December 29, 2024 • 21 mins
The podcast delves into the challenges currently facing the Denver Nuggets, emphasizing the impact of injuries, team dynamics, and the need for a shift in mindset as they approach the New Year. Listeners engage with discussions about player performances, the balance between patience and urgency, and exploring potential changes to support their star player, Jokic.
• Injuries to key players affecting performance
• Apathy impacting the team's energy and chemistry
• Importance of patience despite performance struggles
• Potential and challenges faced by young players
• Dangers of being a non-shooting team in a three-point era
• Energy levels of key players and their impact
• Need for possible roster changes to support a championship window
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
All right, everyone, welcome back to Fandom From Afar
.
We are back and we are at theend of 2024 already.
It's been a great year.
It's been a frustrating year asa Nuggets fan.
We've gone over the ups anddowns together, and so, while I
would love to talk about ourwonderful victory over the
(00:28):
mighty Detroit Pistons, where wealmost blew a 20-point lead in
the fourth quarter, we're notgoing to talk specifics about
any single game today.
I'm going to try something alittle different.
I want to.
I'm going to spell out HappyNew Year with my talking points,
so each talking points willbegin with the letters from
(00:51):
Happy New Year.
I hope you enjoy H.
H is for health.
Health has been a big part ofthe Nuggets struggles this year,
beginning in the playoffs lastyear when Jamal could never
quite get healthy and thatobviously impacted the entire
team, not being able to get pastthe Timberwolves.
(01:14):
We've gone over that a milliontimes, so we won't dive too deep
into that.
But it has continued this yearnot only with Jamal having his
little nagging injuries year,not only with Jamal having his
little nagging injuries.
If I'm counting correctly, Ithink he has had a calf issue, a
(01:37):
knee issue, an ankle issue,plantar fasciitis and just
pretty much Jamal being Jamaland just no specific injury
stated, just him looking likehe's running with concrete shoes
on.
So that's fun.
It actually started before theseason for us.
Daron Holmes, who we were soexcited about getting in the
first round.
It was the worst kept secret inthe NBA that we wanted him and
(02:01):
just looking at what he did incollege, he was going to be a
key piece to our bench andobviously he got hurt right away
in summer league and is out forthe year.
And with the other injuries toDario Saric and Vlatko Chanchar,
like all of our big guys offthe bench, that we were really
hoping to get some majorcontributions from our hurt and
(02:25):
it it that we're feeling theimpact and I think part of that
is Aaron Gordon's had to play alot more than we were hoping, uh
, not only as a backup powerforward but also backup center,
and he has been hurt for quite abit this year as well.
Just the the wear and tear Ithink is is catching up with
good old AG.
So our big guys have been beatup, hurt or out for the year
(02:50):
pretty much across the board andthe Nuggets did not have a deep
team.
To begin with, we were hopingfor all those guys to be big
parts of the team and kind oftake some of the load off of the
starters, and that has just nothappened yet.
A A is for apathy.
The Nuggets have had way toomany games this year where they
(03:13):
just do not look interested inplaying.
I feel like I've gone over italmost every episode this season
about they've had at least oneor two games during each stretch
between episodes where theyjust look like they don't want
to play together or they don'tlike playing together and it's a
vicious cycle because Jokicdoes not have that problem.
(03:36):
He will come out and try hardand he's better than everyone so
he can carry us to victory.
But he has to carry everythingand so he gets worn out and then
that leads to frustration forhim and just a not really a not
great vibe around the whole teamin general.
So it is a vicious cycle and Ihope that the apathy goes away.
(04:01):
P?
P is for patience.
Apathy goes away.
P?
P is for patience.
We have veterans on this teamwho have won a championship.
We still have coach Malone whohas won a championship, and it's
a long season.
So I keep trying to remindmyself that we do need to be
(04:21):
patient.
But after a certain amount oftime, when is it the right thing
to do to run out of patiencewith this team?
Like I said, there's way toomany games where they just don't
care.
There's way too many gameswhere specific players just
(04:42):
don't care and it brings downthe entire team, jamal Murray.
But when is it right to run outof patience and make a change?
