October 30, 2025 • 13 mins
We break down a 3–1 start with quick-hit game reviews, a full-throated salute to a locked-in Jamal Murray, and why Denver’s offense feels inevitable. The bench steadies, Cam Johnson’s shot will come, and we make a bold Halloween streak prediction before sharing fan resources we love.
• lightning reviews of Warriors, Suns, T-Wolves, Pelicans
• Jamal Murray’s early-season surge and impact
• why the offense flows and feels sustainable
• Aaron Gordon’s shooting threat and vertical game
• bench stability with Valanciunas and smarter staggers
• patience on Cam Johnson’s shooting and fit
• nine-game streak call and LA nightlife trap
• correcting a Chauncey Billups take amid reports
• three resources to level up your fandom
Please tell a friend. That is the best way for us to grow our audience, and we want to reach out to more basketball fans
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brian (00:03):
Alright, everyone.
Welcome back to Fandom fromAfar.
The season has started.
It has been great for theNuggets so far.
Lots of fun storylines allaround the NBA.
And it's just fun to have thereal game starting now.
The preseason was fun, but uhit has definitely been awesome
to watch real basketball.
(00:24):
And we'll talk a lot about ittoday.
Now, I'm gonna get started withsome game reviews.
Just a reminder, there are somany podcasts out there that do
such a good job of breaking downthe games and really getting
into the X's and O's and detailsof each game.
That is not me.
I'm gonna do a quick review ofeach game, maybe one to two
sentences, and then we'll kindof talk bigger picture about
(00:47):
what it's looked like for theNuggets.
So, jumping into the very firstgame, season opener against the
Warriors, AG scored 50, butSteph is amazing.
Game two, the Suns.
The Nuggets have seven guys indouble figures.
It was a great team win, andthe Suns are bad at basketball.
(01:07):
The T-Wolves, no Ant-Man,that's okay.
We have Jamal Murray, he wentwild, and we will take a win
against the T-Wolves any way wecan get it.
Pelicans?
The Nuggets blew out thePelicans twice.
We blew a lead and then blewthem out again.
So we are three and one so faron the season.
(01:31):
Very easily, could be four andoh, as I mentioned, if not for
the great Steph Curry.
So let's look at some trendssince the last episode.
Obviously, this being our firstepisode of the regular season,
the trends are gonna be for theseason in general, but let's see
(01:52):
what we got as far as how thenuggets are looking and maybe
any takeaways we can get out ofthese first four games.
So the one, the top takeaway,we talked about it in the
preseason.
We gave him such a hard timeover the last two years, but
Jamal Murray is the big takeawayso far.
(02:12):
What he is doing is exactlywhat we had hoped for the last
couple years and really all ofhis career.
Jamal is starting the season ona tear, he's taking it
seriously, he looks focused, helooks quick, like he looks like
playoff Jamal Murray already,and it's it's all we could have
(02:33):
asked for.
He he makes our team go toanother level.
Obviously, Jokic and AG,Christian Brown, they're all
very steady.
We never knew what we weregonna get from Jamal, and at the
beginning of the season, it waspretty rough pretty much every
year of his career, and that putextra stress on the other guys.
(02:53):
It made Jokic carry the loaduntil Jamal started playing.
And this year he has shown up.
He has been amazing, and it itreally has us thinking, what can
the Nuggets do?
Like, how many games can theywin?
Because when Jamal is on, theNuggets offense looks amazing.
(03:15):
We are talented, we got guysthat can score, and with Jamal
kind of running the show, it'sbeautiful, it's beautiful
basketball.
So I have to say, as hard of atime as I've given Jamal Murray
over the last couple years, Iwant to give him his flowers now
because this is exactly what wewere hoping for Jamal, not only
(03:38):
this season, but hopefullycontinuing on throughout the
season.
I hope if he keeps playing likethis, I hope he is an all-star.
I hope he makes all pro.
I hope he leads us to anotherchampionship.
Jamal Murray is that talented.
We've all known it, we'vewanted to see it, and he is
giving it to us.
So thank you, Jamal.
Second trend I've seen is theoffense is unstoppable.
(04:02):
Now, part of that is JamalMurray, but the starters fit so
well together.
Obviously, Jokic is the best inthe world, and Aaron Gordon, he
started out hot with that50-point performance in Golden
State, 10 of 11 onthree-pointers.
Now, we don't expect that everysingle game.
It would be nice, but we don'texpect it.
