April 7, 2025 • 19 mins
The Denver Nuggets are in a tailspin with four straight losses despite Nikola Jokić's historic offensive production. Championship hopes are fading as the team battles injuries, exhaustion, and disconnection with just three games left in the regular season.
• Fourth in the West but tied for eighth, with the play-in tournament becoming a real possibility
• Jamal Murray's hamstring injury now considered more than day-to-day, might miss playoffs
• Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr. playing through injuries but significantly limited
• Jokić showing visible frustration with teammates' lack of movement and effort
• Team chemistry has disappeared compared to last season's connected championship squad
• Potential for major organizational changes if playoffs end poorly
• Best case scenario: getting healthy during a week off and recapturing last year's magic
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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
.
Normally we talk about how thenugget season has been a roller
coaster ride.
Unfortunately, we cannot saythat this time, because that
would include good thingshappening.
Right now it's looking pretty,pretty bad, I would say.
(00:27):
How can we describe the nuggetsright now?
Exhausted, injured,disconnected, lost, frustrated,
slow, how about just plain bad.
It's been rough lately.
Other than that, things aregoing great.
(00:50):
So let's talk about them, shallwe?
Last night they lost to thePacers and this was their fourth
loss in a row.
Jokic and Christian Brown wereamazing.
They played fantastic.
Everyone else kind of was trash.
It was a rough watch, adiscouraging loss, and a big
(01:17):
part of that is their defensewas just non-existent, and that
that goes for Jokic and Browntoo.
Like the Nuggets didn't guardanyone last night they were
getting wide open three-pointerspretty much anytime they wanted
.
They were driving the basketanytime they wanted and the
(01:39):
Nuggets just didn't look likethey cared.
It was very sad and so well,let's back out.
Big picture the Nuggets arefourth in the West, but also
tied for eighth.
The West is just so close thatthere's so many teams bunched up
(01:59):
together that really anythingcould happen in these last three
games.
There's about a week left inthe season and while the Nuggets
are in fourth, the way they'replaying, I do not have faith
that they will stay there.
It is very, very possible thatthey're going to slide down to
(02:20):
seventh or eighth and have toplay in the play-in game this
team that we had championshiphopes for.
It's possible that they have toplay one game to even make the
playoffs and if they lose thatthen they have to play another
one and they could be out of italtogether.
So this season is definitelynot what I expected.
(02:45):
This season is definitely notwhat I expected and it's kind of
amazing how we got to thispoint.
If you'll remember, in a recentepisode I talked about how the
Nuggets were being smart.
They gave Jokic some time off.
He took about 10 days off andhe came back and so fresh and I
(03:05):
thought that was just the firstsign of hey, the nuggets learned
from last year.
They were exhausted last yeartrying to fight for a top seed.
So they're doing everythingthey can to make sure the guys
are healthy and rested goinginto the playoffs.
And that turned so quicklybecause, uh, jamal got hurt.
Ag has been in and out.
Michael Porter Jr has been outand so Jokic had to go right
(03:28):
back to carrying the whole teamand he now looks absolutely
exhausted again, before theplayoffs have even started.
He's putting up amazing numbers.
We've talked about a milliontimes on this podcast before,
but he's literally having thebest season for an offensive
(03:48):
player in NBA history.
The numbers that he's puttingup are absolutely ridiculous.
In the last four games I thinkhe's averaging something like 40
points, 12 rebounds and 10assists, and the Nuggets are oh
and four in those games.
He just has zero help right nowand the frustration is starting
(04:10):
to show.
Uh, the first sign of it wasagainst golden state a few days
ago.
He was sitting there on thebench talking to dario and
vladko and whatever they weretalking about.
You could tell he was over it.
He was throwing his hands up inthe air, rolling his eyes, and
he was visibly frustrated.
(04:30):
In that game as well, he juststarted chucking up
three-pointers.
That's kind of something Jokichas done throughout his career.
If he's frustrated with how histeammates are playing and their
thought process or their efforton the court, he'll just start
chucking up threes because he'slike hey, if you guys don't care
, I don't care either here we go, and obviously he's Jokic, so
(04:52):
he's going to make a lot ofthose which he did in the Golden
State game.
But it's just really sad to seethe season end this way and I
hope things can turn around atthe end of this episode.
