May 23, 2025 • 22 mins
The defending champion Denver Nuggets' season ended with a disappointing Game 7 blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder as Denver's lack of depth was exposed against the younger, more athletic Thunder team. Despite the difficult ending, the mid-season coaching change likely saved the Nuggets from falling into the play-in tournament, giving fans a respectable playoff run.
• Thunder dominated Game 7 with superior depth, energy, and athleticism
• Media narrative that Alex Caruso "shut down" Jokic is misleading as Thunder used a team defensive approach
• Players who gained respect: Alex Caruso for maximizing his role, Aaron Gordon for playing through injury, Christian Braun for fearlessness
• Players who lost respect: Lu Dort and SGA for excessive flopping despite their talent
• MPJ and Jamal Murray struggled significantly for the second consecutive playoff run
• David Adelman officially named head coach, bringing hope for improved accountability and rotation management
Looking forward to bringing you an offseason preview in the next episode where we'll dive into all the possible moves Denver might make to improve their depth and championship chances.
Don't forget to subscribe on Apple or Spotify and leave those 5 Star reviews!
Follow us on Social
Facebook
X / Twitter
Instagram
Mark as Played
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
.
Well, we knew this might happen.
Unfortunately, the thunder wereable to blow out the nuggets.
It uh started out close but uhit, it definitely was a blowout.
The thunder.
Thunder were able to show theirdepth, really their talent, and
(00:29):
we knew it was a possibility.
I thought there was a chancethe Nuggets could hang in there,
but it kind of all came to ahead and the Nuggets looked
tired.
I don't know.
The Thunder just looked moreathletic.
I think they were quicker, theyhad more energy.
(00:49):
It was just a team effort.
I'm impressed by the Thunder.
They are a great young team.
I think one of my big takeawaysfrom game seven, and there's
really not much to talk about it.
It was a blowout, but theNuggets just need more depth.
The Thunder obviously have aroster full of talented players
(01:12):
and that's not even counting.
They have a lottery pick fromlast year.
Who was hurt, who was supposedto be one of the top point
guards in the draft last year.
He's on their team, so they'regoing to get even deeper next
year.
And yeah, it was a beat down.
I can't put any other spin onit.
(01:32):
Like I said, my last episode,I'm just proud of how far the
Nuggets did get.
It could have been much worse.
I really feel like if we didn'tget rid of Malone and Booth
when we did, the season wouldhave ended poorly.
Uh, we probably would haveended up in the play-in and then
possibly lost the play-in.
(01:53):
So the fact that we as fans gotthose fun, um playoff moments,
I think was well worth it.
Even if it was a a sad ending,it was still a fun run and, uh,
obviously a big offseason comingup.
So, um, one big takeaway I haveto mention we're a few days out
(02:14):
now from the nuggets loss andand, uh, the thunder.
I've even already startedplaying the Timberwolves.
But the narrative that AlexCaruso shut down or he can guard
Jokic is crazy to me.
Either people that are sayingthat just did not watch the game
(02:38):
or just don't understand whatwas happening.
But Caruso, he's for a normalhuman, he's big.
I think he's like 6'6", but forNBA standards.
The other teams have found outthat when you play the Nuggets
you can put someone on that'sabout that size 6'6", 6'7"
(03:03):
noticeably smaller than Jokic.
And the reason I make sure topoint that out is the referees
will let the smaller guys graband hold and really do whatever
they need to, just because Jokicis such a monster.
He's a big boy, and so thereferees have decided that the
(03:24):
smaller guys can do whateverthey need to, and then if Jokic
tries to power through them atall, it is a offensive foul, and
so Jokic is really in a no winsituation.
And other teams have taken fulladvantage of that, and Caruso
was the latest, and he did agreat job.
Like not many guys are willingto put up that fight and to make
(03:47):
the effort that is needed to dothat.
But it wasn't just Caruso.
Like they constantly had Jokicpretty much in a triangle, with
one of the big guys right behindJokic while Caruso was guarding
him um, up front, and then alsoeither one or possibly two guys
on the side.
So I love Caruso we're going togo into it more here in a
(04:13):
little bit but the narrativethat Caruso shut down Jokic in
Game 7, it's just wrong.
And so the Thunder did a greatjob and they executed a plan
that can shut down Jokic becausethey didn't have to worry about
anyone else, and that againgoes into the Nuggets depth, but
(04:35):
it was a team effort and theyconstantly had two, three, if
not four guys right within arm'slength of Jokic.