(04:24):
But he has turned himself intoa legit jump shooter and a
threat from the outside, and ofcourse, he is still an amazing
athlete who can play that dunkerrole so well, as demonstrated
by his 360 alley oop he had in,I believe it was the Suns game,
the second game of the season.
So Aaron Gordon, amazing.
(04:45):
Christian Brown, steady asalways.
He's got his big new contractnow, so hopefully, some stress
of any putting up big pointsshould be taken off of him.
But he is always a key cog inthe starters.
And then Cam Johnson, whilehe's struggling, we're going to
talk about that in the thirdtakeaway, but he is fitting in
(05:05):
nicely as far as keeping theball moving.
The Nuggets have scored 120points in all four games.
The starters are lookingamazing.
The bench is looking amazing aswell.
Now, if you've been a Nuggetsfan for any time over the last
couple years, you've known thatwhat happens is the Nuggets
starters build a big lead andthen the bench gives it away
(05:27):
immediately.
That's not happening this year.
This year, as we have stolenthe nickname from DNVR, Val's
Pals, with big Jonas Valanchunasbeing the key to our bench,
Val's Pals are coming in andextending the lead.
And this is fun.
It's nice not having a heartattack anytime the bench comes
(05:48):
in.
It's great for the starters whodon't have to rest for two
minutes and then come back injust because the team is
completely falling apart.
Jokic in particular, he hasnever had a backup center like
this that can help orchestratethe team and not all the
pressures on Big Jokic.
So he's cruising.
(06:09):
He really has not had to tryyet this season.
He kind of looks maybe likehe's putting in about 20%
effort, 30% if you're generous.
And yet the offense has beenincredible.
He is getting a triple-doublein every game this season so
far.
And I feel like he's onlyscratching the surface.
(06:30):
I think he's excited about whatthis team can offer, not only
because of the talent, not onlybecause they're winning games,
but I think he's going to be asrested as he ever has been if
this keeps up going into theplayoffs.
And so I think Jokic loves it.
This is the type of basketballhe loves to play.
He is scoring closer to 20 than30 last year.
(06:53):
He's getting 13, 14 rebounds agame.
He's getting 12, 13 assists pergame.
And I think that's exactly whathe loves.
He doesn't want to have to doall the scoring.
He would rather gobble up thoserebounds, pass to the open
guys, and then get back ondefense.
So everything on offense isworking out beautifully.
(07:15):
I love what I'm seeing.
They may be historically goodthis year.
We'll hopefully keep seeingthat as the games move on.
But yeah, the offense,unstoppable.
As I mentioned, Cam Johnsondoes have to be kind of
separated out into his owntakeaway.
I think people are freaking outa little bit just because he
has not been as good as we hadhoped.
(07:37):
We were hoping it would be kindof a seamless transition for
Cam that he would just jumpright in for Michael Porter Jr.
and be the shooter that Michaelwas, along with all the other
intangibles that Cam can do.
And while, like I said, he hasbeen a key cog in the offense.
He makes the right plays, he'scutting, he's really doing a
(07:57):
good job.
It's just that he's not hittingshots, and that's okay.
I am completely confident thathe will be fine, he will hit
these open shots, he willcontinue to get more comfortable
with Jokic and the rest of thestarters, and I really think
he'll be a key part in maybe thestagger unit of being the
starter that plays with thebench guys as well.
(08:17):
So I think a lot of NuggetsTwitter is freaking out.
It's only been four games, andI promise you Cam Johnson will
be just fine.
So those are my three bigtrends I've seen so far.
Let's look at some predictionsfor the upcoming games.
Now, as I'm recording this, weare very close to Halloween, so
(08:39):
these predictions will be ourHalloween edition.
I looked it up, and my friendGoogle says that there are nine
total movies in the Nightmare onElm Street series.
Nine movies where FreddyKrueger is chasing people
(09:07):
around, I think, in their dreamsand in real life.
But the way this relates to theNuggets is the next time I
record, I predict that theNuggets will be on a nine-game
winning streak as they head intothe scariest opponent of them
all, the LA Nightlife.
Now, the LA Nightlife has takendown many, many teams over the
(09:30):
years, and my prediction is theNuggets will fall as well.
I think the LA Nightlife willget them and they will lose to
the Clippers, which willcontinue the streak of the
Nuggets never having a 10-gamewinning streak in the Jokic era.
Scary.
Alright.
Now our next Our next sectionis going to be what was I wrong
(09:54):
about?
If we're going to be doingpredictions, there's going to be
plenty of things I'm wrongabout.
So I think this will be theeasiest section to complete in
the podcast this season.
