November 25, 2024 • 24 mins
What happens when the Denver Nuggets find themselves without their star player, Nikola Jokic? We unravel the recent tumultuous stretch for the Nuggets, including Jokic's brief absence due to the joyous occasion of his son's birth. As fans of basketball and fatherhood, we dive into how the team struggled without their MVP, resulting in tough losses to the Pelicans and Grizzlies. We shine a light on Jamal Murray's hurdles in stepping up during Jokic's absence. This episode is a heartfelt reflection on fatherhood, both in the literal and metaphorical sense, as we also celebrate Coach Michael Malone's leadership and milestones with the Nuggets.
But that's not all! We explore the concept of "dad strength," drawing amusing parallels between Jokic's on-court prowess and the effortless strength of a father playing with his children. We also touch on the Philadelphia 76ers' own challenges as Tyrese Maxey voices his concerns about Joel Embiid's tardiness, raising eyebrows about leadership across the league. You'll hear about Coach Malone's journey to becoming the winningest coach in Nuggets history, with a special nod to the joys of fatherhood. With a mix of sports analysis and personal anecdotes, we offer warm congratulations to Jokic on his new chapter as a father.
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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
.
It has been a roller coaster ofa couple weeks since we last
recorded uh losses to thepelicans, grizzlies and mavs and
then a couple of good winsagainst the grizzlies and the
lakers.
Uh, the big news obviously wasJokic missed three games.
(00:26):
They didn't announce it forquite a while.
I guess there must be some rulethat if the family has not
announced why he's out forpersonal reasons, then the team
or the media is not allowed toreport on it.
There were rumors going aroundand no one really denied the
(00:47):
fact that he was just spendingtime with his family because his
wife gave birth to a littlebaby boy.
So that's obviously veryexciting for Jokic and his
family.
And yeah, it kind of is alittle bit of a blessing in
disguise, because he pretty muchgot two full weeks off after
playing quite a few minutesearly on in the season and so
(01:10):
just kind of a nice little breakfor him, not only to spend time
with the family but also justto make sure wear and tear
doesn't get to him too early onin the season.
So my theme today is going to beall about celebrating
fatherhood, since it's such abig week for the Jokic family.
So let's go First one.
(01:30):
I labeled it Father-Son Picnic.
Now I did that because I don'tknow if you've ever seen a
father-son picnic, or even maybea teacher-student basketball
game, when really the adults cando almost whatever they want
and the kids are kind of therejust to be the recipient of some
(01:53):
really fun passes or get theirshot blocked into the stands.
So I think this week was kindof like that for the Nuggets,
because when Jokic went out itlooked like the Nuggets were the
students or all the sons thatwere so used to having a dad on
their team that could set themup for good shots or just kind
(02:16):
of control everything that theyhad no idea what to do.
When Jokic was out of the gamethe loss to the Pelicans and the
Grizzlies they were reallydisheartening.
Both of the Pelicans and theGrizzlies were missing quite a
few players due to injury and Iknow the Nuggets are too.
(02:36):
Obviously the Nuggets werewithout Aaron Gordon and Jokic
for both of those games.
So that's two key playersmissing.
But when you have Jamal Murray,that's two key players missing.
But when you have jamal murray,that's making, uh, max money.
Or mpj, that's making max money, or just even the quality role
players that I think the nuggetshave.
You would expect them to beable to beat teams that are as
(02:58):
depleted as the pelicans andgrizzlies were, but they looked
awful.
I know it's always tough to takeone game and really make big
picture judgments on the playersand the team, but those two
games back to back really showedhow much the Nuggets rely on
(03:21):
Jokic.
And even in their loss to theMavericks, when Jokic came back,
it almost seemed like theNuggets were like, oh good,
jokic is back, we don't have todo anything.
They just expect him to kind ofdo everything, which he does.
But they started out that gameso slow and with no energy
(03:43):
except forokic.
He obviously put up amazingnumbers but they fell behind by
24 and fought their way back butcouldn't quite pull it out.
And it's it's really.
It's alarming just to see theseguys, who are amazing
basketball players in their ownright, just kind of have no idea
what to do without Jokic and Idon't know how to fix that.
(04:09):
Like it's really, I guess, amindset thing for the players
that are playing.
But in those two losses to thePelicans and the Grizzlies they
just had no joy.
There was no spacing, like itwas almost just like they didn't
know how to play and obviouslythey lost those.
Now they did play the Grizzliesin back-to-back games, like
they had two games in Memphis.
(04:29):
So they lost the first one andlooked terrible.
And they did come back and winthe second game, which was a
nice little bounce back game.
So that was good to see.
But I don't know, it's just itjust baffling.
These guys are so good atbasketball, except when Jokic is
(04:49):
off the floor, things just fallapart, and so that's obviously
been a theme of the last fewyears, but it was just really
evident in these games recentlybecause there was no reason why
the Pelicans and the Grizzliesshould have beat the Nuggets and
yet it wasn't even close.