We'll go over kind of like abrightest timeline, but the big
fella is frustrated and it isnot looking great.
This is kind of like Imentioned the worst case
(05:15):
scenario.
The Nuggets needed to behealthy and rested going into
the playoffs because they'resuch a top heavy team.
We need the starters to play somany minutes when the playoffs
roll around.
And right now Jokic, as Imentioned, is exhausted.
Jamal Murray is hurt.
(05:36):
We'll go over that more here ina in a bit.
Um, aaron Gordon, he's beeninjured most of the season and
he keeps trying to fight backand he's technically playing but
he looks.
He looks about half speed ofwhat Aaron Gordon should be and
was last year.
The calf injury is obviouslybothering him.
(05:58):
He just doesn't have hisexplosiveness.
Um, on offense, it seemed likehe was getting a couple of dunks
every game last year.
The famous play that theNuggets would kind of run would
be Jokic would kind of curl intothe paint and the defenders
wouldn't know what to do becauseJokic is so good at that little
(06:19):
short floater shot.
And then Jokic would pretend toshoot it and Aaron Gordon would
come up along the baseline andjust dunk it and it would be
such a beautiful exclamationpoint on on a Nuggets victory.
And not only are we not seeingthat anymore, but it just seems
like Gordon just doesn't havethe explosiveness to dunk or
play defense or anything Like I.
(06:40):
I think I can't imagine what hefeels like and I appreciate him
wanting to be out there Cause heknows that the Nuggets really
don't have any other options,but he is very, very limited
right now.
And then MPJ he had thehamstring and back issues here a
few weeks ago and he's tried tocome back, but again he looks
(07:01):
stiff.
He is getting blown by prettymuch every single play if the
other team wants to.
And then he just looks sounsure of himself on the
offensive end.
Every time he shoots it lookslike he's hoping the ball goes
in, whereas the first half ofthe season he was a sniper, he
was hitting everything in it andhe just looks so confident.
(07:23):
And now he's out there justlike AG.
He's out there.
He's trying, but the Nuggetsjust they don't have it.
And so it all comes down to canthose guys get healthy?
But even if they do, it wasannounced last night that Jamal
Murray has been out for like thelast five games with a
(07:45):
hamstring issue.
Jamal Murray has been out forlike the last five games with a
hamstring issue and coach Maloneannounced that he is no longer
day to day.
They hope that he can come backfor the playoffs, but that's
not even a guarantee.
Somehow they didn't say theinjury had a setback or anything
like that.
They just called it a a weirdinjury, they said for what they
(08:05):
originally thought it was, hisrehab and what they've been
working on should have produceda recovery by now.
But he is still hurt and cannotgo and they don't even know if
he will be back for the playoffs.
So this is obviouslydevastating news for the Nuggets
.
We've seen what they look likethe last four games without
(08:26):
Jamal, with a hobbled AaronGordon, a hobbled MPJ and our
disaster of a bench.
There's really no sugarcoatingit.
This Jamal news could be theend of the season.
Russell Westbrook started outthe season so well but again,
(08:47):
because of how limited our otherguys have been.
I think we kind of burnt himout and played him way too many
minutes and so he's not lookinggood lately just because he's 36
, 37 years old and and, uh, wecan't expect that many minutes
out of him.
He he was playing so well atthe beginning and if the Nuggets
would have had a more balancedteam and not had as many
(09:10):
injuries, I think he could stillbe playing that way for us.
But we had to play him more andwe burnt him out.
Jalen Pickett's been putting insome good minutes, but either
of those guys is nowhere nearwhat playoff Jamal is for this
team and what he means for thisteam.
And it is just devastating tothink that we're going into
(09:35):
another year where Jamal Murrayis hurt, either for the entirety
of the playoffs or going intothe playoffs.
This makes four out of the lastfive years that Jamal has been
hurt going into the playoffs andI know I'm beating a dead horse
because I talk about all thetime but at a certain point and
(09:58):
it is not his fault, like it'snot like Jamal is asking to get
hurt, but at a certain point weare wasting the career of one of
the greatest basketball playersever because we cannot surround
him with talent the mostimportant talent being the
second best player on your teamand he is now hurt for the
(10:19):
fourth year out of the last fiveyears last five years.
It's rough Right now.