So what have I been wrong aboutso far?
Well, in my last series, thehow does every team relate to
the Nuggets season preview underthe Portland Trailblazers?
(10:19):
I didn't really have an exactreason why the Trailblazers
related to the Nuggets.
All I said was Chauncey Billsis the man.
I've always loved him.
Yikes.
If you haven't heard, some newshas come out recently that
Chauncey Billps was arrested inan FBI investigation where he
(10:40):
not only was giving insideinformation to betters, but also
helping the mafia scam peopleat some underground poker games.
If all these allegations aretrue, it sounds like he may not
be the best dude, and we mayhave to maybe change our love
for Chauncey.
(11:01):
So that's what I was wrongabout.
Alright, on lighter news, let'smove on to ways to be a better
fan.
I was thinking this year, Iwant to try and include
resources and just suggestionson things that I've enjoyed or I
think you would enjoy as abasketball fan, and I want to
(11:21):
just kind of give them ashout-out at the end of each
episode.
So since this is the first one,I actually have three today.
Now, the first one is youshould watch the D and VR
documentary that the team didfrom training camp out in San
Diego.
It is really well done.
Those guys do a great job ofcovering the team.
And if you haven't seen it,it's called The Next Chapter.
(11:43):
And if you just look up thenext chapter, D and VR, you'll
be able to find it easily onYouTube.
So that is the firstrecommendation.
My next one is a new basketballbook just came out called
Expensive Basketball.
This is by one of my favoritewriters.
His name is Shay Serrano.
I think he's hilarious.
(12:03):
He is a true basketball fan,and I've read a couple of his
books in the past, and they werealways super entertaining.
So while I haven't read thisone yet, I am confident enough
in Shay that this book will alsobe amazing.
And my last recommendation isset up a second TV in your
living room.
(12:24):
Now, this will require you tohave a very understanding,
significant other whoappreciates your craziness and
maybe has accepted the fact thatyou're a giant dork that's
obsessed with sports.
In my case, I have a wife thatdoes fall into that category,
(12:45):
and she let me set up a secondTV, although temporarily, in the
living room, and it has allowedme to watch the World Series
and the Nuggets at the sametime, and it really has been
wonderful.
So thank you to my beautifulwife.
All right.
Well, thank you everyone.
This has been such a funepisode.
Like I said, I'm excited thatthe Nuggets are back, the NBA is
(13:08):
back.
We'll cover maybe a little bitmore stories from around the
league next episode.
And as always, we willdefinitely talk about the
Nuggets.
So if you enjoy these episodesat all, please tell a friend.
That is the best way for us togrow our audience, and we want
to reach out to more basketballfans.
So thanks for listening.
Alright, everyone.
Welcome back to Fandom fromAfar.
The season has started.
It has been great for theNuggets so far.
Lots of fun storylines allaround the NBA.
And it's just fun to have thereal game starting now.
The preseason was fun, but uhit has definitely been awesome
to watch real basketball.
(00:24):
And we'll talk a lot about ittoday.
Now, I'm gonna get started withsome game reviews.
Just a reminder, there are somany podcasts out there that do
such a good job of breaking downthe games and really getting
into the X's and O's and detailsof each game.
That is not me.
I'm gonna do a quick review ofeach game, maybe one to two
sentences, and then we'll kindof talk bigger picture about
(00:47):
what it's looked like for theNuggets.
So, jumping into the very firstgame, season opener against the
Warriors, AG scored 50, butSteph is amazing.
Game two, the Suns.
The Nuggets have seven guys indouble figures.
It was a great team win, andthe Suns are bad at basketball.
(01:07):
The T-Wolves, no Ant-Man,that's okay.
We have Jamal Murray, he wentwild, and we will take a win
against the T-Wolves any way wecan get it.
Pelicans?
The Nuggets blew out thePelicans twice.
We blew a lead and then blewthem out again.
So we are three and one so faron the season.
(01:31):
Very easily, could be four andoh, as I mentioned, if not for
the great Steph Curry.
So let's look at some trendssince the last episode.
Obviously, this being our firstepisode of the regular season,
the trends are gonna be for theseason in general, but let's see
(01:52):
what we got as far as how thenuggets are looking and maybe
any takeaways we can get out ofthese first four games.
So the one, the top takeaway,we talked about it in the
preseason.
We gave him such a hard timeover the last two years, but
Jamal Murray is the big takeawayso far.
(02:12):
What he is doing is exactlywhat we had hoped for the last
couple years and really all ofhis career.
