November 2, 2023 • 20 mins
Pull up a chair and settle in, folks. We're taking you on a thrilling journey through the Denver Nuggets' week, detailing the electrifying games and unforgettable moments. You'll get the lowdown on the championship ring night and banner unveiling against the Lakers and the gritty, intense Grizzlies game. We'll also give you a peek into the Nuggets' encounter with the Thunder's promising young talent—unmissable insights for every basketball fan.
What was my favorite "Jokism" this week and how confident am I that the Nuggets are going to repeat?
But we're not stopping there. Curious about the NBA's tournament-style group play format and the tantalizing monetary prize? We've got you covered. We're also diving into the aftermath of the James Harden trade and its ripple effects on the Clippers and its potential impact on the 76ers' future. So, buckle up for an exciting analysis of this week in NBA, packed with insights, opinions, and a whole lot of fun.
Don't forget to subscribe on Apple or Spotify and leave those 5 Star reviews!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey everyone.
This is Brian doing something alittle bit different this week.
Doing a solo pod is going to bekind of like a Nuggets Week in
Review.
If you've listened to any ofour past episodes you know the
Nuggets are my favorite.
I like to talk about theNuggets quite a bit, so I
thought I'd do a shorter pod butkind of review what's happened
this past week.
(00:24):
I figure this will bebeneficial for a couple
different reasons.
If you're like my family andfriends in Denver, then
obviously it's a littledifficult to actually watch the
games nowadays, and also ifyou're like me and you just
can't get enough of the Nuggets,then hopefully this will be
another good way to just seewhat I think is interesting
about the team going on rightnow.
So with that, let's get startedTo review the games that
(00:47):
happened.
We had four of them.
First one was opening nightring night.
It was the Lakers in town andwe had been waiting 47 years for
this night.
Nuggets got their rings, raisedthe championship banner and it
seemed like the crowd was superhyped for everything going on.
And it lived up to the hype.
(01:07):
The rings were pretty coolthey're they're giant, of course
, and they look good.
And then they had kind of likea ring inside of a ring with a
little mini banner.
I thought they were pretty cool.
Just championship rings ingeneral are just ridiculous, but
you could tell when the playerssaw them.
They were pretty blown away too.
So I thought that was a greatstart.
And then when the banner wasbeing raised, it was just I
(01:32):
don't know, I don't know how todescribe it.
It was something that I neverthought would happen.
Yet here are the players withtheir beautiful championship
rings on, kind of touching thebanner before it goes up.
I thought that was kind of acool touch.
They just they all wanted totouch it, just to say they did,
before it hangs in the raftersforever.
So it was such a fun night.
(01:54):
I felt so great for, obviously,yokic being being our leader,
but Jamal Murray and MichaelPorter Jr just for what they've
had to battle through with theinjuries.
Jamal came out when he wasintroduced and did his blue
arrow celebration for the firsttime in a while, so that that
was probably my favorite moment.
And then guys like Aaron Gordon, kcp just I love this team and
(02:18):
it was just so fun to watch thewatch the game and I definitely
got a little emotional at timesand it was just a great night.
I enjoyed it all around.
So what a way to kick off theseason and then hopefully we'll
be doing it again next year.
So once the game actuallystarted, it it was.
It felt like a playoff game.
The Lakers were really.
(02:39):
They were playing hard.
They were wanting to prove thatlast year's sweep maybe was
closer than a sweep indicates,and so they were playing hard.
They were playing pretty well.
It's pretty well known now ADwith his media day interview
saying that he and LeBron hadhad some conversations and they
(03:00):
were going to show them what'sup on opening night and stuff
like that.
And yeah, that didn't.
That didn't work, but it was.
It was great because thenuggets came out intense as well
, and so it really felt like aplayoff game in game one and the
nuggets handled their business.
They, they did really well.
And something exciting for mehappened is I actually tied
(03:21):
Anthony Davis for the samenumber of points in the second
half of that game.
So I'm pretty proud of myself.
I don't know if AD is as proudof that accomplishment as I am,
but it was pretty cool to watch,and so nuggets ended up winning
1 19, 107 and truthfully Idon't even know if the game was.
Was that close?
The nuggets, they, they, theywere not going to lose that
night.
So one and oh.
(03:42):
Next game was the Grizzlies onthe road, and this was
interesting because obviouslythere's maybe a rivalry between
the Lakers and the nuggets andit was ring night and so the the
nuggets came out and wanted tokind of show everybody who the
champions were, and so there wasa little less hype, obviously,
for game two in Memphis whenthey're when they're missing
(04:04):
some of their players.
