Nuggets survive tanking Jazz, Rotation coming into focus

All right, nuggets fans. Welcome into pickaxe and roll, Brett's very good friends here at

mile high sports. I'm your host Ryan Blackburn NBA Blackburn on Twitter, part of the mile high sports

podcast network. And I am here. I am ready to discuss the Denver Nuggets win last night against

the Utah Jazz, a barn burner, a thriller. One that everybody surely expected would be extremely

difficult, but ultimately definitely helped out that the jazz decided to help out the nuggets,

for sure. I am in the mile high sports studio brought to you by Volo Sports and the Vimos app.

And I am joined by very special guest producer Danny Bailey. Danny, how are you doing on this Saturday

afternoon? I'm doing pretty well. Very special is a great way to describe me. Yeah, I'm a

I'm I'm a little iffy on last night's win if I'm honest, Ryan. I get that they should have blown

them out. Yeah, I mean, they they probably should have, but I discussing this at various points.

I forgot to tweet out the show. So let me let me do that here real quick. I am not surprised to

that happen. And you know who also wasn't surprised was my brother was my brother. He actively made

against the nuggets in this in this game and and bet on the jazz spread and boy did he look great

because it was up to like 19 and a half before before the game. And he was like absolutely.

Pretty funny how sometimes that one more comfortably when they only had seven players. Yes,

yes, they did. Gosh, it's hilarious how that goes sometimes, but having a grand old time. And I do

think that this nuggets team still figuring some stuff out. Obviously, still trying to get through it.

But I mentioned this in the post game to Nicole Yokech himself. Like you guys are on a five game win

streak. It doesn't feel that way at this point because of how much they have struggled at times,

how much they have gone through the ups and downs of that entire schedule and understanding the

layers that they are needing to go through and figure some stuff out. But and like, of course,

the competition leads into that as well, where you're supposed to be gearing up for OKC and San Antonio

and some of these other tough teams that just lost to the Lakers and overtime things like that.

That's fresh in people's minds. So when you lose or when you are on the borderline

of losing to the Utah Jazz that played like eight players until they played their ninth player,

Bezem Bang and Sak Kyle Filipowski who was given the nuggets that work in the first two and a half

quarters before they tanked actively. It doesn't feel good. It can't feel good for nuggets fans. So

I want to sit here and acknowledge that at the beginning that the nuggets should have been better

in the game. They weren't. But they also won. And over indexing on the idea that they should be

better is it's a no it's stupid at this point like it's game 75 of the season. They're not building

championship habits in game 75. They're trying to get through to game 82. Yeah, we're a little spoiled

as nuggets fans because they've been so good that now we have to nitpick. Yeah, and it's like

it's not worth it. Just let's just enjoy it. But it's hard to enjoy it because we expect so much

of them, you know. Yeah, of course. And especially with the issues that they have had this year.

And I was talking to Matt last night like they've had parts of their season taken away by the

injuries and the difficulties. And in the time where they should have been building championship

habits like in January, that's when the Kolioka went out for a month. That's when Aaron Gordon

was in and out of the lineup. Christian Brown was out. Cam Johnson was out. Like Jamal. It was

Jamal Murray. Peyton Watson and the bench basically for that entire stretch and they survived.

They were able to get through. That was the last time Valentinus played.

We're going to talk about that. Danny has some strong takes as well. And I think he represents

a lot of nuggets nation in how they feel about the way that the bench rotation has gone lightly. But

we're going to talk about that. But first, why don't we talk about the game last night?

And some of the fun things that happened. Some of the bad things that happened because, look,

Perdana Kolioka, his own words, they did not guard anybody through the first like three quarters.

They did not do it. And even into the middle of the fourth quarter, there were still having a

lot of issues. It wasn't until the final five minutes or so where they outscored the Utah Jazz

18 to five in the final five minutes. They were down seven and then one by six. And so they're

capable of doing that. Did the Jazz help them out with some late game errors and some

active tanking and some airballs and things like that? Of course. But the nuggets also

still had to make the plays. And we know that Denver is capable of doing that. And when you've got

guys like Nikolay Okachin Jamal Murray, it's a given that they're going to be in that position where

they can do it. But also, you had big shots from Tim Hardaway, Jr. especially in that fourth

quarter. Cam Johnson, when he came back into the game, hit two enormously clutch threes

for Denver in order to not just tie the game, but then take the lead. And you get enough of these

plays and you get enough of these factors. And you start to realize, hey, nuggets have won a lot of

clutch games lately, Danny. They've won a lot of clutch games. And it seems like they are kind of

getting back to that place a little bit. And that's exciting, I think, for fans because it was so

weird for so long that they just were failing in a lot of these moments at the end of games. But

now the variance kind of seems to be going back in their favor. It was a big part of the narrative.

And I don't know how much of that has to do with the injuries. Because how many minutes has the

starting lineup even played together? It's their balance in three games. Well, over the course of

the season, it's like probably two hundred and eighty minutes, but like it's nowhere near where

you were. Yeah, exactly. So like I respect that the jazz don't care. Because at a certain point,

you have to do what you can to get better players on your team. But the nuggets should have won that

game by a lot more. Yeah. I will. But they did win the game. Yeah. And that's what matters at this

point in the season. Yeah. And like it's funny. Every team last night, I was actually there. So

one of the funny conversations that was going on over the course of yesterday was when Adam Silver

and apparently the board of governors were talking about instilling new rules to prevent tanking

and things like that. There are some pretty stringent things and some pretty significant penalties

that would happen and whatnot. And so the games after that immediately, well, Indiana, who's got

the worst record in the league lost to the Los Angeles or they lost to the Los Angeles clippers by

one point. You had the Memphis Grizzlies pushing the Houston Rockets who are broken for the most part,

but they they pushed the Houston Rockets Chicago was pushing OKC for a fair amount of that time.