And so the narrative that cameout of game seven was a bit
frustrating, but it didn'tchange the fact that the Thunder
dominated and they playedtremendous defense.
(04:57):
It was more so that they wereable to do so because of
weaknesses on the Nuggets side,so I just had to straighten that
up.
The narrative was frustratingafter the game, but in the
series as a whole.
It's just natural when you playsomeone seven games within a
(05:18):
short amount of time like that,as a fan you can't help it.
You get to know guys on theother teams a whole, really a
whole lot better, and it eitherwill increase your respect for
them or decrease.
And so I want to cover a fewplayers in the Nuggets and
Thunder series that I eithergained respect for or maybe lost
(05:41):
a little bit of respect for,and this will be quick.
It does have players on bothsides, but it was a battle and
respect was given and taken.
So let's start out with Caruso.
We were just talking about him.
He's just a beast For his size,for his talent.
(06:04):
He gets everything you canpossibly ask for out of a player
like him, and he's basicallybeen a role player his entire
career, which is great.
Most people would kill to havehis career.
But what he does he justtotally changes the game.
He's kind of the veteran leaderon the Thunder but he hits big
(06:26):
shots when he's open.
He plays tremendous defense,whether it's on a big guy or on
a guard, and obviously theeffort is always going to be
there.
I think because he's having tomax out his effort at all times.
That's kind of why he's onlybeen a role player, because I've
heard a couple people say thathis body kind of breaks down if
he tries to play starter minutesor more minutes than he does,
(06:50):
and so he's kind of found theperfect role where he can be a
star role player.
And he was exactly that in thisseries.
He came in multiple times andreally changed either the
momentum or just made big plays.
And I have to say my my respectfor Caruso.
I already liked him as a player.
(07:11):
I thought that was a greattrade for the thunder in the off
season, but just seeing what hecan do for this particular team
, it's kind of like when AaronGordon came to the nuggets.
He found a perfect fit for hisskill set and it just gets
highlighted on the right team,and so Caruso definitely gained
(07:32):
respect.
Speaking of Aaron Gordon, whatcan you say about Mr Nugget?
He battled through what wasoriginally a calf injury and
then, in game seven, had a gradetwo hamstring strain which, if
it was the regular season, he'dbe out for at least a month.
And he gave it a go in gameseven and actually played pretty
(07:55):
well.
He was hobbling up and down thecourt.
You could tell he couldn't run,he couldn't jump, but he was
out there.
He was not going to let histeammates get blown out without
him, and so he gave it a go, andnot only.
I think it just shows toughness, it shows leadership, I think
(08:17):
it just shows you Aaron Gordonwants to play basketball in
these high leverage moments, andhe was not scared.
He didn't care if he was goingto look bad in some situations,
he was out there and I think hefinished with like 11 rebounds.
Like for how limited he was.
It was quite impressive what hewas able to accomplish, and so
(08:39):
respect.
I didn't think it was possible,but my respect for AG went even
higher.
Switching back to the Thunder,cason Wallace is another one of
their guards off the bench andI've seen a little bit of them
when the Nuggets play theThunder and just some highlights
and everything.
But watching him over thecourse of the series he's really
(09:00):
impressive.
And so he's great at defense.
Uh, he was hitting some bigshots and just kind of the
overall team play like ondefense.
He's swarming around just likeall their their guys do.
But even on offense it seemedlike he was always driving when,
when the defense was allowinghim to drive, he was passing the
(09:22):
ball to the open guy.
He just was a solid, solidplayer.
And I think it's only hissecond year.
So for their backup point guard, I think he's amazing.
So again, thunder havetremendous depth.
They have that other youngpoint guard, topich, I think his
name is, and next year they'regoing to have just more guys
(09:44):
coming at you.
And so Cason Wallace was very,very impressive.
And just to finish out, who else?
I gained respect for ChristianBrown.
He far exceeded my expectationsof what I thought going into
the season and even coming intothe playoffs after he had such a
(10:05):
good regular season.
I I'm just so impressed withChristian.
He's not scared of the moment.
He's obviously not the world'sgreatest shooter, but he seems
like he hits big shots.
Uh, rebounding, passing Like he.
He does everything for it.
He's basically our fifthstarter, but he does all the
things you need a role player todo and he's going to get paid
(10:27):
this offseason.
So he won't necessarily be aninexpensive young guy anymore,
but he's earned that money andhe fits really well with our
starters.