As ugly as the game was and assuper physical as the game was,
the nuggets were still able towin and it's just encouraging to
see they don't have to play thebeautiful brand of basketball
that they're kind of known for.
The Grizzlies were reallytrying to maybe frustrate the
(04:25):
nuggets and just be a littleextra physical with them,
figuring the refs weren't goingto call a foul on every single
play and it worked.
Like it was a low scoring game,it was close, but the nuggets
Really showed a toughness.
I think more mentally maybe sothan physically, because it was
obvious on the court.
The nuggets are just a hugeteam, starting with Yokic, but
(04:46):
also just every other positionwere pretty big, and so when
teams do try and get physical,we can give it right back.
So that was encouraging.
One of my favorite things fromthat game was Zeke Najee had the
best Zero rebound game in NBAhistory, and what I mean by that
is he was all over the placeand the Grizzlies couldn't box
(05:08):
him out like he was.
He was a monster, and so theyprobably fouled him oh I don't
know four or five times whenZeke was trying to get a rebound
, and obviously he doesn't getcredit for the rebound Because
he was fouled, but it was justso impressive to see his his
nickname is tenacious Zeke andhe was definitely showing it
(05:29):
that night, and so I just Ithink it's hilarious.
He got zero rebounds, but ifyou, if you watch the game he
was, he was the main rebounderfor for the bench unit, so it
was pretty great.
The third game, it was thethunder.
Now we talked about the thunderand the NBA preview.
I did with Mason, and they are agreat young, up-and-coming team
(05:52):
.
They have a lot of talent.
Shay Gildes, alexander is asuperstar.
Oh, my goodness, the nuggetsDominated.
This game was on the road.
It was an early start.
It's a young team the nuggetsare supposed to be.
It's like all the traps of thegame where maybe the nuggets in
in past years would have maybetaken it easy or not played
(06:15):
their best.
But this was one of the mostComplete beat downs I've seen in
a long time.
Just every Everything you canimagine the nuggets dominated in
.
They.
They played so well offensivelystarters and bench.
They were playing greatdefensively and it was just so
fun to watch like, if they canplay that way at all times, man
(06:38):
we're, we're not losing, but itwas really fun just because it
was a quality opponent on theroad.
We're two and oh, on the roadnow and that was one of our big
Concerns last year is kind ofhow we played on the road, but
it just looks like the nuggetsare focused.
This year.
They held Shay Gildes Alexanderto one of his career low games
(06:59):
and part of that is because ofthe bench.
They're looking legit and Ijust love the way they're
structured with Christian Brownand Peyton Watson.
They're just super athletesthat just fly all over the place
and they're long and so it justseems like the benches that
we're playing so far have reallystruggled to do anything with
them.
Zeke's a big part of that.
I mentioned him during theMemphis game and Reggie
(07:22):
Jackson's playing really well,kind of running the show for
them.
So Peyton Watson ended uphaving a career high 17 points.
But I'm just so impressed withhow the bench is playing
Together.
It was such a huge weakness forus last year and it's getting
really exciting with kind of howwell they're playing so far.
And they're young guyseverybody except for Reggie and
(07:42):
Jamal they're.
They're still got tons ofpotential that maybe they
haven't reached in with thisplaying time and kind of playing
together when they all fit,then who knows they could, they
could keep improving throughoutthe year, which would be scary
for the rest of the NBA.
So three and oh, heading intoanother home game with the jazz
and it was the second night of aback-to-back.
(08:02):
So those are always rough Withtraveling between.
And they didn't shoot well.
You could kind of tell that itwas a back-to-back.
Everything they were shootingwas kind of hitting the front of
the rim.
Just they weren't getting thejump that they normally do on
their shots.
So it was.
It was a little rough to watchthey just they weren't playing
well in Everything that they haddone well in Oklahoma.
They were kind of struggling alittle bit in Denver against
(08:27):
Utah, but Utah was playing hard.
It was a close game.
But again, it just kind of goesto show you the nuggets are
just a professional basketballteam that just does just enough,
even on off nights, to to pullit out.
And it was close.
But it's really sticking outthat the nuggets can win in so
many different ways.
They're not going to have tooutscore you.
(08:48):
They can play a grind, grind itout defensive night.
They can play super physical.
They can run up and down thecourt with you like any way you
want to play, we can play and wewill probably play it better.
So it's just so exciting for anO to start the season.
