05-23-24 Brandon Krisztal with Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We're going to go back to beingthe hunter. We haven't now have another
solid chip on our shoulder, whichwasn't there, you know, twelve months
ago at this time or eleven monthsago. I guess we didn't want it
yet. But I'm excited to seewhat the group can do to come back
with that sort of motivation and thistype of experience underneath them. Welcome to
it, Broncos Country tonight. Butwith all Bride, Dick Ferguson, Grant
Smith, it's still weird me out. Man. Every time I look over

(00:22):
there, I'm like, wait,Nick, you're saying that like I'm creeping
you out, Like I'm creeping out, weird me out, creeping weird.
No, weird me out is likeI'm just not used to it. Creeping
me out. It's like that guyI might need to call the police off.
It's like when Ben grows his mustache, right, what I only grow
the mustache to say, Yes,there's a difference between weird and creepy.

(00:45):
Like creepy is like you know theydid they if a guy my age with
no kids just sitting there at theat the park, I mean, okay,
weird and creepy is sitting here doingthe entire show and an emoji costume.
Right, this shape like a chocolatechip drop. Right, that's weird.
That would be weird. That's notfrozen yogurt. That's not what that
emotion is. Do you know whatthat emochi is. That's not what that

(01:07):
emochi. I did say it wasfrozen yogurt. Okay, I call it
like a chocolate drop. That's nothinglike that. Of course, the Ka
comespar hotline to bring out somebody whoactually knows what this emoji is. Bka
helped me on her. Buddy,how's it going? Hey good, I'm
doing nine things at once, whichemoji so I can guess or not?
Yes, I mean I have aseventeen year old, so I'm a little

(01:30):
hipper then I probably should be atthis point. Well, you said the
word hipper, so you're giving yourselfaway there. I think you're talking about
the quote chocolate drop emoji, whichI am contending is not a chocolate drop.
That's definitely not that's definitely poop.You don't need a seventeen year old,
yo, but that is that isa poop emoji or crap or you

(01:52):
know whatever. That's gonna be mynew favorite drop of you Ba. I
think that that's I think that's exactlywhat that is. We aint since which
you know, coincid at least,I wist right into what I want to
talk about. The ending of theseason for Bost of the Apps the Nuggets,
which was a bunch of poop itself, you know, especially the Nuggets
who you felt like in that gamehad a good grasp of it at halftime

(02:14):
and just found a way to snatchdefeat from the jaws of him and the
victory. Yeah, it was reallyjust fascinating sitting there. And look,
I grew up in Dallas. Ihaven't spent much time there in the last
decade for just you know, lifeand family isn't all there anymore. So
a plenty of family and prints.Like I'd been texting people looking at flights,
got them ready to go hotels.I'm gonna fly in early, and

(02:37):
I'm like, oh, we're gonnaget the Western Conference finals. It could
be the last time the TNT crewcomes here, which that turns out that
would have been true. So Icould see you know, Chuck and Shack
and Kenny and that whole deal andErnie and then you know, in a
matter of moments as it went fromtwenty down to sixteen, then down to
fourteen, and I'm sitting there MarkGissel's next to me, obviously a bunch
of other colleagues. It's like,well, I haven't hit you know,

(02:59):
select on the flight or whatever,finished what purchase, and I just never
did. And it was this losshas hit me harder than others, because,
look, you cover these teams longenough, and I didn't grow up
here. My kids are huge fansof all these teams, and I like
it when they win. It wasfun covering a Nuggets parade, fun covering
and a half parade. Fun whenLe Broncos won superle fifty, fun all
the way back in October. Thatwas the first summer I was here all

(03:21):
the way back in oh seven.But this one just kind of hit me
harder because of how good the Nuggetsaren't, how it does feel like a
waste of Nicola Jokic's season, whichis kind of a bummer. The other
ones you got because MPJ was hurtingand obviously Jamal was hurt, so it
wasn't going to come to fruition.But for him to have the year that
he had and for the team tohave as many wins as they had,
Tiana Franchise record second best home recordin the NBA, one of their best

