December 15, 2025 • 13 mins
We celebrate Jokmas and retrace how one bold choice turned Jokic into the franchise’s axis while breaking down a seven-game run that mixed an odd home slide with an elite road streak. We make fresh predictions, own past misses, and share a simple way to be a better fan.
• seven-game recap with Suns, Pacers, Hawks, Hornets, Kings
• NBA Cup miss after Spurs loss and what it means
• Jokmas origin and Malone’s decision to start Jokic
• the Clippers what-if and development context
• current form as 18–6 with road streak at eleven
• predictions for Rockets and a Jokic mega line
• correcting last episode’s calls and lessons learned
• bench maturity and fewer blown leads
• why the Hornets broadcast is pure basketball joy
Celebrate today. It is a Nuggets holiday.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brian (00:04):
Alright everyone, welcome back to Fandom from Afar.
Another episode for you today,kind of a special one, Nugget
Nuggets Holiday Edition.
And uh we're gonna review thegames that have happened since
we last recorded.
I'm gonna tell the story ofJokmas, and then we'll get into
some predictions and correctionsfrom the last episode and
always, as always, how to be abetter fan.
(00:27):
So let's jump right into it.
The Nuggets had seven gamessince we last recorded, and it
started off with a loss to theSpurs, which meant the Nuggets
do not get to advance to theelimination round for the NBA
Cup yet again.
But they bounced back with awin against the Suns.
The Suns are surprisingly goodthis year, and the Nuggets are
(00:49):
better.
We then lost to the Mavericksat home, extending our home
losing streak to four, which isone of the weirder things this
season.
The Nuggets have been so good,yet we have lost four games at
home where we should have a hugeadvantage, and all four games
have been to teams that weshould easily beat.
(01:09):
I have no explanation for it,but it is what it is.
We've lost four at home.
Nuggets then went out on theroad and beat the Pacers.
Jamal Murray had a coming outparty with 52 points.
He made it look easy.
It is the year of Jamal Star.
Next game, a win against theHawks.
(01:31):
Jokic had an easy 40.
Tim Hardaway Jr.
hit a bunch of threes and had17 off the bench.
Nuggets get the victory.
Next game, Hornets, anothervictory.
Jokic and Jamal combined for62.
Pretty easy win.
Nuggets just look so Jokiccalls them professional, which
really means that the whole teamis kind of playing together and
(01:54):
just dominating these teams.
We should win.
And then last game was a winagainst the Kings.
The road win streak is at 11.
So again, home win, home losingstreak at four, road winning
streak at eleven.
I can't explain it, but I'lltake it.
The Nuggets are 18 and 6, whichis the best start in franchise
(02:16):
history.
Now, this is obviously gettingovershadowed by OKC just never
losing a game, even though theyjust lost to the Spurs this
weekend.
So they are not invincible.
I still feel confident that theNuggets can put up a good fight
come playoff time.
We'll just have to wait a fewmonths to see.
(02:36):
Now, I mentioned that this is aNuggets holiday edition, and
that is because today is Jokmas.
Jokmas is a made-up holiday byNuggets fans to celebrate the
insertion of Nikolo Jokic in thestarting lineup way back in
2016, and that decision changedthe franchise history forever.
(03:00):
So every year I have to say,congratulations to Coach Malone
for making that decision becauseI really think a lot of coaches
would not have been braveenough to do so.
The reasons being Jokic wasstill so young and he was so
different.
He was unlike any other playerin the league and still is, but
(03:20):
he was a young, raw version ofhimself who made some great
plays, was solid fundamentally,the potential was there, but he
was young.
He was terrible at defense, hewas slow.
All the reasons why a coachwould not be brave enough to put
him in the starting lineup, butCoach Malone saw something and
(03:41):
decided to start Jokic.
Now, another way or anotherreason that he could have not
made this decision is the theNuggets had uh Yusuf Nurkic,
easy for me to say, and he wasgood, not great, but he was
good.
He was a young, promising bigman, and he had done well in his
(04:02):
own way.