Obviously you can't get anybetter than that, but just the
(09:10):
way they're doing it too, it's,it's.
It's getting pretty excitingand we'll we'll get more into
that in a section here later on.
I didn't mention Yokic too muchin the review.
I think most fans will agreethat Yokic is, is our, is our
engine.
Everything kind of revolvesaround him.
So I don't want to make it allabout Yokic, but I do want to
(09:33):
have at least one section wherewe just talk about how amazing
Yokic is.
I got to do it.
So the way this section willwork is I will give a couple
nominations of Amazing, awesomethings that Yokic did this week,
but I will declare one thewinner.
That will be our favoriteYokicism of the week.
(09:54):
Nomination number one hedominated Anthony Davis, jaren
Jackson Jr, chet Holmgren andWalker Kessler.
Those are probably four of thebetter defensive centers in the
league and he started out withthem all in a row first four
games and he was not bothered atall.
(10:16):
He he did so well in every gameand it just looks like he's
kind of on a mission this year.
So that is nomination numberone.
Nomination number two he tiedJason Kidd and LeBron James with
107 triple doubles.
Now this is all time.
So he's tied two of the greatsand he did it in far less games.
(10:41):
He's still got a long way to go.
He's gonna keep working his wayup the list, but it's just
really fun to see his namesalong some of the the greats
that have ever played.
Now those nominations are good,but our winner for our favorite
Yokeism of the week thethree-quarter alley-oop pass
from out of bounds to AaronGordon in Memphis.
(11:02):
Now if you haven't seen thisplay.
Please look it up it's.
It's ridiculous.
It almost looks edited as if itwas One of those commercials
they used to do where the guyswere making all sorts of crazy
trick shots and stuff, becausethe ball kind of Leaves the
frame of the camera and thenGordon dunks it just because the
cameraman wasn't expecting it.
Because why would you?
(11:23):
No one ever Would even think todo that.
But but Yoke itch does.
That pass was one of the bestpasses I've ever seen.
So it's our, it's our winnerfor our first favorite Yokeism
of the week.
Second category is going to beour repeat confidence, meaning.
How confident am I in thenuggets this week that we are
(11:44):
going to repeat and go back toback as champions?
Well, when you go 4 and 0 andpretty much when In every way
possible and look good doing it,I'm gonna say the confidence
it's out of 10.
To borrow a line from DNVR, thevibes are immaculate.
(12:06):
Right now we are feeling good.
We are starting to really thinkabout can we become one of the
All-time great teams?
It looks like if the nuggetswant to focus and play the way
they are each week, I don't knowwho's going to beat us.
We're deep, talented and lookslike we're motivated.
(12:30):
So, yeah, repeat, confidence isat a 10 right now.
I don't.
I don't know what they couldhave done to impress me more
this week, next section, whatI'm looking forward to.
So right now we're in the middleof five games and seven nights,
so it's a kind of an early testfor the guys that could wear
them out.
I think one thing that's been alittle noticeable is not all
(12:54):
the guys are in peak conditionright now.
You can see they get a little,a little tired early on, but
it'll be good for them.
They they've already played afew of the games.
Now they they play again I'mrecording this on Wednesday.
So they'll play Minnesotatonight and then they have a
back to back on Friday andSaturday.
So a lot of games in a shortperiod of time.
It's going to be a good test.
(13:14):
They're going up against goodteams and so far so good.
But Minnesota was our toughestopponent in the playoffs last
year.
And then Luca and the Mavs areplaying pretty well.
Well, luca, specifically hehe's carrying the Mavs, but it's
going to be a great, great week.
Hopefully they can kind offinish us out, and this is
(13:35):
really, I think, the only timethis season that we have five
games and seven nights.
So we passed this first testand it's a little bit easier
from here on out.
Next thing we're looking forwardto is more Julian Strother
minutes.
So if, if y'all don't know,julian Strother was our first
round pick this year, he didplayed really, really well in
(13:56):
the preseason.
He's a great shooter.
He's kind of surprising peoplewith his defense and how well
he's fitting into the team.
But Coach Malone has gottenStrother in for maybe about five
or six minutes last couple ofgames and he's looking good and
I think it's really going tobuild momentum for him to kind
of get his confidence going.
And if, if he can play as wellas he did in the preseason and
(14:20):
we have like another score tobring off the bench and he
doesn't really bring us downdefensively, then it just gives
us so much more flexibility.
If there's an injury or if aguy needs a night off, then we
can plug him in and the benchwon't miss a beat.
