It simply might not be the Denver Nuggets' year

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Alrighty folks, welcome in to Pickaxe and Rollbats.

We have good friends here at mile high sports

in the number 38 mile high sports studio

brought to you by Volo Sports and the Vimos app.

I am your host, Ryan Blackburn at NBA Blackburn on Twitter,

parts of the mile high sports podcast network.

And I am here.

I am ready to discuss the Denver Nuggets

and a very unfortunate loss.

Man, that was a horrible game last night.

That was about as horrible as it gets.

But to help me commiserate,

to help help break down some of this ugly stuff

that's going on, I am joined by producer Danny Bailey

in the booth, Danny.

Thank you for tuning in with me.

Thanks for the help.

Yeah, I wish it was on a happier note after last night,

but hey, at least they beat the Lakers.

Yeah, I didn't do a podcast after that one.

And I kind of wish I did.

Kind of wish we did the, wow, hey, they're going live

from number 38 after the Lakers win.

Woohoo, it's great, it's awesome.

But no, my dumbass thought that going live

before the Lakers game was a better idea.

And now I get to be so excited and so happy

about this 39 point blowout

that the Nuggets had last night.

Second night of a back-to-back against the New York Knicks.

Final score was 142 to 103.

Danny, I don't know if you knew this,

but this was the worst home loss

that the Nuggets have suffered

since the Michael Jordan 1998 bulls

came into Denver and defeated the 11 win Nuggets.

That season.

Wow.

And you know who was looking like Michael Jordan last night?

Yeah, that dude, he's going crazy.

That dude kills Denver every time they play.

And like, it's unsurprising

because he gets such open shots

and has such good athleticism

when driving to the rim and dunks over people

and finishes over the top on offensive rebounds

and things like that.

And he's really good.

Who could have foreseen that he would be so good

and that somebody should try to go get him

and the Nuggets should draft him?

You know, Tim Connelly thought that that would be a good idea,

but he screwed it up by trading down.

That was back in 2017.

I often think about that draft because my God,

that was one of the, so I actually wasn't in the building

before that one, but the front office did separate press

conferences because they were so mad at each other that night.

They were so mad, Tim Connelly did a presser

and then our tourist car and a service did a presser

and having two separate pressers for your front office

guys is not a great indication that things were awesome.

Yeah, Nisi Cisi says Donovan Mitchell was in that draft, right?

Yes, the nuggets traded the pick

that did it become Donovan Mitchell that draft?

Yes, I think that's true.

They did not trade Donovan Mitchell.

They traded the pick that became Donovan Mitchell

and drafted him for the Utah Jazz

as a result of that.

But yeah, it certainly gets categorized that way.

He tortured the nuggets for years

and now he's in Cleveland hating

and hurting their opponents in so many visceral ways.

But yeah, like, look, I tangent did enough.

This was horrible.

This was a truly horrible loss by the nuggets

and it started off in a way that you would have hoped

that Denver would have some momentum

and actually it did start that way.

Denver jumped out to an 11 to two run

entirely on the back of Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon

where Murray goes for nine points early.

He's coming off of screens.

He's getting, he's freed up.

He looks really good.

Gordon misses his shots early from three

but then gets an offensive rebound

or a dunk off of a pass from Christian Brown

who got the offensive rebound.

The crowd at the beginning of this game

was unbelievable.

Like this was one of the best crowds I've ever been at

which sucks because they were not exactly treated

to a sterling performance from Denver

and there were more let's go Nick's chance

than there were let's go nuggets chance

by it certainly by the end.

But yeah, that sucked to hear on the broadcast.

Yeah, it was loud in the arena

and there was a dunk at the end of the third quarter.

I think BioG in transition

where the crowd popped like it was,

it was a crazy loud crowd.

But like at the beginning,

the cheers for Aaron Gordon when he came back

and was reintroduced to the starting lineup

or so let I thought the nuggets were gonna win

just off of that.

It's like off of the momentum of having him back

and then they missed every three.

And except for Murray, Murray was the only guy

that was hitting threes at the beginning.

He was so valuable to Denver at that point

but he hit a three.

I think Christian Brown hit a three

and it was a while until anybody else did.

They shot eight of 40 in this game

and so many times the nuggets had an opportunity

to make a play, to make a jumper

and could not convert on a consistent basis

and on the other end, the Knicks took every time

that they didn't make it.

Actually, they started off very slow.

Mike Brown actually called a timeout two minutes

into the game with the nuggets up four to two.

And I was looking up and thinking,

wow, this is a very weird timeout.

This is a very weird time for that to happen.

And then I look up with about six minutes left

in the second quarter and it's the exact opposite.

The Knicks have not called a timeout ever

since that first moment

and the nuggets have already burned like four.

It was things were not going well.

That second quarter was a despicable quarter.

It was about as bad as it could possibly get.

It's not a full surprise.

First and foremost, the nuggets were on a back to back.

They had played well the night before.

You had a whole different rotation.

You had a bunch of guys that just missed shots

and the Knicks have always had Denver's number.

And yet, don't tell nuggets fans that

because nuggets fans don't want to hear that at all.

And so I'm not trying to give excuses.

I'm really not.

What I'm trying to do is explain what happened.

And that's what I consistently try to do on this show.

I am not trying to excuse it because I think the nuggets

have burned a lot of goodwill.

All the goodwill that they had from Thursday's game,

gone, just absolutely disappeared.