Jamal is starting the season ona tear, he's taking it
seriously, he looks focused, helooks quick, like he looks like
playoff Jamal Murray already,and it's it's all we could have
(02:33):
asked for.
He he makes our team go toanother level.
Obviously, Jokic and AG,Christian Brown, they're all
very steady.
We never knew what we weregonna get from Jamal, and at the
beginning of the season, it waspretty rough pretty much every
year of his career, and that putextra stress on the other guys.
(02:53):
It made Jokic carry the loaduntil Jamal started playing.
And this year he has shown up.
He has been amazing, and it itreally has us thinking, what can
the Nuggets do?
Like, how many games can theywin?
Because when Jamal is on, theNuggets offense looks amazing.
(03:15):
We are talented, we got guysthat can score, and with Jamal
kind of running the show, it'sbeautiful, it's beautiful
basketball.
So I have to say, as hard of atime as I've given Jamal Murray
over the last couple years, Iwant to give him his flowers now
because this is exactly what wewere hoping for Jamal, not only
(03:38):
this season, but hopefullycontinuing on throughout the
season.
I hope if he keeps playing likethis, I hope he is an all-star.
I hope he makes all pro.
I hope he leads us to anotherchampionship.
Jamal Murray is that talented.
We've all known it, we'vewanted to see it, and he is
giving it to us.
So thank you, Jamal.
Second trend I've seen is theoffense is unstoppable.
(04:02):
Now, part of that is JamalMurray, but the starters fit so
well together.
Obviously, Jokic is the best inthe world, and Aaron Gordon, he
started out hot with that50-point performance in Golden
State, 10 of 11 onthree-pointers.
Now, we don't expect that everysingle game.
It would be nice, but we don'texpect it.
(04:24):
But he has turned himself intoa legit jump shooter and a
threat from the outside, and ofcourse, he is still an amazing
athlete who can play that dunkerrole so well, as demonstrated
by his 360 alley oop he had in,I believe it was the Suns game,
the second game of the season.
So Aaron Gordon, amazing.
(04:45):
Christian Brown, steady asalways.
He's got his big new contractnow, so hopefully, some stress
of any putting up big pointsshould be taken off of him.
But he is always a key cog inthe starters.
And then Cam Johnson, whilehe's struggling, we're going to
talk about that in the thirdtakeaway, but he is fitting in
(05:05):
nicely as far as keeping theball moving.
The Nuggets have scored 120points in all four games.
The starters are lookingamazing.
The bench is looking amazing aswell.
Now, if you've been a Nuggetsfan for any time over the last
couple years, you've known thatwhat happens is the Nuggets
starters build a big lead andthen the bench gives it away
(05:27):
immediately.
That's not happening this year.
This year, as we have stolenthe nickname from DNVR, Val's
Pals, with big Jonas Valanchunasbeing the key to our bench,
Val's Pals are coming in andextending the lead.
And this is fun.
It's nice not having a heartattack anytime the bench comes
(05:48):
in.
It's great for the starters whodon't have to rest for two
minutes and then come back injust because the team is
completely falling apart.
Jokic in particular, he hasnever had a backup center like
this that can help orchestratethe team and not all the
pressures on Big Jokic.
So he's cruising.
(06:09):
He really has not had to tryyet this season.
He kind of looks maybe likehe's putting in about 20%
effort, 30% if you're generous.
And yet the offense has beenincredible.
He is getting a triple-doublein every game this season so
far.
And I feel like he's onlyscratching the surface.
(06:30):
I think he's excited about whatthis team can offer, not only
because of the talent, not onlybecause they're winning games,
but I think he's going to be asrested as he ever has been if
this keeps up going into theplayoffs.
And so I think Jokic loves it.
This is the type of basketballhe loves to play.
He is scoring closer to 20 than30 last year.
(06:53):
He's getting 13, 14 rebounds agame.
He's getting 12, 13 assists pergame.
And I think that's exactly whathe loves.
He doesn't want to have to doall the scoring.
He would rather gobble up thoserebounds, pass to the open
guys, and then get back ondefense.
So everything on offense isworking out beautifully.
(07:15):
I love what I'm seeing.
They may be historically goodthis year.
We'll hopefully keep seeingthat as the games move on.
But yeah, the offense,unstoppable.
As I mentioned, Cam Johnsondoes have to be kind of
separated out into his owntakeaway.
I think people are freaking outa little bit just because he
has not been as good as we hadhoped.