And I just I love Christian.
I think he plays the right way.
He cares about winning andlosing.
He will always give full effortand we cannot say that for
(10:52):
everyone on our team.
And so love Christian, respectgained.
Now let's get a little negative.
We won't spend as much time onthat, because obviously part of
this is just being sad andbitter that the nuggets lost.
But you can't help but noticethings when it's a seven game
(11:12):
series or, in the nuggets case,for 14 games in the playoffs
this year.
So let's start out with loudort.
Lou dort is a defender.
He hit those three bigthree-pointers to give the
Thunder the victory.
I think it was in game.
What was that game five?
But I have to say he is such aflopper.
(11:34):
It drives me crazy too, becauseguys that flop don't normally
have the skill to play defense.
But he's a really good defenderyet he has kind of figured out
when to really accentuatecontact and when to really just
dive to the ground on screens,and it was often and he gets the
(11:57):
call sometimes, and when hedoesn't it looks kind of silly,
but he, he, he does it at theright times and he gets the call
sometimes.
And when he doesn't it lookskind of silly, but he does it at
the right times and he gets thecall a lot.
And so it was frustrating towatch him and especially because
he is talented, that he's kindof built it into his game of
just flopping to try and getsome bogus calls and sadly it
works.
Speaking of flopping, sheaGilgis-Alexander, he has now
(12:23):
been appointed the MVP and it'skind of funny.
With the first two games of theWestern Conference Finals now
over too, more and more peopleare seeing his little antics and
there's all these kind of mashhighlights, if you want to call
them, of all his differentflopping moves and maneuvers and
(12:44):
everyone's talking about it nowand so in a way it's like oh
okay, the Nuggets fans weren'tjust complaining because it was
happening to them.
Everyone's kind of seeing itnow and he's trying to defend
himself, but again, he's sotalented he doesn't need to do
that he's just kind of gamingthe system and refereeing is
absolutely impossible,especially with how big and
(13:05):
strong and fast these guys are.
But he's found little ways totrick the referees into getting
calls where he just dives intothe defender knowing that he's
going to bump and then back upand then shoot, and so he gets
so many and ones because he iscreating all the contact.
He's flopping to the ground buthe knows it's going to happen
(13:28):
and so he's able to make theshot still.
And so loss of respect in thefact that that one particular
part of his game is sofrustrating to watch.
It's not fun to watch someone.
You can just see that he'strying to do that with no
intention of shooting oractually going to the basket.
He's thinking in his head I'mgoing to bounce off this guy,
(13:51):
scream and throw my head backand then shoot it.
And that's what he doesmultiple times a game and he
doesn't need to.
He's so good because I will sayhis mid, his mid range shot.
He's just absolutely so fastwith the ball.
He can get to anywhere where hewants to.
He was even hitting just bigtime, three pointers.
He is an amazing player, but,man, that flopping drives me
(14:14):
crazy.
So little, little, tiny bit ofa respect loss for SGA.
This next one was tough, uh, mpjMichael Porter Jr.
He in one way gained respectbecause he's out there trying to
battle with his shoulder injury.
A lot of guys would just shutit down.
(14:37):
They don't want to be put in asituation where they could
potentially look bad or evenjust a lesser version of
themselves.
But he was out there fightingand I do appreciate that.
But man, he was bad.
If you're going to go out thereand play, we kind of have to
(14:58):
judge you on what you do outthere, and pretty much for six
out of the seven games of theseries he was really, really bad
.
He was just so bad at somepoints that you don't even
notice that he's out there.
Sometimes MPJ will haveinstances where he's making loud
mistakes, and that's kind ofhow he got hurt is one of his
(15:20):
loud mistakes in the Clippersseries.
But in this case he just eitherwasn't doing anything and
playing poor defense or he wastrying to force it on offense so
he would shoot it, but hisshots were just nowhere near
going in and so it was justnegative all the time.
(15:40):
And so it's just so hard tobalance, because you appreciate
him trying to fight and be outthere because we literally had
no one else that could play, butat the same time, he was just
so bad and we'll talk about itwith Jamal coming up as well but
this is two years in a rowwhere their skill set just does
not show up in the playoffs andplaying a team that has guys
(16:05):
that are much more athletic.
Just shut them down and we'llfocus on MPpj right now.
But jamal the same thing.
It just seems like they arebothered so much by guys that
can actually guard them thatthey just can't give us what we
need and for them, being thesecond and third highest players
on the team, it just it's notgoing to end well.