I would not pick the Nuggets,whether it's a playoff game or a
playoff, definitely not aplayoff series.
If we're in the playing gameagainst one team, we have Jokic,
we can win one game.
(10:40):
I always will have faith inthat.
But if we get matched up rightnow, really against any of those
top Western teams, it's goingto be a huge upset.
If the Nuggets can win a serieswithout Jamal and with the
shape that the other guys are in, it's just so disappointing.
(11:02):
When they're at their best.
This Nuggets team has talentand has the chance at winning a
championship.
But for as connected as theteam was two years ago, that was
one of their greatest strengths.
It looked like they wereplaying with joy, they were
playing for each other, theywere just so connected.
(11:23):
They always knew where theother person was going to be on
defense.
They communicated so well, theywere playing hard.
And this year is the exactopposite.
They just they seem likethey're kind of out there and
just hoping that Jokic canoutscore the other team On
offense.
(11:45):
The most common thing they doright now all the players is
throw the ball into Jokic andthen just stand there and watch.
And the beauty of Jokic is thatwhen you're cutting, when
you're setting picks for eachother, when you're getting open,
he will find you.
But right now the guys look sochecked out.
They just pass it and standthere and then Jokic will stand
(12:07):
there waiting for someone to cutor do anything and nobody does
a thing.
They just stand there and soJokic starts kind of backing his
way down and then he'll throwup a shot and because he's Jokic
, he'll make a lot of them.
He's been scoring so manypoints lately but that's because
his other teammates aren'tdoing anything and, as I
mentioned, christian Brown hasbeen a bright spot.
(12:29):
Last night he had 30 points andhe looked great.
But and overall the team justseems like it's like they don't
know what to do unless it's passthe ball to Jokic, and it's
kind of just shocking.
These guys are NBA players.
They're the best players in theworld.
When our bench is in and Jokicis not in, it's been ugly for
(12:53):
years, but this year has kind oftaken it to a new level.
They just they give up everylead so quickly, they turn the
ball over, they, they commit ahuge number of fouls.
So it makes it harder for thestarters when they get back in,
because if they fouled and theother team shooting free throws,
it's just one thing afteranother is leading to negative
(13:13):
results and the rest of the teamjust looks like it's like oh,
jokic, will, he'll, he'll, he'llsolve it, he'll take care of
everything.
And when you're putting up 40points, 12 rebounds and 10
assists and you cannot get asingle victory, that's saying
something about the teammatessurrounding you.
So, oh, I hate to say it, butthis really could be the end of
(13:37):
this Nuggets era, to say it, butthis really could be the end of
this Nuggets era If things keepgoing this way and they get
eliminated, whether it's theplay-in game or the first round
and I'm only saying that,assuming that Jamal Murray
cannot be himself if they do geteliminated quickly, I think all
options are on the table.
(13:58):
Everyone except for Jokic is indanger of not being on this team
next year, and I don't thinkthat's a bad thing.
I think it might be time for achange on all levels general
manager, coach, players,assistant coaches, everything.
So we'll have plenty of time togo into that during the off
(14:19):
season.
If that happens, the next threegames are against the Kings,
the Grizzlies and the Rocketsand, like I said, there's so
many teams so closely bunchedtogether that really the only
way the Nuggets can ensurethemselves that they make the
playoffs is if they win allthree.
But I saw an article today thatsaid even if the nuggets win
(14:42):
all three, there is a chance,because of tiebreakers and all
this, that they could still endup in seventh.
So that's if they win all three.
If they lose one, two or eventhree of those games, it's it's
almost likely that we're goingto finish 7th or 8th and have to
play in the play-in.
It's shaping up to be a veryinteresting week and we will
(15:04):
have to see how the week goes.
I don't want to predict thatthe worst will happen, but I
would say the way they'replaying right now, it is much
more likely that they're goingto lose all three than they
would win all three.
A lot of this is going to comedown to tiebreakers and
unfortunately that just goesback to earlier in the season
when the Nuggets either did nothave the players available or
(15:26):
took the games too lightly andwe lost games that we should
have easily won against some ofthese teams.
But now they have thetiebreaker over us and it could
cost us.
So this has obviously been aextremely negative episode, and
you can tell that I am feelingpretty devastated about how
(15:47):
things have turned out thisseason.
But I wanted to end the podcastwith a little bit of positivity.