Now, in the second game againstthe Grizzlies, jamal Murray I
(05:12):
feel like he stepped up.
He had 27 points.
It was kind of one of thosenights where that's what you
want to see out of Jamal.
He's our second highest paidplayer.
We're paying him over $50million per year and normally
(05:38):
players that get paid that muchcan run a team on their own or
lead a team on their own, andJamal has just not shown the
ability to do that.
He, he, like I said, he had agood game against the Grizzlies,
but in those other games, justI think Jamal's in his head like
the consistency is not there,the effort's not there and for
the first time in his career, Ikind of think, the confidence
(05:59):
isn't there.
He, I think he's feeling thepressure, not necessarily the
pressure of the contract, butthe pressure of being the second
best player.
And I think he realizes that hehas not performed because for
the last few years this has beenthe case for Jamal.
He just doesn't run the benchunit well.
(06:22):
When Jokic is out, he doesn'tdo well.
He doesn't run the bench unitwell when Jokic is out, he
doesn't do well.
And the excuse was always well,jamal will, he'll step up in the
playoffs, like that's, that'shis time.
He needs that motivation toreally, uh, perform at the
highest level.
But then in the most recentplayoff, he, he, he didn't
perform.
Um, he hit some game winnersbut overall, you, you would not
(06:45):
say that he had a great playoff.
And that was kind of capped offwith some of the mental
breakdowns of throwing the heatpad onto the floor and just he
didn't look good.
And so the excuse that myselfand other Nuggets fans who were
always able to say, well, he'llstep up when it counts in the
(07:07):
playoffs.
That's kind of gone, becausenow you're stacking bad regular
seasons onto a most recent badplayoff and it's getting a
little worrying.
Um, I think you can easily saythat Jamal has been the seventh
best Denver nugget this year.
(07:28):
Obviously, jokic has beenamazing, mpj Christian Brown
awesome season so far, reallyimpressed with how they've
stepped up.
Aaron Gordon, before he gothurt, was playing well.
Even Russell Westbrook andPeyton Watson have stepped up in
(07:48):
the last couple of weeks.
And so you just go down theline and you can honestly say
all those guys have been betterthan Jamal this year.
And we're paying Jamal $50million.
It's hard not to think about ifwe had another player kind of
at that level that's gettingpaid that much, how dominant we
(08:09):
would be, because usuallyplayers that get paid that much
are much more consistent, canprovide much more scoring.
For when your superstar is offthe bench.
And man, it's been so rough forJamal.
Yeah, I don't know if there'san immediate fix.
Like I said, I really think hisconfidence is down.
(08:30):
But on the brighter side ofthat, I almost think he's kind
of realized what people havebeen saying the last couple
years Because he's always beenso defiant when reporters would
bring up his struggles, or heclearly reads all the stuff on
social media and gets mad atfans and media for what they're
(08:53):
saying about him.
But it really seems like maybehe's kind of realized that his
performance is not backing upwhat he thinks he is in his own
mind and so hopefully that'll bea turning point.
Um, like I said at the beginningof the season, russell
Westbrook was brought in here tomotivate Jamal, and Westbrook
(09:14):
is playing quite well, and soI'm hoping that this is really a
turning point for Jamal wherehe sees how hard Russell
Westbrook plays.
He sees all the off the courttraining because Westbrook's
obviously in phenomenal shapeand Murray is just not.
Jamal gets exhausted veryquickly out there thicker Jamal
(09:53):
when you can tell that he hasnot been doing his cardio and
his arms are just kind of liketubes.
But I was noticing in the Lakergame last night, jamal you can
see a little bit of definitionin his shoulders and biceps, and
so I'm hoping we're right aboutto turn the corner into Jamal
being in shape and really beingable to help the team a little
bit more consistently.
And, like I said, I hope, Ihope Westbrook is part of that,
(10:14):
um, but it's, it's been a littlescary and and, like I said, for
the first time ever, I'mworried that Jamal has lost
confidence and we, we need them.
Um, there's, there's no, uh, noway around it.
We need Jamal.
So second section I'm going tocall dad strength.
It's just a well-known factthat you get older and you just
(10:42):
even maybe you don't work out,but you just get that dad
strength.
And so the way I'm thinkingabout this is, you know, if
you're wrestling around withyour son and no matter how old
he gets, he's kind of he thinkshe's doing pretty well, like
you're kind of taking it easy onhim, but then all of a sudden
you kind of flip the switch andyou try for a few seconds and
(11:05):
the son's eyes get really bigand he's like, oh, oh, okay, his
strength is on a whole notherlevel.
Well, that's Jokic.
Jokic, he seems like a dadplaying with his sons and the
referees are allowing reallyphysical play this year, which I
kind of like.
I don't like all the ticky-tack,fouls and stuff, but it's kind
(11:26):
of ridiculous and Jokic has beenpretty good about kind of
laughing it off Like there'sbeen so many games where he's
getting double or triple teamedand they're just hanging on him
and and just smacking him likecrazy on every shot.