And that's what happens when you give up.

Like Nicoli Okic, he said that they quit

and then tried to walk it back after the game,

but they quit.

They quit in this game after Jamal Murray went down.

We'll talk about that a little bit later,

but after Jamal Murray went down, my God,

they just folded up like a cheap suit.

It was horrible to watch.

So I mean, look, this is sometimes how it goes

in the NBA, David Adamin was trying to diffuse tensions.

It's one game.

It's second out of a back to back.

It is one performance.

And yet that's why I started with the connection

to the 98 bulls.

They were facing the 11 win nuggets at home.

And yet the nuggets lost by the same amount of points

as a team that like they're facing the 98 bulls

and they were an 11 win squad back then.

People forget actually the nuggets that year won

against the 98 bulls later in the season.

It surprised a whole heck of a lot of people,

but they won against that bulls team too.

But they lost by 39 in the home game.

And that is just it's unacceptable for Denver

to lose by that much.

And to be as horrible as they have been at home this year,

over and over and over again.

This was the worst one.

This was the worst loss.

And I think that that is perhaps emblematic

that this just may not be their year.

Nuggets lost the trade says, you're comparing the nuggets

to the bulls.

No, I'm not.

I am comparing the nicks to the bulls.

The nicks are the team that's the bulls.

And the nuggets are the 11 win nuggets.

That is what I am trying to compare.

Good Lord, how could you possibly miss that comparison?

Yeah, like look, this is a very stressful time for Denver

where every game matters, every single performance matters,

every single opportunity to get better matters

because there are so few left.

Last night was game, I believe, 64 of the season,

as my trusty rotation chart, which didn't get a lot of use

in the final quarter.

I'll say that because Denver had their reserves in

for the last six or seven minutes of the game.

Yeah, game 64 of the season, Denver's 80% of the way done,

quite literally 80% of the way done with the season.

This is who they are.

This is what they are.

They're trying to figure out whether they could be better,

but like you get back reinforcements

and the idea that they are simply going to turn it on

and look much better and find their rhythm defensively

and find the ability to play offense at the same time

that their defense is good is not ludicrous

because of the injuries that they have faced,

but it's becoming far less likely than it ever has been.

And I've been debating this with my colleague,

Matt Moore, over at Lockdown pretty consistently

that the nuggets are right now.

He thinks that they're still a very strong amount

of optimism for the team,

that they do not need a long runway,

that they are a veteran team that has done this before.

Think about last season, folks,

when Denver fired their coach and their general manager

after game 79 of the regular season,

they had a three game runway

and nearly upset the thunder in the second round

with a worse roster.

Like there is potentially light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you

that you should feel good about this.

That is not what I am trying to do.

However, trying to say that the nuggets

are never going to win a championship again,

trying to use last night as the only reason,

not the only reason, but as a reason for,

hey, this is just, this is bad.

I do not think that that would be fair

because this group, when they are healthy

and when they're actually out there together, is really good.

They are really good.

Are they great?

Probably not.

But like, you do not have to be great

in order to survive in the playoffs.

The Indiana Pacers last year were not great.

They were never a great team, but they did survive

and they did catch fire right at the right time.

Now, what the Pacers last year did do

was they dominated after January 1st.

They were a different team before then and after that.

So, I don't know, I feel like the nuggets

are running out of time in terms of showing what they can do.

And now, it just got a whole heck of a lot harder

with Jamal Murray going down.

And we don't know what the extent of his injury is quite yet.

Danny, if you see something come across the timeline,

then keep it in eye out.

Yeah, Rachel told me, she asked me to put out a tweet

so she could make a quote graphic and make something

that we could disseminate on all social media platforms

and I can't wait for that to happen live on the show.

That'll be good.

People can see me hold up my phone and be like,

Jamal Murray is out for two weeks.

So, I don't know what's ultimately gonna happen,

but I do think it's gonna be weeks rather than days

for Jamal Murray, which is not awesome.

Not awesome to see, given that Denver has struggled so much

just to get healthy.

And the moment they have Aaron Gordon come back

is basically the moment that the guy,

the one guy who has been healthy this entire time

or like available this entire time,

that's the moment where he goes down.

So, it's almost like the damn finally broke

on Jamal's healthy season.

And he was holding it back for so long,

trying just trying to gut it out

while the rest of the team had been going through

the worst injury luck that they have had.

And now it's Murray stirring it completely unfortunate.

So, sucks man.

With the way the season has been going,

I honestly did not even know how to react.

I was, I wasn't like shocked.

It was almost more just like,

I immediately went straight to acceptance.

I was like, this is just the year it is.

It's not awesome.

Not great.

If you're, if you're a nuggets fed, if you're like,

yeah, we're just gonna accept the fact

that all of our guys are gonna be injured this year

and things bad things are just going to happen.

That's not great.

Why don't we talk a little bit about Murray's injury

and Gordon's return and sort of what the nuggets

are going to do from here in the second segment.

When we come back, we will go over

a whole bunch of things.

Nuggets fans, you can continue to vent in my comments.

I see people are very mad.

People are asking me if I'm afraid to lose my credentials.

No, I'm not afraid.

I promise you, I have been asking good questions

in the pressers and I am not the only person

in the press conference.

Sometimes it feels that way on these nights

where like there are three of us in the front row

that are asking tougher questions

and like reporter questions trying to figure out what happened.

Like it's not my job to hold people accountable folks.