What is the best case scenariofrom this point on?
That could possibly happen.
I'm not saying it's likely, butwe're going for positivity here
, right?
So what's the best casescenario of what could happen?
Now, this may be completefiction and not a chance in the
(16:13):
world.
It could happen, but I candream right.
So let's go, we win all threeof the next or the last three
games of the regular season.
We get the sixth seed.
So the tiebreakers work out ourway, but we get the sixth seed
and I like that.
We settle in there.
Now, obviously we don't get homecourt advantage or anything
(16:34):
like that, but let's say we getthe sixth seed and that gives us
the week off before the actualplayoffs start, when those other
teams are playing in theplay-in, and the guys get
healthy, jokic gets rest Somehow, jamal comes back, ag MPJ they
(16:55):
start feeling good.
Russell Westbrook finds thefountain of youth.
This week off is magical.
We're going to say that all ourguys are fully healthy.
So with the six seed, we get totake on the Los Angeles Lakers
as the three seed.
Now we know how the Lakers andNuggets series have gone the
last couple of years and in ourbest case scenario, here it
(17:17):
happens again.
All the hype is with Luka andLeBron and we defeat the Lakers.
Jamal Murray makes last secondshots again.
Jokic just goes crazy becausehe doesn't even have to deal
with Anthony Davis anymore.
And although the whole countrystill can't believe that the
(17:38):
Lakers were gifted Luka, theNuggets prevail and they move on
.
Not only do they move on, butwe're still full of energy and
we're completely healthy.
So we take on the HoustonRockets in the second round.
The Rockets are a young teamfull of super athletes, but our
aging veterans with ourchampionship pedigree takes them
(18:01):
down too.
Oh man, we beat the Rockets.
We're into the WesternConference Finals.
What a glorious scenario.
And the Thunder are waiting forus.
I can't do it, even in my dreamscenario.
I can't pretend that we couldbeat the Thunder.
So it was fun to get to theWestern Conference Finals.
Though in that dream, right, wecan always dream All right,
(18:24):
y'all, it's going to be a greatweek.
We are going to cheer on theNuggets, no matter how sad we
are about them.
We are going to cheer them onthese last three games and we'll
do another podcast once we knowwhat the playoff scenarios are
looking like and hopefully makesome predictions, not only for
the Nuggets but hopefully forthe rest of the league, and see
(18:44):
if we can find out what'shappening here.
Well, thank you all forlistening today in my little sad
sack pity party, but it's stilla dream.
all right, everyone welcome back to fandom from afar
.
Normally we talk about how thenugget season has been a roller
coaster ride.
Unfortunately, we cannot saythat this time, because that
would include good thingshappening.
Right now it's looking pretty,pretty bad, I would say.
(00:27):
How can we describe the nuggetsright now?
Exhausted, injured,disconnected, lost, frustrated,
slow, how about just plain bad.
It's been rough lately.
Other than that, things aregoing great.
(00:50):
So let's talk about them, shallwe?
Last night they lost to thePacers and this was their fourth
loss in a row.
Jokic and Christian Brown wereamazing.
They played fantastic.
Everyone else kind of was trash.
It was a rough watch, adiscouraging loss, and a big
(01:17):
part of that is their defensewas just non-existent, and that
that goes for Jokic and Browntoo.
Like the Nuggets didn't guardanyone last night they were
getting wide open three-pointerspretty much anytime they wanted
.
They were driving the basketanytime they wanted and the
(01:39):
Nuggets just didn't look likethey cared.
It was very sad and so well,let's back out.
Big picture the Nuggets arefourth in the West, but also
tied for eighth.
The West is just so close thatthere's so many teams bunched up
(01:59):
together that really anythingcould happen in these last three
games.
There's about a week left inthe season and while the Nuggets
are in fourth, the way they'replaying, I do not have faith
that they will stay there.
It is very, very possible thatthey're going to slide down to
(02:20):
seventh or eighth and have toplay in the play-in game this
team that we had championshiphopes for.
It's possible that they have toplay one game to even make the
playoffs and if they lose thatthen they have to play another
one and they could be out of italtogether.
So this season is definitelynot what I expected.
(02:45):
This season is definitely notwhat I expected and it's kind of
amazing how we got to thispoint.