And uh, of course he's Jokic,so he makes it, but he'll just
cut.
You can kind of see him justlaughing on his way down the
court and he'll talk to thereferees and he's been doing a
(11:50):
great job, because younger Jokicwould have definitely been
extremely frustrated with someof these non-calls and got some
technicals and even kicked outof the game.
But I think Jokic just knowslike he's bigger, stronger than
these guys and that's just howit is.
It's almost like how Shaq usedto get refereed as well, and so
I think Yoko just it just kindof accepted that and he knows
(12:13):
that he can turn it on andpretty much he can get to the
basket and score, it seems likewhenever he wants.
Uh, a good example of that is,uh, the other night against
Dallas.
Uh, he went up to RussellWestbrook and said, hey, miss
this free throw.
And Westbrook and said, hey,miss this free throw.
And Westbrook was like okay,and Jokic just knew that he
(12:33):
could get the rebound over.
I forget who it was for Dallas,but the Dallas player just
tried to pretty much bear, hughim and tackle him and Jokic
still got the ball put it in fora layup.
Jokic knows he can do whateverhe wants.
He's at the peak of his powersand it's so amazing to watch.
(12:54):
He right now is averaging 30points, 14 rebounds and 11
assists per game.
That would be a career nightfor 99% of NBA players and yet
that's what Jokic is averagingper game this year.
It's just no doubt he's thebest player in the world.
(13:15):
He's having an amazing seasonand it's just so fun to watch
him on the nuggets being thebest player in the world and him
doing what he does every night.
It's.
It's really, really an honorfor for us fans to get to watch
it and I hope we're enjoying itwhile it's happening.
(13:36):
My third one um, not necessarilynuggets related, but I'm
titling it.
I'm not mad, I'm justdisappointed.
You know this is the ultimatedad phrase that, oh, it really
gets you.
If your dad can't even get mad,he's just disappointed in you
(13:56):
because you did something justthat.
You know you weren't supposedto.
And this kind of is what TyreseMaxey had to say to Joel Embiid
this week.
It kind of got leaked thatMaxey called out Embiid in a
team meeting for being late foreverything, it seems like and I
don't think it was necessarilylike a fight or anything like
(14:18):
that, because apparently Embiidand Maxie are really close
friends and I think theworrisome part for the 76ers is
the fact that it got out,because I'm sure this happens
all the time on teams.
But it's just another example ofmaybe Joel Embiid just not
having the right mindset,because he's obviously super
(14:40):
skilled and just an amazingbasketball player, but it seems
like maybe he's not doing thesmall things off the court as
far as being a leader and whatyou would hope for, your best
player, and it really just seemslike maybe the 76ers, or at
least some of their players,have had enough of it, because
it used to be.
They could probably put up withthat a little bit easier when
(15:01):
he was putting up 30 points agame and being one of the top
players in the league, but thisseason has just been such a mess
for the Sixers.
They had the worst players inthe league, but this season has
just been such a mess for theSixers.
They had the worst record inthe NBA.
They've had injuries to Maxie,paul George.
Obviously Embiid has been inand out constantly.
Embiid had the issue with thereporter where he got suspended
(15:24):
for pushing him.
It's just been a mess of aseason for the 76ers and so I'm
kind of sad to say, because I Ihave fun with imbeed on this
podcast and, uh, I kind oflooked at him as just a worthy
rival for yokich because theywere two of the top players in
the league, like they finishedone, two and mvp every year for
the last couple years.
(15:44):
And I'm sad to say I don'tthink I can do it anymore, just
because Embiid's situation isjust getting kind of sad and
it's not fun picking on someonethat's sad.
So this might be the last timewe mention Embiid for a while.
Hopefully we can turn it aroundand we can have some fun again.
But yeah, I agree with Maxie,I'm not mad, I'm just
(16:07):
disappointed.
Last section is who's your daddy?
Now, this was obviously thefamous quote that, uh, one of
the media members in Denver, vicLombardi, said at the Nuggets
championship parade, and Lakersfans hilariously still think
that it was Michael Malone thatsaid that.
Uh, which is fine.
(16:29):
Uh, they, they just hate Malonenow because of what?
No matter who said it, theanswer is obvious.
The Nuggets own the Lakers and Ilove every bit of it.
The Nuggets are 13-1 in thelast 14 games against the Lakers
and the game on Saturday justreally I think it shows the
(16:52):
Lakers almost kind of know thatthe Lakers have their number,
lebron AD.
As soon as things startswinging the nuggets way,
they're kind of like, oh, herewe go again.
And even austin reeves ishitting some shots like rui has
had some good moments, but likethey, I think they just kind of
know they can't stop yokich.
Uh, anthony davis is an amazingdefender.
(17:14):
He's had an amazing season sofar, but he looked like he
wanted no part of yokich.
Last night the nuggets were theteam on the second night of a
back-to-back, yet yokich wasrunning up and down the floor
and anthony davis could not keepup.