And obviously it's just greatto have more talent and more
young guys to to play out there.
So I'm looking forward toseeing what Julian can do this
(14:42):
week and hopefully he'll getmore playing time.
And the last thing I'm lookingforward to this week is we have
our first game of the midseasontournament.
This is something new the NBA istrying out is to make some of
these regular season games alittle bit more interesting.
So every or the whole NBA wasdivided up into groups and you
will play, and you will playeach team in your group one time
(15:05):
, and then the teams with thebest group records will advance
to kind of like the tournamentside of this bracket, and
there's also two wildcards thatadvance as well.
But it'll be fun, just see, seewhat happens.
It can't hurt.
Like the winner gets some extramoney, so I think that'll mean
a lot to the young guys whoaren't making as much.
(15:26):
But I think the winner of thetournament gets $500,000 per
player.
So that's that's that's worthtrying for.
But our first game is againstLuca and Dallas on Friday.
They're pulling out like aspecial court for it and NBA is
trying to hype it up.
So I'm all for it.
I think it'll be fun, like, whynot?
The games are going to beplayed anyway.
Why not have something to keeptrack of or a little bit extra
(15:50):
significance to it?
And if, if the teams don't wantto do it, then then whatever,
but nuggets are going to getthat win.
Now I want this podcast to kindof be inclusive and help other
fans be better fans.
So I want to do arecommendation each week in this
section, and it could be a coolarticle that I read, or a
(16:10):
podcast, or someone to follow onsocial media.
It could be anything.
I just I want to recommendsomething that I think, if
you're listening to this podcast, that you'll probably enjoy as
well.
So my recommendation this weekis a new basketball podcast
called six trophies.
It's hosted by two of myfavorite basketball
personalities, shay Serrano andJason Concepcion, and it's it's
(16:35):
more on the silly side, like ifyou're looking for hardcore
analytic stats and everything,then it's probably not for you,
but these guys know basketballand I think they're hilarious.
If you're looking for anotherpodcast to listen to, then I
would recommend six trophies.
And last, my last section is Iwanted to admit that if, if you
(16:56):
talk to me or listen to podcast,I talked about the nuggets
quite a bit.
Like I said, I love them, but Ido have to admit that there are
other teams in the NBA.
So this section is called oh,there's other teams, where I'll
talk about other teams.
Today we're going to talk aboutthe James Harden trade.
It just happened and obviouslyit could be big or it could be a
(17:20):
whole lot of nothing, but theClippers acquired Harden from
the 76ers after Harden cried hisway out of town.
I guess I'm Luke Warm on thetrade for both sides.
Harden, obviously, is gettingup there in age.
He's not quite as good as heused to be.
He's still very talented, but Idon't know how much of a team
(17:42):
player he is.
And so when you're adding himon to a Clipper team that
already has a bunch ofsuperstars, then I don't know
how that's gonna fit.
And then those superstars areoften hurt, and so their plan of
having all these guys we mightnot even get to see it Just the
chances are of all those guyswho are a little bit up there in
(18:06):
age being healthy for theplayoffs is very slim.
So I don't see it.
I think it's.
I guess it's worth a shot.
They didn't really give upanything, so we'll get to that
on the 76er side, but it, Idon't know.
It's kind of a we'll see for mebecause I just don't see how
it's gonna fit.
On the court there's only oneball.
It's almost like the Suns,except now the Clippers have
(18:28):
four guys that want the ball allthe time.
So I don't know.
It almost reminds me maybe moreof like the Rockets back in the
nineties when they had Elijahon Drexler, pippin, barkley,
like all those guys together.
But we'll see, maybe I'm wrong.
But for the 76ers they weretrying so hard to get a
superstar for Harden but theleague collectively kind of went
(18:51):
nah, we're good, you go aheadand keep him.
Except for the Clippers, theythrew a few picks and some
players at them, but nothingthat I think really improves the
team.
I am here in some otherpodcasts say that they think the
picks are valuable and thatthey might be able to trade for
a superstar with these picks.
So I guess it's a to bedetermined on their side of it.
(19:14):
But I don't know, like Imentioned in the NBA preview,
with Mason, our superstars goingto want to go to Philadelphia
and be in bead sidekick, cause Ithink right now that's their
whole plan is to have a bunch ofcap space to either trade for a
superstar or someone will comenext year and if it ends up that
(19:35):
they're waiting till next year,it's going to be devastating to
them if they can't get a freeagent to sign there, that's
almost going to guarantee thatin bead asks out.