You had Utah pushing Denver, obviously, Washington nearly took it from Golden State on the road.

Dallas actually beat Portland, Brooklyn. They were tied basically with the Lakers through the

third quarter. And then the Lakers kind of separated at that point. But a lot of these teams,

I think maybe they got the message. Maybe this is just some randomness. Obviously, they did the

right thing and they lost at the end for their own futures and for like what matters most. But like

those games were all competitive and they were all going to suck. They were all going to be bad.

And like they should have been bad based off of who was playing and based off of the circumstances

in the situation on paper. On paper, they should have been bad games. But they turned out to be a lot

better than I think people expected. And so I wonder if there is any pressure from the league that

and pressure from these sort of comments that is actually happening. That's that's turning some

of these a little bit. But it was pretty funny to watch the Utah Jess flip a switch.

Leading that game and be like, all right, time to lose. They very much did. It was like, I mean,

and I understand and everybody should understand that like they're doing what's best for their

organization. And like I I don't have as many problems with like tanking and then the concept of

it as a lot of other people do because it's not like the jazz players were tanking. Like sometimes

the the coaching staff and the front office are not going to put them in the best positions to

succeed. But like, why does it matter? Like I did put out you don't want to go out there and

look like a fool on television in front of the whole country. Like, and I don't think they did.

I think that all of those teams for pretty respectable in this last game. So that's a big deal.

I put together a proposal and like this is completely off of the off of the run down, which is

funny. But like I put together a proposal Danny that that I put out yesterday that said basically

this that the NBA should keep their tanking rules like as is. But the one thing that they should

instill is something that the Rockies have had to deal with in in Major League Baseball,

which is hey, if you're bad for three years in a row and you get a top three pick for three

years in a row in that fourth year, you're no longer allowed to get a top pick. Like you you have

to go higher than that. It is a requirement. It should facilitate teams being bad for a couple

years, maybe three years, but then planning on getting themselves to be in a better place and

penalizing them if they continue to try to suck or if they're inept and if they're incapable of

getting better than that. So I think that that's interesting. But clearly the league is making this

a very serious thing and it's going to be interesting. Like we're going to get expansion and it's

going to get worse because a lot of these teams are also going to be bad and the distribution of

players. Like yes, there's a lot of talent in the league. But as we've seen, like sometimes if

that talent isn't playing because the season is too long, then like you're going to get some bad

games here or there. But last night was not an example of that I don't think. Like last night was

a fun show for Nuggets fans, despite the fact that there were some light boos in that third quarter

when they were getting absolutely rolled by that jazz team. That's the nuggets. So you know,

yeah, third quarter was it is what it is. If you've been following the nuggets for the last

however for many years, you know, the third quarter sometimes is hard to watch.

Matt does matters is they came out with a dub. Yeah, that's all it matters.

Matt dog says that the Lakers grifted 43 free throws last night. I did not like really pay about

that. 43 to 15. My God. Like who's taking that? It basically is everybody. Jackson Hayes got 10

free throws. It's 42 free throws. Come on, Matt dog. Come on. Like you completely misleading the

situation. How dare you? Of course, that's funny. Yeah, I mean, look, the good team should win

and the bad team should lose in this case. Sometimes it doesn't work out that way and it makes it

pretty funny. But Denver did exactly what they needed to do by the end. They turned it up.

They played in a clutch way. They had some clutch free throw some three-point makes. They had

some clutch offensive rebounds from Nikolay Okic. They forced a couple of extra stops. It was

funny in the third quarter. They tried to ramp up their defensive intensity in the middle of the

quarter. And then they just gave up and ones at that point. But when they finally kept that

intensity up higher for the rest of that, they only gave up what 24 points in the fourth quarter.

That's a reasonable number. Nobody's going to criticize the nuggets for giving up 24. That's

that's especially when they scored 37. Yes. And that definitely obviously helps. So I don't know.

Like everybody is on edge right now with this nuggets team right now, especially within the

fan base. And so I understand the frustrations. I understand the concerns. But I also

completely am understanding of the issues that the nuggets are facing. The issues that's

and the concerns that they are trying to work themselves through. Was it a fully healthy

nuggets team last night? Yes. Do they need to play a little bit more connected and consistent?

Of course. Is it really difficult to gain that motivation against this Utah Jazz team?

100%. So I think you'll see a better effort from them on Sunday night against Golden State.

Especially because the last time they faced Golden State, they lost. So like they know that

they have to give a better effort. So we'll talk about that. We'll talk about a variety of other

things. But we have a good bit of show left to go. We're going to talk about Jamal Murray.

We are going to talk about, oh, I just realized that the the background is still

still not in place. I didn't even notice. I didn't look at that first bullet point.

That's okay. I looked at all-time great duo in the NBA's history. I figured that was for today.

Well, that's the thing. They've been playing like a pretty consistently of Leso. There is a

through line there. Jack and Kobe, baby. I got it. I except they actually like each other.