And yokich, of course, put upamazing numbers while davis you
could hardly even tell he wasout there.
And so it's just it's.
(17:36):
It's really just fun, becausethere was a long stretch there
where the Lakers owned thenuggets.
So obviously it'll flip back uhagain the other way someday,
but for right now this is areally fun stretch where the,
the nuggets really can dowhatever they want against the,
against the Lakers with the windlast night, coach Malone uh did
(17:57):
become the nuggets all timeleader in wins, which is huge.
He really has to be looked at asthe coach when you think of a
coach for the Nuggets.
He passed Doug Moe, which is apretty amazing accomplishment.
Doug Moe had 432 wins and waskind of looked at as the most
successful coach in Nuggetshistory.
(18:18):
I didn't think there was anyway that people would be able to
pass him.
But coach Malone has been herefor nine or 10 years and just
really had quality teams andhopefully he still has nine or
10 years left to go.
So I love what coach Malone hasdone, because people forget
before him.
The Brian Shaw era was just sucha disaster and really one of
(18:41):
the low moments for the Nuggetsfranchise.
There was just nothing positiveto say about the Nuggets
culture, the Nuggets team duringthat time and Coach Malone
turned it around pretty quickly.
And then obviously it helpsthat you get one of the best
players of any generation comingin.
Obviously it helps that you getone of the best players of any
(19:02):
generation coming in, but youhave to give Coach Malone credit
that he saw something differentin Jokic and gave him a chance,
because Jokic is so different.
There's plenty of coaches outthere that would not have given
him a chance and just eitherrelegated him to the bench or
even really just not even gavehim a chance to play, because he
doesn't have the look of asuperstar.
He doesn't have the look of anormal NBA player.
(19:23):
He doesn't play like anyoneelse, and so the fact that
Malone was willing to take achance on him obviously changed
the whole history of the Nuggetsand really the NBA and so the
culture that he set up.
He, he is hard on guys, um, butI think he does a great job of
balancing that tough love with a, a love like just he.
(19:49):
You can tell that he really,truly cares about the guys and
they respect him because of thefact that he does care about him
, but he also is trying to pushthem to be better.
Of the fact that he does careabout them, but he also is
trying to push them to be better, and so he's been a little bit
tougher on some guys in PJ thanothers.
Uh, but the the trio of Yoke,mpj and Murray have all grown up
(20:13):
with coach Malone.
Uh, they, they were all soyoung when they came to the
nuggets and now they are grownmen with an NBA championship
ring and I love that.
Obviously, aaron Gordon is inthere as well.
We traded for him.
But all those guys are going tobe thought of together and I
(20:35):
really hope the Nuggets can winone, two, three more
championships with this core andjust they would all be
remembered together inbasketball or Nuggets history as
just kind of like a group and Ilove that.
Like the Nuggets builtsomething special.
They won the championship andhopefully they're not done.
(20:55):
One thing I love that CoachMalone did.
If you've listened to thispodcast at all, you know I can't
help but mention, uh, some ofthe disrespect that the national
national media gives uh thenuggets and their players and he
, he really bought into that uh,because for when the nuggets
were on kind of their rise andand their young players were
(21:16):
developing and Jokic wasbecoming one of the best players
, there was still a lot of yeahbuts in the national media and
there just really wasn't arespect to it.
Just obviously the Nuggets hadto earn that, but also they were
just doing it differently witha different type of superstar,
and I think Malone was veryearly to jump on that and notice
(21:38):
that and really the fans lovehim for it.
Uh, one of his first big quoteswas uh, the nuggets had a great
win in ball arena against theLakers and because the nuggets
were still kind of on the comeup, half the stadium was filled
with Lakers fans.
Just because that's how it wasfor so long, because the nuggets
um were bad and there's just alot of California fans in Denver
(22:04):
and obviously the Lakers are atrendy team to love with LeBron.
But we had that big win thatnight.
And in the postgame pressconference, coach Malone, he
just came out and said it.
He's like, yeah, there was alot of Lakers fans here tonight,
but they can take their L onthe way out and Nuggets fans
just loved it.
Dmvr guys, they made a shirtout of it.
(22:26):
I wore it during the game onSaturday night, as I always do
when they play the Lakers.
And he knows how to kind offeel the fan base and say like,
hey, I feel you guys, I knowwhat you're thinking, I know
what you see and he's rightthere along with us.
When Jokic was coming up as ayoung player, there was levels
(22:49):
to it.
People wanted to compare him.
They didn't think he was asgood as Jaleel Okafor, and then
they didn't think he was as goodas Porzingis, and then they
didn't think he was as good asCarl Anthony Towns, and then it
was Embiid, and so there'salways been levels to it.
But, uh, coach Malone boughtright into that too.
(23:10):
He's he's famous for kind ofgoing.
Yeah, I don't know who that guyis in Philly, but I know our
young center had 40, 15, and 10tonight, and so he knows just
what the fans love and I thinkhe's bought into that.