That's, if you think it's my job,

then like you are missing the point of what media is.

That's not how this works.

So look,

we'll get into it.

You guys can be mad at me all you want.

I can be, I can, I can look, I defended Michael Malone.

Last year I said I think that this is not his problem

and lo and behold, then we're also having problems this year

and people also frustrated with the head coach.

With a roster that everyone said,

oh man, imagine Michael Malone with this roster, right?

Yeah, like I think that there is something to be said for that.

So look, like people worried about the clutch stuff,

people worried about things.

Everybody has problems with the coach.

I do not think this is a coaching problem.

I think that this is a health problem

and I honestly think it's a mentality problem

that comes from the players.

So we'll get into it a little bit in the second segment.

But when we come back,

we have to talk about Aaron Gordon.

We have to talk about Jamal Murray

and we'll talk about where Denver goes here next.

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All right, we are back.

Pick action roll, Ryan Blackbringer.

Thank you so much for tuning in.

Hit that like button, hit that subscribe button

would really, really appreciate it.

I ask that you don't hit the dislike button

if you don't like what I have to say.

I understand that everybody's frustrated at this point.

Everybody's not happy.

But think about it this way.

After the Lakers win, the vibes were immaculate.

They're getting back air in Gordon.

They were finally getting healthy.

You saw the injury report and it's like,

hey, maybe you know what, they're trying,

they're getting to a good place.

It is possible.

And like, look, hear me out for a second.

That last night's game was its own thing

and that that general premise at the beginning

that you thought, hey, the Lakers win was really good

and you're getting back guys that are healthy.

That could still end up being true.

And it'll be nice to see Aaron Gordon

and Nicole Yokech play together a little bit more.

They basically, they didn't play a lot together at all yesterday.

The rotation, the way that it worked

and with Aaron Gordon's injury limits

as well as the way that the Knicks were playing

with Towns as their backup center.

The Nuggets didn't want to play Jonas Valentinus

as the backup center next to our against Carl and Tany Downs

because they put them at a very strong disadvantage

and it put them in a situation

where Towns would just go off

or the rest of the team would go off in a similar way

that there were problems with Yokech out there

from a defensive perspective.

So Denver was trying to do different things.

They were trying to loop some things in.

The Knicks were a horrible matchup for Denver.

Horrible.

That is true.

It's just straight up effect.

The Knicks have dominated the Nuggets

over the course of these last couple of years

with the framing that they have

where you have Jalen Brunson and Carl and Tany Towns

is the two pillars of what they're trying to do

from an offensive usage perspective.

The guy like O'Jan and Oby gets to take advantage of it.

Josh Hart hit his shots.

The Nuggets last night went eight of 40.

Do you guys actually think that the Nuggets got bad threes

last night?

Do you actually think that Denver, like hypothetically,

if they make double the threes that they have,

they literally have 24 more points.

And this is a 142 to 127 game

where they're down by 15.

And that wouldn't have surprised me

in any way, shape or form

because the shots that they got were good.

Like they just straight up worth.

Think about like Yokech at one point was 12 of 12

from two and 0 of six from three.

Then he missed a two and then he made a three

and it looks a little bit different.

But like Yokech was great from a scoring perspective

last night, but even he could not make a shot

from outside the paint.

Like it was certainly outside of the long mid range.

He was short mid range.

I thought he was pretty good on.

But like, my God, nobody could hit a three last night.

And sometimes that happens on a second out of the back to back.

Nobody wants to hear it

because everybody wants to be pissed and irritated and mad.

And you just, yeah, have to calm down.

Like it's gonna be fine.

And that's a means where a lot of people get rubbed

the wrong way about Adelman.

100% they get rubbed the wrong way

because of what happens there.

And Surrey Andes says,

I'm a Denver Duggets fan for life from the UK.

I get tired of hearing fans being so negative all the time.

I hear you.

Now do I understand why fans are being negative, of course.

The reason why is because there's so much pressure.

There is so much pressure and understandably so

because after the way the last two years went

where Denver basically pissed away two years of Yokech's prime

with injuries that happened.

A roster that wasn't able to be held together

by Scotch tape, which is Calvin Booth.

And a team that was slowly losing the thread away

from Michael Malone,

there were absolutely things that they should have done better,

that they could have done better.

And they ultimately didn't.

And it really, really cost them.

But now, like you're in a situation where

you should be better.

You should be better than what your record is.

Injuries, I think are the leading reason

why that's not the case.

They're not the only reason.

Denver's been underwhelming from a defensive standpoint

for much of the year.

I do think that they are making progress.

I very much do think that they're making progress.

Giving up 142 to the next doesn't feel like progress.

I get that.

But I do think that they are making progress.

It's about getting people on the same page.

Like everybody said this.

Yokech said it, Murray said it, Adam said it,

even if you don't care about what Adam says,

like that they were going to take time

like allowing these guys to get adjusted.

And like Murray actually said it on Thursday night.

He said, I'm not expecting Aaron to play well.

I'm not expecting Cam and Spencer to play well

when they come back.

Because it takes so long to get into a rhythm.

And you can talk about that as an excuse all you want to.

Like Denver has that excuse built in

because they've had so many guys in and out of the lineup.

They need like a stretch of five games in a row

in which they could all play together.

But I don't think that they're going to get it.

Danny, I think you had something earlier

that you wanted to say.