If you'll remember, in a recentepisode I talked about how the
Nuggets were being smart.
They gave Jokic some time off.
He took about 10 days off andhe came back and so fresh and I
(03:05):
thought that was just the firstsign of hey, the nuggets learned
from last year.
They were exhausted last yeartrying to fight for a top seed.
So they're doing everythingthey can to make sure the guys
are healthy and rested goinginto the playoffs.
And that turned so quicklybecause, uh, jamal got hurt.
Ag has been in and out.
Michael Porter Jr has been outand so Jokic had to go right
(03:28):
back to carrying the whole teamand he now looks absolutely
exhausted again, before theplayoffs have even started.
He's putting up amazing numbers.
We've talked about a milliontimes on this podcast before,
but he's literally having thebest season for an offensive
(03:48):
player in NBA history.
The numbers that he's puttingup are absolutely ridiculous.
In the last four games I thinkhe's averaging something like 40
points, 12 rebounds and 10assists, and the Nuggets are oh
and four in those games.
He just has zero help right nowand the frustration is starting
(04:10):
to show.
Uh, the first sign of it wasagainst golden state a few days
ago.
He was sitting there on thebench talking to dario and
vladko and whatever they weretalking about.
You could tell he was over it.
He was throwing his hands up inthe air, rolling his eyes, and
he was visibly frustrated.
(04:30):
In that game as well, he juststarted chucking up
three-pointers.
That's kind of something Jokichas done throughout his career.
If he's frustrated with how histeammates are playing and their
thought process or their efforton the court, he'll just start
chucking up threes because he'slike hey, if you guys don't care
, I don't care either here we go, and obviously he's Jokic, so
(04:52):
he's going to make a lot ofthose which he did in the Golden
State game.
But it's just really sad to seethe season end this way and I
hope things can turn around atthe end of this episode.
We'll go over kind of like abrightest timeline, but the big
fella is frustrated and it isnot looking great.
This is kind of like Imentioned the worst case
(05:15):
scenario.
The Nuggets needed to behealthy and rested going into
the playoffs because they'resuch a top heavy team.
We need the starters to play somany minutes when the playoffs
roll around.
And right now Jokic, as Imentioned, is exhausted.
Jamal Murray is hurt.
(05:36):
We'll go over that more here ina in a bit.
Um, aaron Gordon, he's beeninjured most of the season and
he keeps trying to fight backand he's technically playing but
he looks.
He looks about half speed ofwhat Aaron Gordon should be and
was last year.
The calf injury is obviouslybothering him.
(05:58):
He just doesn't have hisexplosiveness.
Um, on offense, it seemed likehe was getting a couple of dunks
every game last year.
The famous play that theNuggets would kind of run would
be Jokic would kind of curl intothe paint and the defenders
wouldn't know what to do becauseJokic is so good at that little
(06:19):
short floater shot.
And then Jokic would pretend toshoot it and Aaron Gordon would
come up along the baseline andjust dunk it and it would be
such a beautiful exclamationpoint on on a Nuggets victory.
And not only are we not seeingthat anymore, but it just seems
like Gordon just doesn't havethe explosiveness to dunk or
play defense or anything Like I.
(06:40):
I think I can't imagine what hefeels like and I appreciate him
wanting to be out there Cause heknows that the Nuggets really
don't have any other options,but he is very, very limited
right now.
And then MPJ he had thehamstring and back issues here a
few weeks ago and he's tried tocome back, but again he looks
(07:01):
stiff.
He is getting blown by prettymuch every single play if the
other team wants to.
And then he just looks sounsure of himself on the
offensive end.
Every time he shoots it lookslike he's hoping the ball goes
in, whereas the first half ofthe season he was a sniper, he
was hitting everything in it andhe just looks so confident.
(07:23):
And now he's out there justlike AG.
He's out there.
He's trying, but the Nuggetsjust they don't have it.
And so it all comes down to canthose guys get healthy?
But even if they do, it wasannounced last night that Jamal
Murray has been out for like thelast five games with a
(07:45):
hamstring issue.
Jamal Murray has been out forlike the last five games with a
hamstring issue and coach Maloneannounced that he is no longer
day to day.
They hope that he can come backfor the playoffs, but that's
not even a guarantee.
Somehow they didn't say theinjury had a setback or anything
like that.
