The Nuggets are finally turning the page. Let's disect them! | Serbian Corner

0:00There's nothing like your first Mac. Here's what people online are sharing. At Doctor Rain says, Everything is just so smooth and fast I still can't get over it. Sinking stuff between my phone and this is just chef's kiss. At Mr. Incredible488 says, Apple Silicon basically cures low battery trauma. That's how they felt with their first Mac. How will you? Introducing the all-new MacBook Neo. An amazing Mac at a surprising price. Find out more on Apple.com slash Mac. You're juggling a lot, but you can still squeeze in a financial plan. With the Northwestern Mutual Financial Advisor as your partner, it's not only possible, it's personalized. So if you're tying the knot, closing on a house, or welcoming a little one, you'll be ready for whatever life tosses your way. It's the right time to feel less stressed and more certain. That's a better way to money. Let's get started at nm.com. The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

1:00This episode is brought to you by Marvel Television's Daredevil, born again, season two, streaming March 24th on Disney Plus. Charlie Cox and Vincent Denoffrio are back, and Kristen Ritter makes her highly anticipated return as Jessica Jones in an all-new season. As Mayor Fisk tightens his grip on New York City, he marks Daredevil as his top target. Matt Murdock fights from the shadows, hoping to bring down Fisk corrupt empire and reclaim his city. Don't miss Daredevil, born again, season two, streaming March 24th only on Disney Plus. Hello, everybody, and welcome to episode 182 of The World's Longest Emperor. The Longest Emperor, Devon Agaspinov, podcast. Welcome to the DMV on Agasin's Serbian port. My name is Miroslav Tsuk, and before we begin, please take a moment to like the video. YouTube, and if you haven't already, subscribe to the NBR Sports YouTube channel

2:00and the NBR Nagas podcast channel. The audio version is ideal for your commute or to make your office or home of the style. More bearable. If you want to support the show more directly, you can become a Patreon supporter at patreon.com slash miroslavck just like my secret year supporters. Daniel Lynch and Brian Johnson. This is the perfect time to join. Patreon, as you will be supporting the Miro does Denver Volume 3 triplet, as well as I plan to land in Colorado in exactly five weeks. Patreon supporters can enjoy the add on a free audio version of this show. They can also submit ideas for guessing topics and appear on the show during the summer. The week behind us started at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. Even though he had a scary ankle injury in the previous game, Jamal Murray was ready to play in this one. It was the second consecutive game the Nuggets started with their opening night starring five and with only paid and Watson still on the injury report. The Thunder on the other hand

3:00were without help from Holmren, Hardenstein and Caruso, but were also greatly helped by the fact that Jalen Williams, aka J.Dub, was missing from this game. That guy sucks this season and their record without him in the lineup is close to perfect. I get, but also I kind of not. The game started with the visiting team exploiting O.K.C.'s lack of size in the paint. So Aaron Gordon scored 19 points in less than seven minutes. Jokeren and Jamal were also scoring and the Nuggets reached 40 points at the first rake. Thanks to Tim Harloway's eight-point burst at the end of the first quarter. Unfortunately, Tim Harloway Jr.'s points coincided with another infamous appearance of the four-guard lineup. So his plus-minus was minus-9 in just five minutes. The second quarter reminded us of the worst bench collapses of the last three seasons. David Adelman started the quarter with Aaron Gordon alongside Jonas Valentinus, Jamal Murray, Tim Harloway Jr.

