at Utah, March twenty sixth, MAVs at Sacramento, then two
days off then March twenty ninth.So I'm sure Luca would love to play
(07:40):
tomorrow against Jokic. I'm sure theMAVs would love to have him back out
there because you're gonna need your twostars to beat Denver as well as the
Nuggets have played since the All Starbreak. But again, I do wonder,
is there that temptation to go thecautious route and you know, give
(08:01):
him a little bit of extra timeto rest that hamstring before the stretch run
and the playoffs. And like Isaid, I've got my eyes peeled as
best as I can. It's alittle I'm gonna be upfront with you,
it's hard when I'm here in studioand monitoring fifty screens as it is,
(08:22):
it's hard to keep an eye onMAVs Twitter. But I will do the
best I can and hopefully once JasonKidds starts speaking and my reporter colleagues who
are at practice start reporting on theLuca latest, I will pass that along
to you. I do have afeeling we will get a Luca update before
we're off the air here. Ofcourse, the Saturday Steinline runs until one
(08:46):
pm, presented by Panini Trading Cardsand Collectibles. Let's see if that update
does come in. You know,the Mavericks also lost Josh Green on Thursday
night to that really nasty ankle twistwhen he landed on Derek Lively's foot.
Daniel Gafford went down to against theThunder, but Gafford was able to stay
(09:09):
in the game and keep playing.So look, dealing with injuries, these
Mavericks know nothing else. Thirty threedifferent starting lineups already this season. They're
in the hunt to lead the leaguein that category, and that's a massive
challenge for Kid. It's been achallenge all season. Late in the season
(09:31):
still, the Mavericks are still searchingfor the best combinations that they can put
on the floor. And that's notjust because of the trade deadlining. Because
there are newcomers, key newcomers tothis team who've only been here for five
six weeks. It's just it's achallenge to put it's a challenge to assemble
(09:56):
a good defense around Luca and Kayro. That's just an unavoidable reality. Other
teams they have their issues too,though. Phoenix has one of the toughest
remaining schedules in the league. Andthat's why I do think it's gonna be
(10:16):
Sacramento or Dallas that finishes sixth.The Warriors are one in five without Stephan
Curry. They're due to get Curryback tonight when the Warriors play the Lakers
in LA. But that ankle injurythat prevented Curry from playing here on Wednesday
night, he didn't even travel whenthe Warriors were here in Dallas. Really,
(10:39):
that really kind of derailed Golden Stateor knocked them, knocked them aside
when they had finally started building upsome momentum, the Lakers and the Warriors.
I mean, if we talk abouthow hard it is for the Mavericks
to move up from eight to six, it's going to be hard for the
Lakers or the Warriors to move upfrom their current nine to ten slots.
(11:05):
So Dallas has to feel good thatit still has a shot here to get
up to number six. And really, Sacramento and Dallas, they have so
much in common these teams. Therub for both of these clubs really the
challenge. Can you get to aleague average defense? Can you get to
(11:26):
fifteenth in the league in defense?And both teams would be absolutely thrilled to
get that high in the defensive ratingtable, and neither is particularly close.
Again, as of this Saturday morning, Sacramento awoke with the twentieth ranked defense
in the NBA, Dallas stuck miredat number twenty two. That's bottom ten.
(11:50):
There is only one other team inthe bottom ten besides the Mavericks that
has a winning record and playoff aspirations, and that's Indiana at number twenty five.
The Pacers are twenty fifth. Everyoneelse in the top ten sub five
hundred, and most of the teamsare way way way below five hundred.
(12:11):
Atlanta and Utah eight games under.Everybody else's very lottery bound. So I'm
really lasered in on this stretch run. I think it's the most fascinating element
of the season still on the board, this race for number six. How
the West playing teams line up.That's the most interesting section of the standings.
(12:33):
To me, we know Boston isgoing to win the East, certainly,
that the top seed in the Westis still up for grabs, and
New Orleans is making some noise.New Orleans is trying to steal that number
four seed from the Clippers and bumpthe Clippers down to number five in the
West. The Pelicans have been playingso well since February first, but I'm
(12:58):
just being candid. For me,the six through ten section, that's what
really has my attention, and moreso, honestly, than the MVP race.