They just called it a a weirdinjury, they said for what they
(08:05):
originally thought it was, hisrehab and what they've been
working on should have produceda recovery by now.
But he is still hurt and cannotgo and they don't even know if
he will be back for the playoffs.
So this is obviouslydevastating news for the Nuggets
.
We've seen what they look likethe last four games without
(08:26):
Jamal, with a hobbled AaronGordon, a hobbled MPJ and our
disaster of a bench.
There's really no sugarcoatingit.
This Jamal news could be theend of the season.
Russell Westbrook started outthe season so well but again,
(08:47):
because of how limited our otherguys have been.
I think we kind of burnt himout and played him way too many
minutes and so he's not lookinggood lately just because he's 36
, 37 years old and and, uh, wecan't expect that many minutes
out of him.
He he was playing so well atthe beginning and if the Nuggets
would have had a more balancedteam and not had as many
(09:10):
injuries, I think he could stillbe playing that way for us.
But we had to play him more andwe burnt him out.
Jalen Pickett's been putting insome good minutes, but either
of those guys is nowhere nearwhat playoff Jamal is for this
team and what he means for thisteam.
And it is just devastating tothink that we're going into
(09:35):
another year where Jamal Murrayis hurt, either for the entirety
of the playoffs or going intothe playoffs.
This makes four out of the lastfive years that Jamal has been
hurt going into the playoffs andI know I'm beating a dead horse
because I talk about all thetime but at a certain point and
(09:58):
it is not his fault, like it'snot like Jamal is asking to get
hurt, but at a certain point weare wasting the career of one of
the greatest basketball playersever because we cannot surround
him with talent the mostimportant talent being the
second best player on your teamand he is now hurt for the
(10:19):
fourth year out of the last fiveyears last five years.
It's rough Right now.
I would not pick the Nuggets,whether it's a playoff game or a
playoff, definitely not aplayoff series.
If we're in the playing gameagainst one team, we have Jokic,
we can win one game.
(10:40):
I always will have faith inthat.
But if we get matched up rightnow, really against any of those
top Western teams, it's goingto be a huge upset.
If the Nuggets can win a serieswithout Jamal and with the
shape that the other guys are in, it's just so disappointing.
(11:02):
When they're at their best.
This Nuggets team has talentand has the chance at winning a
championship.
But for as connected as theteam was two years ago, that was
one of their greatest strengths.
It looked like they wereplaying with joy, they were
playing for each other, theywere just so connected.
(11:23):
They always knew where theother person was going to be on
defense.
They communicated so well, theywere playing hard.
And this year is the exactopposite.
They just they seem likethey're kind of out there and
just hoping that Jokic canoutscore the other team On
offense.
(11:45):
The most common thing they doright now all the players is
throw the ball into Jokic andthen just stand there and watch.
And the beauty of Jokic is thatwhen you're cutting, when
you're setting picks for eachother, when you're getting open,
he will find you.
But right now the guys look sochecked out.
They just pass it and standthere and then Jokic will stand
(12:07):
there waiting for someone to cutor do anything and nobody does
a thing.
They just stand there and soJokic starts kind of backing his
way down and then he'll throwup a shot and because he's Jokic
, he'll make a lot of them.
He's been scoring so manypoints lately but that's because
his other teammates aren'tdoing anything and, as I
mentioned, christian Brown hasbeen a bright spot.
(12:29):
Last night he had 30 points andhe looked great.
But and overall the team justseems like it's like they don't
know what to do unless it's passthe ball to Jokic, and it's
kind of just shocking.
These guys are NBA players.
They're the best players in theworld.
When our bench is in and Jokicis not in, it's been ugly for
(12:53):
years, but this year has kind oftaken it to a new level.
They just they give up everylead so quickly, they turn the
ball over, they, they commit ahuge number of fouls.
So it makes it harder for thestarters when they get back in,
because if they fouled and theother team shooting free throws,
it's just one thing afteranother is leading to negative
(13:13):
results and the rest of the teamjust looks like it's like oh,
jokic, will, he'll, he'll, he'llsolve it, he'll take care of
everything.
And when you're putting up 40points, 12 rebounds and 10
assists and you cannot get asingle victory, that's saying
something about the teammatessurrounding you.