Yeah, when we were talking about the three-point shooting,

I think it was David Roddy who had one that looked very much

like it was going to bounce in

and then it just bounced around on the rim

and bounced right out.

So sometimes you are missing a lot of shots

when you're a professional basketball player.

Obviously you expect the team to shoot better

than eight for 40.

But yeah, sometimes they don't fall.

It sucks.

Yokech was still aggressive.

Like you said, attacking the pain.

I thought he was great for the whole team.

He did great.

He just couldn't shoot.

Yeah.

And when they don't shoot the ball well

and they don't play defense,

that's a recipe for losing right there.

Weird.

Weird, that's a crazy concept.

But it is completely true.

Yeah, of course.

And like, look, I'm not going to chalk it entirely up

to the next being a bad matchup.

That is a factor.

The second out of the back to back is a factor.

Working in new players is a factor.

And losing Jamal Murray in the middle of the game

is a factor, like all these things.

Everybody wants to go straight to blaming the coach

when all of these things are also happening.

Like I am just unwilling to do that.

As in some ways, when I was unwilling to do it

with Malone last year, like I have enough respect

for the players and enough respect for the coaches

and enough respect for this process.

Having done this for a long-ass time,

that like, at some point the players

have to take some ownership of it.

In Joker's words, they quit.

Like, it's not on Adam and to motivate them.

I mean, that's the thing.

That's the thing that people are losing focus of here.

Like, it should be pretty self-evident

that if you want to win a championship,

if you want to be the best version of yourselves,

it's go time.

Like, it's about that time.

And so you're either going to prove it or you're not.

So I wonder if this is the wake-up call that they need.

But let's talk about Murray.

Let's talk about him.

That's he's he's he says.

It actually kind of is, no, it's not.

Like, if you need a cheerleader as a head coach,

then you're not a professional human being.

Like, it's just, it is so disrespectful to players

to think that you actually need a motivational speaker

as a head coach.

Like, that's insanity.

It's truly nuts.

It can be like beneficial.

Like, it can be an added benefit,

but it's not like the primary role of the head coach.

It's it's to make schematic decisions

and rotational choices and to make sure

that everybody's pointed the right direction

to be the best version of themselves at the time.

I'll tell you this, folks, the players feel a lot higher

on Adam than you do.

The players and then like, last year,

you could say the opposite about Malone.

The players were, they were out in terms of trying

to execute his defensive schemes and trying to like,

like not listening to the raw raw speech.

Like, it was lost on them.

With Adam and this year, they feel very different.

They do, like they, they very much trust

and respect his judgment.

They believe in what he's doing and they,

they like his approach.

They do, I guess, straight up,

it's things that I've heard.

It's things that I've heard behind the scenes

on a consistent basis.

So, I don't know.

Like, I know everybody's mad calm down.

This is a very stressful part of the season though.

So I understand why, why this is a problem.

I think also people are mad, especially this season

because there was so much excitement

and then you just keep having one injury

after another taking the wind out of their sails.

And it's tough to be a fan,

but you still got to cheer the boys on.

Yeah, 100%.

Everybody felt pretty good about Adam

when he was helping them go 10 and 6 without Joker.

When he was helping them go 10 and 6,

when there were four starters out

and it was Murray and a bunch of guys.

It was Murray, Peyton Watson and a bunch of guys

who were just like grinding out these winds.

And like the approach was pretty good.

The approach, and that's the reason.

Like the approach was supposed to be the same every night.

And sometimes they need more and sometimes they need less.

Sometimes they say it's just part of the process.

So, I don't know, like it's still so early

for Adam and specifically.

And like he's still such a young coach overall

and as he's relatively inexperienced

there are things that I like,

and very critical of in terms of like,

hey, I don't think the rotations last night were good.

I think they were actually really bad.

And one of the reasons is because he doesn't know

how to like implement a fully healthy roster anymore

or pretty close to a fully healthy roster.

The honest balance, he didn't just play two minutes.

It's a pretty crazy number.

Now, you know, I'm supposed to good.

And so maybe there was a reason for that.

But like I think that there were strict

more strategic ways to deploy the guys.

But like so much about last night was getting

Cam Johnson, not Peyton Watson, Spencer Jones,

and Aaron Gordon, the reps and the minutes

that they needed to get a little bit more comfortable

going forward.

And so we'll see if that can happen or not.

But like it's this is a part of the process.

And so if you have to have some really painful losses

now at the beginning of this stretch

where you have some guys back

in order to then reap the benefits going forward

because they're fully on board.

And everybody understands what the role is.

Everybody understands what the responsibilities are.

Then that's a better situation.

And guys, wouldn't you rather lose a game to the Knicks

because you're trying different things

and you're trying to like figure out some stuff.

And then you learn what's good and bad

in a playoff environment.

Like I think that that's a complete,

and especially on the second half of the back to back.

That is completely worth the opportunity here.

So we'll see.

Everybody, yeah.

People think I'm making like massive excuses here,

but everybody just wants to be,

everybody wants to be frustrated.

I get why?

I like, you're just wrong.

You're just wrong about this.

With Jamal again, we have not heard yet

what his,

we have not heard what the prognosis is.

It was clearly a rolled ankle,

it's the same situation as Spencer Jones.

Getting pushed back by a defender

or by an offensive player while playing defense

has a negative step

and they make contact with Joker in the paints.

This time it wasn't Joker getting hurt.