(16:28):
So let's go into jamal now too.
It's it's a very similarsituation.
For so long, jamal had theplayoff jamal uh, moniker and
you just always were like, well,yes, jamal is extremely
frustrating during the regularseason, but he turns it on in
the playoffs.
And now it's been two years ina row where he just hasn't done
that.
(16:48):
Um, last year he had an injury.
Um, this year he just was okay,like he played well, maybe like
as an above average guard, butwe're paying him to be a
superstar and he just getsswallowed up by guys that can
(17:10):
actually play defense and so,while he'll have his moments, a
lot of it is just because he's agood tough shot maker but he's
not athletic enough to get tothe basket or get an open shot,
or he's not a good enoughshooter just to hit these open
three-pointers and it just getsextremely frustrating.
(17:30):
And I know after the clippersseries I was saying that our,
our core, our starters, haveshown that they're good enough
and and they are, but they'vealso shown last two years that
they can get shut down and and alot of it, uh, is on jamal,
because we are paying him to bea superstar and if you look at
(17:51):
the other guys in the leaguethat make the amount of money
that he makes, you would takealmost all of them over Jamal,
and so I hope Jamal takes hisoffseason seriously.
We'll do an offseason preview,maybe next episode, but this
next season is going to be sointeresting for Jamal because of
the fact that, uh, a lot ofthis team success rides on him
(18:14):
and and, uh, he, he, he just iswhat he is right now and that's
just not good enough.
So hopefully, hopefully, a bigoff season for Jamal, and he can
he can, uh, improve.
So, like I said, it's a hugeoff season coming up for the
Nuggets.
There's so many possibilitiesof what they could do, and so
(18:34):
I'll probably do a whole episodeon that coming up next.
As far as what I hope they do,what I think they can do, all
that good stuff, because reallyyou could see big changes coming
.
You could see them just runningit back.
Really you could see bigchanges coming.
You could see them just runningit back.
But whatever they do, they gotto find depth.
It was just so blatantlyobvious this playoff run that
(18:59):
they need more guys, and soit'll be interesting and we'll
definitely talk about that morenext time.
But one thing that's alreadyhappened that I think is a great
move for the off season is theyofficially hired David Adelman
to be the head coach, and I'vetalked about this in the past
couple episodes that I thinkAdelman did a great job for
being put in a tough situation.
(19:20):
I think he was amazing and itsounds like the players, um, and
Josh Kroenke, the owner, theysaw that too and obviously they
know much more than I do, butthey said nothing but great
things about Adelman and I can'twait to see what he does with a
(19:40):
full season and, like I said,hopefully he'll have some depth
to work with.
I'm interested to see who hekeeps on his staff and who he
brings in as a as a new coach.
I'm interested to see how hetreats the regular season and
how he rotates players and givesthem nights off and all that
good stuff.
And maybe the biggest thing isI'm interested to see how he
(20:04):
holds players accountable.
Um, it sounds like just more andmore stories come out about
Malone and how bad things were,but it really sounds like one of
the big frustrations amongstthe roster was how Malone kind
of let Jamal Murray get awaywith things, and obviously half
(20:26):
of this podcast has beencomplaining about Jamal Murray,
so I won't go into that in anymore depth but it sounds like
Jamal was not held accountablefor maybe some of the off season
workouts or even in seasonpractices and stuff like that,
and I'm sure that frustratedsome players, whereas Malone was
especially hard on the guysthat were not necessarily his
(20:50):
guys, and so I hope Adelmanholds people accountable,
especially Jamal Murray.
I hope he gives second chancesto some of the young guys who
maybe Malone had given up on,and whoever the new players that
we get on the team.
I hope that David Adelman has aplan and and a a little bit, uh
(21:10):
, longer rotation to not wearout the starters as much during
the regular season.
So it'll be fascinating and, um, I'm excited to see what
happens.
Obviously ever the eternaloptimist, I think that the
nuggets still have the talent towin a championship and we'll.
We'll see what happens, but, um, we'll talk all about that next
(21:32):
time.
I hope you're watching theplayoffs still, even though the
nuggets are out.
It's been really fun.
The Pacers come back againstthe other night or against the
Knicks the other night wasabsolutely incredible.
Uh, if you've seen some of thestats, I think something like
that has never happened before,and I was an old man who went to
(21:52):
bed because the Knicks werewinning by 15 and I thought the
game was over, so I missed it.