So, oh, I hate to say it, butthis really could be the end of
(13:37):
this Nuggets era, to say it, butthis really could be the end of
this Nuggets era If things keepgoing this way and they get
eliminated, whether it's theplay-in game or the first round
and I'm only saying that,assuming that Jamal Murray
cannot be himself if they do geteliminated quickly, I think all
options are on the table.
(13:58):
Everyone except for Jokic is indanger of not being on this team
next year, and I don't thinkthat's a bad thing.
I think it might be time for achange on all levels general
manager, coach, players,assistant coaches, everything.
So we'll have plenty of time togo into that during the off
(14:19):
season.
If that happens, the next threegames are against the Kings,
the Grizzlies and the Rocketsand, like I said, there's so
many teams so closely bunchedtogether that really the only
way the Nuggets can ensurethemselves that they make the
playoffs is if they win allthree.
But I saw an article today thatsaid even if the nuggets win
(14:42):
all three, there is a chance,because of tiebreakers and all
this, that they could still endup in seventh.
So that's if they win all three.
If they lose one, two or eventhree of those games, it's it's
almost likely that we're goingto finish 7th or 8th and have to
play in the play-in.
It's shaping up to be a veryinteresting week and we will
(15:04):
have to see how the week goes.
I don't want to predict thatthe worst will happen, but I
would say the way they'replaying right now, it is much
more likely that they're goingto lose all three than they
would win all three.
A lot of this is going to comedown to tiebreakers and
unfortunately that just goesback to earlier in the season
when the Nuggets either did nothave the players available or
(15:26):
took the games too lightly andwe lost games that we should
have easily won against some ofthese teams.
But now they have thetiebreaker over us and it could
cost us.
So this has obviously been aextremely negative episode, and
you can tell that I am feelingpretty devastated about how
(15:47):
things have turned out thisseason.
But I wanted to end the podcastwith a little bit of positivity.
What is the best case scenariofrom this point on?
That could possibly happen.
I'm not saying it's likely, butwe're going for positivity here
, right?
So what's the best casescenario of what could happen?
Now, this may be completefiction and not a chance in the
(16:13):
world.
It could happen, but I candream right.
So let's go, we win all threeof the next or the last three
games of the regular season.
We get the sixth seed.
So the tiebreakers work out ourway, but we get the sixth seed
and I like that.
We settle in there.
Now, obviously we don't get homecourt advantage or anything
(16:34):
like that, but let's say we getthe sixth seed and that gives us
the week off before the actualplayoffs start, when those other
teams are playing in theplay-in, and the guys get
healthy, jokic gets rest Somehow, jamal comes back, ag MPJ they
(16:55):
start feeling good.
Russell Westbrook finds thefountain of youth.
This week off is magical.
We're going to say that all ourguys are fully healthy.
So with the six seed, we get totake on the Los Angeles Lakers
as the three seed.
Now we know how the Lakers andNuggets series have gone the
last couple of years and in ourbest case scenario, here it
(17:17):
happens again.
All the hype is with Luka andLeBron and we defeat the Lakers.
Jamal Murray makes last secondshots again.
Jokic just goes crazy becausehe doesn't even have to deal
with Anthony Davis anymore.
And although the whole countrystill can't believe that the
(17:38):
Lakers were gifted Luka, theNuggets prevail and they move on
.
Not only do they move on, butwe're still full of energy and
we're completely healthy.
So we take on the HoustonRockets in the second round.
The Rockets are a young teamfull of super athletes, but our
aging veterans with ourchampionship pedigree takes them
(18:01):
down too.
Oh man, we beat the Rockets.
We're into the WesternConference Finals.
What a glorious scenario.
And the Thunder are waiting forus.
I can't do it, even in my dreamscenario.
I can't pretend that we couldbeat the Thunder.
So it was fun to get to theWestern Conference Finals.
Though in that dream, right, wecan always dream All right,
(18:24):
y'all, it's going to be a greatweek.
We are going to cheer on theNuggets, no matter how sad we
are about them.
We are going to cheer them onthese last three games and we'll
do another podcast once we knowwhat the playoff scenarios are
looking like and hopefully makesome predictions, not only for
the Nuggets but hopefully forthe rest of the league, and see
(18:44):
if we can find out what'shappening here.
Well, thank you all forlistening today in my little sad
sack pity party, but it's stilla dream.
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