(07:37):
We were hoping it would be kindof a seamless transition for
Cam that he would just jumpright in for Michael Porter Jr.
and be the shooter that Michaelwas, along with all the other
intangibles that Cam can do.
And while, like I said, he hasbeen a key cog in the offense.
He makes the right plays, he'scutting, he's really doing a
(07:57):
good job.
It's just that he's not hittingshots, and that's okay.
I am completely confident thathe will be fine, he will hit
these open shots, he willcontinue to get more comfortable
with Jokic and the rest of thestarters, and I really think
he'll be a key part in maybe thestagger unit of being the
starter that plays with thebench guys as well.
(08:17):
So I think a lot of NuggetsTwitter is freaking out.
It's only been four games, andI promise you Cam Johnson will
be just fine.
So those are my three bigtrends I've seen so far.
Let's look at some predictionsfor the upcoming games.
Now, as I'm recording this, weare very close to Halloween, so
(08:39):
these predictions will be ourHalloween edition.
I looked it up, and my friendGoogle says that there are nine
total movies in the Nightmare onElm Street series.
Nine movies where FreddyKrueger is chasing people
(09:07):
around, I think, in their dreamsand in real life.
But the way this relates to theNuggets is the next time I
record, I predict that theNuggets will be on a nine-game
winning streak as they head intothe scariest opponent of them
all, the LA Nightlife.
Now, the LA Nightlife has takendown many, many teams over the
(09:30):
years, and my prediction is theNuggets will fall as well.
I think the LA Nightlife willget them and they will lose to
the Clippers, which willcontinue the streak of the
Nuggets never having a 10-gamewinning streak in the Jokic era.
Scary.
Alright.
Now our next Our next sectionis going to be what was I wrong
(09:54):
about?
If we're going to be doingpredictions, there's going to be
plenty of things I'm wrongabout.
So I think this will be theeasiest section to complete in
the podcast this season.
So what have I been wrong aboutso far?
Well, in my last series, thehow does every team relate to
the Nuggets season preview underthe Portland Trailblazers?
(10:19):
I didn't really have an exactreason why the Trailblazers
related to the Nuggets.
All I said was Chauncey Billsis the man.
I've always loved him.
Yikes.
If you haven't heard, some newshas come out recently that
Chauncey Billps was arrested inan FBI investigation where he
(10:40):
not only was giving insideinformation to betters, but also
helping the mafia scam peopleat some underground poker games.
If all these allegations aretrue, it sounds like he may not
be the best dude, and we mayhave to maybe change our love
for Chauncey.
(11:01):
So that's what I was wrongabout.
Alright, on lighter news, let'smove on to ways to be a better
fan.
I was thinking this year, Iwant to try and include
resources and just suggestionson things that I've enjoyed or I
think you would enjoy as abasketball fan, and I want to
(11:21):
just kind of give them ashout-out at the end of each
episode.
So since this is the first one,I actually have three today.
Now, the first one is youshould watch the D and VR
documentary that the team didfrom training camp out in San
Diego.
It is really well done.
Those guys do a great job ofcovering the team.
And if you haven't seen it,it's called The Next Chapter.
(11:43):
And if you just look up thenext chapter, D and VR, you'll
be able to find it easily onYouTube.
So that is the firstrecommendation.
My next one is a new basketballbook just came out called
Expensive Basketball.
This is by one of my favoritewriters.
His name is Shay Serrano.
I think he's hilarious.
(12:03):
He is a true basketball fan,and I've read a couple of his
books in the past, and they werealways super entertaining.
So while I haven't read thisone yet, I am confident enough
in Shay that this book will alsobe amazing.
And my last recommendation isset up a second TV in your
living room.
(12:24):
Now, this will require you tohave a very understanding,
significant other whoappreciates your craziness and
maybe has accepted the fact thatyou're a giant dork that's
obsessed with sports.
In my case, I have a wife thatdoes fall into that category,
(12:45):
and she let me set up a secondTV, although temporarily, in the
living room, and it has allowedme to watch the World Series
and the Nuggets at the sametime, and it really has been
wonderful.
So thank you to my beautifulwife.
All right.
Well, thank you everyone.
This has been such a funepisode.
Like I said, I'm excited thatthe Nuggets are back, the NBA is
(13:08):
back.
We'll cover maybe a little bitmore stories from around the
league next episode.
And as always, we willdefinitely talk about the
Nuggets.
So if you enjoy these episodesat all, please tell a friend.
That is the best way for us togrow our audience, and we want
to reach out to more basketballfans.
So thanks for listening.
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