It was the guy that was doing the stepping that got hurt.

But it really was the exact same situation.

Murray rolls his ankle pretty badly.

It was down for a while.

It was scary.

Like I didn't know whether he was grabbing at the ankle

or the knee from the other side of the court.

So I thought that it was the knee that had buckled

and that scared the ever loving hell out of me

for obvious reasons.

So that would be, that would be very frustrating

if it had been, but fortunately it was just an ankle

and as it sounds from a here Denver Post guy says,

team sources think it is a mild strain.

Yeah, I talked to Bennett last night

and the way that we were talking

and the way that the conversation was

that it wasn't going to be a massive ankle injury.

Certainly not a grade three.

The question was whether it was going to be a grade one

or grade two ankle sprain.

And if it is just grade one, then that means days.

If it is grade two, then that means several weeks.

Because Denver's of course had several grade two

ankle and hamstring strains or sprains.

Over the course of this season.

So we very much know what the timetable is.

If it is a minor ankle injury and he can be back within a week

or so, that would be tremendous.

That would of course be the best case scenario for Denver

because they need him.

Now it's unfortunate that this happens right before the injury

or right before the competitive stuff

that they have to play over the course of this next week

because they've got the thunder on Monday.

Then I believe the rockets on Wednesday

and the spurs on Thursday on the second night

of the back-to-back.

So it's a statement game, statement opportunities.

After that, they go to the Lakers

and play them on Saturday.

We'll throw up something on the screen for that.

And I think that that's a, there's an opportunity there

for you guys to come see me and BS with me in person.

If you want to complain,

if you want to complain in person and confront me

in a healthy, in a safe, in a positive environment

that come to the watch party on March 14th

versus the Los Angeles Lakers at number 38 here,

I'm in the Biohized Sports Studio right now

but then I will be on stage for a pregame of that one.

And you can absolutely tell me exactly to my face

and don't hide behind a screen.

Don't hide behind a screen, folks.

Don't hide behind a username.

Tell me, hey, my name is Blank

and I think you're an idiot.

You could absolutely do that at the watch party

but you can't do it here.

It's just not gonna happen.

It's not gonna hurt me.

So if you wanna hurt me in person,

make sure to come to the watch party.

Not physically though.

Yeah, just just verbally abuse.

That's great.

That's exactly what I'm hoping for.

So, all right.

When we come back, we're gonna talk about hey,

what matters more is if the Thursday game

or Denver was positive

or is it the Friday game or Denver was negative.

And very negative it was.

And we'll also talk about hey,

is this just not Denver's year?

We'll be back next on.

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All right, we are back.

Pick action role Ryan Blackburn here.

Thank you so much for tuning into the show.

Okay, I'm scrolling up to the comments.

Snow Wolf has made quite the proclamation here.

Am I missing?

Now what will put this one up on screen?

I bet $1,000 Adelman won't win a championship

for the Nuggets.

Who is that a, is that a reasonable bet?

Because Denver just may not have it.

And this is one of the things I have talked about.

And one of the things I was really pushing

at the beginning of last season in the off season

was that Denver has passed their half life as a contender.

There are so many things that you need to do on the way up.

And so many things that people are worried about the decay

and worried about what it looks like on the way back down.

But Denver, of course, was right at their peak

or were peaking at that point in 2023.

The rest of the NBA wasn't quite ready

for what was happening and Denver made them pay for it.

2024, they were still at their peak, but they got hurt.

2025, I think that they had crested

and were on their way down because some of the things

that they had done, losing Contavia's called Well Pope,

losing Bruce Brown the year prior,

replacing those guys with Russell Westbrook

and Dario Sarcho, by the way.

I haven't commented on this at all up until this point.

The Russell Westbrook confronting the Sacramento media

because they are unhappy that the team is playing

their veterans too much and that they should be

thanking a little bit harder.

I understand Russus Restoration with that.

And I also understand that the media clearly has a point

because they have the interest of the Sacramento Kings in tow

and they want to make sure that that team can reset

because it needs a clean reset.

And the media understands that the team needs a clean reset,

but obviously Russell Westbrook doesn't.

He doesn't want to hear that when he is

the starting point guard of said team.

So pretty tough stuff on both ends.

I don't think it was a good power dynamic

for Russ kind of wielding his power

in front of the Sacramento media in that way.

He's been a whipping boy for the media for a long time.

So I kind of feel for the guy, but at the same time,

I feel like at this point in his career,

he's got to just let everything go.

That is not Russell Westbrook.

That's not his personal.

You ever seen him let something go,

whenever anybody calls him Westbrook in the arena,

he's like, you will not play with my name.

And so I understand, like, look, he's a very proud guy.

That is not the guy that is going to let these things go.

Absolutely not.

So it's too bad.

I didn't really enjoy the Russell Westbrook experience,

but like I understand for nuggets fans that did,

that this year they're now seeing Jamal Murray go down

and they're like, hey, this is very frustrating.

So kind of sucks is what it is.

Cedric with a super chat, do I?

I think we have to put this up on the screen, unfortunately.

Cedric with the super chat says us losing this bad

plus no wolf comments equals abysmal vibes.

Refrain from super chatting with attacks on other comments

or please on other viewers that I have met in person

and very much enjoy their company.

So thank you for the 199.

I do appreciate it.

Please, please refrain.

Thank you, Cedric, for the 199.

Okay.

Yeah.

This one.