Okay. So why don't we do this? Let's take a break when we come back. We're going to talk about

Joker and Jamal. We'll also talk about Tim Hardaway Jr. and what he has done. It's been a pretty

impressive run of wins for this nuggets team. They have the second longest win streak in basketball

right now. We're going to talk about why on pickaxe or no. When I go to court, these aren't my clients.

These are my friends. These are people that I believe in and they have one shot. Just one shot

for justice. If they've come to me and we've gotten a trial, their life has been turned upside down

in some awful way. I'm all they have. So I haven't put the time in. If I haven't trained,

if I haven't humbly looked in the mirror and thought about ways, I can be better. And I don't

present my best self in court than I failed them. And that's what motivates me as a trial lawyer.

Because when this is over, that client goes home. And if I haven't done my best for him,

I haven't been his champion than I failed.

All right, we are back. Pickaxe and Roll Ryan Blackburn here. Thank you so much for tuning

into the show folks hit that like button hit that subscribe button would really, really appreciate

it. We're doing a fun thing for number 38 today. There is March Madness going on. There's

there's plenty of fun activities here. There is a Denver summit game that is also going on and

it's been been interesting to see that team continue to gain some steam for the NWSL around Denver.

Like there's there's a lot of motivation there. So if you're a fan of sports, then you should

probably be checking out the Denver summit. But we are also doing a watch party for the Colorado

Avalanche tonight at number 38. It's a Saturday night fun watch party that we're going to be having

and the abs are playing the Winnipeg Jets. Abs are currently still at the top of their

standings. Like they're still got 106 points. Nobody else is really close to them. They've they've

been the best in the league. Despite the fact that they've lost a little bit more frequently

of late, but they've built up such a margin against the rest of the NHL that

part of the reason why they can fall back to Earth is because they were in the stratosphere

for the first place. So if you're interested in taking in that game, abs versus Jets, make sure

to come on down to number 38. We've got some sponsors that are coming out to give us giveaways

and then to give the fans some giveaways. Lots of fun things. Make sure to check it out here.

All right. Let's go back to this nugget scene. Let's talk about Yokech. Let's talk about Murray.

Let's talk about THJ. Yokech was tremendous in on the offensive side last day. Not going to

not going to front and say he was amazing defensively. He was actually pretty bad defensively.

But what he did on the offensive end was extremely, extremely impressive. 33 points. 15 rebounds.

Well, the cysts, seven turnovers. 13 of 16 from the field, two of two from three,

five of eight from the free throw line. Later that game, I turned to Vinny Betedetta when he got

fouled and it was a, it was an interesting, I don't remember the exact circumstances of like

what the hold up was, but there was a little bit of a hold up there for between Yokech going

to the free throw line and not. And I was like, I don't see any way this goes wrong.

And Yokech bricked both free throws in like the six minute mark, the five minute mark of the

fourth quarter. It didn't ultimately matter, which is good. But again, he just is putting up

these video game numbers right now and it's easy for him to do so. It is not hard what he is doing.

And like, and that's the thing that I think a lot of other things say the other night. It just,

it happens. Yeah, exact. And like, that's, it's a ridiculous thing to say, but also correct,

which is, which is pretty funny. Other fan bases look at it and think, oh, man, they are just like

feeding everything through Yokech. Everything goes through him. They could be playing through other

people and those guys would be more productive. And that's true. But Christian Brown didn't have

a good game. Aaron Gordon missed a lot of threes. Like, Cam Johnson missed a lot of threes until

the fourth quarter in which he hit a couple of very big ones. And a lot of these guys like,

Christian had two rebounds in the game yesterday. That's that's very underwhelming for what he

normally does. You had Aaron Gordon get one assist. You had Cam Johnson get four rebounds and zero

assists. So like, it is not that the nuggets are actively trying to avoid those guys collecting any

stats. That's not how their team works. It's just that Yokech is often in the best position to do

that because he's at the central piece of everything. And when you've got a team like the Utah

jazz where the biggest player is Kyle Filipowski, obviously, Yokech is going to grab some boards.

They were also triple teaming him at times, especially when he caught the ball in the middle of the

floor or on the post. And so like, obviously, he was going to kick the ball out in some of those

situations to an easy second, like an easy secondary read. Like, it was exactly how it should go. So

fans are just going to there. They're going to be like, and this is opposing fans. This is not

Nuggets fans. Opposing fans are going to be stupid about it. But like, it is what it is. Nuggets fans,

you can celebrate how great Nicole Yokech is while also being rightfully critical about the defense.

And some of the concerns that people should have, it is not just a Yokech problem. But when we're

talking about protecting the paint and talking about making sure that the opposing team doesn't like

have a complete run to the rim, like the jazz had at various points in this last game. They scored

a million points in the paint in this game. And that's something that should be criticized.

But like, I mean, my God, man, there's just actually 84 points in the paint.

Concerning. Very concerning. Yeah. They also shot 72.4% and the Nuggets shot 57.5% in the paint.