So it's going to be reallyinteresting.
I think it was addition bysubtraction, for the 76ers Might
as well, get rid of a guy thatdoesn't want to be there, and
hopefully they can kind of justplay without him.
(19:58):
So yeah, that's the section of.
Oh, there's other teams.
All right, y'all.
That's all I got for you today.
Hopefully you enjoyed thislittle shorter episode just
talking about the nuggets, andwe will be back next week with
another round of the nuggetsreview.
I promise it won't end here.
Hey everyone.
This is Brian doing something alittle bit different this week.
Doing a solo pod is going to bekind of like a Nuggets Week in
Review.
If you've listened to any ofour past episodes you know the
Nuggets are my favorite.
I like to talk about theNuggets quite a bit, so I
thought I'd do a shorter pod butkind of review what's happened
this past week.
(00:24):
I figure this will bebeneficial for a couple
different reasons.
If you're like my family andfriends in Denver, then
obviously it's a littledifficult to actually watch the
games nowadays, and also ifyou're like me and you just
can't get enough of the Nuggets,then hopefully this will be
another good way to just seewhat I think is interesting
about the team going on rightnow.
So with that, let's get startedTo review the games that
(00:47):
happened.
We had four of them.
First one was opening nightring night.
It was the Lakers in town andwe had been waiting 47 years for
this night.
Nuggets got their rings, raisedthe championship banner and it
seemed like the crowd was superhyped for everything going on.
And it lived up to the hype.
(01:07):
The rings were pretty coolthey're they're giant, of course
, and they look good.
And then they had kind of likea ring inside of a ring with a
little mini banner.
I thought they were pretty cool.
Just championship rings ingeneral are just ridiculous, but
you could tell when the playerssaw them.
They were pretty blown away too.
So I thought that was a greatstart.
And then when the banner wasbeing raised, it was just I
(01:32):
don't know, I don't know how todescribe it.
It was something that I neverthought would happen.
Yet here are the players withtheir beautiful championship
rings on, kind of touching thebanner before it goes up.
I thought that was kind of acool touch.
They just they all wanted totouch it, just to say they did,
before it hangs in the raftersforever.
So it was such a fun night.
(01:54):
I felt so great for, obviously,yokic being being our leader,
but Jamal Murray and MichaelPorter Jr just for what they've
had to battle through with theinjuries.
Jamal came out when he wasintroduced and did his blue
arrow celebration for the firsttime in a while, so that that
was probably my favorite moment.
And then guys like Aaron Gordon, kcp just I love this team and
(02:18):
it was just so fun to watch thewatch the game and I definitely
got a little emotional at timesand it was just a great night.
I enjoyed it all around.
So what a way to kick off theseason and then hopefully we'll
be doing it again next year.
So once the game actuallystarted, it it was.
It felt like a playoff game.
The Lakers were really.
(02:39):
They were playing hard.
They were wanting to prove thatlast year's sweep maybe was
closer than a sweep indicates,and so they were playing hard.
They were playing pretty well.
It's pretty well known now ADwith his media day interview
saying that he and LeBron hadhad some conversations and they
(03:00):
were going to show them what'sup on opening night and stuff
like that.
And yeah, that didn't.
That didn't work, but it was.
It was great because thenuggets came out intense as well
, and so it really felt like aplayoff game in game one and the
nuggets handled their business.
They, they did really well.
And something exciting for mehappened is I actually tied
(03:21):
Anthony Davis for the samenumber of points in the second
half of that game.
So I'm pretty proud of myself.
I don't know if AD is as proudof that accomplishment as I am,
but it was pretty cool to watch,and so nuggets ended up winning
1 19, 107 and truthfully Idon't even know if the game was.
Was that close?
The nuggets, they, they, theywere not going to lose that
night.
So one and oh.
(03:42):
Next game was the Grizzlies onthe road, and this was
interesting because obviouslythere's maybe a rivalry between
the Lakers and the nuggets andit was ring night and so the the
nuggets came out and wanted tokind of show everybody who the
champions were, and so there wasa little less hype, obviously,
for game two in Memphis whenthey're when they're missing
(04:04):
some of their players.
As ugly as the game was and assuper physical as the game was,
the nuggets were still able towin and it's just encouraging to
see they don't have to play thebeautiful brand of basketball
that they're kind of known for.
The Grizzlies were reallytrying to maybe frustrate the
(04:25):
nuggets and just be a littleextra physical with them,
figuring the refs weren't goingto call a foul on every single
play and it worked.