4:00and Bruce Brown, which resulted in a very porous defensive combination and a lot of Jamal Murray freelancing on offense. Jokeren came back at the six-minute mark, but it was only Tim Harloway Jr. who had scoring points in this quarter. So the OKC went to the big rake, up six. The Nuggets played well in the third, led by Jokeren Hardaway, but OKC got some huge shots from Jalen Williams and McCain, which gave them an eight-point lead with less than two minutes to go. With a minute, a 12-to-go, Ludort, that walking insult to basketball gods, hit Jokeren in the face with his elbow in a situation when it was really hard for him to even reach his face. Jokeren answers with eight straight points and the result was tied with eight seconds to go. Unfortunately, SGA, who was just two of six from the outside, the arc by then, made a three-pointer overspenser Jones with three seconds to go and the OKC, won another match-up versus Denver. It was a shootout between Nikola Tim

5:00Aaron and Jamal, versus SGA, Williams, Mitchell, and McCain, and the latter group won it by the skin of their teeth. Two nights later, the Rockets came to town, and I have a confession to make. I am on the record for saying back-to-backs aren't as big of a factor, as people say. I have to bend that take when it comes to back-to-backs ending in Denver after flying in the second night. Just like the Nuggets looked like shit, versus the next. Last week, it was now Houston's turn to file in a third. It was a competitive game in the first half, Denver was up six, but then in the third quarter, the Nuggets completely blew the wheels off the Rockets. They combined their usual top shelf offense, led by Joker playing the entire quarter, with elite defensive efforts from everyone on the court, but especially Cam Johnson, who has made a ton of winning plays on that side of the court. He was also dead eye

6:00from the outside, and had several top level assists. In the end, the home team had six guys in double digits, led by Jamal Marys 30 Nicholas triple double in three quarters, and great effort, games from Christian and Cam. Jonas Valentinas was also six of six from the field, and now he's bounce back game for him. Finally, last night, the good guys traveled to San Antonio. Aaron Gordon was resting on the second night of a back to back, and the game started exactly how one would expect in an exhausted team would play. The Nuggets had seven turnovers in the first half, four of which had a 16 point lead at the big break, and everything appeared like they've seen, we've seen in many loses, losses to good teams this season. It was Nicola Joachich and his 17 points and 11 rebounds that kept them from starting the third quarter with the third stringers. In that third quarter, the Nuggets played with a lot of energy on defense. Nicola and

7:00Jamal made a lot of big baskets, but the team caught some unlucky breaks on rebounds and 50-50 balls. So the spurs lead was reduced only by four points. The final frame was something different. David Adelman decided not to go with Jonas Valentino's, but with Spencer Jones at the five, surrounded by four guards and wings. The micro ball worked, made an 11-0 run, and as soon as San Antonio answered with four consecutive points, Adelman brought Joachich back, even though it was a bit of a back and forth until the starters created a 14-0 run to take a 9-point lead with three minutes to go. The spurs responded with a 6-0 run of their own, but were called cooled off with an amazing corkscrew jumper over a double team by Jamal Murray, who was coaching hot team entire second half. Jamal and Spencer made crucial defensive plays on the final possession

8:00by the spurs and then were escaped with a huge win, even though Viktor Mannyama wasn't playing in this one. I forgot to mention that one. So, Joker had 32-20-10 game with five stocks, Jamal scored 30-1 second-half and 39 total, and all of Spencer, Cam and Christian were in double digits. A two-game winning streak just before the serving corner, I guess the crazier things have happened. All right, enough of four play, it is time to bring in my guess for today. He is thermonuclear, thermonuclear, AF, which might be very useful considering the stuff going on around the globe. But since this is not a geopolitical podcast for now, I'll stick to his basketball references. He's been writing for the Bitter Report for the past 15 years and has been the host of the Hardwood Knocks podcast for the past 11 years from New York, New York, New York. Wait, that's one New York

9:00too many. I have a friend and everybody is favorite podcast guest host. It's Daniel Dan Favalli. Welcome back, Dan. How's it going, Miroslav? Pretty good. I did not expect to have a Friday show after two huge wins versus the Rockets and the Spurs. And I have to say, I'm in pretty good mood right now. Did you get a chance to watch any of those two games? At its Spurs, so I found out when B and A.G. weren't going to play and then I pivoted away from that. But I did catch nuggets, Rockets, yeah. So how do you feel about what you've seen the last from the nuggets? Like the most recent memory of yours? I feel pretty good. I think this, their story has been, are they going to remain healthy who's going to be available for it? But I think it's more so you can see if you're going to get, you know, having consecutive good games from a Cam Johnson or a big deal, just sort of some of those