It was a good thing that the Nuggets made threes. It was a good thing that the Nuggets got to the

free throw line a little bit more consistently and did some things there. But like, yeah, Denver,

of course, they're defenses of concern. And Yokech, I think bears the largest concern on that

front end and has the most criticism that can be levied at him. But it's not just him. And

there nobody was playing defense last night. So it's really hard for me to just single out one

guy and be like, you should cover for everybody else's mistakes and get 33, 15 and 12 or whatever

you had. To me, that's, that's a step too far, especially at this stage of the season where

they're just trying to get through. And Danny, do you think, you think Yokech should be like

amping up the defensive intensity against the Utah Jazz? There's a part of me that once Yokech

should play defense harder. There's a part of me. But at the same time, you can't, you can't have

that much energy if you're doing 2020, 2020. And then on the other end, what, you're supposed to go

to 10 blocks and defend everybody in the paint without fouling. It's not realistic. As much as I

want him to be Superman, he's not. He's just the Joker. Yeah. Which is still pretty good.

There's a good question from Stefan. Is there any room to rest Yokech and Jamal for one game?

There might be, there will be a strategic time towards the end of the season where it might

make sense to do so. Maybe the next Utah game would be one that I could see the reason why.

Denver's guy, the game on Sunday against the Golden State Warriors, then they have a one game road

trip against the Utah Jazz on Wednesday. They've got a couple of days off and then a Wednesday game

and then a couple of days off after that. That could be an impromptu kind of like all-star break

for those guys at this point of the season. If they were to take that off and maybe that's where

Jonas Fowl and Shunas plays a little bit extra. And Jalen Pickett gets into the game. Tias Jones

plays a little bit more. The nuggets can still play Aaron Gordon and should play Aaron Gordon and

Peyton Watson and guys like that to try to figure out some things. But is there an opportunity to

rest them? Yes. It just kind of depends on what you're looking for. Like if you're looking for Denver

to try to get into the top three, then they should play those guys pretty consistently as much as

possible. If you're okay with them being the foreseed, then I think that's one that they could

probably manage. That's one that they could probably do without. And so like somebody's going to have

to step up. But honestly, if you're without Yoke Chin Jamal in one of those games, they would step

up. Like the rest of the team, I think, would understand that they're not going to get bailed out

from the duo that keeps like combining four 65 points, 25 rebounds and 25 assists on a pretty

consistent basis lately. Like you don't have that in your back pocket and you realize, all right,

well, gotta, gotta step it up. I'm going to be a little bit more involved in this game at this

point. So what do you think? Like, is there is there an opportunity for them to rest those guys?

It's a little different than it was. Like when Yoke Chin was out, Jamal was carrying a lot of the

burden. So if you have both of them out, I mean, I guess they can afford to lose a couple games,

but like I would prefer they didn't maybe. And honestly, like Joker also needs to be at the 65

game rule. So like him rescuing in one of those games like too soon. And then everybody,

but Wembee is ineligible, right? What do you mean? Wembee?

I just mean like, I think SGA is ineligible. LeBron is ineligible. Oh, no, SGA is ineligible.

SGA is eligible still. Is he still? Yeah, like he's actually played more games than Joker.

Like Lucas played more games than Joker. Wembee's like all of those guys are in line to make

the cuts with regard to MVP and 65 game rule and things like that. But like that is a good point

that that's something to consider and something like you don't want to sit him too soon. And then

you don't have that opportunity to sit him in a later game. On the other hand, though, he

we know he doesn't care. Yeah, like he doesn't want to win another MVP.

I mean, because he doesn't want to have to answer questions about it. He's over it.

I think he would. Like I actually do think that he's he's very much okay with the

because I think he thinks that he got a stolen from him last year. I think I think he thinks he

was the best. Yeah, he deserves it. Yeah, he deserves to be that most valuable player when he's

doing things that no one has ever done before. Yeah. But hey, let's give it to somebody else who's

who's, you know, grifting and cheating and unethical basketball.

Oh, man, the uh, I'm not a voter though. The foul that Derek White apparently committed to him

where Shay's like fading away and it's so clear that he doesn't get hit and then he

give me he shakes in the air. It's like it's it's really funny. Like it's he's going to keep

getting those calls to like it's it's just it's just going to happen. And like Joker's

over here like battling through wars in the middle of the pain trying to try to figure out

what's going on. But I do think that with that with that in mind with the resting in mind,

I do think Jamal is the more likely guy to rest and then they play Joker along with those guys.

And it actually does make some sense to do so. But we're getting a little bit too ahead of our

time. Yeah, no, it makes sense for Jamal to have a little bit of time off. Yeah. Jamal in this

last game was incredible as well. I know I just went over Joker stats, but Jamal like, I mean,

this is ridiculous. 31 points or teen assist one turnover nine to 18 from the field five of 10

from three eight of eight from the free throw line six rebounds to didn't really get super

involved defensively. And like he's he's one of the culprits when you're talking about why is

Denver's perimeter defense not good enough? Well, Jamal's out there too. And like Jamal's probably

one of the factors, but but like the offense has been insane. But if you shoot 50% from three,

I mean, I can live with some bad defense. 14 assists to one turn. He's been having those

games a lot lately. Like it has been awesome to see him really embrace that as his role as

Yokech has been defended the way that he has. Jamal, I think, has assumed a lot of responsibility.