Like it was a low scoring game,it was close, but the nuggets
Really showed a toughness.
I think more mentally maybe sothan physically, because it was
obvious on the court.
The nuggets are just a hugeteam, starting with Yokic, but
(04:46):
also just every other positionwere pretty big, and so when
teams do try and get physical,we can give it right back.
So that was encouraging.
One of my favorite things fromthat game was Zeke Najee had the
best Zero rebound game in NBAhistory, and what I mean by that
is he was all over the placeand the Grizzlies couldn't box
(05:08):
him out like he was.
He was a monster, and so theyprobably fouled him oh I don't
know four or five times whenZeke was trying to get a rebound
, and obviously he doesn't getcredit for the rebound Because
he was fouled, but it was justso impressive to see his his
nickname is tenacious Zeke andhe was definitely showing it
(05:29):
that night, and so I just Ithink it's hilarious.
He got zero rebounds, but ifyou, if you watch the game he
was, he was the main rebounderfor for the bench unit, so it
was pretty great.
The third game, it was thethunder.
Now we talked about the thunderand the NBA preview.
I did with Mason, and they are agreat young, up-and-coming team
(05:52):
.
They have a lot of talent.
Shay Gildes, alexander is asuperstar.
Oh, my goodness, the nuggetsDominated.
This game was on the road.
It was an early start.
It's a young team the nuggetsare supposed to be.
It's like all the traps of thegame where maybe the nuggets in
in past years would have maybetaken it easy or not played
(06:15):
their best.
But this was one of the mostComplete beat downs I've seen in
a long time.
Just every Everything you canimagine the nuggets dominated in
.
They.
They played so well offensivelystarters and bench.
They were playing greatdefensively and it was just so
fun to watch like, if they canplay that way at all times, man
(06:38):
we're, we're not losing, but itwas really fun just because it
was a quality opponent on theroad.
We're two and oh, on the roadnow and that was one of our big
Concerns last year is kind ofhow we played on the road, but
it just looks like the nuggetsare focused.
This year.
They held Shay Gildes Alexanderto one of his career low games
(06:59):
and part of that is because ofthe bench.
They're looking legit and Ijust love the way they're
structured with Christian Brownand Peyton Watson.
They're just super athletesthat just fly all over the place
and they're long and so it justseems like the benches that
we're playing so far have reallystruggled to do anything with
them.
Zeke's a big part of that.
I mentioned him during theMemphis game and Reggie
(07:22):
Jackson's playing really well,kind of running the show for
them.
So Peyton Watson ended uphaving a career high 17 points.
But I'm just so impressed withhow the bench is playing
Together.
It was such a huge weakness forus last year and it's getting
really exciting with kind of howwell they're playing so far.
And they're young guyseverybody except for Reggie and
(07:42):
Jamal they're.
They're still got tons ofpotential that maybe they
haven't reached in with thisplaying time and kind of playing
together when they all fit,then who knows they could, they
could keep improving throughoutthe year, which would be scary
for the rest of the NBA.
So three and oh, heading intoanother home game with the jazz
and it was the second night of aback-to-back.
(08:02):
So those are always rough Withtraveling between.
And they didn't shoot well.
You could kind of tell that itwas a back-to-back.
Everything they were shootingwas kind of hitting the front of
the rim.
Just they weren't getting thejump that they normally do on
their shots.
So it was.
It was a little rough to watchthey just they weren't playing
well in Everything that they haddone well in Oklahoma.
They were kind of struggling alittle bit in Denver against
(08:27):
Utah, but Utah was playing hard.
It was a close game.
But again, it just kind of goesto show you the nuggets are
just a professional basketballteam that just does just enough,
even on off nights, to to pullit out.
And it was close.
But it's really sticking outthat the nuggets can win in so
many different ways.
They're not going to have tooutscore you.
(08:48):
They can play a grind, grind itout defensive night.
They can play super physical.
They can run up and down thecourt with you like any way you
want to play, we can play and wewill probably play it better.
So it's just so exciting for anO to start the season.
Obviously you can't get anybetter than that, but just the
(09:10):
way they're doing it too, it's,it's.
It's getting pretty excitingand we'll we'll get more into
that in a section here later on.
I didn't mention Yokic too muchin the review.
I think most fans will agreethat Yokic is, is our, is our
engine.
Everything kind of revolvesaround him.
So I don't want to make it allabout Yokic, but I do want to
(09:33):
have at least one section wherewe just talk about how amazing
Yokic is.
I got to do it.