So it's a tough balance,obviously as a fan, because we
live and die with every game andI think the team does a much
(05:02):
better job of keeping the evenflow and just being patient.
But at what time is it right torun out of patience?
You may be able to tell, but Ithink I'm getting close to that
point.
The other P P is for Peyton andChristian.
Peyton Watson and ChristianBrown are two of our key young
players.
I think the hope was that theywould continue to develop and
(05:26):
really step into the loss ofBruce Brown and KCP over the
last couple of years and they'veeach shown flashes.
You can see what they could be.
They just need to find thatconsistency of being that player
all the time, and of coursethat comes with young guys, but
(05:48):
although each has shown flashesduring the times when they're
not living up to that standard,uh, neither player brings a
whole lot to the table.
Both are known as defensivefirst wings and the defense has
really struggled this year.
Shooting Christian Brown startedoff super hot.
(06:10):
We were kind of excited just,and we, as in the Nuggets
community and I guess I'mspeaking for the Nuggets
community here but it waslooking like he had really found
his spot and his role and hewas nailing three pointers.
He's getting out on the break.
He's, he's really playingamazing.
(06:30):
It's kind of fallen off thelast couple of weeks, but I
think that's to be expected, notonly for young players but for
any player.
You can't can't be that amazingfor the entire season.
Um, peyton looked great whenAaron Gordon was hurt and Peyton
was playing with the starters,because obviously anyone looks
great next to Jokic, but whenhe's coming off the bench it's
(06:51):
been hit or miss and I do lovehis passion.
I think adding Westbrook to theteam has really helped Peyton.
I think he's loving playing tothe crowd with his big blocks
and just his kind of explosivedunks that get the crowd going
crazy, and I want to seeconsistency from those two
players.
I think that would be a hugehelp for not only the Nuggets
(07:16):
starters but the bench as well.
Why?
Why is for youth so kind of alevel below Peyton and Christian
?
We have the group of JulianStrother, jalen Pickett, hunter
Tyson and Deron Holmes.
Now we already spoke aboutHolmes being hurt.
That definitely was a huge blowto the young core and kind of
(07:37):
what we were hoping that theyoung guys would bring.
But truthfully, the plan hasnot worked to have these cheap
young guys being bigcontributors to what was
hopefully a championship team.
Julian Strother I think onoffense he's pretty decent, he
has a nice floater, he can hit athree, he can actually drive
(07:59):
into the paint a little bit,which is a rarity on the nuggets
.
But on defense he's just so badand I know kind of the learning
where you need to be andanticipating where you need to
be will come with experience.
But right now it's reallyhurting the nuggets because
while he can score on offense,he gives up just as much, if not
(08:19):
more, on defense, and teamshave learned this and they
really target him whenever he'sin the game.
Jalen Pickett I thought he was alost cause.
He does well in the G Leaguebut he just kind of sits at the
end of the Nuggets bench and Ireally thought there was no hope
for Pickett.
But then he had a few gameslast week where he actually
looked decent and brought somepositive play to the Nuggets
(08:42):
bench and even Coach Malonecalled him out and said that
Pickett didn't get a fair shotlast year and that he's looking
forward to seeing what he canbring this year.
And so of course Pickett hasnot played since Coach Malone
said that.
So I don't know it's.
I think coach Malone reallytries to teach these guys
lessons and maybe picket haspushed through and is no longer
(09:06):
in the coach's doghouse.
But it's just strange that eversince he had those two good
games and coach Malone praisedhim, that picket hasn't played.
And so I don't know it's.
It's strange.
I almost wonder if the Nuggetsare trying to sell high and say,
hey, look other teams, hereally can play, look how good
he is.
(09:26):
And now they don't want to putother film out there of him
coming back down to earth orsomething.
But just a strange situationthere.
Hunter Tyson, he's pure energy.
I kind of love him because hetries so hard and he's just kind
of running around out therelike a golden lab or something
like that, but he was supposedto be a shooter.
(09:49):
In summer league last year hereally showed kind of like what
he could do.
He was scoring all over theplace, he looked like one of the
best players in summer leagueand it just hasn't translated to
the actual NBA.