10:00higher variance players on the rosters, where between him and NCB. I know there's been some concern about Yokeich of late, but that's kind of, like that seems like it's pedering out now. I think that this team, as it was shown enough at its top level that there's still the team we all expected them to be, if maybe not a little bit deeper, a little bit more intriguing than they're even supposed to be. So I get that there was until recently there's been this war of worry surrounding them. But I've kind of been doing that for a long time, and these were our times and I know it's kind of like more than about $5,000-foot away perspective. 10,000 miles away perspective, whatever. I think I've remained mostly even killed on them, as to me it just comes down to, are the core line-ups. It's not even the core line-ups. It's just, the trio of Jimal and Murray, Yokeich and Gordon, who I think had played in 16 games together or whatever, if they're going to be healthy, I don't think there's a bigger threat in the Western And I have to say, as one of the most loyal listeners to Hardwood Knox, you haven't been

11:01talking a lot about the nuggets since. Do you have a theory why that is? I think that we were first and foremost a Michael Porter junior front facing podcast. And so now that he's no longer on the roster, we pretend as if Denver does not exist. No, I was mentioning to you, I think we've this year focused on trying to find unifying hooks and approaches for each individual episode. And when you're trying to tie it together, whether it's micro or macro themes, it gets hard to do with a team like Denver, something like when you're not doing game to game coverage, when they've just not been like healthy at all. So that I would probably attribute to was just like, you know, Yoke H&AG, specifically those two missing a ton of time, but they came up. We talk about championship contender flaws, biggest X factors. I think Aaron Gordon ended up in that one and tomorrow's episode there might be some SGA slash Yoke H&AG, and then also who's the second best team in the West talk. So I wanted to keep this for the second segment, but I have to jump right in.

12:09Do you think the MVP race is over? Do you think SGA is a foregone conclusion to be the MVP this season? I'm not talking about the best in the world. I don't even care, honestly, but it's an accolade that MVP is an accolade. Everything else is just subjective. Do you think SGA has it locked down, especially after the Yoke C1, their third match up in a row against the Nuggets, or do you think there's still time in the last 15 games for things to turn in a different direction? I think if you're asking me individually, I would say there's definitely time for it to swing in a different direction, but I think anecdotally speaking, and I'm not somebody who places too much stock in the three maximum of four times during the regular season. You might see these guys go ahead to head in that discussion. It does feel like Shay's case, and I don't think it's undeserved. I do think it feels fake to complete about that point. I wonder if we might see more of a push at the last minute for people to maybe assuming

13:12he meets the game's play threshold, Wembee, to get in there. I think Shay missing that time. For a while, it just seemed like Yoke C1 wouldn't be able to, because the minute's disparity was going to be absolutely monstrous, and I don't think it's as big now that ever since Shay missed some time himself before, or coming out of the all-star break, whatever it was, so I think it's less than 200 minutes, it's less than 100, am I reading that correctly? It's like three games difference, four games, maybe, not more than that. Yeah, I think there's still, in theory, there should still be time, but I would be fairly surprised if Yoke gents up winning MVP. So just so people know, I did not prepare you for this at all. If you had a ballad of five names to put out for the MVP, what would be your top five guys from five to one, or one to five if it's that easier? Okay, so I mean, Wembee, Yoke, and Shay are top three for me.

14:13I would probably lean Shay over Yoke at this point for the actual one spot, and I think a big part of that is there has been more of a high end equilibrium to the way that Shay played. And you could point to Yoke, coming back from that, was it the left knee injury, wherever it was, just not, like, in the back of my mind, I'm still asking, would he have come back if there wasn't the game's played threshold? We all like to think that Yoke is above the awards discourse, but we know he cares. You know, he's a competitive human being, and so I'm just curious as to how many games would he have played in if the 65 marker weren't just this, you know, qualifier for making, not even just MVP, but all NBA. I do think that Shay, though, has not had that kind of, you know, Yoke gets his defense upon coming back from that injury, has been like a huge topic. And Shay hasn't really had that pocket in his season. So the other two spots, Donovan Mitchell is in the top five for me. I don't know whether he'd be probably four at this point. My final spot, I mean, there's a lot of good names with Ant, Jalen Brown.