So you think that Thursday loss,

all the positive of that is gone now, right?

Thursday win.

Or the Thursday win is all the positive stuff that is.

I think the credit is gone.

But do I think, here's the thing that I think matters.

Denver showed that they could defend in the half-court

in that game.

It was a pretty good defensive game against Luke Adonchich,

LeBron James and Austin Reeves, a very good offense.

Like, say what you want about the Los Angeles Lakers

and that they are not a contender.

They are not a contender.

The Knicks are a stronger contender.

I actually think that the Knicks are in the top,

certainly the top five in terms of contenders

in the NBA this year.

I think I had them third when I ranked them on Thursday.

I think it was OKC, Detroit, New York, Spurs,

Celtics who we saw Jason Tatum come back.

He looked pretty bad at the beginning,

but then looked better as the game went on.

Nuggets at six and Minnesota at seven.

I'm not gonna sit here and be like,

yeah, the nuggets are like a top three contender

in the NBA right now.

They're not.

But like, do I think that they have the ceiling

to win a title?

I still do.

I still do think that they have that.

And Thursday's game went a long way in proving that.

Does Friday's game completely erase that from my mind?

No, and I talked about the factors why.

Does it erase the goodwill?

Yeah, you gotta go prove it again.

Now you gotta go prove that you could be a title contender again.

And unfortunately, now you have to do it

without Jamal Murray for at least a stretch of games.

And that's something that the nuggets

have not had to deal with for a while.

So Murray's been the most dependable star on the nuggets

for this season.

And that includes Nicole Yokoch who missed

and then has had some pretty strong struggles

on various ends of the floor with the different kinds

of different kinds of defenses that teams have played.

But like last night he was amazing scoring the basketball

inside the arc and will continue to do that.

He has to continue to be his dominant self.

The nuggets can like they can expect nothing less

at this point.

But I do think Danny that the most important thing

the nuggets can learn from this and learn from this process

is how to reintegrate Aaron Gordon,

eventually how to reintegrate Peyton Watson

who I do think could be back on Monday

but certainly we'll be back next week.

I'd be shocked if he wasn't back next week.

And I think that that will help them make up

for the loss of Jamal Murray

and they'll have to relearn how to play a different way

to win games.

The one thing you could say about the injuries

that they have faced this year

is that they've learned how to win

in a variety of different ways

with a variety of different configurations and whatnot.

So we'll see what happens.

We'll see what happens here.

They gotta sit with it for two days now as well.

So they don't have a game that they get to get it out

of their system until Monday.

They have to just do in this stink for a couple of days.

And it probably doesn't help the fact that

they're all bummed about Jamal.

Yeah, but they know that's part of the game.

They're gonna be fine.

And fortunately, they just gotta make some fricking shots.

Yeah, making shots would be great.

Jamal, if it is a minor injury,

like apparently Jamal was saying high to players

before when they came back from the locker rooms.

He was up more at half time than he was.

And then when he went into the locker room

and it was like, guys, I think I'm gonna be fine.

It's gonna be okay.

Yeah, you saw what Vinnie said last night, right?

Yeah.

Good investigative reporting.

That's the guy right there.

I very much enjoy my time with Vinnie and Bennett on the beat.

It's been fun.

The Joker 15 says, Ryan, what are you predicting?

Who are we gonna get in the first round?

If we manage to win it, who do you wish more

to see in the second round?

Okay, see your spurs, greetings from Serbia.

Hello from Serbia.

Thank you for checking in.

I think that's, first of all, it's still too early.

I do think that the nuggets are gonna end up

in that three to six range.

Like, I don't know whether they're gonna be

in the four, in the five, in the six.

I don't think they're gonna be three at this point

because it would be really hard for them

to rattle off a bunch of wins in this case without Jamal.

It's possible.

Like, I'm not gonna write it off as the idea

that they could win without him.

Like, he is a great player, but as we learned with Joker,

like, they can win without one of their best players.

They can do it.

It's just gonna be, do you have the energy,

do you have the ability to kind of dig deep there?

And that's a fair question at this point,

but I do think that Denver will play one of Houston,

the Lakers or the T Wolves in the first round.

That's, if I had to rank them in terms of desire ability,

I think you wanna play the Lakers most.

I think you wanna play the Rockets the second most

and you wanna play the Wolves the third most.

Despite the fact that they were three

and one against the Wolves,

I just think that the two will have another gear

in a playoff environment to Anthony Edwards

is a guy that they will struggle to guard

and clearly struggle to guard in the matchup,

but like, hey, Peyton Watson comes back,

if Denver does get fully healthy for a matchup like that,

then they should be able to win it.

It's just gonna be difficult.

But in terms of who I wish they could see in the second round,

I mean, I think that they could beat the Spurs.

I don't know if they can beat the Thunder.

That's pretty straight up.

The Spurs are talented.

The Spurs are very, very good.

And they are athletic and dynamic in ways

that are gonna challenge the Nuggets.

They already know what the challenges with OKC.

So I think I'd rather face the Spurs, of course.

What about you, Danny?

I kinda want Minnesota in the first round honestly.

Interesting.

Just to get like, so that they have a tough test right away.

And they're not playing like a lesser series

and then they have to step their game up a big step

to go play OKC or the Spurs.

Yeah.

Someone said earlier in the comments,

I can't remember who it is.

But they said the same thing I said last week.

The Spurs and OKC especially

are just on a different tier, right?