So the way this section willwork is I will give a couple
nominations of Amazing, awesomethings that Yokic did this week,
but I will declare one thewinner.
That will be our favoriteYokicism of the week.
(09:54):
Nomination number one hedominated Anthony Davis, jaren
Jackson Jr, chet Holmgren andWalker Kessler.
Those are probably four of thebetter defensive centers in the
league and he started out withthem all in a row first four
games and he was not bothered atall.
(10:16):
He he did so well in every gameand it just looks like he's
kind of on a mission this year.
So that is nomination numberone.
Nomination number two he tiedJason Kidd and LeBron James with
107 triple doubles.
Now this is all time.
So he's tied two of the greatsand he did it in far less games.
(10:41):
He's still got a long way to go.
He's gonna keep working his wayup the list, but it's just
really fun to see his namesalong some of the the greats
that have ever played.
Now those nominations are good,but our winner for our favorite
Yokeism of the week thethree-quarter alley-oop pass
from out of bounds to AaronGordon in Memphis.
(11:02):
Now if you haven't seen thisplay.
Please look it up it's.
It's ridiculous.
It almost looks edited as if itwas One of those commercials
they used to do where the guyswere making all sorts of crazy
trick shots and stuff, becausethe ball kind of Leaves the
frame of the camera and thenGordon dunks it just because the
cameraman wasn't expecting it.
Because why would you?
(11:23):
No one ever Would even think todo that.
But but Yoke itch does.
That pass was one of the bestpasses I've ever seen.
So it's our, it's our winnerfor our first favorite Yokeism
of the week.
Second category is going to beour repeat confidence, meaning.
How confident am I in thenuggets this week that we are
(11:44):
going to repeat and go back toback as champions?
Well, when you go 4 and 0 andpretty much when In every way
possible and look good doing it,I'm gonna say the confidence
it's out of 10.
To borrow a line from DNVR, thevibes are immaculate.
(12:06):
Right now we are feeling good.
We are starting to really thinkabout can we become one of the
All-time great teams?
It looks like if the nuggetswant to focus and play the way
they are each week, I don't knowwho's going to beat us.
We're deep, talented and lookslike we're motivated.
(12:30):
So, yeah, repeat, confidence isat a 10 right now.
I don't.
I don't know what they couldhave done to impress me more
this week, next section, whatI'm looking forward to.
So right now we're in the middleof five games and seven nights,
so it's a kind of an early testfor the guys that could wear
them out.
I think one thing that's been alittle noticeable is not all
(12:54):
the guys are in peak conditionright now.
You can see they get a little,a little tired early on, but
it'll be good for them.
They they've already played afew of the games.
Now they they play again I'mrecording this on Wednesday.
So they'll play Minnesotatonight and then they have a
back to back on Friday andSaturday.
So a lot of games in a shortperiod of time.
It's going to be a good test.
(13:14):
They're going up against goodteams and so far so good.
But Minnesota was our toughestopponent in the playoffs last
year.
And then Luca and the Mavs areplaying pretty well.
Well, luca, specifically hehe's carrying the Mavs, but it's
going to be a great, great week.
Hopefully they can kind offinish us out, and this is
(13:35):
really, I think, the only timethis season that we have five
games and seven nights.
So we passed this first testand it's a little bit easier
from here on out.
Next thing we're looking forwardto is more Julian Strother
minutes.
So if, if y'all don't know,julian Strother was our first
round pick this year, he didplayed really, really well in
(13:56):
the preseason.
He's a great shooter.
He's kind of surprising peoplewith his defense and how well
he's fitting into the team.
But Coach Malone has gottenStrother in for maybe about five
or six minutes last couple ofgames and he's looking good and
I think it's really going tobuild momentum for him to kind
of get his confidence going.
And if, if he can play as wellas he did in the preseason and
(14:20):
we have like another score tobring off the bench and he
doesn't really bring us downdefensively, then it just gives
us so much more flexibility.
If there's an injury or if aguy needs a night off, then we
can plug him in and the benchwon't miss a beat.
And obviously it's just greatto have more talent and more
young guys to to play out there.
So I'm looking forward toseeing what Julian can do this
(14:42):
week and hopefully he'll getmore playing time.
And the last thing I'm lookingforward to this week is we have
our first game of the midseasontournament.
This is something new the NBA istrying out is to make some of
these regular season games alittle bit more interesting.
So every or the whole NBA wasdivided up into groups and you
will play, and you will playeach team in your group one time
(15:05):
, and then the teams with thebest group records will advance
to kind of like the tournamentside of this bracket, and
there's also two wildcards thatadvance as well.