He was more of a traditionalcenter, and coach still found a
way to get Jokic in the lineup,and the Nuggets were never the
same.
Now, Nurkic obviously poutedhis way out of town, but Jokic
took off to become possibly thegreatest player ever.
So I know I've told that storybefore, but it really cannot be
(04:25):
understated how important thatdecision was to the Nuggets
franchise.
It led to our onlychampionship, it led to Jokic
winning three MVPs, it led tothe Nuggets having what is
perhaps their greatest stretchin their entire franchise
history.
And some of the coverage ofJokmas in the past has been
really interesting.
Like there's reports that havesurfaced from way back in 2016
(04:50):
about trade rumors that theClippers were trying to trade
for, I think it was Galinari anda couple other players, and
Jokic was almost thrown in as anafterthought, and they would
have given us an aging BlakeGriffin.
Now, can you imagine if Jokicwould have got traded to the
Clippers and dominated for them?
Oh, it would be the mostheartbreaking Nuggets I I can't
(05:13):
even think of it.
It would just be terrible.
Not only A, because Jokic Ithink is inevitable and he would
have dominated for them, nomatter if it was for the
Clippers or another team if hewould have got traded again.
But the Nuggets never get freeagents like Jokic to sign with
us.
And so if we would have tradedhim away and then watch him
become a three-time All-Star, Imean sorry, three-time MVP and
(05:35):
just dominate the league likehe's been doing for us, I would
have been so sad.
But in a way, it might havebeen a blessing in disguise for
Jokic to stay in Denver becauseof just the media market.
I think as Jokic was growing,it was a benefit for him not to
have a media swarm around himall the time, picking apart
(05:57):
every little detail because hedid have growing to do, and he
was such an unusual player thathe might have got frustrated
with how the media covered himout in LA and went back to
Europe for all we know.
So I think it worked out greatfor everyone, except for
Clippers fans in that case.
But just the what-ifs as youlook back, Jokmas and what he's
brought to our franchise reallyis crazy.
(06:18):
So if you aren't already,celebrate Jokmas tonight with
your loved ones.
I'm wearing my Jokmassweatshirt to celebrate the day,
and let me be the first to sayhappy Jokmas, everyone.
Let's get into somepredictions.
We're in kind of a weird timeof the season.
The Nuggets have only had onegame in the last eight days,
(06:38):
just because the NBA Cup.
Again, if we would have justbeat the Spurs, we could have
been a part of that NBA Cup.
But maybe some rest will do theguys good.
And my predictions for theseupcoming games, now that we're
kind of getting back into a morenormal schedule, is Jokic will
help us celebrate Jokmas tonightand give us a humongous triple
(07:02):
double.
Now we kind of get used to hisoutstanding numbers, and if
anyone else would do it, itwould be just a career night.
So I'm gonna predict anabsolutely giant game for Jokic
tonight.
40 points, 20 rebounds, 15assists, happy Jokmasmas.
My next prediction will be theNuggets are gonna go 2-0 against
(07:25):
the Rockets.
We have two games coming upagainst the Rockets, both
tonight and in a few days.
And obviously the Rockets arelooked at possibly on the same
tier as the Nuggets.
Everyone agrees that OKC is atthe top, and then right below
them is the Nuggets and theRockets.
And this will be a good testfor the guys, even though we are
still missing Christian Brownand Aaron Gordon.
(07:47):
I think the Nuggets are gonnago 2-0 and kind of put a little
bit of space in between them andthe Rockets for that number two
seed.
So what could go wrong withthose predictions?
Well, let's review what I gotwrong about the last episode.
Is it too easy to sayeverything?
Yeah, we'll we'll go intodetail.
So I predicted that the Nuggetswere going to beat the Spurs
(08:12):
and join the elimination roundin the NBA Cup for the first
time.
I was dead wrong.
Even though the Spurs weremissing Wimby, we could not beat
them at home.
I don't know what's going onwith our home games.
But like I said, I think it'sgood.
It sounds like the interviewscoming out of practice are the
Nuggets are really enjoying therest.