I think Nikola Jokic has seized controlof the MVP race. Now,
if Oklahoma City can swipe the numberone seed in the West away from Denver,
(13:20):
I might have to offend offend,I might have to amend that statement
because nobody had Oklahoma City winning theWest coming into the season. I think
Luka Dancic is clearly top three.I think Luca's ahead of Jannas Antetokumpo.
I think he's ahead of Jason Tatum. I think he's ahead of anyone else
you want to mention here, butthe Joker and SGA. They're gonna be
(13:46):
hard for Luca to pass at thislate juncture and certainly if he has to
miss another game or two because ofinjury. But we got lots to cover,
lots to see, lots to airlies, lots to dissect over these
next four weeks, and we gotlots to come on this edition of the
(14:09):
Saturday Steinline. Adam Modes of DenverSports. He's gonna join me direct from
the Rocky Mountains after the break becauseI want a Denver minded preview of tomorrow's
game. I want to talk toAdam about all these topics, the top
of the West Race, the SundayShowdown, the MVP Chase, and we've
(14:33):
got some good stuff prepared for thethird segment as well. So lots to
come on this edition of the SaturdaySteinline. One reminder, because I do
not want Maddie to get upset withme, please text us use the Steinline
text line two one four seven eightseven one nine seven to one or eight
(14:56):
one seven one eight set eight oneseven seven, eight seven one nine seven
one. I'm gonna try to getI'm gonna try to speak English for the
rest of the show. We'll seeif I can pull it together here two
one four seven, eight seven onenine seven to one or it's eight one
seven, seven, eight seven onenine seven one text us. Maddie is
(15:18):
keeping an eye on the Steinline textline, and as I said, Adam
Modes of Denver's Point of Denver Sportsjoins me next after the break here on
ninety seven one The Freak. It'sthe Saturday stein Line with Mark Stein,
presented by Panini, trading cards andcollectibles on your official homes Dallas Mavericks Games
(15:39):
ninety seven one A freak live radiopeople. It keeps you on your toes.
You never know what's gonna happen.But I think we are ready.
The Saturday Steinline dribbles on now,presented as always by my pals at Panini,
and we're gonna go live in justa moment. But first a reminder,
I already told you about the textline two one four seven, eight
(16:02):
seven one nine seven to one oreight one seven seven eight seven one nine
seven one. Use the Steinline textline to send us a message, or
if you have the iHeartRadio app,Maddie and I keep making please for talkbacks.
Click the microphone on the ninety sevento one feed on the iHeartRadio app.
You can leave us a message.You can ask a question that we'll
(16:26):
consider for answering on the show.Use the microphone app so we can make
you make your voice heard on thisshow. All right, enough of that
huge game tomorrow at the AAC,And that's why I wanted to go direct
to Denver to consult with a trueNuggets expert, and not just an expert.
(16:47):
This man is an entrepreneur, oneof the founders of DNVR Sports.
He also co hosts the All Citypodcast with my pal Tim Legler of ESPN,
the former Maverick, and we've beenrunning a lot of Tim Legler clips
lately. They all come from Adam'spodcast. Let's bring him in now,
(17:10):
Adam Modes from DNVR Sports, Sir, thank you so much for joining me.
I hope everything's good out there.Everything's great and quite the introduction,
Mark, I appreciate that, andalso a perfect pronunciation of the name,
very rare well executed well, onlybecause you helped me with the cheat code
on that. But we're not gonnareveal everything. How big I mean,
(17:32):
the Denver Nuggets are the defending champions. You're probably not as fired up for
a matchup against the Mavericks as theview here from Dallas. But tell me
from the Denver perspective, How biga game is this Sunday ABC matinee that
looms tomorrow. I don't know ifit is big. You're kind of hitting
it. You're right that Denver's beenplaying such great basketball. They've almost taken
(17:53):
the edge out of the regular season. And of course there's positioning jocking for
that one seed in that Denver hasto be aware of. But I think
there's probably a calmness right now amongstNuggets fans, and certainly seems to be
a calmness amongst the team because they'replaying so well that all these other,
you know, the individual games oreven the seating feels a little bit less
important. Nonetheless, it is aSunday matinee. It is two of my
(18:17):
favorite players to watch in Luca andNicola, So it'll be a fun one.