Here's some of his most recent game logs that I want to check out. Obviously he had the 31 points

and 14 assists and zero or one turnover in this last game. Before that, like in the previous game,

53 points, six rebounds, four assists did have four turnovers. I'll let that slide. 21 points,

six assists, 22 points, seven assists, two turnovers in each of those games, 31 points,

six assists, one turnover before, 19 points, 12 assists, one turnover before. And then you have

to go back to the the Philly game where he basically didn't play at all and the Lakers game where he

sucked. But like those like over the course of these last seven, he has righted the ship in terms of

what exactly he's delivering on a consistent basis. And he said a new record last night in the fourth

quarter with the most threes in a single season in franchise history passing his friend and former

teammate Michael Porter. Oh my gosh. So yeah, Mike had 220 in the 2023 24 season. People don't

remember Mike played like 77 games in that season. And it was very, very good. He had a bunch of threes

and every single one hit a bunch of threes. But Jamal has also like he just played a 70th game.

He's in line. If he plays the entire rest of the season to play 77 too. That is ridiculous.

And so he's he's adding the playmaking to that. He's adding the off the dribble game to it. But

the three point shooting I've talked about this for years years and years and years and years in years.

There is so much more potential for Jamal to explore his game from a three point shooting perspective.

And he has found that this season by attempting more by seeking those shots out and hunting them

a little bit more consistently. He's always been a talented three point shooter enough like that his

efficiencies very good in those cases. It just took a little bit more intent I think to make

that a priority for this nuggets team last year. The nuggets were so bad at taking threes.

Jamal would try to work his way into the paint. Now he was one of the guys that would space.

Joker would also space like those guys were taking threes. But like they weren't taking enough.

Certainly Jamal and like guys like Michael Porter Jr. were being just

rid off the line like driven off the line on a consistent basis because he was one of the only threats.

So like you have to be willing to take them. You have to be willing to make them. And

Jamal's been able to do that this season. It's in in large part the biggest reason outside of maybe his

just physical capability, his physical fitness. And in this season just putting himself into position

from a health perspective to get through the entire year. Like that is the biggest reason. But the

second biggest reason is his willingness to take that three and do what is easier rather than

trying to do what is harder for his entire season. One of the big differences between this team

this year and a lot of the teams in the last couple of years I think is that three point shooting.

Like they actually have shooters this year who no matter how many shots they miss they'll keep

shooting. Yeah. Every shot that came Johnson hit last night every shot that Tim Hardaway hit last

night was a three. Yeah. That's the kind of player they need is because like the Jamal is going to

have to drive every once in a while. Yeah. Joker throwing inside out like if he's passing it out

when he has the defense collapse on him. As long as the nuggets hit open threes they got a shot

and they have the guys this year to hit those open threes.

You know last year they were top five in three point percentage. I'm not sure exactly where

they ranked. I could actually probably you know look that up and that's part of my job to be able

to see some of these things. They were they were fifth. They were fifth in three point percentage at

37.6%. This year they are first at 39.1%. The differences last year they had a very low three point

attempts per game. It was around 31. I believe is the number. This year they're up to 35.5 which

is different. Last year was 31.31. Even with the increase it's not at the level that a lot of

other teams shoot at. Yeah. They have never been a volume three point team. But that's okay. Yeah.

Because as long as Tim Hardaway is splashing threes from three feet behind the arc. I'm okay with

it. It certainly helps when he's when he's on one of those heaters man. It's been

awesome to watch. Last year's team first in free throw dumps per game 23rd in free throw attempt

free throw percentage. First in two point attempts per game. Second in two point percentage.

This year they're down to 14th in two point attempts per game. And they're down to seventh in two

point percentage. But they're still like attempting a fair amount of free throws. But the

difference is they're they're making more of them this year. They're 80.5 versus 77% last year.

The volume from three is really big. They've got some elite shooting on their roster. When they

surround Nicolioca with elite shooters. It's really hard to double him without paying the price.

And so Christian Brown's got to get better with that. Like he has really struggled from three

this year. He's at 30.6%. Although I do appreciate that he's up to 3.1 attempts per game.

That was something that I made mention of last year and heading into this season that like he

had to improve that. He does look more willing to shoot this year. Some of the quick trigger

threes from the corner have been nice. It's when he hesitates. It's when he records ratchets that I'm

like, okay, you're thinking about it again. Don't think about it. Just shoot it. And I understand

why in some of these cases. Cause like, why would I take a three if I could pass the ball back to

Nicolioca, Trichamel Murray right now? I understand that sentiment too. But like he's got to do some

of those things. He didn't close this in this in this last game. In part, because defense wasn't

very good, but also like he wasn't helping them offensively for clear reasons too. Tim Hardaway

was. Why don't we talk about him on the other side? Let's take a break. When we come back,

we'll talk about Tim Hardaway Jr. What he was able to do for the nuggets last night. And then

we're going to have a little small debate on the end of the bench heading into the playoffs

and what the nuggets should do. We'll be right back here on Pickaxe and Roll.

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Thank you so much for tuning into the show. Hit that like button, hit that subscribe button.

Would really, really appreciate it. We're here in the Mile High Sports Studio,

brought to you by Volo Sports and the Vimos app I'm joined by Danny Bailey and the Booth,

we've had a good time here, but we also have to talk about Tim Hardaway Jr., who pushed off

for long enough. I think that he saved them in that fourth quarter yesterday. Huge, huge threes,

like Denver couldn't score, even with Jamal Murray on the floor, even with like Peyton Watson on

the floor, who had a bad game last night. Some learning processes and trying to figure that out.

By the way, I don't want to get way laid for too long, but this is about the bench.