(08:32):
Even though it's somewhat earlyin the season, I think those
guys enjoy the rest wheneverthey can get it.
And hopefully they won't comeback rusty in these next couple
games against the Rockets.
Hopefully they will be rested,recharged, and ready to go.
Now, I also predicted that theNuggets would lose to either the
Pacers or the Hornets, becausethat's just what the Nuggets do.
(08:53):
And I was wrong, which is apleasant surprise.
Nuggets, like I said, have an11-game road winning streak, and
they were able to beat both thePacers and the Hornets.
And it's just it's it'srefreshing.
The Nuggets, really for theentire Jokic era, have always
lost some of these random roadgames to these bottom seller
(09:15):
East teams, and there's reallyno explanation for it except for
the guys just don't put in fulleffort or just don't really
care about that game.
And as I mentioned earlier,Jokic keeps calling this team
professional, and I think a bigpart of that is our bench.
Jonas, Tim Hardaway Jr., BruceBrown, they're all veteran guys
(09:36):
that just come in and play theright way, and our bench is not
giving up huge runs like theyused to.
And it seems like they theyhave that professionalism to
them where every night they aregoing to play the same way,
whether they're playing OKC orthey're playing the Hornets.
And it's refreshing.
It's nice.
It's like, oh, this is what abasketball team should do when
(09:58):
you're really good.
And so I hope they can continuethat on.
And like we only have a fewmore weeks until Aaron Gordon
and Christian Brown get back.
And I'm excited to see what afully loaded Nuggets team can do
because I think they're reallyestablishing themselves as the
second best team in the league.
Now, I always include ways tobe a better fan to end these
(10:19):
episodes, and I'm kind ofexcited about this one because I
had heard about this guy, but Ihad never seen it for myself.
And the person I'm talking to,I apologize, I meant to look up
the name before recording and Idid not, but it is the Hornets
play-by-play announcer.
Now, I know this is veryrandom, but if you love
(10:40):
basketball, try and watch aHornets game sometime with their
local team.
And the reason this is so funis because both their
play-by-play and and theiranalyst are really positive
about both teams.
I was just really impressedwith how they would compliment
(11:01):
the Nuggets, but also cheer fortheir their hometown team.
They were very knowledgeableabout the Nuggets, and it was
just refreshing.
I guess I don't want to sayanything bad about the Nuggets
announcers, but they 95% of thetime will talk about the
Nuggets, and then the otherpercent of the time just kind of
complain about the referees.
You hardly ever hear them tellinteresting stories about the
(11:23):
other team.
They may throw in a few littlefactoids that are just very
basic that were probably in themedia guide.
And the Hornets announcers, itwas just kind of a breath of
fresh air that you could tellthey love basketball.
They were just excited justabout good plays on either side.
And it was really fun to listento because the Hornets
play-by-play guy gets so excitedabout good plays for the
(11:46):
Hornets, but also for theNuggets.
Like Jokic had some easybaskets where he was just kind
of doing his spins and just kindof making the other guys look
foolish, and the guys lovedthat.
Jamal Murray was having anamazing game.
He had 23 points in the firstquarter, and they were just
gushing about Jamal Murray.
But the two plays that stuckout were I I had never heard a
(12:10):
man scream like this before, butMiles Bridges had a dunk, and
the announcer just went nuts.
He was like a fan.
I loved it.
It was so fun to watch.
And then the other one thatstuck out was if you haven't
seen Spencer Jones on theNuggets shoot the basketball, it
is quite unusual.
He sticks his hip way out forno reason, and it's kind of like
(12:30):
a sidewinder.
And the Hornets announcers hadobviously never seen this before
because they were kind ofmid-sentence when Spencer shot a
three, and the Hornetsannouncer was just like, oh, oh,
like he he didn't know what todo.
Like he had never seen such ashot before, and it just made me
laugh so much that he he hedoesn't try to hide what he's
(12:52):
thinking.
He's just like just spoutingout what like if you're watching
a basketball game with afriend.
So as you can tell, Ithoroughly enjoyed watching the
game with him.