Yeah, And that don Chic Jokicfriendship gets so much attention at All
Star Game. We couldn't take oureye off these guys. How big of
a conversation point is the closeness betweenthose two guys among your audience? Well,
(18:38):
it certainly sort of raars up everyAll Star break when those guys,
you know, have their bromance they'reclearly good friends, and it's fun to
see. You know, for years, Jokic would go to the All Star
Game and feel like an outsider,and you would kind of watch him in
the various activities and things, andyou can kind of just pick up,
Okay, this guy probably doesn't havehis circle in the NBA. Luca obviously
(19:00):
is his closest friend amongst the superstarplayers in the NBA. So every year
it's just fun to see him.As far as conversation about you know,
what does the friendship mean or thisor that. I don't think the Nuggets
fans are enjoying their moment right now, and hopefully that moment keeps going.
But it's a rare instance where afan base always looking around, always wanting
to improve. This is a rareinstance where the team sort of feels,
(19:22):
you know, content, and andI think everybody just kind of content to
enjoy the moment. So, Imean, it is a different kind of
close to the season, isn't itfor the Nuggets. I mean, last
season we kind of saw this team. I don't know if ease up is
the right word, but the Nuggetsdid not make a late regular season drive
(19:45):
with the flourish to the finish line, whereas this season they've been so good
after the All Star break. Iknow this Nuggets team isn't as deep as
the team that won the championship,But is this a better team all around?
Just because maybe Jokic and Murray areeven better than they were. I
just I don't know. As anoutsider from a thousand miles away. I
(20:08):
just this is the team I trust. The Denver Nuggets are the only team
that I really trust right now whenwe're talking about championship potential. I mean,
I think you're right. First ofall, the depth piece of this,
it's really hard to quantify because people, forget Denver's bench, including Bruce
Brown, were not great in theregular season. Last year. Bruce had
(20:29):
his moments and he really looked goodwhen he played alongside the starters. But
when you look at just the numbersof how did the team perform when Yokic
was not on the court, theyalmost perfectly mirrored what's going on this year.
So I say that to say thatin the playoffs, you shorten the
rotation to seven or eight guys,and all of those bench players who were
up and down were consistently good.When they were flanked by Nikola jokicch or
Jamal Murray or two or three differentstarters. I think the same thing is
(20:55):
going to happen this year. ChristianBrown has been playing phenomenally. Obviously,
he was great in the playoffs lastyear, but he's really coming rounding into
form again this year. Defensively,Peyton Watson looks like a better defender than
anybody Denver had on the bench.He's young, he's green, but he
has so much length and he's soimpactful defensively. He's leading all non centers
in block rate. He blocks anenormous amount of shots. He's an incredible
(21:19):
one on one defender. So Ithink Denver's depth is comparable to last year.
What's different about the Nuggets this yearcompared to last year. Maybe there's
some individual talent increase between a Nicolaand Jamal. I mean, those things
are hard quantify with how good thoseguys were last year. But the connectedness
of this team, which really peakedin the playoffs. We saw this team
(21:40):
really come together and lock in inthe playoffs. Denver's been doing that over
the last eleven games. Coming outof the All Star Break, they look
like the playoff team we saw lastyear, not the regular season team,
the playoff team, and it actuallyreminds me of all teams if you remember
in twenty fourteen, the San AntonioSpurs out of the All Star Break won
nineteen games in a row, andthey kind of came together for the first
time that year and looked like titlefavorites, not just a good team.
(22:03):
Denver kind of looks like that tome, where they are playing so connected
and have such harmony in their offenseand defensive movements that it just looks like
a better a team with even betterchemistry than what they had last year.