(03:43):
road records ever, and then forit to just end to a team that
I don't say that they're better then, but certainly are capable of beating and
if they were fully healthy. It'sit's been tough to swallow as I'm watching
the rest of these playoffs. Now, Kay, how is it that the
Nuggets in Calvin Booth pretty much resolvethe situation that they put themselves in because
they got three guys on Max Dial'stwo of those guys show up one of

(04:06):
those guys the three time MVP,and the other guys just that a guy.
So how they remedy this known asthough the West is gonna be more
competitive next year than it was thisyear? Yeah, And I don't know
how you get a player to gofrom okay to good and good to great,
and Nick, you can maybe speakto that just you know, through
your own journey, but certainly I'msure you've had teammates that far exceeded expectations

(04:30):
or eat and perhaps even their own. For Michael Porter, it's it's obviously
fascinating because he was the best highschool player in the country. Then going
to Missouri thought he's gonna probably bethe number one pick. He has the
back injury, and we know it'sbeen all, you know, this long
journey to get his body right,and that's kind of where Calvin Booth went.
Both Calvin Booth and Michael Malone werequick to defend MPJ. In fact,
Malone did it on his own earlyand then when there was a Michael

(04:50):
Porter questioned to Calvin, you know, he pointed out, hey, he
played all eighty one or he playedeighty one to eighty two games this year
plus playoffs, and Michael Malone saidhe appreciates that. That's who Michael Porter
Junior is the guy that says,hey, it was my fault that we
lost. He goes, we don'twin the Lakers series if not for HMPJ.
So they have his back and Ithink they see the upside. It's

(05:11):
just the consistency. Right, you'remaking thirty five million dollars. How about
this. The guy right in frontof him, he's the thirtieth highest paid
player in the league. The guyright in front of him is Anthony Davis,
who certainly a bona fide star,and then the guy right behind him
is SGA, and I get thatthat that deal is going to change now
when he gets his new deal,But that's sort of the point. If
you're paid like that, you're expectedto play like that, and you just

(05:33):
don't get it enough. And Idon't know how they get him over that
hump, but they know that whenhe's dialed in and certainly shooting the ball
as well as he can, heis worthy of that money. Like we
saw it spurts throughout the season andin that Lakers series, and not as
much from the last year's playoffs.But I just don't think that. I

(05:53):
hope it's not a strategy, right, guess, but I just don't think
they have a plan. They're notgonna move him, and so I don't
know what it takes to get aguy to make that next jump to be
a bona fide star that he haspaid like and I think is talented enough
to be. It just hasn't all. It hasn't all connected for a number
of reasons. Well, you saidthey're not gonna move him, Are you
sure about that, because I mean, you know, I mean I've heard
a few things. But at thesame time, how is it simply the

(06:15):
difficulty of moving him based on thecontract and how you have to do trades
in the NBA. Yeah, andwith the it's really fascinating and it's disappointing
that they did all this stuff todayall the same time, essentially between the
Abs and and then the Nuggets andthe Broncos doing OTAs and so you kind
of had to pick your poison asfar as where you were going. And
at some point I'll cross paths withJosh Cronky because you know when asked about

(06:39):
the second apron, and he wasn'tasked about it, but Calvin Booth was.
And there's these thresholds, these apronswhen you get into your get taxed
even more. We know the Kronky'sare some of the richest owners in the
NBA. In fact, they mightbe close to the top obviously behind Steve
Baumer, so they can go intointo that, into those upper levels to
deal with it. But you onlyhave so much flexibility. And as Josh

(07:00):
Rocky did point out today, thoughthey negotiated these deals and built their team
on a previous CBA, and thenew collective Bargaining Agreement in some ways works
against them in terms of being ableto add to their roster. So I
think that probably bodes well for aguy like Contavious Caldwell Pope, who a
source very close to him confirmed tome yesterday that he is expected to opt

(07:20):
out and then try to get alonger term deal and it helps. He's
reped by Rich Paul and Clutch Sports. Rich's Lebron's agent and best friend business
partner. It's weird that Lebron ownsan agency that other players are repped by,
but anyway, he kind of runsthe NBA, so Casep'll get it.
But I don't know if he getsit here or somewhere else, place
like San Antonio Orlando that can offerhim even more money, or do the