And if you love basketball,please take the time to watch a
Hornets game sometime.
Alright, that's all I have foryou today.
Like I said, it's been a littlebit of a downtime for the
(13:13):
Nuggets, getting some rest.
Hopefully, we will see someenergy coming back out of this
little break.
And happy Jokmas, everyone.
Celebrate today.
It is a Nuggets holiday.
Thanks for listening.
unknown (13:27):
Bye.
Alright everyone, welcome back to Fandom from Afar.
Another episode for you today,kind of a special one, Nugget
Nuggets Holiday Edition.
And uh we're gonna review thegames that have happened since
we last recorded.
I'm gonna tell the story ofJokmas, and then we'll get into
some predictions and correctionsfrom the last episode and
always, as always, how to be abetter fan.
(00:27):
So let's jump right into it.
The Nuggets had seven gamessince we last recorded, and it
started off with a loss to theSpurs, which meant the Nuggets
do not get to advance to theelimination round for the NBA
Cup yet again.
But they bounced back with awin against the Suns.
The Suns are surprisingly goodthis year, and the Nuggets are
(00:49):
better.
We then lost to the Mavericksat home, extending our home
losing streak to four, which isone of the weirder things this
season.
The Nuggets have been so good,yet we have lost four games at
home where we should have a hugeadvantage, and all four games
have been to teams that weshould easily beat.
(01:09):
I have no explanation for it,but it is what it is.
We've lost four at home.
Nuggets then went out on theroad and beat the Pacers.
Jamal Murray had a coming outparty with 52 points.
He made it look easy.
It is the year of Jamal Star.
Next game, a win against theHawks.
(01:31):
Jokic had an easy 40.
Tim Hardaway Jr.
hit a bunch of threes and had17 off the bench.
Nuggets get the victory.
Next game, Hornets, anothervictory.
Jokic and Jamal combined for62.
Pretty easy win.
Nuggets just look so Jokiccalls them professional, which
really means that the whole teamis kind of playing together and
(01:54):
just dominating these teams.
We should win.
And then last game was a winagainst the Kings.
The road win streak is at 11.
So again, home win, home losingstreak at four, road winning
streak at eleven.
I can't explain it, but I'lltake it.
The Nuggets are 18 and 6, whichis the best start in franchise
(02:16):
history.
Now, this is obviously gettingovershadowed by OKC just never
losing a game, even though theyjust lost to the Spurs this
weekend.
So they are not invincible.
I still feel confident that theNuggets can put up a good fight
come playoff time.
We'll just have to wait a fewmonths to see.
(02:36):
Now, I mentioned that this is aNuggets holiday edition, and
that is because today is Jokmas.
Jokmas is a made-up holiday byNuggets fans to celebrate the
insertion of Nikolo Jokic in thestarting lineup way back in
2016, and that decision changedthe franchise history forever.
(03:00):
So every year I have to say,congratulations to Coach Malone
for making that decision becauseI really think a lot of coaches
would not have been braveenough to do so.
The reasons being Jokic wasstill so young and he was so
different.
He was unlike any other playerin the league and still is, but
(03:20):
he was a young, raw version ofhimself who made some great
plays, was solid fundamentally,the potential was there, but he
was young.
He was terrible at defense, hewas slow.
All the reasons why a coachwould not be brave enough to put
him in the starting lineup, butCoach Malone saw something and
(03:41):
decided to start Jokic.
Now, another way or anotherreason that he could have not
made this decision is the theNuggets had uh Yusuf Nurkic,
easy for me to say, and he wasgood, not great, but he was
good.
He was a young, promising bigman, and he had done well in his
(04:02):
own way.
He was more of a traditionalcenter, and coach still found a
way to get Jokic in the lineup,and the Nuggets were never the
same.
Now, Nurkic obviously poutedhis way out of town, but Jokic
took off to become possibly thegreatest player ever.
So I know I've told that storybefore, but it really cannot be
(04:25):
understated how important thatdecision was to the Nuggets
franchise.