I was, I asked David Adelman in post game about Peyton Watson playing the points and being

a de facto point guard. I had surmised. I had hypothesized, prior to asking that question,

when talking to other people, I think the only reason that that lineup played is because of

the way the first quarter went and that they could not get a timeout. They couldn't get a timeout.

And so like Jamal took, he played 11 minutes, Joker played all 12, and then they were left in a

situation where they're like, okay, we could either bring Jamal back in at the beginning of the

second unit and the second quarter, or we could vary things up and save Jamal and not like,

not put him into a rough position. So they chose the latter. And David Adelman said exactly that.

It was, it was uncanny. I felt really good about my evaluation of what the nuggets were supposed

to do. So Peyton Watson playing back a point last night was not the goal. That was not what they

were trying to do. Yeah, he's not a point guard. Why are they doing that?

The reason they, they signed Tyus Jones, they have Jalen Pickett, what are they doing,

putting Peyton Watson as the primary by. I will, I will, I will let you know exactly why they did

that. I'm going to look at my rotation chart right now. And so we could talk about who was on

the floor at that stretch. You had Bruce Brown, you had Tim Hardaway, you had Cam Johnson,

you had Peyton Watson, and you had Spencer Jones. Which of those guys are you benching to put

Tyus Jones on the floor? Which of those guys? If you, I'll say it again, Bruce Brown,

Tim Hardaway, Cam Johnson, Peyton Watson, and Spencer Jones. Okay, you're right.

This is, this is my thing. This is why I do this, you know. No, it's fair. It's a great point.

It's a great point, Ryan, because that's the thing that like when I'm watching the game,

I don't necessarily think about it. Yeah. But after the fact, I mean, hindsight is 2020,

right? So like after the fact, obviously, now here's what I wouldn't take any of those guys out

for Tyus Jones. Yeah. Here's what they could have done though. Tim Hardaway had already played seven

straight minutes. They probably could have put in Tyus Jones in that situation, move Bruce Brown

over to the two, and then have Cam Johnson, Peyton Watson, Spencer Jones, play your, your versatile

wings. But like, I think they have learned in real time that Tyus Jones isn't necessarily going to be

a factor for them in a playoff environment. So they're playing the guys that are, they're playing

the guys that are going to be a factor. Tim Hardaway, Jr. Obviously, he deserves a ton of credit.

First half, he wasn't very good. First half, he was 0 of 4 from 3, made some defensive mistakes,

clear. I mean, everybody made defensive mistakes. So I'm not going to over index on that. But like

THJ was not very Tim. Yeah. They needed him to step up in the second half. And he did. He played

the final 19 straight minutes of that game. Too many, too many for a veteran like THJ. And so

I know that David Adamins going to look at that, be like, crap, I shouldn't have done that.

Like, look, I sympathize with him because when you're in a situation and you've got one guy who has

been playing a lot already and is the only player that is making shots at a various point

is extremely valuable when it comes to getting the team back on track from a shooting perspective.

It's hard to bench that guy. It is hard to take them out and hard to take them out of the game.

So, but Tim, 21 points, five of 12 from three, six of seven from the free throw line.

He actually had zero rebound, zero assist, zero blocks, but he did get a steal, which is pretty

funny. Plus 25 in 28 minutes in a game that the nuggets won by six. They were minus 19.

In the minutes that Tim Hardaway Jr. did not play. So you asked me why he played at the end of the

game. That is why that is that is very much why that happened and is completely deserved.

Denver's going to be in the situation of fair amount where in the playoffs, there are going to be

specific skillsets that they have specific guys that they absolutely need. And it's going to be

very interesting to see what should happen here for this nuggets team. They are in a situation

right now with a whole bunch of guys that like you know, you understand kind of what the what

the starters are going to be. You know what the like Peyton Watson is going to factor in. They

want Peyton Watson to be a factor. Now, what's interesting is this is a game where you might have

Peyton Watson played 10 to 15 minutes in a playoff game. Like this, this kind of game itself,

just because you're going to ramp up the minutes for Aaron Gordon in those cases. Maybe you have

Spencer Jones, who's a little bit better defensively and just spacing and being off the ball. Or

you move Peyton Watson into more of an off ball role. And he never has some of the turnover issues

and playmaking and off the dribble misses that he has in the first place. Like I I don't think

that that's the plan. I think that Jamal's going to be out there to try to set the table for him

and put him into a better position to succeed. I've talked about this. I actually the way that I

framed the question to Adam and was like Peyton Watson was a primary creator with that unit. How much

of it is like instead the plan should be to catch on the second side and attack in a disadvantage

defense. I think that that will be what they do. But it kind of comes down to the end of the bench.

The fact of the matter, Danny is that there's a possibility that none of the guys that I have

listed on this chart may play in some of these in some of these playoff games. I'm including Jonas

Spencer Jones, Julian Strother into that mix. Those guys are 9, 10 and 11 right now in the Nuggets

rotation. If I go through it, you got Yokech, Murray, Christian Brown, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon.

Those are your top five Peyton Watson right now. I think they're trying to put him into a six man

position. If it's not him, then it's Tim Hardaway Jr. And then Bruce Brown. Bruce Brown is a guy that

they trust. They have continuously put him into those situations. He has been better in the past two

months. I have looked at the numbers, Danny. The numbers are not very kind to Bruce Brown and the

analytics in terms of the the actual impact that he is having on the floor on certain lineups and

certain rotations and things like that. Even recently because I was thinking like earlier in the

season, I was like, this isn't the same Bruce Brown. Yeah. Which was a bummer because I love Bruce

who may or may not have been at Don's tavern last night with Cam Johnson. I don't know.