Right now, like, certainly.

Yeah.

It was not that way at the beginning of the season.

It was not that way when Denver wasn't completely beaten down

and broken from the injuries that they have faced.

But it is that way now.

And so that's a good segue.

Is this just not Denver's year?

Is this just not the year for them to win a title?

Fans don't want to hear this because you

want to always believe that especially when you gear up

for the playoffs and for a championship

and for a title run the way that the nuggets have

geared up in this season, they made big moves.

They made big additions.

Murray's been great.

Yo, could you still the best player in the world to me?

Even though I do think that, certainly,

Shay and Wembee and Ants and guys like that are all

coming for that title, like it's not, like,

Yokech isn't infallible anymore as we've

seen over the course of these last couple of months.

But I do think that's absurd, like, really last month.

But I do think that he's still the best player in the world.

I do think that Jamal Murray, when he's healthy and capable,

is an all-nb-a-calibre player.

What he's shown this year has been exactly that.

I do think that Aaron Gordon is an incredible glue guy

and just needs to have that opportunity to prove it.

Like, using his first game back against a tough match up

is probably not the right call.

Like, it looks a little bit different

if you're matching up with the Lakers.

And it's Aaron Gordon guarding LeBron James and Lucas

Antsich and guys of that nature.

Then it is some guarding Carl Anthony Towns

who's a lot bigger or Jalen Brunson who's a lot smaller.

Or like, you're just having him rotate over

from the weak side on corner shooters.

And that's just, it's not the best way to use him.

There will be an opportunity for Denver to show it.

There will be an opportunity for Denver to say that I'm wrong

and say that this is their year, that this is their opportunity.

There will be a time when that's going to come in the playoffs

that they have an opportunity to rewrite that narrative.

But there are a lot of people nationally.

There are a lot of people like other fan bases

that just do not respect what the nuggets are right now.

They think that they are pretty soft.

They think that they are not good enough defensively.

They think that Yokech is not handling the whistles well

and not handling physical defense well

and is being a little soft about it.

That's what other fans think.

That's what other people think.

And they're trying to frame defenders going at his legs

as him trying to get piggyback rides all over the court.

Yeah, and like, look, the one with Marcus Smart

was actually insane to me because like Marcus Smart

is continually backing up.

And Yokech never makes a forward movement on that.

Yeah, Yokech backs up the whole time.

He's like, back is like, get away.

And he put his ass directly into his midsection.

And like, I just, if you are a player in that situation,

like your body is naturally going to fold over.

Now, it's unfortunate.

People are now looking for that motion

because they think Yokech is doing it intentionally.

I don't think he's doing it intentionally as much as like,

that is a natural physical reaction

when somebody is trying to get into your way

and you're not like ready to,

you're not ready for that contact.

And Yokech has not been ready for that contact, I think.

So he's got to get ready.

I think he has to be the leader by example here

in terms of showing everybody that he's going to deal

with that physicality better.

It will help the rest of the nuggets deal

with that physicality better.

But like, if Denver's not going to deal with it,

if they are going to let these injuries

and the physical defense the teams are playing,

if they are going to let that get to their heads,

they're not going to win the title.

It's straight up.

It's just not going to happen.

Denver needs to be on the same page.

They need to be more connected than they have been.

Last night was the first time.

Like the very first time this season, I promise you.

Last night was the very first time that I thought

it might just not be their year

because when you see Murray go down,

especially later in the season,

and you're like, man, you just got done with all of this mess

that you've been dealing with from an injury perspective.

Denver's got the most, I think, man games lost

from rotation, guys, in the entire NBA.

You had, now Murray's going to go down

for a prolonged stretch.

You had Christian Brown go down for two prolonged stretches.

You had Aaron Gordon go down for two prolonged stretches.

Cam Johnson went down for a prolonged stretch.

Yo, could you go down for a prolonged stretch?

Peyton Watson, who like people are talking about,

hey, he could be a star.

And Denver, we're so excited

that they're not going to be able to keep him.

He went down for a prolonged stretch.

Jonas Valentino's went down for less of a prolonged stretch,

but it was like three and a half weeks,

which does matter.

It's multiple weeks.

And then Spencer, no, Spencer, he was more of like,

hey, here's a couple of days here a week there, kind of thing.

Denver's been so hurt.

It's been unbelievable.

This is the most hurt that they've ever been

in my time covering the team.

There's nothing in comparison to that.

And so you want to see them be able to develop some chemistry.

You want to see them be able to rise above the issues

that they have faced and see, hey, we'll see

what we could do when we're healthy.

And but that's the message that they've been saying

the entire time and they get healthy for five minutes.

And now they've got another guy who's out.

So if they're never going to get healthy,

they're never going to win a championship.

That is the thing.

I think that most people understand

about last year's OKC and Minnesota games series.

The previous year was Boston versus Dallas.

The previous year before that was Denver versus Miami.

The previous year before that was the Warriors versus Boston.

Like those teams won the war of attrition

with the teams that they faced.

They won the war of attrition.

They rose above all of the other teams

that were suffering injuries and absences.

And they were the last teams standing.

That is a skill.

And it sucks.

But like it's why I've talked about Denver

kind of being past their half-life.

They have gone through this.

They've gone through this process.

It's the upward build.

They traded for Aaron Gordon in 2021.

Right after that, Jamal Murray tears his ACL.

Michael Porter goes down in the year after.