I love his effort, I love it.
He's diving all over the place,he's fighting for rebounds and
(10:10):
again, that's a rarity on theNuggets and if he can just find
his shot I think he could be avaluable member of the bench and
so hopefully with more playingtime he can take that.
Next step In is for non-shooters.
The Nuggets do not have whatyou would call a modern roster.
(10:34):
Most teams in the NBA are justlaunching threes at a historic
pace and the Nuggets do not dothat.
They rank dead last inthree-point attempts out of the
whole league and truthfully Idon't blame them with the way
the roster is constructed.
Now I will say our offense isactually amazing.
(10:55):
The numbers that we put up arefantastic.
Our defense struggles, which iswhy our record is not fantastic
, but our offense is actuallyquite amazing and obviously that
has a lot to do with Jokic andhow we've built around Jokic,
but there are some nights wherewe just lose the math game.
We will be super efficient andhit all of our mid range and
(11:20):
layups that we get in ouroffense, because that's what we
do, but the other team is justhitting so many threes we can't
keep up.
We lose by 10, we lose by 20.
And it's not that our offensedid poorly, it's just that
breaking news three points ismore than two, and it adds up
(11:42):
when another team is on fire.
And the fact that our defenseis really struggling, giving up
just open three after open threemakes it even easier for these
teams to pull away from us, andso it's going to be really
interesting to see if we try tomake any adjustments at the
trade deadline or even duringthe off season.
Just because of how other teamsare built, they don't need to
(12:03):
be nearly as efficient as theNuggets are and they're winning
the math game, and so it'sreally going to be an
interesting like zig or zagmoment to see if the Nuggets try
to do what the others are doingor if we just try and improve
our defense to stop what they'redoing.
And we keep doing what we'redoing so.
(12:26):
Non-shooters, we got them.
E is for energy.
E is for energy.
Now, this kind of goes back toone of the first points of
apathy, but it really is a key,really a key factor to this
whole season and not to pile on,but Jamal is the main culprit.
He is so hit or miss.
(12:48):
It's so frustrating.
Russell Westbrook is the exactopposite.
He gives 100% energy everysingle night and just the more
games we play, the more evidentit is how important Jamal's
energy is.
I mentioned that we beat thePistons last night and I thought
Jamal had great energy.
(13:09):
He's had games where he puts inthat energy and he scored 30
something points last night.
And the Nuggets are great andif only we could get that I'm
not even asking for it everynight.
If I could just have it mostnights, that would be just
amazing, because that's what theteam needs.
But even after the game lastnight, jamal was very frustrated
with the reporters saying that,uh, there's been talk about how
(13:32):
he hasn't been, uh, the Jamalthat we need and the energy that
we need, and he just pushesback on that and it just makes
me think that he doesn't thinkthat what he does is wrong.
And he even compared it.
He's like this is what we doevery year, this is what I do
every year, and he just doesn'tsee that there's anything wrong
with that and it just itcompounds on everybody else to
(13:53):
have to pick up the slack everyyear for the first couple months
of the season while he workshimself into shape, and it's
just so frustrating.
Oh, I wish I wish Jamal wouldbring the energy like that every
night.
W?
W is for Westbrook.
Like I mentioned in the lastsection, westbrook brings the
(14:14):
energy, so he gets his ownsection.
Russ, he's older than, I think,98% of the players in the
league, yet he is faster andflying around almost than
anybody.
Last night was such a goodexample.
His energy brought the crowd tolife.
(14:35):
He had a little stretch inthere where he was stealing the
ball.
He was getting in IsaiahStewart's face like he was
pumping up the crowd.
It was exactly what we hopedfor.
He's gone above and beyond whatwe hoped for when we signed him
to a minimum contract and,truthfully, the Nuggets look
better when he's in there.
The stats Jamal's obviouslymissed some games and the
(14:55):
Nuggets, I think, are six andone when Russell Westbrook
starts.
Obviously he's had bad games.
That's anybody, but reallyWestbrook has had that
throughout his career.
But six and one, the energylooks better.
The team looks motivated.