15:14I feel like I'm forgetting somebody out, I mean, people are going to want Luca to be included in there. Um, I don't, yeah, I haven't given enough thought to, I guess it would be my final spot. I guess I'll just say it, okay, yeah, no, duh. That's the one. Yeah, he's, I don't, his case might be a little bit stronger than Mitchell's when you look at the Detroit's offense is just like it is all, Kate, like too much of the time. It is just absolutely all, Kate. So yeah, so does Kate get some sort of pass for being the least efficient of the bunch because he is the only offensive piece on their team? I don't know if you can call it a pass. It's something you look at, but if you do, you, you look at the quality of his shots. And when you're kind of looking at the rim and three point range specifically, the quality is so low that relative to my players who have played, I think at least 500 minutes, only of a mellow ball has the same type of low quality in both areas.

16:15And as I think, you know, my co is grand point out, like a mellows, three point shot quality is almost a choice because he takes those a lot of the negative three. So I wouldn't call it a pass, but I do think the context isn't, isn't important. And then also the quality of shots that he then sets up for everybody else, where it's not the Yoke case, but if Yoke was a less efficient player than he is and doesn't shoot a trillion percent from floater range in a normal season, you'd look at, okay, well, look at the workload he shoulders and the types of shots he generates for everybody else because of the attention that he commands. So with Kate, I would say, I think the efficiency gets focused on almost too much, but that doesn't mean, look, Shay's role is incredibly difficult. You watch what Shay has to do on offense, especially with, uh, Jalen Williams of missing so much time this year, AJ Mitchell missing so much time, just a level of injuries they've dealt with. And he's still a hyper efficient player. And so that's why I don't even think, like, they're Shay and Yoke itch in kind of their own tears. And then there might need to be a people feel type away about Wembee, which I won't push

17:16back too hard against, but there might be like two or three tears of just blank candidates before you get to the next crop of MVP candidates. That's kind of how it felt last year and a talent felt again, this year is that these guys are just head and shoulders in the MVP race or even just if you really want to get into ranking players, like when you're talking about the one, two of it all, it feels like they are just head and shoulders in front of everybody else. Let's take a short break and after that, we're going to move back to the nuggets and try to dissect their season, especially their games against the elite opponents this season. So don't worry. There's nothing like your first Mac. Here's what people online are sharing. At Doctor Rain says, everything is just so smooth and fast I still can't get over it. Sinking stuff between my phone and this is just chef's kiss. At Mr. Incredible488 says, Apple Silicon basically cures low battery trauma.

18:17That's how they felt with their first Mac. How will you? Introducing the all new MacBook Neo, an amazing Mac at a surprising price. Find out more on Apple.com slash Mac. More juggling a lot, but you can still squeeze in a financial plan. With the Northwestern Mutual Financial Advisor as your partner, it's not only possible, it's personalized. So if you're tying the knot, closing on a house, or welcoming a little one, you'll be ready for whatever life tosses your way. It's the right time to feel less stressed and more certain. That's a better way to money. Let's get started at nm.com. The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This episode is brought to you by Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again Season 2, streaming March 24th on Disney Plus. Charlie Cox and Vincent Denofrio are back and Kristen Ritter makes her highly anticipated return as Jessica Jones in an all new season. As Mayor Fisk tightens his grip on New York City, he marks Daredevil as his top target.