Adam Modes from DNVR Sports and theco host of the All City podcast that
(22:23):
airs multiple times a week with formerMaverick Tim Legler of ESPN, You should
definitely check it out. And asyou guys can tell, I'm sure this
man knows the Denver Nuggets inside andout. So MVP race, we know
Jokic probably is not losing a lotof sleep worrying about it, but it
does appear that he has control therace so far. I think Sga and
(22:48):
then Luca would be the closest pursuers. What kind of discussion is going on
in the Rocky Mountains about Jokic maybewinning MVP number three, Well, I
think he probably deserves it. Ithink the betting lines reflect that, and
I know there's some good challengers therethe guys you mentioned. The conversation has
(23:10):
been this year. I think lastyear, for various reasons well publicized,
Nicole I think ran from the AllStar or from the MVP Award. He
shut it down early, I thinkto rest a little bit. But also
I think there was an element ofit's becoming a distraction, it's becoming this
thing that's taken on a separate meeting. I think there's something with Nicola that
has taken place over the last severalyears, this transformation of accepting who and
(23:33):
what he is to the league,who and what he is to this team,
and where his place in history is. I think all great players,
especially ones that have kind of comefrom under the radar, which his backstory,
obviously nobody saw this coming. Ithink there is a little bit of
a either reluctance or not really understandingwhat it means to be the league's best
player. This year, after winningthe title, I think Nicola carries himself
(23:55):
a little bit differently than he hasin years past, And what I mean
by that is he seems more comfortablebeing the best player in the NBA,
saying like, no, I don'tmind, now you're going to bring all
these distractions to me. I've won, I've proven it. He plays like
he believes he's the best player inthe NBA, and so this year almost
feels completely different than last year,and that he just seems to be accepting
(24:17):
this. No, I'm the topdog, You're gonna have to take it
from me, whereas last year hejust felt a little uncomfortable with that,
probably because he didn't have a titleand all of the sideshow conversations that came
with it. I can't resist askingyou this. I promise I'm not trying
to get you in trouble. Butthree times now you've said Nicola, which
is the way we know Michael Malonealways is telling us to say it.
(24:38):
But I know you actually went toSerbia and did an amazing documentary that people
can find online just with background ofJokic's rise to prominence and just basketball history
in Serbia, which is fascinating,in which, frankly, is something that
I've been following and covering myself sinceVlade Deva. It's way back in nineteen
(25:00):
eighty nine was the first. Myfirst NBA story was writing about when the
Lakers drafted Vlade Divats. So whenyou went to Serbia, what do they
think of us saying Nicola instead ofNikola? What do they say? They
always correct me on it, Andyou're so right about this. It's so
funny you brought it up. Imake such an effort to get all of
these things right, right with differentplayers. And obviously I fell in love
(25:23):
with Serbia when I went out there, and the culture and the sports history
and everything else. But this isthe one like vestige of my pre enlightenment
that still hangs on for whatever reason. They tell me it's Nikola. I
will tell you that. Jokic himselfsays he does not care. He actually
doesn't mind the American pronunciation. Butyou are right. The correct pronunciation is
uh Nikola. Yeah, I've Imean, it's you know, it's funny
(25:47):
because Nikola Vucevich, you know,when I when I asked him, I
you know, it just it,you know again, it's it's really not
that big of a deal. Ifit doesn't bother Yokic, it shouldn't really
bother a pest like me, ButI, like I said, I couldn't
resist hitting you with that one.Adam Modees from DNVR Sports, our guest
here on the Saturday Steinline here onninety seven, won the freak. What
(26:08):
I would also love for you toexpound on just the approach you guys have.
I don't even know if I canproperly give the full background, but
you guys started this site in Denver. You now have sites I believe in
Chicago and Philly and Phoenix. Ihope I got them all right. But
in Denver, you guys also havea restaurant attached to your content machine.
(26:32):
So what I was hoping is painta picture for us what is a what
is a Denver Nuggets game day liketomorrow playing on NBC in the afternoon,
and then what happens at the restaurantafter just kind of walk us through this.