It's really frustrating becauseyou would hope that he would
just bring that to the bench andJamal would bring that to the
(15:17):
starters.
But Westbrook has beenincredible.
I love him.
I hope he stays on our teamuntil he retires, which, with
the shape he's in, that could bewhen he's like 50 years old,
and I just I love him so much.
So Westbrook is our W.
Why, why is for YOLO?
(15:38):
Yes, I'm an old man that justsaid YOLO because I really
wanted to say Yogoj, but thatjust doesn't roll off the tongue
as well.
And Yogoj stands for you.
Only get one, jokic.
(16:03):
In regards to the other talkingpoints, how do we balance
patience with urgency when wehave one of the greatest players
of all time on our team andwhat we're doing is just not
working?
Is it just a matter of theyoung guys need more playing
time to work out some of theirweaknesses?
Is it that the veteran team isjust kind of taking it easy
(16:23):
during the regular season andthey're going to turn it on in
the playoffs, or is it that weneed to make a change and these
players are not the right fit,and we cannot waste any more
years of Jokic's prime.
Obviously it was not his fault,but with Jamal's injury a
(16:43):
couple years ago, we lost twoyears of Jokic's prime.
I will argue that last yearJamal handled his health and his
conditioning so poorly thatthat was another wasted year,
and I'm afraid we're headingdown that path again this year.
And so at what point do we flipthe switch and say, hey, let's
try some new players aroundJokic so we do not waste another
(17:07):
year of Jokic's prime?
Jogoj E E is for era.
Obviously we are in the Jokicera for the Nuggets, but it's
possible that we could be in theJokic era for the NBA.
Now I would say that we need atleast one more, if not two,
plus more championships to beconsidered the Jokic era.
(17:29):
He's been considered the bestplayer for many years now, but
looking back on it, it's not.
You can't call it the YokoChara when he only wins one
championship.
And so I want the Nuggets to doanything they can, not only to
extend the Yoko Chara, but toreally kind of solidify what
(17:49):
casual fans or just team otherother fans of other NBA teams,
uh, consider what this pastcouple years has been like for
the NBA.
A A is for all players shouldbe on the table Now.
I know I've mentioned thatchanges probably need to be made
.
I've mentioned his name about amillion times this episode, but
(18:13):
Jamal is not eligible to betraded.
About a million times thisepisode, but Jamal is not
eligible to be traded.
And in past episodes I'vestated many times that I want
the Nuggets core, core four tostay together so that they can
be remembered as a team, kind oflike the Spurs when they had
Duncan Parker and Ginobili.
I really wanted Jokic, duncanParker and Ginobili.
(18:38):
I really wanted Jokic, Jamal,ag and MPJ to be considered kind
of a great group of players.
But, as I mentioned in theearlier section, it might be
time to change it up so thatwe're not just hoping and
wishing that Jamal will put inthe energy or that Michael
Porter Jr will step up or thatAaron Gordon can stay healthy
Like we.
We might need to do things, togo down another path, just try
(19:05):
something new, just to see,because I guarantee you anybody
you put next to Jokic is goingto level up from what they've
been on their other teams.
And so I don't want MPJ to takethe fall for the team this year
.
There's been a lot of rumorsaround MPJ and maybe we'll trade
them to Chicago for Zach Levine, maybe we'll trade them to
Atlanta for kind of a couple ofdifferent bench players, and
(19:26):
while I actually like thosetrades individually, I almost
want to give this team the restof the season to either prove or
disprove the theory that theycan win another championship and
then make major changes in theoffseason, beginning with Jamal.
I would love to keep MPJ andsee what he looks like with
(19:46):
whoever we can get for Jamal andsee how we can go from there.
But I think all players shouldbe on the table so that we can
give Jokic his best shot atwinning one, two, three more
championships.
And R?
R is for restart.
It's almost the new year.
It's time for a new mindset.
(20:10):
The Nuggets need a restart thisyear with the playoffs uh from
the previous season and this uhnew season that we've gone
through about uh 20 or 30 games.
They just need a restart.
It's it's been exhausting.
It's been ups and downs, upsand downs and they just need a
fresh start.