(07:43):
Nuggets go even deeper into the luxurytax threshold and second Apron. But if
I'm the Kronky's, we know thething that makes them the happiest is winning,
and you can't really buy championships.You can improve your roster, So
to let a big piece go tosave a couple bucks, I think if
you asked him in an honest moment, even though we understand that, you
know how they've built their organizations andwhere they've saved money where they spent money,

(08:05):
always say they spend it on thequarter, on the field or on
the ice. So now we'll seeif that's the case when they bring case
of feedback. But you just can'treally add any vets unless they want to
come for the minimum. And I'mnot sure if you trade MPG, I
feel like you're penalized. I thinkthat you can't get as much back in
terms of value other than maybe draftpicks. One of the things that you
know, I've played around with wastrying to find ways that you actually could

(08:28):
potentially even move Porter and and it'sit's tough. I mean, like I
said, but the contracting of itself, it's difficult to make an equitable move
with the luxury tax and all thatkind of stuff. But is there any
type of player that you'd want theNuggets to pursue to fill in the gaps
that they have? Well, wouldn'tyou say that? It's I guess it's
one of two things. It's somebodythat's more like Contavious Caldwell Popper, we'll

(08:48):
call it. Jaden McDaniel's right,that's more defensive oriented, or you know,
three and D. And that's aboutit. Or it's someone that can
shoot the three really well, well, guess who that is? Michael Porter
Junior, Right, he is oneof the best three point shooters in the
NBA, certainly statistically, and we'veseen it. And that doesn't the amia
on the planet. So do yougo try to talk Klay Thompson the to

(09:09):
come in here and sell him onthe you know, the virtues of the
Mile High City or do you youknow, does he go to LA to
play for this childhood team that hisdad still calls the games for. But
you're gonna want shooters around Joker anyway, shooters and guy, I guess guys
that'll cut and play d But Ijust don't think you can get a single
player back. So then it's like, okay, can we trade MPJ for

(09:31):
two kind of middling players and whoare getting back in that case? So
I think that the again hope nota strategy, but they need Christian Brown
to take another step. They needPeyton Watson to take a certainly a bigger
step than he took this year.And Julian straw the same thing, and
Michael Mouhan brought up today that strawtherafter the thirty six games mcl' sprain really

(09:52):
slowed down his development or we mighthave seen more of him in the playoffs.
So let's stay in that direction.Over at Ball and Greena and something
that really is really piqued my interestwhat's going on with the Aps Because you
have Gabe Landiscott who hasn't played intwo years, and you have ad Nachushkin
who is having his off the iceissue. So if you are you know,

(10:15):
Jared Bennar, how are you lookingat this situation? What's one of
these that you're looking to come backfirst? And also what should they do
with Val because they got rid ofNadam Kadri to keep Valdichuskin and then now
when he can't stay on the icebecause of off the ice issues. Yeah,
and you understood the time why theymade the move, right. I
don't say Naas was a luxury,but he was kind of the icing on

(10:35):
the cake kind of there, BruceBrown right to some degree in terms of
what he brought you with, youknow, the second line and the obviously
opportune scoring. But with Val it'sit's clearly it's issues with substance use,
and that's why he's failed a drugtest. Now three times just this season,
and you go back to last yearand having to leave the team when
they were in Seattle in the firstround of Chris McFarlane. So they've looked

(10:58):
at all the options and right nowtermination of the contract is not an option.
Gabe Landeskog, who along with McFarlandwho's the GM under Joe Sakik,
met the media day for almost fortyminutes. They did it down at Family
Sports because I think Gabe was goingto work out around that. Gabe as
the captain, you know, obviouslybeen here the longest, said we'll see
how Val handles the situation and howthe next six months ago, but that