It led to our onlychampionship, it led to Jokic
winning three MVPs, it led tothe Nuggets having what is
perhaps their greatest stretchin their entire franchise
history.
And some of the coverage ofJokmas in the past has been
really interesting.
Like there's reports that havesurfaced from way back in 2016
(04:50):
about trade rumors that theClippers were trying to trade
for, I think it was Galinari anda couple other players, and
Jokic was almost thrown in as anafterthought, and they would
have given us an aging BlakeGriffin.
Now, can you imagine if Jokicwould have got traded to the
Clippers and dominated for them?
Oh, it would be the mostheartbreaking Nuggets I I can't
(05:13):
even think of it.
It would just be terrible.
Not only A, because Jokic Ithink is inevitable and he would
have dominated for them, nomatter if it was for the
Clippers or another team if hewould have got traded again.
But the Nuggets never get freeagents like Jokic to sign with
us.
And so if we would have tradedhim away and then watch him
become a three-time All-Star, Imean sorry, three-time MVP and
(05:35):
just dominate the league likehe's been doing for us, I would
have been so sad.
But in a way, it might havebeen a blessing in disguise for
Jokic to stay in Denver becauseof just the media market.
I think as Jokic was growing,it was a benefit for him not to
have a media swarm around himall the time, picking apart
(05:57):
every little detail because hedid have growing to do, and he
was such an unusual player thathe might have got frustrated
with how the media covered himout in LA and went back to
Europe for all we know.
So I think it worked out greatfor everyone, except for
Clippers fans in that case.
But just the what-ifs as youlook back, Jokmas and what he's
brought to our franchise reallyis crazy.
(06:18):
So if you aren't already,celebrate Jokmas tonight with
your loved ones.
I'm wearing my Jokmassweatshirt to celebrate the day,
and let me be the first to sayhappy Jokmas, everyone.
Let's get into somepredictions.
We're in kind of a weird timeof the season.
The Nuggets have only had onegame in the last eight days,
(06:38):
just because the NBA Cup.
Again, if we would have justbeat the Spurs, we could have
been a part of that NBA Cup.
But maybe some rest will do theguys good.
And my predictions for theseupcoming games, now that we're
kind of getting back into a morenormal schedule, is Jokic will
help us celebrate Jokmas tonightand give us a humongous triple
(07:02):
double.
Now we kind of get used to hisoutstanding numbers, and if
anyone else would do it, itwould be just a career night.
So I'm gonna predict anabsolutely giant game for Jokic
tonight.
40 points, 20 rebounds, 15assists, happy Jokmasmas.
My next prediction will be theNuggets are gonna go 2-0 against
(07:25):
the Rockets.
We have two games coming upagainst the Rockets, both
tonight and in a few days.
And obviously the Rockets arelooked at possibly on the same
tier as the Nuggets.
Everyone agrees that OKC is atthe top, and then right below
them is the Nuggets and theRockets.
And this will be a good testfor the guys, even though we are
still missing Christian Brownand Aaron Gordon.
(07:47):
I think the Nuggets are gonnago 2-0 and kind of put a little
bit of space in between them andthe Rockets for that number two
seed.
So what could go wrong withthose predictions?
Well, let's review what I gotwrong about the last episode.
Is it too easy to sayeverything?
Yeah, we'll we'll go intodetail.
So I predicted that the Nuggetswere going to beat the Spurs
(08:12):
and join the elimination roundin the NBA Cup for the first
time.
I was dead wrong.
Even though the Spurs weremissing Wimby, we could not beat
them at home.
I don't know what's going onwith our home games.
But like I said, I think it'sgood.
It sounds like the interviewscoming out of practice are the
Nuggets are really enjoying therest.
(08:32):
Even though it's somewhat earlyin the season, I think those
guys enjoy the rest wheneverthey can get it.
And hopefully they won't comeback rusty in these next couple
games against the Rockets.
Hopefully they will be rested,recharged, and ready to go.
Now, I also predicted that theNuggets would lose to either the
Pacers or the Hornets, becausethat's just what the Nuggets do.
(08:53):
And I was wrong, which is apleasant surprise.