He even got a Nuggets tattooafter the championship.
And so Coach Malone is our guyand, to continue on with the
(23:33):
theme of today, he is the fatherfigure to these Nuggets.
He's helped them grow up intoplayers and, uh, I couldn't be
happier for him that he he isnow the winningest coach in
Nuggets history and uh, congratsto coach.
So fatherhood, it's one of thebest things ever.
I'm, uh, I love being a fathermyself.
(23:55):
And uh, congrats to Jokic andhis family on the new baby boy.
Thanks for listening everybody.
all right, everyone welcome back to fandom from afar
.
It has been a roller coaster ofa couple weeks since we last
recorded uh losses to thepelicans, grizzlies and mavs and
then a couple of good winsagainst the grizzlies and the
lakers.
Uh, the big news obviously wasJokic missed three games.
(00:26):
They didn't announce it forquite a while.
I guess there must be some rulethat if the family has not
announced why he's out forpersonal reasons, then the team
or the media is not allowed toreport on it.
There were rumors going aroundand no one really denied the
(00:47):
fact that he was just spendingtime with his family because his
wife gave birth to a littlebaby boy.
So that's obviously veryexciting for Jokic and his
family.
And yeah, it kind of is alittle bit of a blessing in
disguise, because he pretty muchgot two full weeks off after
playing quite a few minutesearly on in the season and so
(01:10):
just kind of a nice little breakfor him, not only to spend time
with the family but also justto make sure wear and tear
doesn't get to him too early onin the season.
So my theme today is going to beall about celebrating
fatherhood, since it's such abig week for the Jokic family.
So let's go First one.
(01:30):
I labeled it Father-Son Picnic.
Now I did that because I don'tknow if you've ever seen a
father-son picnic, or even maybea teacher-student basketball
game, when really the adults cando almost whatever they want
and the kids are kind of therejust to be the recipient of some
(01:53):
really fun passes or get theirshot blocked into the stands.
So I think this week was kindof like that for the Nuggets,
because when Jokic went out itlooked like the Nuggets were the
students or all the sons thatwere so used to having a dad on
their team that could set themup for good shots or just kind
(02:16):
of control everything that theyhad no idea what to do.
When Jokic was out of the gamethe loss to the Pelicans and the
Grizzlies they were reallydisheartening.
Both of the Pelicans and theGrizzlies were missing quite a
few players due to injury and Iknow the Nuggets are too.
(02:36):
Obviously the Nuggets werewithout Aaron Gordon and Jokic
for both of those games.
So that's two key playersmissing.
But when you have Jamal Murray,that's two key players missing.
But when you have jamal murray,that's making, uh, max money.
Or mpj, that's making max money, or just even the quality role
players that I think the nuggetshave.
You would expect them to beable to beat teams that are as
(02:58):
depleted as the pelicans andgrizzlies were, but they looked
awful.
I know it's always tough to takeone game and really make big
picture judgments on the playersand the team, but those two
games back to back really showedhow much the Nuggets rely on
(03:21):
Jokic.
And even in their loss to theMavericks, when Jokic came back,
it almost seemed like theNuggets were like, oh good,
jokic is back, we don't have todo anything.
They just expect him to kind ofdo everything, which he does.
But they started out that gameso slow and with no energy
(03:43):
except forokic.
He obviously put up amazingnumbers but they fell behind by
24 and fought their way back butcouldn't quite pull it out.
And it's it's really.
It's alarming just to see theseguys, who are amazing
basketball players in their ownright, just kind of have no idea
what to do without Jokic and Idon't know how to fix that.
(04:09):
Like it's really, I guess, amindset thing for the players
that are playing.
But in those two losses to thePelicans and the Grizzlies they
just had no joy.
There was no spacing, like itwas almost just like they didn't
know how to play and obviouslythey lost those.
Now they did play the Grizzliesin back-to-back games, like
they had two games in Memphis.
(04:29):
So they lost the first one andlooked terrible.
And they did come back and winthe second game, which was a
nice little bounce back game.
So that was good to see.
But I don't know, it's just itjust baffling.
These guys are so good atbasketball, except when Jokic is
(04:49):
off the floor, things just fallapart, and so that's obviously
been a theme of the last fewyears, but it was just really
evident in these games recentlybecause there was no reason why
the Pelicans and the Grizzliesshould have beat the Nuggets and
yet it wasn't even close.
Now, in the second game againstthe Grizzlies, jamal Murray I
(05:12):
feel like he stepped up.
He had 27 points.
It was kind of one of thosenights where that's what you
want to see out of Jamal.
He's our second highest paidplayer.
We're paying him over $50million per year and normally
(05:38):
players that get paid that muchcan run a team on their own or
lead a team on their own, andJamal has just not shown the
ability to do that.
He, he, like I said, he had agood game against the Grizzlies,
but in those other games, justI think Jamal's in his head like
the consistency is not there,the effort's not there and for
the first time in his career, Ikind of think, the confidence
(05:59):
isn't there.