But that happens.
So the playoffs have been fun.
The Thunder looked like ajuggernaut.
They already up on theTimberwolves 2-0.
And it kind of makes me feelbetter about what the Nuggets
were able to accomplish againstthem and it also makes me feel
(22:12):
worse about what the Nuggetswere able to accomplish against
them, and it also makes me feelworse, because if we would have
beat them then maybe we would beup 2-0 now.
But it is what it is.
All right, y'all, I am going tostop here and start working on
that offseason preview and wewill have that out soon.
Thanks for listening everyone.
all right, everyone welcome back to fandom from afar
.
Well, we knew this might happen.
Unfortunately, the thunder wereable to blow out the nuggets.
It uh started out close but uhit, it definitely was a blowout.
The thunder.
Thunder were able to show theirdepth, really their talent, and
(00:29):
we knew it was a possibility.
I thought there was a chancethe Nuggets could hang in there,
but it kind of all came to ahead and the Nuggets looked
tired.
I don't know.
The Thunder just looked moreathletic.
I think they were quicker, theyhad more energy.
(00:49):
It was just a team effort.
I'm impressed by the Thunder.
They are a great young team.
I think one of my big takeawaysfrom game seven, and there's
really not much to talk about it.
It was a blowout, but theNuggets just need more depth.
The Thunder obviously have aroster full of talented players
(01:12):
and that's not even counting.
They have a lottery pick fromlast year.
Who was hurt, who was supposedto be one of the top point
guards in the draft last year.
He's on their team, so they'regoing to get even deeper next
year.
And yeah, it was a beat down.
I can't put any other spin onit.
(01:32):
Like I said, my last episode,I'm just proud of how far the
Nuggets did get.
It could have been much worse.
I really feel like if we didn'tget rid of Malone and Booth
when we did, the season wouldhave ended poorly.
Uh, we probably would haveended up in the play-in and then
possibly lost the play-in.
(01:53):
So the fact that we as fans gotthose fun, um playoff moments,
I think was well worth it.
Even if it was a a sad ending,it was still a fun run and, uh,
obviously a big offseason comingup.
So, um, one big takeaway I haveto mention we're a few days out
(02:14):
now from the nuggets loss andand, uh, the thunder.
I've even already startedplaying the Timberwolves.
But the narrative that AlexCaruso shut down or he can guard
Jokic is crazy to me.
Either people that are sayingthat just did not watch the game
(02:38):
or just don't understand whatwas happening.
But Caruso, he's for a normalhuman, he's big.
I think he's like 6'6", but forNBA standards.
The other teams have found outthat when you play the Nuggets
you can put someone on that'sabout that size 6'6", 6'7"
(03:03):
noticeably smaller than Jokic.
And the reason I make sure topoint that out is the referees
will let the smaller guys graband hold and really do whatever
they need to, just because Jokicis such a monster.
He's a big boy, and so thereferees have decided that the
(03:24):
smaller guys can do whateverthey need to, and then if Jokic
tries to power through them atall, it is a offensive foul, and
so Jokic is really in a no winsituation.
And other teams have taken fulladvantage of that, and Caruso
was the latest, and he did agreat job.
Like not many guys are willingto put up that fight and to make
(03:47):
the effort that is needed to dothat.
But it wasn't just Caruso.
Like they constantly had Jokicpretty much in a triangle, with
one of the big guys right behindJokic while Caruso was guarding
him um, up front, and then alsoeither one or possibly two guys
on the side.
So I love Caruso we're going togo into it more here in a
(04:13):
little bit but the narrativethat Caruso shut down Jokic in
Game 7, it's just wrong.
And so the Thunder did a greatjob and they executed a plan
that can shut down Jokic becausethey didn't have to worry about
anyone else, and that againgoes into the Nuggets depth, but
(04:35):
it was a team effort and theyconstantly had two, three, if
not four guys right within arm'slength of Jokic.
And so the narrative that cameout of game seven was a bit
frustrating, but it didn'tchange the fact that the Thunder
dominated and they playedtremendous defense.
(04:57):
It was more so that they wereable to do so because of
weaknesses on the Nuggets side,so I just had to straighten that
up.
The narrative was frustratingafter the game, but in the
series as a whole.
It's just natural when you playsomeone seven games within a
(05:18):
short amount of time like that,as a fan you can't help it.
You get to know guys on theother teams a whole, really a
whole lot better, and it eitherwill increase your respect for
them or decrease.