Well, Tomorrow's Saint Patti's Day,so it's going to be an especially
you know, crazy and wild dayat the DNVR bar. But you're right
(26:53):
the way it works, it's athree story building, really a four story
building. The top two floors arestudios and offices for us where we do
all of our podcasts and live shows. The studio floor is a mezzanine floor
overlooking the bar, so there's aglass wall where if you're at the bar
you can look up and see uson air. You can listen to the
show right live from the bar,and then the bar is a sort of
home base. Our style of coverageat d NVR is, you know,
(27:18):
we try to split the difference betweentraditional journalistic models and maybe fan style blogs
that arose in the early two thousands. We try to split the difference there
where we're covering them as credential mediamembers and trying to be objective and honest
about everything as possible, but buildingcommunity because if we're watching sports, it
makes a lot more sense to enjoywhat you're doing and enjoy, you know,
(27:38):
to be emotionally invested in it.So we try to split that difference,
and then the bar just becomes aphysical space that is representative of our
online community. So day of tomorrow, Saint Patty's Day, he'll probably be
a wild one from early go,but once that game starts, that our
bar is the place to go ifyou're a Denver Nuggets fan. I'm very
glad we've cultivated that over the years, but it is like, why watching
(28:00):
it in an arena, there's chancepeople will start being in the tables,
defensive chance, different things like that, high fives, and it just becomes
a really cool arena like atmosphere atthe bar from opening tip to the final
buzzer sound, and then afterwards ofcourse it just becomes a social club for
Denver Nuggets fans. So it's areally cool thing. We had a vision
four years ago and to see itsort of come I mean, obviously the
(28:22):
Nuggets winning a championship really helped usbuild us the ABS. By the way,
we also cover the Avalanche. TheAvs won a championship in that window
as well, so we're on abit of a heater. But it's a
really cool to see this vision wehad come to life and to hit in
ways even greater than what we envisioned. And so now in the other cities
the sports bar element has not yetbeen attached correct. It's really difficult.
(28:44):
We have learned that a media business, you know how difficult it is,
how many have popped up and folded. Well, the restaurant business is the
exact same. And if you thinkabout these last four years. You know
COVID, we actually opened I don'tknow if you knew this mark, but
we opened the two days after theNBA shut down. So we're opening a
sport bar. Nuggets them sports bar, and we opened it on Friday,
March thirteen, twenty twenty, whenthe eleventh is when the NBA folded.
(29:07):
For obviously several months, so wehave been surviving the restaurant business. Even
though we have a really nice modeland it's working, the restaurant business is
just a whole different beast. Sothe plan is, yes, to open
this in every market, but thatpart has been slower than we hoped.
So after you guys opened two daysinto the NBA's COVID shutdown, how long
was it before you could actually havecrowds in your restaurant. I mean it
(29:30):
must have taken ages well if youremember. So during that bubble run,
which was an incredible bubble run forthe Nuggets, I think we were allowed
like ten people into the bar.They had those rules where if it's this
square footage, how many people youcan get in. Ours was like ten
or twelve. So we ended upthrowing parties with ten people and it was
pretty funny, but you know,it was obviously a really memorable moment in
(29:51):
time for the Nuggets, that bubblerun two three to one comebacks, but
it took probably a full year anda half before we were able to really
open it up and see the visioncome to life. And so there's a
postgame pod after every game, dayor night, right, yep, correct
awesome shows as well. And youguys do the you do four letters for
(30:11):
every city, no vowels. Isthat kind of the that's kind of the
the format vowels. You know,the thought of it was, you know,
ESPN everybody recognizes that as as thesports. So we just thought d
n v R p h n X, chg O and Chicago and now phl
Y. So it's not even valves. It's just meant to sound like the
(30:32):
call letters for a market. Allright, sir, if DLS ever comes
up, keep my number. Ilove what you guys are doing, man,
oh trust me, man, you'dbe the first call mark. I
appreciate you. Adam Modes from DenverSports helping us get ready for tomorrow afternoons
huge Matine Nuggets at Mavericks and hopefullywe are still awaiting a health update.
(30:53):
On Luka Dancic. We do notyet have Dontic's status for that game,
but Jokic number fifteen pretty sure he'sgoing to be there and a problem for
the Mavericks. All right, westill have one more segment to come here,
the Saturday Steinline that's next here onninety seven won the Freak. This
is Durkin Whitzky and you're listening tothe Saturday Steinline with my guys. Steiny
(31:15):
on ninety seven won the Freak guy, my unbossle, thank you for sticking
(32:07):
with us on the Saturday Steinline,presented by Panini Trading Cards and Collectibles.