And so hopefully, 2025 willlead to a new mindset, more
(20:35):
energy and the team will comeback together and be that
championship team that we lovedso much a couple years ago.
But for us, fandom from afar,it's been a great 2024, and I am
absolutely looking forward to2025.
Happy New Year everyone.
All right, everyone, welcome back to Fandom From Afar
.
We are back and we are at theend of 2024 already.
It's been a great year.
It's been a frustrating year asa Nuggets fan.
We've gone over the ups anddowns together, and so, while I
would love to talk about ourwonderful victory over the
(00:28):
mighty Detroit Pistons, where wealmost blew a 20-point lead in
the fourth quarter, we're notgoing to talk specifics about
any single game today.
I'm going to try something alittle different.
I want to.
I'm going to spell out HappyNew Year with my talking points,
so each talking points willbegin with the letters from
(00:51):
Happy New Year.
I hope you enjoy H.
H is for health.
Health has been a big part ofthe Nuggets struggles this year,
beginning in the playoffs lastyear when Jamal could never
quite get healthy and thatobviously impacted the entire
team, not being able to get pastthe Timberwolves.
(01:14):
We've gone over that a milliontimes, so we won't dive too deep
into that.
But it has continued this yearnot only with Jamal having his
little nagging injuries year,not only with Jamal having his
little nagging injuries.
If I'm counting correctly, Ithink he has had a calf issue, a
(01:37):
knee issue, an ankle issue,plantar fasciitis and just
pretty much Jamal being Jamaland just no specific injury
stated, just him looking likehe's running with concrete shoes
on.
So that's fun.
It actually started before theseason for us.
Daron Holmes, who we were soexcited about getting in the
first round.
It was the worst kept secret inthe NBA that we wanted him and
(02:01):
just looking at what he did incollege, he was going to be a
key piece to our bench andobviously he got hurt right away
in summer league and is out forthe year.
And with the other injuries toDario Saric and Vlatko Chanchar,
like all of our big guys offthe bench, that we were really
hoping to get some majorcontributions from our hurt and
(02:25):
it it that we're feeling theimpact and I think part of that
is Aaron Gordon's had to play alot more than we were hoping, uh
, not only as a backup powerforward but also backup center,
and he has been hurt for quite abit this year as well.
Just the the wear and tear Ithink is is catching up with
good old AG.
So our big guys have been beatup, hurt or out for the year
(02:50):
pretty much across the board andthe Nuggets did not have a deep
team.
To begin with, we were hopingfor all those guys to be big
parts of the team and kind oftake some of the load off of the
starters, and that has just nothappened yet.
A A is for apathy.
The Nuggets have had way toomany games this year where they
(03:13):
just do not look interested inplaying.
I feel like I've gone over italmost every episode this season
about they've had at least oneor two games during each stretch
between episodes where theyjust look like they don't want
to play together or they don'tlike playing together and it's a
vicious cycle because Jokicdoes not have that problem.
(03:36):
He will come out and try hardand he's better than everyone so
he can carry us to victory.
But he has to carry everythingand so he gets worn out and then
that leads to frustration forhim and just a not really a not
great vibe around the whole teamin general.
So it is a vicious cycle and Ihope that the apathy goes away.
(04:01):
P?
P is for patience.
Apathy goes away.
P?
P is for patience.
We have veterans on this teamwho have won a championship.
We still have coach Malone whohas won a championship, and it's
a long season.
So I keep trying to remindmyself that we do need to be
(04:21):
patient.
But after a certain amount oftime, when is it the right thing
to do to run out of patiencewith this team?
Like I said, there's way toomany games where they just don't
care.
There's way too many gameswhere specific players just
(04:42):
don't care and it brings downthe entire team, jamal Murray.
But when is it right to run outof patience and make a change?
So it's a tough balance,obviously as a fan, because we
live and die with every game andI think the team does a much
(05:02):
better job of keeping the evenflow and just being patient.
But at what time is it right torun out of patience?
You may be able to tell, but Ithink I'm getting close to that
point.
The other P P is for Peyton andChristian.