Sources say. Sources say. Oh, man. I got to love it. Yeah. I mean, it's a bummer because I love

Bruce. I want Bruce to be a big contributor. And he just he's not the same player he was three years

ago. Yeah. So that's kind of the dividing line. Like the thing about this is that

the nuggets have their top six. And then Tim Hardaway Jr. is also going to factor in. And so you've

got seven guys. The nuggets in past iterations have played seven man rotations. They've played them

in the second half of regular season games this year. Like it is possible that they just decide

to do that. And when the playoffs roll around, you may get to a place where Aaron Gordon is your

backup five where Jamal Murray's playing 42 minutes, 44 minutes. We're in a callioca just playing

42 minutes, 44 minutes somewhere around there. And then in between that is a mix of wings is a

variety of wings that they decide to go with. And each of those guys have different skill sets that

could be very helpful in different situations. Like I think that Spencer Jones, Julian Strother,

and that's in that circumstance could be very helpful. But lately, the nuggets have gone with

Spencer Jones as the backup five. I've played him almost exclusively at backup center in some

of these lineups. And you and a variety, not just you, but you and a variety of other nuggets fans

have expressed some concern and or displeasure at the lack of Jonas Valentino. So I just wanted

to give you an opportunity to say your piece again. We had a little bit of a debate about it last week.

But I wanted to hear from you again in terms of like, hey, Denver's winning, but it doesn't look

pretty. Is it possible that Jonas Valentino's could factor in a little bit better into that?

There are times when the small ball lineup drives me crazy because I'm a I guess maybe I'm a

purist. But if you don't have a big man on the court, what are we doing? Especially when the other

team is getting offensive rebounds, which seemed to be an issue last night, especially with that small

ball lineup. And JV is just sitting on the bench. Yeah. And look, I like that they brought him in,

but they need to use him. And I get that maybe he got a little tired when Yokech was in foul

trouble a couple nights ago, and they maybe had to sit him out for a day or two. So he could get his

wind back. Yeah. I think they're going to need him in the playoffs. I think they're going to need

at least like a couple minutes here and there because Yokech can't do it all himself.

Nor should they try to have. And yeah, especially in a first round or even a second round

playoff series. Now that goes out the window if it's the OKC thunder. But like, if you have a

first round series against well, right now it's it's currently the Minnesota intervals, I think.

I think that. OK, let's play this out. Let's play this out, Danny, because I'm curious to get

your thoughts here. If the Minnesota Timberwolves are playing Nazaried and Rudy Gober and Julius Randall

and those kinds of bigs in these situations, one of the things that they do is they will have

Rudy Gober stagger with the second unit. So there will be a big four Jonas found Jonas in theory

to match up with. Now sometimes in the past when they've matched up with Denver specifically in a

playoff environment, they just tether Rudy's minutes to Yokech and try to ruin him and ruin his

game as much as possible. Try to disrupt the nuggets. 47 brother. Well, yes. But the thing about that

is like, if the plus minus is only like plus four instead of plus 20, then Rudy did his job even

even if Yokech did 47 like that because that's it's all about the team. It's all about that

impact. So I respect Rudy in that regard and his ability to battle Yokech and just like hurt Denver's

team defense, even if he gets cooked as an individual. But like I want Christian Brown, don't call

on him again. It would be it would be very nice. Peyton Watson, like that would be great. Although

Peyton Watson's been he's been some flying layups a little bit lately and some off balance stuff.

So he's got to keep going strong up to the rim. I'll say that. But like if Rudy Gober were to

stagger with the second unit, like let's say he doesn't match up with Yokech that entire time,

then there is an opportunity before Jonas found Jonas to be out there, especially if it's not Anthony

Edwards, if it's not like, hey, you have to keep up with this absolute dynamic weapon.

But what if it's Bones Highland? What if it's Bones Highland and Bones is like getting good

screens for Rudy Gober. And then you've got Jonas found Jonas on an island against bones of all

people. Like you know that bones could cook them true. You know that like if it's Dante,

David Chenzoe, for example, that's a that's a pull. Man, I miss bones. Bones would be really

good. He would be good on this scene. I think that he would add to this group after he had to mature,

but he just figured some stuff out. But like if you are the nuggets, those are the kinds of conversations

that you have to have. I think that Denver in general, like the reason why they are going with

Spencer Jones in a lot of these situations is because they think that they are going to switch

that like if it's against Rudy Gober and Bones Highland or if it's against Anthony Edwards and

Bones and Rudy Gober. If it's against like even if it's a traditional big, they are going to

switch and guard and do their best to disrupt those kinds of lineups. There are two few bigs

that are actually like dynamic scorers. Like think about like even in the nugget series against

the T-wolves. Yes, they ultimately lost and yes, Nas Reed had a a big game seven in that 2024.

But like there are times where Christian Brown and KCP and Jamal Murray and guys like that

undersized players were switching onto him, guarding him and it was just fine. Like if you want

Nas Reed to take 10 foot jump hooks and and turn around fateaways, that's fine. Like you just you

just need to make sure that you are not giving up the easy stuff around the rim as much and not

giving up wide open threes. And so if you could drag them down into that, that's a good thing.