He, I think he's feeling thepressure, not necessarily the
pressure of the contract, butthe pressure of being the second
best player.
And I think he realizes that hehas not performed because for
the last few years this has beenthe case for Jamal.
He just doesn't run the benchunit well.
(06:22):
When Jokic is out, he doesn'tdo well.
He doesn't run the bench unitwell when Jokic is out, he
doesn't do well.
And the excuse was always well,jamal will, he'll step up in the
playoffs, like that's, that'shis time.
He needs that motivation toreally, uh, perform at the
highest level.
But then in the most recentplayoff, he, he, he didn't
perform.
Um, he hit some game winnersbut overall, you, you would not
(06:45):
say that he had a great playoff.
And that was kind of capped offwith some of the mental
breakdowns of throwing the heatpad onto the floor and just he
didn't look good.
And so the excuse that myselfand other Nuggets fans who were
always able to say, well, he'llstep up when it counts in the
(07:07):
playoffs.
That's kind of gone, becausenow you're stacking bad regular
seasons onto a most recent badplayoff and it's getting a
little worrying.
Um, I think you can easily saythat Jamal has been the seventh
best Denver nugget this year.
(07:28):
Obviously, jokic has beenamazing, mpj Christian Brown
awesome season so far, reallyimpressed with how they've
stepped up.
Aaron Gordon, before he gothurt, was playing well.
Even Russell Westbrook andPeyton Watson have stepped up in
(07:48):
the last couple of weeks.
And so you just go down theline and you can honestly say
all those guys have been betterthan Jamal this year.
And we're paying Jamal $50million.
It's hard not to think about ifwe had another player kind of
at that level that's gettingpaid that much, how dominant we
(08:09):
would be, because usuallyplayers that get paid that much
are much more consistent, canprovide much more scoring.
For when your superstar is offthe bench.
And man, it's been so rough forJamal.
Yeah, I don't know if there'san immediate fix.
Like I said, I really think hisconfidence is down.
(08:30):
But on the brighter side ofthat, I almost think he's kind
of realized what people havebeen saying the last couple
years Because he's always beenso defiant when reporters would
bring up his struggles, or heclearly reads all the stuff on
social media and gets mad atfans and media for what they're
(08:53):
saying about him.
But it really seems like maybehe's kind of realized that his
performance is not backing upwhat he thinks he is in his own
mind and so hopefully that'll bea turning point.
Um, like I said at the beginningof the season, russell
Westbrook was brought in here tomotivate Jamal, and Westbrook
(09:14):
is playing quite well, and soI'm hoping that this is really a
turning point for Jamal wherehe sees how hard Russell
Westbrook plays.
He sees all the off the courttraining because Westbrook's
obviously in phenomenal shapeand Murray is just not.
Jamal gets exhausted veryquickly out there thicker Jamal
(09:53):
when you can tell that he hasnot been doing his cardio and
his arms are just kind of liketubes.
But I was noticing in the Lakergame last night, jamal you can
see a little bit of definitionin his shoulders and biceps, and
so I'm hoping we're right aboutto turn the corner into Jamal
being in shape and really beingable to help the team a little
bit more consistently.
And, like I said, I hope, Ihope Westbrook is part of that,
(10:14):
um, but it's, it's been a littlescary and and, like I said, for
the first time ever, I'mworried that Jamal has lost
confidence and we, we need them.
Um, there's, there's no, uh, noway around it.
We need Jamal.
So second section I'm going tocall dad strength.
It's just a well-known factthat you get older and you just
(10:42):
even maybe you don't work out,but you just get that dad
strength.
And so the way I'm thinkingabout this is, you know, if
you're wrestling around withyour son and no matter how old
he gets, he's kind of he thinkshe's doing pretty well, like
you're kind of taking it easy onhim, but then all of a sudden
you kind of flip the switch andyou try for a few seconds and
(11:05):
the son's eyes get really bigand he's like, oh, oh, okay, his
strength is on a whole notherlevel.
Well, that's Jokic.
Jokic, he seems like a dadplaying with his sons and the
referees are allowing reallyphysical play this year, which I
kind of like.
I don't like all the ticky-tack,fouls and stuff, but it's kind
(11:26):
of ridiculous and Jokic has beenpretty good about kind of
laughing it off Like there'sbeen so many games where he's
getting double or triple teamedand they're just hanging on him
and and just smacking him likecrazy on every shot.
And uh, of course he's Jokic,so he makes it, but he'll just
cut.
You can kind of see him justlaughing on his way down the
court and he'll talk to thereferees and he's been doing a
(11:50):
great job, because younger Jokicwould have definitely been
extremely frustrated with someof these non-calls and got some
technicals and even kicked outof the game.
But I think Jokic just knowslike he's bigger, stronger than
these guys and that's just howit is.
It's almost like how Shaq usedto get refereed as well, and so
I think Yoko just it just kindof accepted that and he knows
(12:13):
that he can turn it on andpretty much he can get to the
basket and score, it seems likewhenever he wants.