Peyton Watson and ChristianBrown are two of our key young
players.
I think the hope was that theywould continue to develop and
(05:26):
really step into the loss ofBruce Brown and KCP over the
last couple of years and they'veeach shown flashes.
You can see what they could be.
They just need to find thatconsistency of being that player
all the time, and of coursethat comes with young guys, but
(05:48):
although each has shown flashesduring the times when they're
not living up to that standard,uh, neither player brings a
whole lot to the table.
Both are known as defensivefirst wings and the defense has
really struggled this year.
Shooting Christian Brown startedoff super hot.
(06:10):
We were kind of excited just,and we, as in the Nuggets
community and I guess I'mspeaking for the Nuggets
community here but it waslooking like he had really found
his spot and his role and hewas nailing three pointers.
He's getting out on the break.
He's, he's really playingamazing.
(06:30):
It's kind of fallen off thelast couple of weeks, but I
think that's to be expected, notonly for young players but for
any player.
You can't can't be that amazingfor the entire season.
Um, peyton looked great whenAaron Gordon was hurt and Peyton
was playing with the starters,because obviously anyone looks
great next to Jokic, but whenhe's coming off the bench it's
(06:51):
been hit or miss and I do lovehis passion.
I think adding Westbrook to theteam has really helped Peyton.
I think he's loving playing tothe crowd with his big blocks
and just his kind of explosivedunks that get the crowd going
crazy, and I want to seeconsistency from those two
players.
I think that would be a hugehelp for not only the Nuggets
(07:16):
starters but the bench as well.
Why?
Why is for youth so kind of alevel below Peyton and Christian
?
We have the group of JulianStrother, jalen Pickett, hunter
Tyson and Deron Holmes.
Now we already spoke aboutHolmes being hurt.
That definitely was a huge blowto the young core and kind of
(07:37):
what we were hoping that theyoung guys would bring.
But truthfully, the plan hasnot worked to have these cheap
young guys being bigcontributors to what was
hopefully a championship team.
Julian Strother I think onoffense he's pretty decent, he
has a nice floater, he can hit athree, he can actually drive
(07:59):
into the paint a little bit,which is a rarity on the nuggets
.
But on defense he's just so badand I know kind of the learning
where you need to be andanticipating where you need to
be will come with experience.
But right now it's reallyhurting the nuggets because
while he can score on offense,he gives up just as much, if not
(08:19):
more, on defense, and teamshave learned this and they
really target him whenever he'sin the game.
Jalen Pickett I thought he was alost cause.
He does well in the G Leaguebut he just kind of sits at the
end of the Nuggets bench and Ireally thought there was no hope
for Pickett.
But then he had a few gameslast week where he actually
looked decent and brought somepositive play to the Nuggets
(08:42):
bench and even Coach Malonecalled him out and said that
Pickett didn't get a fair shotlast year and that he's looking
forward to seeing what he canbring this year.
And so of course Pickett hasnot played since Coach Malone
said that.
So I don't know it's.
I think coach Malone reallytries to teach these guys
lessons and maybe picket haspushed through and is no longer
(09:06):
in the coach's doghouse.
But it's just strange that eversince he had those two good
games and coach Malone praisedhim, that picket hasn't played.
And so I don't know it's.
It's strange.
I almost wonder if the Nuggetsare trying to sell high and say,
hey, look other teams, hereally can play, look how good
he is.
(09:26):
And now they don't want to putother film out there of him
coming back down to earth orsomething.
But just a strange situationthere.
Hunter Tyson, he's pure energy.
I kind of love him because hetries so hard and he's just kind
of running around out therelike a golden lab or something
like that, but he was supposedto be a shooter.
(09:49):
In summer league last year hereally showed kind of like what
he could do.
He was scoring all over theplace, he looked like one of the
best players in summer leagueand it just hasn't translated to
the actual NBA.
I love his effort, I love it.
He's diving all over the place,he's fighting for rebounds and
(10:10):
again, that's a rarity on theNuggets and if he can just find
his shot I think he could be avaluable member of the bench and
so hopefully with more playingtime he can take that.
Next step In is for non-shooters.