That was a fun moment Wednesday night, out of the public eye. Frankly,
I had no idea about it untilthis thing made its way to social
media. In the house for thatgame Wednesday night, a much needed Mavericks
(32:27):
win over Golden State. The Slovenianband FECh Tari, and I probably really
hope I said that close to correctly. FECh Tari. That clip you heard
was the band serenading Luka Doncic himself. That's a Luca song that they sang
directly to number seventy seven. Whenyou listen to it, listen, my
(32:53):
Slovenian is not where I would likeit to be. But you could certainly
pick up the multiple verses there thatmentioned Luca's name. It was late Wednesday
night when that happened. He hadto leave the game with left hamstring soreness
in the fourth quarter. I sawthe whole thing the way it unfolded.
(33:14):
He'd already been trying to treat theinjury earlier. In that fourth quarter,
he had heat on when he wason the bench, came in for one
play, threw a lob to DanielGafford. Gafford throws it down for a
dunk. But Luca when he landed, he clearly felt something you could see
in his face. He didn't likehow that landing went. Warriors called time
(33:34):
out. Luka Doncicch went right toJason Kidd, told the coach he needed
to come out of the game,went straight to the locker room for treatment,
and then after a lot of postgametreatment, is when Luca emerged to
hear the song, and he genuinelyseemed to love that moment. We are
(33:55):
still awaiting official word on Luca's statusfor the matine against Denver tomorrow. He
badly wants to play in the game. I don't think that comes as a
huge surprise, but he was goingto have to be reevaluated based on how
things look today. And as Isaid, the Mavericks are practicing as we
speak. I was hopeful that wewere going to get the Luca update before
(34:19):
we get off the air. I'mnot so sure that's gonna happen because we're
only on for eight or nine moreminutes. But obviously he wants badly to
play against his very good friend NikolaJokic, And as I covered in the
first segment, gotta be tempting forthe Mavericks to say, you know what,
skip this game, skip Tuesday nightin San Antonio. Maybe buy a
(34:39):
little bit of extra rest before thiscrucial stretch run. A couple more things
I would like to share. I'mgonna start with some words directly from Jason
Kiddy did a radio visit earlier thisweek with the voice of the Mavericks,
Chuck Cooperstein game Wednesday night before theGolden State Game, Kid talked about some
(35:05):
tweaks to some recent tweaks to theoffense that have been implemented trying to ease
the on ball load on his MVPcandidate. And this is Jason Kidd talking
about the chat with Luca in whichhe sold him on these tweaks. You
know, I think it was aconscious ept for on both of us.
(35:28):
I talked to him about it,you know, being able to have other
guys start to play. As youknow you've been doing this a long time.
You know, you feel good whenyou get to start to play because
you feel like you might be apart of maybe getting a layup or setting
the screen to help help a teammate. And I thought Luca has done a
great job of letting the other guysstart to play and the ball is finding
(35:51):
him, and then we can getinto the pick and roll and he can
do what Luca does at a highrate score or find find the open guy.
And so we kind of taken alook at letting d Jones start the
play or getting pj involved of touchingthe ball to make a play for a
teammate. So it's been a consciouseffort on both Luca and I to be
(36:13):
able to talk this and he's fullybought into it, and I think it's
helped him too, because now he'sgetting a lot of catch and shoots where
other guys are driving and he's beingleft wide open. I think this highlights
yet again the key and open linesof communication between Kid and his star player,
(36:36):
both his star players, to behonest, but it is such a
significant thing, and I have tosay every night, game to game,
there is so much made about rotations, and you know, let's make coaching
competency all about particular rotations. Firstof all, just to be clear,
(36:58):
in the OKC game, both DanielGafford and Derek Lively, they struggled defensively
when Josh Getty was not in thegame against a five who can shoot it,
and Okase obviously has that with ChetHolmgren. You could understand why the
Mavericks see Maxi Klieba with his mobilityas the better defensive option, especially in
(37:21):
a situation where the MAVs are gonnastart rotating and trapping to try to get
back in the game and cut intoa deficit. More generally speaking, when
you've got Luca and Kyrie on thefloor, what we've seen since the trades,
Moxie and PJ and the best wingthat Dallas can put alongside their two
(37:42):
stars, that's been their best lookdefensively. Lively's gonna get much better at
this as time goes on. Heneeds more time. Again, the young
man is only twenty. But beyondall that minutia, I'm gonna keep saying
it coaching success in the NBA.I will continue to assert this for as
(38:02):
long as I do this. Itstarts with your roster, your talent.