And so I want to cover a fewplayers in the Nuggets and
Thunder series that I eithergained respect for or maybe lost
(05:41):
a little bit of respect for,and this will be quick.
It does have players on bothsides, but it was a battle and
respect was given and taken.
So let's start out with Caruso.
We were just talking about him.
He's just a beast For his size,for his talent.
(06:04):
He gets everything you canpossibly ask for out of a player
like him, and he's basicallybeen a role player his entire
career, which is great.
Most people would kill to havehis career.
But what he does he justtotally changes the game.
He's kind of the veteran leaderon the Thunder but he hits big
(06:26):
shots when he's open.
He plays tremendous defense,whether it's on a big guy or on
a guard, and obviously theeffort is always going to be
there.
I think because he's having tomax out his effort at all times.
That's kind of why he's onlybeen a role player, because I've
heard a couple people say thathis body kind of breaks down if
he tries to play starter minutesor more minutes than he does,
(06:50):
and so he's kind of found theperfect role where he can be a
star role player.
And he was exactly that in thisseries.
He came in multiple times andreally changed either the
momentum or just made big plays.
And I have to say my my respectfor Caruso.
I already liked him as a player.
(07:11):
I thought that was a greattrade for the thunder in the off
season, but just seeing what hecan do for this particular team
, it's kind of like when AaronGordon came to the nuggets.
He found a perfect fit for hisskill set and it just gets
highlighted on the right team,and so Caruso definitely gained
(07:32):
respect.
Speaking of Aaron Gordon, whatcan you say about Mr Nugget?
He battled through what wasoriginally a calf injury and
then, in game seven, had a gradetwo hamstring strain which, if
it was the regular season, he'dbe out for at least a month.
And he gave it a go in gameseven and actually played pretty
(07:55):
well.
He was hobbling up and down thecourt.
You could tell he couldn't run,he couldn't jump, but he was
out there.
He was not going to let histeammates get blown out without
him, and so he gave it a go, andnot only.
I think it just shows toughness, it shows leadership, I think
(08:17):
it just shows you Aaron Gordonwants to play basketball in
these high leverage moments, andhe was not scared.
He didn't care if he was goingto look bad in some situations,
he was out there and I think hefinished with like 11 rebounds.
Like for how limited he was.
It was quite impressive what hewas able to accomplish, and so
(08:39):
respect.
I didn't think it was possible,but my respect for AG went even
higher.
Switching back to the Thunder,cason Wallace is another one of
their guards off the bench andI've seen a little bit of them
when the Nuggets play theThunder and just some highlights
and everything.
But watching him over thecourse of the series he's really
(09:00):
impressive.
And so he's great at defense.
Uh, he was hitting some bigshots and just kind of the
overall team play like ondefense.
He's swarming around just likeall their their guys do.
But even on offense it seemedlike he was always driving when,
when the defense was allowinghim to drive, he was passing the
(09:22):
ball to the open guy.
He just was a solid, solidplayer.
And I think it's only hissecond year.
So for their backup point guard, I think he's amazing.
So again, thunder havetremendous depth.
They have that other youngpoint guard, topich, I think his
name is, and next year they'regoing to have just more guys
(09:44):
coming at you.
And so Cason Wallace was very,very impressive.
And just to finish out, who else?
I gained respect for ChristianBrown.
He far exceeded my expectationsof what I thought going into
the season and even coming intothe playoffs after he had such a
(10:05):
good regular season.
I I'm just so impressed withChristian.
He's not scared of the moment.
He's obviously not the world'sgreatest shooter, but he seems
like he hits big shots.
Uh, rebounding, passing Like he.
He does everything for it.
He's basically our fifthstarter, but he does all the
things you need a role player todo and he's going to get paid
(10:27):
this offseason.
So he won't necessarily be aninexpensive young guy anymore,
but he's earned that money andhe fits really well with our
starters.
And I just I love Christian.
I think he plays the right way.
He cares about winning andlosing.
He will always give full effortand we cannot say that for
(10:52):
everyone on our team.
And so love Christian, respectgained.
Now let's get a little negative.
We won't spend as much time onthat, because obviously part of
this is just being sad andbitter that the nuggets lost.
But you can't help but noticethings when it's a seven game
(11:12):
series or, in the nuggets case,for 14 games in the playoffs
this year.
So let's start out with loudort.
Lou dort is a defender.
He hit those three bigthree-pointers to give the
Thunder the victory.