19:17Matt Murdock fights from the shadows hoping to bring down Fisk corrupt empire and reclaim his city. Don't miss Daredevil Born Again Season 2, streaming March 24th only on Disney Plus. Then, here's the big topic for today. I went through the nuggets game lock this season to check if their record versus good competition is as bad as I anecdotally feel. And here it is. They started with a win away versus the Timowalls, another win away versus the Timowalls, another win away versus the Rockets, loss at home versus the Spurs, win against the Rockets at home, lost at home versus the Rockets, win at home versus Timowalls, lost away versus Cavaliers. And then they had a five game losing streak against the elite opponents. And that's when the injuries crept up in bunches. They lost the pistons, OkC, pistons, Knicks, Cavaliers, Celtics.

20:21They won against Celtics actually without anybody on the roster. And then they had like four straight losses and they finished off with these two wins against the Rockets and the Spurs. All in all, nine and twelve versus the Tim's Ideam good. OkC in the walls, Celtics, pistons and Knicks. Yeah, I don't deem anybody else good, like I'm not calling the Lakers a good team. I'm sorry, I just don't. This is a special type of stat you cannot find online, it's a hand picked stat. By myself. So what is your takeaway from the Naga struggles versus the elite competition? Is it as easy as injuries or do you think there's something more there? No, I think it's as easy as injuries. I hate to be the person oversimplify. I put Aaron Gordon has played. I think in the teams that you list, Aaron Gordon has appeared in four of those games. And one of them was the three minute and twenty one seconds he logged. And it's just what are you supposed to take away from that?

21:23I could say that I think there's three and one in those games that Aaron Gordon played against the teams that you list and look, they've had some tight games against OkC. They've had some really tight games. There's also you know, you go when you look, it's all like Spencer Jones needed to start against team X or Jamon Pickett was in the starting lineup for that night. The game against the Knicks where it looked like they were going to let the wheels fall off. They force over time. But that was the second night of a back to back for them, right? Coming off of who they played the night before. Is that the rocket? I can't remember who they played the night before. Like there's, I'm not saying it doesn't matter, but it's just when you look at their availability on top, like bake that context in there, I don't know how much to take away from it because last year we saw the Knicks as an example were so bad, so so bad against good teams. And they weren't dealing with these massive injuries and they make it to the Eastern Conference Finals anyway, beating before the Tatum injury. They were about to go up three to one on the Celtics before the Tatum injury. I don't want to say it, the regular season matters. I don't want to be one of those people that says that, but when you're looking at the

22:26level of injury issues that Denver has had to deal with, especially relative to years past, I don't think that it matters as much. And I think if you looked and saw they don't have any trademark or closely contested games, but haven't two of their three games against OKC been super close. They have the, there was the one bad loss to the Rockets, but I think that only that starting lineup was all over the place in that game for them. So it's something to bookmark for sure, but the margins in the Western Conference are just when you look at one through six probably, like they're just pretty thin. It feels the Lakers and the Rockets do feel clearly inferior relative to maybe the rest of that field, but again, when you're going to look at how much time, like even Aaron Gordon has just misplaying in four of those games that you listed or let's just call three what it is, I don't know what to take away from that sample size. It's really tough when you think about it. You only have three or four or sometimes only two matchups against another good team.

23:30And then, you know, in one of those or in both of those matchups, you just don't have everybody available and you have no idea how to assess those matchups there. Is there any solution, like what could the league do to make the teams be more available to have more? Is it the game rules or shortening the season or not even shortening it's just like reducing the number of games on the same calendar year, just get rid of back to back stuff like that. There must be something that can be done because it's really a mishmash and what are we doing for six months if we have no idea what we should expect in the playoffs. That's a, that's an existential question and it's a tough question. I think the reflexive response will be they need to shorten the season. And I believe that would help. But let's just say they should, which they will just never do. We should get that out of the way, which why maybe it's not even worth talking about.