The Nuggets do not have whatyou would call a modern roster.
(10:34):
Most teams in the NBA are justlaunching threes at a historic
pace and the Nuggets do not dothat.
They rank dead last inthree-point attempts out of the
whole league and truthfully Idon't blame them with the way
the roster is constructed.
Now I will say our offense isactually amazing.
(10:55):
The numbers that we put up arefantastic.
Our defense struggles, which iswhy our record is not fantastic
, but our offense is actuallyquite amazing and obviously that
has a lot to do with Jokic andhow we've built around Jokic,
but there are some nights wherewe just lose the math game.
We will be super efficient andhit all of our mid range and
(11:20):
layups that we get in ouroffense, because that's what we
do, but the other team is justhitting so many threes we can't
keep up.
We lose by 10, we lose by 20.
And it's not that our offensedid poorly, it's just that
breaking news three points ismore than two, and it adds up
(11:42):
when another team is on fire.
And the fact that our defenseis really struggling, giving up
just open three after open threemakes it even easier for these
teams to pull away from us, andso it's going to be really
interesting to see if we try tomake any adjustments at the
trade deadline or even duringthe off season.
Just because of how other teamsare built, they don't need to
(12:03):
be nearly as efficient as theNuggets are and they're winning
the math game, and so it'sreally going to be an
interesting like zig or zagmoment to see if the Nuggets try
to do what the others are doingor if we just try and improve
our defense to stop what they'redoing.
And we keep doing what we'redoing so.
(12:26):
Non-shooters, we got them.
E is for energy.
E is for energy.
Now, this kind of goes back toone of the first points of
apathy, but it really is a key,really a key factor to this
whole season and not to pile on,but Jamal is the main culprit.
He is so hit or miss.
(12:48):
It's so frustrating.
Russell Westbrook is the exactopposite.
He gives 100% energy everysingle night and just the more
games we play, the more evidentit is how important Jamal's
energy is.
I mentioned that we beat thePistons last night and I thought
Jamal had great energy.
(13:09):
He's had games where he puts inthat energy and he scored 30
something points last night.
And the Nuggets are great andif only we could get that I'm
not even asking for it everynight.
If I could just have it mostnights, that would be just
amazing, because that's what theteam needs.
But even after the game lastnight, jamal was very frustrated
with the reporters saying that,uh, there's been talk about how
(13:32):
he hasn't been, uh, the Jamalthat we need and the energy that
we need, and he just pushesback on that and it just makes
me think that he doesn't thinkthat what he does is wrong.
And he even compared it.
He's like this is what we doevery year, this is what I do
every year, and he just doesn'tsee that there's anything wrong
with that and it just itcompounds on everybody else to
(13:53):
have to pick up the slack everyyear for the first couple months
of the season while he workshimself into shape, and it's
just so frustrating.
Oh, I wish I wish Jamal wouldbring the energy like that every
night.
W?
W is for Westbrook.
Like I mentioned in the lastsection, westbrook brings the
(14:14):
energy, so he gets his ownsection.
Russ, he's older than, I think,98% of the players in the
league, yet he is faster andflying around almost than
anybody.
Last night was such a goodexample.
His energy brought the crowd tolife.
(14:35):
He had a little stretch inthere where he was stealing the
ball.
He was getting in IsaiahStewart's face like he was
pumping up the crowd.
It was exactly what we hopedfor.
He's gone above and beyond whatwe hoped for when we signed him
to a minimum contract and,truthfully, the Nuggets look
better when he's in there.
The stats Jamal's obviouslymissed some games and the
(14:55):
Nuggets, I think, are six andone when Russell Westbrook
starts.
Obviously he's had bad games.
That's anybody, but reallyWestbrook has had that
throughout his career.
But six and one, the energylooks better.
The team looks motivated.
It's really frustrating becauseyou would hope that he would
just bring that to the bench andJamal would bring that to the
(15:17):
starters.
But Westbrook has beenincredible.
I love him.
I hope he stays on our teamuntil he retires, which, with
the shape he's in, that could bewhen he's like 50 years old,
and I just I love him so much.