Nuggets, like I said, have an11-game road winning streak, and
they were able to beat both thePacers and the Hornets.
And it's just it's it'srefreshing.
The Nuggets, really for theentire Jokic era, have always
lost some of these random roadgames to these bottom seller
(09:15):
East teams, and there's reallyno explanation for it except for
the guys just don't put in fulleffort or just don't really
care about that game.
And as I mentioned earlier,Jokic keeps calling this team
professional, and I think a bigpart of that is our bench.
Jonas, Tim Hardaway Jr., BruceBrown, they're all veteran guys
(09:36):
that just come in and play theright way, and our bench is not
giving up huge runs like theyused to.
And it seems like they theyhave that professionalism to
them where every night they aregoing to play the same way,
whether they're playing OKC orthey're playing the Hornets.
And it's refreshing.
It's nice.
It's like, oh, this is what abasketball team should do when
(09:58):
you're really good.
And so I hope they can continuethat on.
And like we only have a fewmore weeks until Aaron Gordon
and Christian Brown get back.
And I'm excited to see what afully loaded Nuggets team can do
because I think they're reallyestablishing themselves as the
second best team in the league.
Now, I always include ways tobe a better fan to end these
(10:19):
episodes, and I'm kind ofexcited about this one because I
had heard about this guy, but Ihad never seen it for myself.
And the person I'm talking to,I apologize, I meant to look up
the name before recording and Idid not, but it is the Hornets
play-by-play announcer.
Now, I know this is veryrandom, but if you love
(10:40):
basketball, try and watch aHornets game sometime with their
local team.
And the reason this is so funis because both their
play-by-play and and theiranalyst are really positive
about both teams.
I was just really impressedwith how they would compliment
(11:01):
the Nuggets, but also cheer fortheir their hometown team.
They were very knowledgeableabout the Nuggets, and it was
just refreshing.
I guess I don't want to sayanything bad about the Nuggets
announcers, but they 95% of thetime will talk about the
Nuggets, and then the otherpercent of the time just kind of
complain about the referees.
You hardly ever hear them tellinteresting stories about the
(11:23):
other team.
They may throw in a few littlefactoids that are just very
basic that were probably in themedia guide.
And the Hornets announcers, itwas just kind of a breath of
fresh air that you could tellthey love basketball.
They were just excited justabout good plays on either side.
And it was really fun to listento because the Hornets
play-by-play guy gets so excitedabout good plays for the
(11:46):
Hornets, but also for theNuggets.
Like Jokic had some easybaskets where he was just kind
of doing his spins and just kindof making the other guys look
foolish, and the guys lovedthat.
Jamal Murray was having anamazing game.
He had 23 points in the firstquarter, and they were just
gushing about Jamal Murray.
But the two plays that stuckout were I I had never heard a
(12:10):
man scream like this before, butMiles Bridges had a dunk, and
the announcer just went nuts.
He was like a fan.
I loved it.
It was so fun to watch.
And then the other one thatstuck out was if you haven't
seen Spencer Jones on theNuggets shoot the basketball, it
is quite unusual.
He sticks his hip way out forno reason, and it's kind of like
(12:30):
a sidewinder.
And the Hornets announcers hadobviously never seen this before
because they were kind ofmid-sentence when Spencer shot a
three, and the Hornetsannouncer was just like, oh, oh,
like he he didn't know what todo.
Like he had never seen such ashot before, and it just made me
laugh so much that he he hedoesn't try to hide what he's
(12:52):
thinking.
He's just like just spoutingout what like if you're watching
a basketball game with afriend.
So as you can tell, Ithoroughly enjoyed watching the
game with him.
And if you love basketball,please take the time to watch a
Hornets game sometime.
Alright, that's all I have foryou today.
Like I said, it's been a littlebit of a downtime for the
(13:13):
Nuggets, getting some rest.
Hopefully, we will see someenergy coming back out of this
little break.
And happy Jokmas, everyone.
Celebrate today.
It is a Nuggets holiday.
Thanks for listening.
unknown (13:27):
Bye.
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