I think it was in game.
What was that game five?
But I have to say he is such aflopper.
(11:34):
It drives me crazy too, becauseguys that flop don't normally
have the skill to play defense.
But he's a really good defenderyet he has kind of figured out
when to really accentuatecontact and when to really just
dive to the ground on screens,and it was often and he gets the
(11:57):
call sometimes, and when hedoesn't it looks kind of silly,
but he, he, he does it at theright times and he gets the call
sometimes.
And when he doesn't it lookskind of silly, but he does it at
the right times and he gets thecall a lot.
And so it was frustrating towatch him and especially because
he is talented, that he's kindof built it into his game of
just flopping to try and getsome bogus calls and sadly it
works.
Speaking of flopping, sheaGilgis-Alexander, he has now
(12:23):
been appointed the MVP and it'skind of funny.
With the first two games of theWestern Conference Finals now
over too, more and more peopleare seeing his little antics and
there's all these kind of mashhighlights, if you want to call
them, of all his differentflopping moves and maneuvers and
(12:44):
everyone's talking about it nowand so in a way it's like oh
okay, the Nuggets fans weren'tjust complaining because it was
happening to them.
Everyone's kind of seeing itnow and he's trying to defend
himself, but again, he's sotalented he doesn't need to do
that he's just kind of gamingthe system and refereeing is
absolutely impossible,especially with how big and
(13:05):
strong and fast these guys are.
But he's found little ways totrick the referees into getting
calls where he just dives intothe defender knowing that he's
going to bump and then back upand then shoot, and so he gets
so many and ones because he iscreating all the contact.
He's flopping to the ground buthe knows it's going to happen
(13:28):
and so he's able to make theshot still.
And so loss of respect in thefact that that one particular
part of his game is sofrustrating to watch.
It's not fun to watch someone.
You can just see that he'strying to do that with no
intention of shooting oractually going to the basket.
He's thinking in his head I'mgoing to bounce off this guy,
(13:51):
scream and throw my head backand then shoot it.
And that's what he doesmultiple times a game and he
doesn't need to.
He's so good because I will sayhis mid, his mid range shot.
He's just absolutely so fastwith the ball.
He can get to anywhere where hewants to.
He was even hitting just bigtime, three pointers.
He is an amazing player, but,man, that flopping drives me
(14:14):
crazy.
So little, little, tiny bit ofa respect loss for SGA.
This next one was tough, uh, mpjMichael Porter Jr.
He in one way gained respectbecause he's out there trying to
battle with his shoulder injury.
A lot of guys would just shutit down.
(14:37):
They don't want to be put in asituation where they could
potentially look bad or evenjust a lesser version of
themselves.
But he was out there fightingand I do appreciate that.
But man, he was bad.
If you're going to go out thereand play, we kind of have to
(14:58):
judge you on what you do outthere, and pretty much for six
out of the seven games of theseries he was really, really bad
.
He was just so bad at somepoints that you don't even
notice that he's out there.
Sometimes MPJ will haveinstances where he's making loud
mistakes, and that's kind ofhow he got hurt is one of his
(15:20):
loud mistakes in the Clippersseries.
But in this case he just eitherwasn't doing anything and
playing poor defense or he wastrying to force it on offense so
he would shoot it, but hisshots were just nowhere near
going in and so it was justnegative all the time.
(15:40):
And so it's just so hard tobalance, because you appreciate
him trying to fight and be outthere because we literally had
no one else that could play, butat the same time, he was just
so bad and we'll talk about itwith Jamal coming up as well but
this is two years in a rowwhere their skill set just does
not show up in the playoffs andplaying a team that has guys
(16:05):
that are much more athletic.
Just shut them down and we'llfocus on MPpj right now.
But jamal the same thing.
It just seems like they arebothered so much by guys that
can actually guard them thatthey just can't give us what we
need and for them, being thesecond and third highest players
on the team, it just it's notgoing to end well.
(16:28):
So let's go into jamal now too.
It's it's a very similarsituation.
For so long, jamal had theplayoff jamal uh, moniker and
you just always were like, well,yes, jamal is extremely
frustrating during the regularseason, but he turns it on in
the playoffs.
And now it's been two years ina row where he just hasn't done
that.
(16:48):
Um, last year he had an injury.