Nobody achieves anything in the NBA withoutgreat players. But next up in terms
of importance, it is buying,especially when you have guys like Doncic and
Irving and Kid has a good bitof both from Doncic and Irving, and
that seemingly never gets talked about untilthis show brings it up or it ends
(38:29):
up on a certain substack. Nota small thing. This is a huge
thing. And again to illustrate withyet another example, it's why Mavericks assistant
coach Sean Sweeney. It's why you'regoing to see Sweeney on Slovenia's bench,
part of the coaching staff when nationalteam Luca tries to get his little nation
(38:50):
to the Paris Olympics in June andlast chance qualifying seventy seven is connected to
the head coach and the Mavericks' leadassistant before we go, A couple things
I want to thank. I seeCam from Denver checking in on the text
line. Greatly appreciated. I seeBobby from Colliville from the text line,
(39:10):
greatly appreciate it. Guys, thankyou for joining us again. Man,
so much going on right now.I'm trying to keep track of too many
things, trying to see if we'regetting any updates out of MAVs Land,
still waiting for those I got infull candor. My beloved Man City is
playing in the FA Cup right nowagainst Newcastle, so I'm trying to keep
track of all these things. Ido want to also just shout out Gafford
(39:34):
one more time, because he becamea wholly unexpected national newsmaker this week.
That streak of thirty three consecutive madebaskets from the field before he finally missed
one before he finally missed a putbackattempt right at the start of the Oklahoma
City game, and there it wenthis chance to set an NBA record.
He would have needed a three forthree start against the Thunder to break a
(39:59):
record set by the legendary Wilt Chamberlain. Thirty five made shots in the row
from the field way back in thesixties. But I really have to say
props to Gafford. He coped withthat lost opportunity so well, rebounded from
that early miss to finish with nineteenand fifteen against the thunder. Then Friday
(40:19):
morning, the the MAVs could onlyhave been back in Dallas for a few
hours. He pops up on FanDuelTV on their run at Back show to
talk about the myss. Talk usthrough what it was like on the floor
Thursday, knowing he had this opportunityto make history, what it was like
to hear some noise from Shay GilgessAlexander right before tip off whether his shot
(40:42):
selection was at all affected by thestreak. Let's listen now to what mister
Gafford had to say on FanDuel TV. Debbi Shay Jakespeare a little bit too.
He's like a former AAU team madeof mind. We joke around most
of the time when we played againsteach other. So he came up to
me before the game, like duringtip off, he was like, man,
you're gonna try to break the recordagainst us, huh. And I
(41:05):
think it just kind of played outfrom there. You know, it was
a really exciting day. For methough, you know, at the end
of the day, I just gotin a position, just whifted at the
end, whifted at the beginning there, and it was tough. It was
tough shot selection, not necessarily atthe end of the day. You know,
I dunk everything pretty much, youknow, So it wasn't really anything
too serious when he came shot selection. I wasn't a little bit nervous like
(41:25):
the last two games when I wasgetting closer to it. So it's like
every time that I was going tosleep or anything like that, I'm just
I was just having to force myselfto kind of think about something else at
the end of the day, becauseyou know, I was just like wired,
I was juice, I was readyto go. I was anxious,
I was nervous, I was excited. It was just like a bunch of
emotions all in the one pretty goodcandor there. I think Gafford took people
(41:49):
inside with those comments. All right, look, we gotta get going.
I just want to say before wego, I want to send my robust
thanks to everyone in slow who hasbeen listening to this show. I got
a notification after last Saturday show.According to Chartable, which does all kinds
of podcast tracking this little enterprise.We got as high as number sixteen among
(42:15):
all sports podcasts in Slovenia. Crazybecause very little Slovenian, as in pretty
much none get spoken on this show. Maybe it's because we had the great
is Tac Franco on for a wholesegment last week, but whatever the reason,
everyone here at ninety seven won.The Freak was tickled to see that
(42:37):
Fontie Superstae. You guys are greatall right now we really gotta go.
Your radio home for the Dallas Mavericksis ninety seven to one. The Freak
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