Uh, a good example of that is,uh, the other night against
Dallas.
Uh, he went up to RussellWestbrook and said, hey, miss
this free throw.
And Westbrook and said, hey,miss this free throw.
And Westbrook was like okay,and Jokic just knew that he
(12:33):
could get the rebound over.
I forget who it was for Dallas,but the Dallas player just
tried to pretty much bear, hughim and tackle him and Jokic
still got the ball put it in fora layup.
Jokic knows he can do whateverhe wants.
He's at the peak of his powersand it's so amazing to watch.
(12:54):
He right now is averaging 30points, 14 rebounds and 11
assists per game.
That would be a career nightfor 99% of NBA players and yet
that's what Jokic is averagingper game this year.
It's just no doubt he's thebest player in the world.
(13:15):
He's having an amazing seasonand it's just so fun to watch
him on the nuggets being thebest player in the world and him
doing what he does every night.
It's.
It's really, really an honorfor for us fans to get to watch
it and I hope we're enjoying itwhile it's happening.
(13:36):
My third one um, not necessarilynuggets related, but I'm
titling it.
I'm not mad, I'm justdisappointed.
You know this is the ultimatedad phrase that, oh, it really
gets you.
If your dad can't even get mad,he's just disappointed in you
(13:56):
because you did something justthat.
You know you weren't supposedto.
And this kind of is what TyreseMaxey had to say to Joel Embiid
this week.
It kind of got leaked thatMaxey called out Embiid in a
team meeting for being late foreverything, it seems like and I
don't think it was necessarilylike a fight or anything like
(14:18):
that, because apparently Embiidand Maxie are really close
friends and I think theworrisome part for the 76ers is
the fact that it got out,because I'm sure this happens
all the time on teams.
But it's just another example ofmaybe Joel Embiid just not
having the right mindset,because he's obviously super
(14:40):
skilled and just an amazingbasketball player, but it seems
like maybe he's not doing thesmall things off the court as
far as being a leader and whatyou would hope for, your best
player, and it really just seemslike maybe the 76ers, or at
least some of their players,have had enough of it, because
it used to be.
They could probably put up withthat a little bit easier when
(15:01):
he was putting up 30 points agame and being one of the top
players in the league, but thisseason has just been such a mess
for the Sixers.
They had the worst players inthe league, but this season has
just been such a mess for theSixers.
They had the worst record inthe NBA.
They've had injuries to Maxie,paul George.
Obviously Embiid has been inand out constantly.
Embiid had the issue with thereporter where he got suspended
(15:24):
for pushing him.
It's just been a mess of aseason for the 76ers and so I'm
kind of sad to say, because I Ihave fun with imbeed on this
podcast and, uh, I kind oflooked at him as just a worthy
rival for yokich because theywere two of the top players in
the league, like they finishedone, two and mvp every year for
the last couple years.
(15:44):
And I'm sad to say I don'tthink I can do it anymore, just
because Embiid's situation isjust getting kind of sad and
it's not fun picking on someonethat's sad.
So this might be the last timewe mention Embiid for a while.
Hopefully we can turn it aroundand we can have some fun again.
But yeah, I agree with Maxie,I'm not mad, I'm just
(16:07):
disappointed.
Last section is who's your daddy?
Now, this was obviously thefamous quote that, uh, one of
the media members in Denver, vicLombardi, said at the Nuggets
championship parade, and Lakersfans hilariously still think
that it was Michael Malone thatsaid that.
Uh, which is fine.
(16:29):
Uh, they, they just hate Malonenow because of what?
No matter who said it, theanswer is obvious.
The Nuggets own the Lakers and Ilove every bit of it.
The Nuggets are 13-1 in thelast 14 games against the Lakers
and the game on Saturday justreally I think it shows the
(16:52):
Lakers almost kind of know thatthe Lakers have their number,
lebron AD.
As soon as things startswinging the nuggets way,
they're kind of like, oh, herewe go again.
And even austin reeves ishitting some shots like rui has
had some good moments, but likethey, I think they just kind of
know they can't stop yokich.
Uh, anthony davis is an amazingdefender.
(17:14):
He's had an amazing season sofar, but he looked like he
wanted no part of yokich.
Last night the nuggets were theteam on the second night of a
back-to-back, yet yokich wasrunning up and down the floor
and anthony davis could not keepup.
And yokich, of course, put upamazing numbers while davis you
could hardly even tell he wasout there.
And so it's just it's.
(17:36):
It's really just fun, becausethere was a long stretch there
where the Lakers owned thenuggets.
So obviously it'll flip back uhagain the other way someday,
but for right now this is areally fun stretch where the,
the nuggets really can dowhatever they want against the,
against the Lakers with the windlast night, coach Malone uh did
(17:57):
become the nuggets all timeleader in wins, which is huge.
He really has to be looked at asthe coach when you think of a
coach for the Nuggets.