So I think it's very important for Denver to not lose Jonas entirely. It feels like they're in

the process of doing that. Now, Jonas is a professional. He understands how this thing goes, but like

he almost didn't even come here. Yeah, that's true. And maybe this is one of the things that he saw,

but like one of the things that he was expecting to have happened. But I do think that as he like

as the nugget sense of the playoffs, you're right. There will be certain circumstances where it

makes sense to at least try it and use it as a change up and use it as a curveball for what the

nuggets are trying to do. It's not their fastball anymore. I'm going to say that their fastball is

going to be either Spencer Jones or Aaron Gordon at center and just playing small and switching.

And that's just that's just how it's got to be. But there are opportunities where I think it makes

sense. And so I do agree with you that there's there's an opportunity there. Yeah, everyone through

while Spencer Jones, he does a great job. But I think there are times when he just he's still

he's not quite like all the way there. Yeah. Which maybe the maybe the playoffs this year will

get him there to that point where he is comfortable. I just think with a vet like Jonas, you want that

kind of guy. And yeah, like I said, I'm the purest. If there if other teams get an offensive

rebounds and you don't have a big on the floor. Yeah, I'm like, where's the big? You're talking

about Spencer, right? Yeah. Yeah. He's he's had to learn so much on the fly this year. Like it was

not expected that he would play this kind of role. But he has played over his head, I think, in a lot

of cases and put himself in this position where the nuggets can have these kinds of conversations.

It's a good thing that they're having this conversation because it means that they have the

optionality that they did not have last year. And that's something that I try to keep pushing forward.

You talk about shooting and talk about Denver, providing that different layer. That's all the bench.

That's all like just trying to learn and figure out how to play in different ways around a different

layer of people. And like Julian Stroud, there's another guy that's on this rundown who I think

has played well enough that he deserves a look as well. Like while you have Tim Hardaway playing

the way that he has it's hard to play Julian too. So but if they do miss like if Tim were to get

hurt, for example, knock on wood, then I think that there's an opportunity for somebody like Julian

to step in. So the good thing about Denver's rotation is that they've got options. They do have options

at their disposal. And the goal for David Adamin will be to figure out how to play those guys

in such a way that you're not overtaxing your starters immediately in the first round. And then

having to play a seven game series like last year with those guys and then facing the OKC Thunder.

That would be great. Yeah. And there have been times also I want to give him some credit because

Spencer Jones on the offensive glass is incredible. Yeah. And that's I think one of his biggest

strengths that helps the nuggets immensely when he can kick out for a second chance three. Love it.

He's been really good at that. Like on the season he's averaging. I'm just looking at it now.

1.2 offensive rebounds per game. But of late like the the numbers that he's been putting up just

grabbing. It feels like there's been a lot more since he like he was injured for a little bit.

Since coming back from injury, one offensive rebound, five offensive rebounds, 0, 2, 2, 1,

1, 1, 0, 3, 0, 3. He's always grabbing at least one extra possession every game basically.

And sometimes it's a crooked number. So the hustle does matter. And if you're able to do that,

like because Jonas, you would want out there for that offensive rim pressure as well.

Sure. But if you're able to do that, like Spencer's been doing that and then kicking out to three point

shooters. And that's been super valuable too. So I think that there's an opportunity here. And

that's it's one of the reasons why you can get away with it. But Denver in a lot of those lineups

were playing really poorly as an offensive rebounding unit. When they don't have Jonas on the floor,

when they don't have Nicole on the floor, that was one of the the through lines from January.

When they didn't have a big if they can get to a place where those small ball units are still

grabbing some extra possessions, then I firmly disagree with you on the need to play Jonas.

I think that you could get the both best of both worlds in that case where you get the offensive

rim pressure and also get the defensive switchability and versatility.

Which is honestly, I mean, that's why Spencer got a full contract, right?

Yeah. 100%. I hope that they keep him. Check out his LinkedIn for all the details.

The most recent one about getting the two game winners on him was awesome. And he deserves a

lot of credit for that. I think that he is such an interesting guy. He's an interesting cerebral guy,

which is I love to love to think about and support those guys on the team.

Okay. I don't have anything more. Denver plays another game on Sunday. It's a late game.

It's a late Sunday night game. It's like eight o'clock.

So I'll be, but it's home. Yes. Yes. But like, that means I have to go to the arena.

So it is what it is. But we'll have, we'll have a fun time. And I try not to take that for granted,

either. Everybody, that is going to do it. I think for this episode of Pickaxe and Roll. Thank you

so much for tuning into the show. If you're interested, come on down to number 38 and check out the

Colorado Avalanche watch party that we've got going on later tonight. It's going to be a lot of

fun. The apps have been rolling absolutely the season. So we'll see if they can keep it going.

Danny, it's a good, good to chat with you, my friend. Thanks for producing for me.

Oh, I always love being in here in the studio with you, Ryan. And if you guys want to yell at either one

of us, we'll be here next Saturday too. Oh, yeah, that's right. There's, there's plenty.

We're always here on Saturday. So come through. Oh, man. It's just just a million Saturdays.

But we're we're going to have a grand old time. So everybody, thank you so much for tuning into

the show today. Hit that like button, hit that subscribe button on the way out. Talk to you guys next week.