They lose a year due to that.

They win a championship.

They go through the playoffs.

They've gone through the strife.

They have to then go through it again

and are just facing this uphill battle

where it's just harder for them to develop the efforts

and consistent play than it has been ever before.

And to me, that is a symbol of a team that's getting older.

It's the symbol of a team that is struggling

with their ability to rise to the level

and the peak physical condition that you need to be

in order to win a championship.

And every team goes through it, every single team.

The Warriors are the best example of this where 2019,

their bodies finally broke after a long run in the playoffs.

And then they took them a while.

Took them a very long time to kind of get back

to where they were in 2022.

And after 2022, you ever heard from the Warriors

that much as a championship contender have you.

Like the Lakers are the same way

where they won a championship in 2020.

I think it just takes so much out of you,

immediate injuries, immediate absences,

and failures at different points, different iterations,

but it just takes a lot of time out of you.

This is why there are no repeat champions.

Okay, so you might be the first in a long time,

but it is very, very difficult.

So is this the year?

Is this the time?

It's the first time that I've had to sort of grapple with that

and it sucks.

It sucks because if you're Denver,

you're running out of chances.

You're running out of times that Yoke

is going to be patient enough with this group

and patient enough with the situation

that he's going to be willing to do.

I think he's going to sign the extension in the offseason.

I don't think that that's as much of a concern

as some have painted it to be.

Like Denver may not have the best group around him

and that it might be more of a Yana situation

than it is a LeBron James situation of like teams

being able to consistently get to a conference finals

or an NBA finals on a consistent basis

because the Eastern Conference is so weak.

Eastern Conference is no longer weak

and so Yannis has really struggled

and their team has really struggled

and just kind of decayed after a while.

So I don't want the nuggets to go the way of the bucks.

They have to take advantage of this moment

and the stress and the pressure of that,

I think is getting to Denver.

So how are they going to respond to it?

How are they going to handle it?

Danny, I'm very curious what they're going to do.

It's going to be interesting.

Give me a quick prediction for the final 18 games.

What do you think happens over these final 18 games?

Final 18, I'm going to say that they find

a little bit of rhythm and do you want to record?

Is that what you're looking for?

No, no, no, I'm looking for general vibes.

Like I don't care if I'm going to find some rhythm

because I think that, like you said,

now that they're getting a G back,

now that Cam is back out there,

now that Peyton Watson will be soon back out there,

Jamal has been in a great rhythm all season.

Yeah, I think he's going to come back

ready to hit the ground running.

I really liked what I saw from Joker last night

on the offensive end, at least on the interior.

It can't make a mole.

So it just was a crappy shooting night.

I think it was not a rhythm.

We'll see what happens, but I think I'm optimistic still.

I tweeted yesterday, it's a fun stretch

and nuggets games coming up and it sucks Jamal went down,

but like you said, they've won without stars before.

They have won without stars.

I do think that Joker's poor shooting last night

from the perimeter entirely because he did take a three

against the Lakers or at least like the one three

that he took was a deep corner three

where it was just an uncomfortable place for him to shoot it

in the late in the shot clock.

But like he's a rhythm guy.

He's been in and out of rhythm.

He's got to find that rhythm again.

If the nuggets are going to win anything,

they need their guys to be playing at the peak.

And the best way to do that is to let Aaron Gordon

go through struggles, let Yokech shoot his way out

of three out of the three point issues.

Like Cam Johnson, who by the way,

like we didn't talk about it.

Struggle to the first half looked a little bit better

in the second half in terms of what he was going to provide

for the team from a rotational standpoint.

I do think that he found some things.

10 points and five assists is not nothing.

Christian Brown looked bad, I would say.

Aaron Gordon looked bad, but he'll look better.

And yeah, it's just going to be interesting to see

what happens from here.

Everybody's down, everybody's down as L.

Like Denver needs a, like it's funny.

They needed a big performance, they needed to win.

And they got it against the Lakers on Thursday,

immediately washed away on Friday in terms of the five.

So everybody's just so cringy right now.

It's crazy.

But I understand why I get it.

I don't have anything else, Danny.

I think we have commiserated enough.

I think nuggets fans understand the deal.

And it's probably time for us to head out of here.

What do you think?

Bummer, bummer of a game,

but hopefully quick recovery for Jamal.

And finish strong, boys.

I have faith.

I know it's tough after an ugly game last, like last night,

but R being a fan is just having delusional confidence

in your guys.

Yeah, and nuggets fans are losing the delusion.

They are, they are certainly losing that aspect of it.

But like, look, when you lose in the manner

that the nuggets have so many times this season,

you can understand why.

So we'll see if they can recover.

But for now, that is going to do it for this episode

of Pickaxe Roll here in the Mile High Sports Studio

brought to you by Volvo Sports and the Vimos app.

Thank you so much for tuning into the show.

Thank you to Danny for producing

and having a grand old time.

Thanks for having me.

Absolutely, everybody.

Enjoy your weekend.

Take some time away from the screens.

Take some time away from thinking about the nuggets.

I will be back with you on Monday.

We will preview the OKC Thunder game that day.

And I'm sure everybody will get a better impression

of what Jamal Murray's injury is going to be.

And hopefully we have some more positive news

than we've had in a while.

Everybody, have a good one.

Appreciate the love sport.

The podcast is always hit that like button,

hit that subscribe button on the way out.

I'll talk to you guys very soon.

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