He passed Doug Moe, which is apretty amazing accomplishment.
Doug Moe had 432 wins and waskind of looked at as the most
successful coach in Nuggetshistory.
(18:18):
I didn't think there was anyway that people would be able to
pass him.
But coach Malone has been herefor nine or 10 years and just
really had quality teams andhopefully he still has nine or
10 years left to go.
So I love what coach Malone hasdone, because people forget
before him.
The Brian Shaw era was just sucha disaster and really one of
(18:41):
the low moments for the Nuggetsfranchise.
There was just nothing positiveto say about the Nuggets
culture, the Nuggets team duringthat time and Coach Malone
turned it around pretty quickly.
And then obviously it helpsthat you get one of the best
players of any generation comingin.
Obviously it helps that you getone of the best players of any
(19:02):
generation coming in, but youhave to give Coach Malone credit
that he saw something differentin Jokic and gave him a chance,
because Jokic is so different.
There's plenty of coaches outthere that would not have given
him a chance and just eitherrelegated him to the bench or
even really just not even gavehim a chance to play, because he
doesn't have the look of asuperstar.
He doesn't have the look of anormal NBA player.
(19:23):
He doesn't play like anyoneelse, and so the fact that
Malone was willing to take achance on him obviously changed
the whole history of the Nuggetsand really the NBA and so the
culture that he set up.
He, he is hard on guys, um, butI think he does a great job of
balancing that tough love with a, a love like just he.
(19:49):
You can tell that he really,truly cares about the guys and
they respect him because of thefact that he does care about him
, but he also is trying to pushthem to be better.
Of the fact that he does careabout them, but he also is
trying to push them to be better, and so he's been a little bit
tougher on some guys in PJ thanothers.
Uh, but the the trio of Yoke,mpj and Murray have all grown up
(20:13):
with coach Malone.
Uh, they, they were all soyoung when they came to the
nuggets and now they are grownmen with an NBA championship
ring and I love that.
Obviously, aaron Gordon is inthere as well.
We traded for him.
But all those guys are going tobe thought of together and I
(20:35):
really hope the Nuggets can winone, two, three more
championships with this core andjust they would all be
remembered together inbasketball or Nuggets history as
just kind of like a group and Ilove that.
Like the Nuggets builtsomething special.
They won the championship andhopefully they're not done.
(20:55):
One thing I love that CoachMalone did.
If you've listened to thispodcast at all, you know I can't
help but mention, uh, some ofthe disrespect that the national
national media gives uh thenuggets and their players and he
, he really bought into that uh,because for when the nuggets
were on kind of their rise andand their young players were
(21:16):
developing and Jokic wasbecoming one of the best players
, there was still a lot of yeahbuts in the national media and
there just really wasn't arespect to it.
Just obviously the Nuggets hadto earn that, but also they were
just doing it differently witha different type of superstar,
and I think Malone was veryearly to jump on that and notice
(21:38):
that and really the fans lovehim for it.
Uh, one of his first big quoteswas uh, the nuggets had a great
win in ball arena against theLakers and because the nuggets
were still kind of on the comeup, half the stadium was filled
with Lakers fans.
Just because that's how it wasfor so long, because the nuggets
um were bad and there's just alot of California fans in Denver
(22:04):
and obviously the Lakers are atrendy team to love with LeBron.
But we had that big win thatnight.
And in the postgame pressconference, coach Malone, he
just came out and said it.
He's like, yeah, there was alot of Lakers fans here tonight,
but they can take their L onthe way out and Nuggets fans
just loved it.
Dmvr guys, they made a shirtout of it.
(22:26):
I wore it during the game onSaturday night, as I always do
when they play the Lakers.
And he knows how to kind offeel the fan base and say like,
hey, I feel you guys, I knowwhat you're thinking, I know
what you see and he's rightthere along with us.
When Jokic was coming up as ayoung player, there was levels
(22:49):
to it.
People wanted to compare him.
They didn't think he was asgood as Jaleel Okafor, and then
they didn't think he was as goodas Porzingis, and then they
didn't think he was as good asCarl Anthony Towns, and then it
was Embiid, and so there'salways been levels to it.
But, uh, coach Malone boughtright into that too.
(23:10):
He's he's famous for kind ofgoing.
Yeah, I don't know who that guyis in Philly, but I know our
young center had 40, 15, and 10tonight, and so he knows just
what the fans love and I thinkhe's bought into that.
He even got a Nuggets tattooafter the championship.
And so Coach Malone is our guyand, to continue on with the
(23:33):
theme of today, he is the fatherfigure to these Nuggets.
He's helped them grow up intoplayers and, uh, I couldn't be
happier for him that he he isnow the winningest coach in
Nuggets history and uh, congratsto coach.
So fatherhood, it's one of thebest things ever.
I'm, uh, I love being a fathermyself.
(23:55):
And uh, congrats to Jokic andhis family on the new baby boy.
Thanks for listening everybody.
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