Um, this year he just was okay,like he played well, maybe like
as an above average guard, butwe're paying him to be a
superstar and he just getsswallowed up by guys that can
(17:10):
actually play defense and so,while he'll have his moments, a
lot of it is just because he's agood tough shot maker but he's
not athletic enough to get tothe basket or get an open shot,
or he's not a good enoughshooter just to hit these open
three-pointers and it just getsextremely frustrating.
(17:30):
And I know after the clippersseries I was saying that our,
our core, our starters, haveshown that they're good enough
and and they are, but they'vealso shown last two years that
they can get shut down and and alot of it, uh, is on jamal,
because we are paying him to bea superstar and if you look at
(17:51):
the other guys in the leaguethat make the amount of money
that he makes, you would takealmost all of them over Jamal,
and so I hope Jamal takes hisoffseason seriously.
We'll do an offseason preview,maybe next episode, but this
next season is going to be sointeresting for Jamal because of
the fact that, uh, a lot ofthis team success rides on him
(18:14):
and and, uh, he, he, he just iswhat he is right now and that's
just not good enough.
So hopefully, hopefully, a bigoff season for Jamal, and he can
he can, uh, improve.
So, like I said, it's a hugeoff season coming up for the
Nuggets.
There's so many possibilitiesof what they could do, and so
(18:34):
I'll probably do a whole episodeon that coming up next.
As far as what I hope they do,what I think they can do, all
that good stuff, because reallyyou could see big changes coming
.
You could see them just runningit back.
Really you could see bigchanges coming.
You could see them just runningit back.
But whatever they do, they gotto find depth.
It was just so blatantlyobvious this playoff run that
(18:59):
they need more guys, and soit'll be interesting and we'll
definitely talk about that morenext time.
But one thing that's alreadyhappened that I think is a great
move for the off season is theyofficially hired David Adelman
to be the head coach, and I'vetalked about this in the past
couple episodes that I thinkAdelman did a great job for
being put in a tough situation.
(19:20):
I think he was amazing and itsounds like the players, um, and
Josh Kroenke, the owner, theysaw that too and obviously they
know much more than I do, butthey said nothing but great
things about Adelman and I can'twait to see what he does with a
(19:40):
full season and, like I said,hopefully he'll have some depth
to work with.
I'm interested to see who hekeeps on his staff and who he
brings in as a as a new coach.
I'm interested to see how hetreats the regular season and
how he rotates players and givesthem nights off and all that
good stuff.
And maybe the biggest thing isI'm interested to see how he
(20:04):
holds players accountable.
Um, it sounds like just more andmore stories come out about
Malone and how bad things were,but it really sounds like one of
the big frustrations amongstthe roster was how Malone kind
of let Jamal Murray get awaywith things, and obviously half
(20:26):
of this podcast has beencomplaining about Jamal Murray,
so I won't go into that in anymore depth but it sounds like
Jamal was not held accountablefor maybe some of the off season
workouts or even in seasonpractices and stuff like that,
and I'm sure that frustratedsome players, whereas Malone was
especially hard on the guysthat were not necessarily his
(20:50):
guys, and so I hope Adelmanholds people accountable,
especially Jamal Murray.
I hope he gives second chancesto some of the young guys who
maybe Malone had given up on,and whoever the new players that
we get on the team.
I hope that David Adelman has aplan and and a a little bit, uh
(21:10):
, longer rotation to not wearout the starters as much during
the regular season.
So it'll be fascinating and, um, I'm excited to see what
happens.
Obviously ever the eternaloptimist, I think that the
nuggets still have the talent towin a championship and we'll.
We'll see what happens, but, um, we'll talk all about that next
(21:32):
time.
I hope you're watching theplayoffs still, even though the
nuggets are out.
It's been really fun.
The Pacers come back againstthe other night or against the
Knicks the other night wasabsolutely incredible.
Uh, if you've seen some of thestats, I think something like
that has never happened before,and I was an old man who went to
(21:52):
bed because the Knicks werewinning by 15 and I thought the
game was over, so I missed it.
But that happens.
So the playoffs have been fun.
The Thunder looked like ajuggernaut.
They already up on theTimberwolves 2-0.
And it kind of makes me feelbetter about what the Nuggets
were able to accomplish againstthem and it also makes me feel
(22:12):
worse about what the Nuggetswere able to accomplish against
them, and it also makes me feelworse, because if we would have
beat them then maybe we would beup 2-0 now.
But it is what it is.
All right, y'all, I am going tostop here and start working on
that offseason preview and wewill have that out soon.
Thanks for listening everyone.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.