So Westbrook is our W.
Why, why is for YOLO?
(15:38):
Yes, I'm an old man that justsaid YOLO because I really
wanted to say Yogoj, but thatjust doesn't roll off the tongue
as well.
And Yogoj stands for you.
Only get one, jokic.
(16:03):
In regards to the other talkingpoints, how do we balance
patience with urgency when wehave one of the greatest players
of all time on our team andwhat we're doing is just not
working?
Is it just a matter of theyoung guys need more playing
time to work out some of theirweaknesses?
Is it that the veteran team isjust kind of taking it easy
(16:23):
during the regular season andthey're going to turn it on in
the playoffs, or is it that weneed to make a change and these
players are not the right fit,and we cannot waste any more
years of Jokic's prime.
Obviously it was not his fault,but with Jamal's injury a
(16:43):
couple years ago, we lost twoyears of Jokic's prime.
I will argue that last yearJamal handled his health and his
conditioning so poorly thatthat was another wasted year,
and I'm afraid we're headingdown that path again this year.
And so at what point do we flipthe switch and say, hey, let's
try some new players aroundJokic so we do not waste another
(17:07):
year of Jokic's prime?
Jogoj E E is for era.
Obviously we are in the Jokicera for the Nuggets, but it's
possible that we could be in theJokic era for the NBA.
Now I would say that we need atleast one more, if not two,
plus more championships to beconsidered the Jokic era.
(17:29):
He's been considered the bestplayer for many years now, but
looking back on it, it's not.
You can't call it the YokoChara when he only wins one
championship.
And so I want the Nuggets to doanything they can, not only to
extend the Yoko Chara, but toreally kind of solidify what
(17:49):
casual fans or just team otherother fans of other NBA teams,
uh, consider what this pastcouple years has been like for
the NBA.
A A is for all players shouldbe on the table Now.
I know I've mentioned thatchanges probably need to be made
.
I've mentioned his name about amillion times this episode, but
(18:13):
Jamal is not eligible to betraded.
About a million times thisepisode, but Jamal is not
eligible to be traded.
And in past episodes I'vestated many times that I want
the Nuggets core, core four tostay together so that they can
be remembered as a team, kind oflike the Spurs when they had
Duncan Parker and Ginobili.
I really wanted Jokic, duncanParker and Ginobili.
(18:38):
I really wanted Jokic, Jamal,ag and MPJ to be considered kind
of a great group of players.
But, as I mentioned in theearlier section, it might be
time to change it up so thatwe're not just hoping and
wishing that Jamal will put inthe energy or that Michael
Porter Jr will step up or thatAaron Gordon can stay healthy
Like we.
We might need to do things, togo down another path, just try
(19:05):
something new, just to see,because I guarantee you anybody
you put next to Jokic is goingto level up from what they've
been on their other teams.
And so I don't want MPJ to takethe fall for the team this year
.
There's been a lot of rumorsaround MPJ and maybe we'll trade
them to Chicago for Zach Levine, maybe we'll trade them to
Atlanta for kind of a couple ofdifferent bench players, and
(19:26):
while I actually like thosetrades individually, I almost
want to give this team the restof the season to either prove or
disprove the theory that theycan win another championship and
then make major changes in theoffseason, beginning with Jamal.
I would love to keep MPJ andsee what he looks like with
(19:46):
whoever we can get for Jamal andsee how we can go from there.
But I think all players shouldbe on the table so that we can
give Jokic his best shot atwinning one, two, three more
championships.
And R?
R is for restart.
It's almost the new year.
It's time for a new mindset.
(20:10):
The Nuggets need a restart thisyear with the playoffs uh from
the previous season and this uhnew season that we've gone
through about uh 20 or 30 games.
They just need a restart.
It's it's been exhausting.
It's been ups and downs, upsand downs and they just need a
fresh start.
And so hopefully, 2025 willlead to a new mindset, more
(20:35):
energy and the team will comeback together and be that
championship team that we lovedso much a couple years ago.
But for us, fandom from afar,it's been a great 2024, and I am
absolutely looking forward to2025.
Happy New Year everyone.
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