(11:20):
it is plausible that he'll be back. As one more thing that McFarland said,
again hope not being a strategy foreither of these guys. At least
you know that Gabe is working towardssomething and he has doctors telling him,
you know, to follow this path, and he said the times that he's
had issues in recent months has beenwhen he's pushed it too much and kind
of gone against medical advice. SoI think you have to count on Gabe
and if Val can get his office issues worked out in his substance use

(11:43):
issues behind him. Then that becomesicing on the cake. At the time,
minerstood way they made the move becauseval as a two way player and
certainly as a as a one ofyour bigger, tougher guys, they can
find the back of the net likeyou did so many times early was of
the right move. But then heis proven to be unreliable, so you
scratch your head and say, well, maybe we should have given that money

(12:05):
to nosen Kadri. But hindsight beingtwenty twenty again, looking ahead, Nick,
I think you've got to put youreggs in the gay basket that he
will make it back because he's workedso hard for two years and at least
give your team a boost that way. Yeah, and it was interesting,
Guess had a conversation so about thistoday. Because of the the NHL's kind
of salary cap roles, they're kindof hosed on the valve. You get
just caught him in clear the space, you know. And I think that's

(12:26):
the thing a lot of fans don'tdon't understand. Well, and that's why
PA's are there, right. Imean, Nick, you were a part
of the NFLPA. That's why theUnion's there too, is also to protect
players from this happening. You know, the better way to do this across
the board when guys retire or whenyou know. It'd always come back to
me when Corey Stringer died in Vikingspractice, like, well, he counts
against the cap. Like they shouldget out of their own way, and

(12:48):
I'd appreciate it if just like theyhad that a couple of years ago in
the new NBA CBA where I can'tremember the word they use, but you
could basically cut one player and justeat his money but it didn't count against
your cap. Teams should have somemore flexibility for instinuating circumstances. The NFL's
gotten better at it with that commissionerexemple list and so yeah, the if
you want to give him his moneyand say see you later, but it
doesn't count against your cap. Ifguys are gonna be out of the league,

(13:11):
like you can't go sign with anotherteam, but it's like, hey,
you're gonna be out of the leagueand you can't sign somewhere until the
contract's over or something until we tradeit. But I don't, I mean,
I guess you know that goes tosmarter people than me that'll have to
figure that out. It came outa minute left. One of the Texters
texted, is something that I sortof wanted to ask you. And the
Nuggets have not advanced past the secondround the playoffs or only once in eight

(13:31):
non bubble seasons with Jokic. IsMike Malone on any type of thin ice
is Is this is this a JohnFox situation where you know he can get
you, he can get you close. Or is this fan overreaction here,
uh, to to not getting tothe Promised Land with the cold maybe as
much as many times as they want. No, I think it's definitely that,
uh. And it's there's certain thingsyou can look at to the way

(13:52):
Malone handles things, and he obviouslyhas changed the narrative to some degree.
When you win the championship, youjust looked at differently. But he's wired.
He's just kind of paranoid. Andit was funny. I talked to
somebody today that said they talked tohis dad, Brendan m Alone, a
longtime coach, and said that hethought that his son should have been playing
younger players more, but he doesn'ttrust him. You think about I mean,

(14:13):
because I've asked him over the yearsplenty of times, hey, why'd
you leave your starters, and especiallywhen the other team pulled theirs, and
he gets, oh, I've seenso much happen in this league. So
he's just paranoid. He's wired thatthings are gonna go wrong, and so
because of that, he has toplay his starters more. But he just
signed a new deal. He's oneof the highest paid coaches in the NBA,
and you know, I think he'sjust shy at ten million bucks.
We don't really know NBA coaches salariesthe way we often know NFL coach salaries,

(14:35):
but that's my understanding. He's notgoing anywhere. It's just about figuring
out how to bring these young guysalong and not waste anymore Nicola years.
I'm not saying they wasted it thisyear, but also what you can get
from Jamal and can he be healthy? And now those guys are going to
probably playing the Olympics, so we'llsee how they come off that. BK.
We appreciate it, Bud. Allright, guys, talk to you
soon. All right, take care? Riddy, Christal or kaitb reporter checking

(14:58):
in on the end of the AVSand Nuggets seasons. That's definitely poop