But it'll be fun, just see, seewhat happens.
It can't hurt.
Like the winner gets some extramoney, so I think that'll mean
a lot to the young guys whoaren't making as much.
(15:26):
But I think the winner of thetournament gets $500,000 per
player.
So that's that's that's worthtrying for.
But our first game is againstLuca and Dallas on Friday.
They're pulling out like aspecial court for it and NBA is
trying to hype it up.
So I'm all for it.
I think it'll be fun, like, whynot?
The games are going to beplayed anyway.
Why not have something to keeptrack of or a little bit extra
(15:50):
significance to it?
And if, if the teams don't wantto do it, then then whatever,
but nuggets are going to getthat win.
Now I want this podcast to kindof be inclusive and help other
fans be better fans.
So I want to do arecommendation each week in this
section, and it could be a coolarticle that I read, or a
(16:10):
podcast, or someone to follow onsocial media.
It could be anything.
I just I want to recommendsomething that I think, if
you're listening to this podcast, that you'll probably enjoy as
well.
So my recommendation this weekis a new basketball podcast
called six trophies.
It's hosted by two of myfavorite basketball
personalities, shay Serrano andJason Concepcion, and it's it's
(16:35):
more on the silly side, like ifyou're looking for hardcore
analytic stats and everything,then it's probably not for you,
but these guys know basketballand I think they're hilarious.
If you're looking for anotherpodcast to listen to, then I
would recommend six trophies.
And last, my last section is Iwanted to admit that if, if you
(16:56):
talk to me or listen to podcast,I talked about the nuggets
quite a bit.
Like I said, I love them, but Ido have to admit that there are
other teams in the NBA.
So this section is called oh,there's other teams, where I'll
talk about other teams.
Today we're going to talk aboutthe James Harden trade.
It just happened and obviouslyit could be big or it could be a
(17:20):
whole lot of nothing, but theClippers acquired Harden from
the 76ers after Harden cried hisway out of town.
I guess I'm Luke Warm on thetrade for both sides.
Harden, obviously, is gettingup there in age.
He's not quite as good as heused to be.
He's still very talented, but Idon't know how much of a team
(17:42):
player he is.
And so when you're adding himon to a Clipper team that
already has a bunch ofsuperstars, then I don't know
how that's gonna fit.
And then those superstars areoften hurt, and so their plan of
having all these guys we mightnot even get to see it Just the
chances are of all those guyswho are a little bit up there in
(18:06):
age being healthy for theplayoffs is very slim.
So I don't see it.
I think it's.
I guess it's worth a shot.
They didn't really give upanything, so we'll get to that
on the 76er side, but it, Idon't know.
It's kind of a we'll see for mebecause I just don't see how
it's gonna fit.
On the court there's only oneball.
It's almost like the Suns,except now the Clippers have
(18:28):
four guys that want the ball allthe time.
So I don't know.
It almost reminds me maybe moreof like the Rockets back in the
nineties when they had Elijahon Drexler, pippin, barkley,
like all those guys together.
But we'll see, maybe I'm wrong.
But for the 76ers they weretrying so hard to get a
superstar for Harden but theleague collectively kind of went
(18:51):
nah, we're good, you go aheadand keep him.
Except for the Clippers, theythrew a few picks and some
players at them, but nothingthat I think really improves the
team.
I am here in some otherpodcasts say that they think the
picks are valuable and thatthey might be able to trade for
a superstar with these picks.
So I guess it's a to bedetermined on their side of it.
(19:14):
But I don't know, like Imentioned in the NBA preview,
with Mason, our superstars goingto want to go to Philadelphia
and be in bead sidekick, cause Ithink right now that's their
whole plan is to have a bunch ofcap space to either trade for a
superstar or someone will comenext year and if it ends up that
(19:35):
they're waiting till next year,it's going to be devastating to
them if they can't get a freeagent to sign there, that's
almost going to guarantee thatin bead asks out.
So it's going to be reallyinteresting.
I think it was addition bysubtraction, for the 76ers Might
as well, get rid of a guy thatdoesn't want to be there, and
hopefully they can kind of justplay without him.
(19:58):
So yeah, that's the section of.
Oh, there's other teams.
All right, y'all.
That's all I got for you today.
Hopefully you enjoyed thislittle shorter episode just
talking about the nuggets, andwe will be back next week with
another round of the nuggetsreview.
I promise it won't end here.
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