24:32But let's just say it's a 65 game season. If there is data to suggest or teams are worried about their player, like they're going to be fresher if they play 50 games instead of 65, there will still be shenanigans that take place. What I, I don't know if it's a worry, but I don't know how you solve this. They do have the player participation policy for the qualifications are hazy to where someone like of each of Zubach doesn't qualify, even though he made all NBA last year, you need to make an all-star team. But it feels like a lot of the stuff that's happening and let's just use the nuggets as the example Watson, Cam Johnson, Nicole Yokech, Aaron Gordon, like they're dealing with real injuries. And I don't know how you get around that. I think if we're operating under the assumption, which I believe is the correct one, that the season is going to remain 82 games, it would be cool to figure out a way to legislate out all back to backs. And that might need to extend the season. Do you have to start it early or end it a little bit later?

25:33I'm kind of up to so be at mind at that point then since I think it would help at least a little bit. And sort of failing that, I think you need to do a better job, especially on the back half of the season where it does feel like they load a ton of their marquee matchups. They really shouldn't ever be an instance where like sometimes it's both teams, but where one of the teams in these marquee matchups is coming off a back-to-back then just as like a for instance of if nuggets thunder, both those teams are coming off the second end of a back-to-back or wasn't it the what was the peacock game last week? I think the was the Nixon thunder were both coming off back-to-backs and it was why did these two teams have to play the night before if this was going to be the game on the schedule? I get that tricky because of a arena availability, but that might be something that could help. I just looking at the nuggets as an example, we're not talking about them needing to manage guys. These are just, they've been banged up this year at the top of their roster. If you thought that was an existentialist question, listen to this one.

26:35So I think the biggest problem that the NBA has as a product, and I hate talking about sports as a product, but this is the way it goes in the states. It doesn't feel special, that the regular season does not feel special, it's too many. How many they changed the color of the courts? It doesn't feel special to you. Now that was a good move, everybody agrees that was a good move. You just cannot see the players on it, but other than that, it was great. So, if you extend the season to, let's say, seven months instead of six, that's going to make it even less special. I don't know, they're so afraid of the NFL as well, NFL season, they're just backloading all the great games for the end of the season, and then you get a lot of really good matchups in the end, but everybody's hurt, and half the league is tanking, and it's like, you have no idea what you're getting each night, so it's there any way around that?

27:40No, I honestly don't know. I think if you have, because yes, extending the season definitely feels counterintuitive. Maybe you could do that in conjunction with, let's bring the first round back to best of five, and then that cakes in. It seems like the NBA wants more parity, but also more variance in outcomes. A best of five series in the first round might open you up to some pretty beating, having to win four times in seven tries in that first round, predominantly speaking, you're not going to get a lot of one eight, two, seven type of upsets for the most part, especially in the east. Right, but actually, I don't know the hornets, they get in as the eight or seven seed this year, but if you're extending it, and there's like more players are available for your would-be marquee matchups, I think that by default makes those individual games more meaningful. I don't know how you make the season feel more meaningful or more like a spectacle when each game is, yeah, there are some games that matter more than most, but there's 82 of

28:41them. So you're not, you're like in the NFL, every game is what, eight percent of your season and two or three games can mean the world. You're never going to be able to replicate that in the NBA, and so I don't know what the answer is. I think that's a really tough problem to go up against. And if there was a way to ensure that stars or teams stay healthier over the same number of games, that feels like the best potential solution to, okay, well, how do we make some of these games? Because there's just going to be games that don't feel special, their lottery reform might be another way that helps because as long as there, I don't care how small the incentive is, but as long as there is an incentive to be bad, to improve your draft lottery odds, teams will be bad and try and play within that system. I know Zach Lowe mentioned on his show that he thinks there is a scenario gaining traction which next year there will come a point. I don't know what photo is disgusting.

29:42What are we talking about? It's the thumbnail for the show. Okay. The two of us dissecting frogs. Yeah. Oh, I did not. I did not see. Did not see that thumbnail. Yeah. You should be more careful about what you're re-tweeting. Yeah, I should, apparently, but it's like, does that help then? So let's look at the back end. I'm assuming they'll put an arbitrary date like is it March 1st is that the trade deadline were wins, start counting more towards lottery odds. That could mean that I think that certainly would make the season feel more now. Is it the right solution? I don't know. But that would make the season feel more meaningful because a team like the Wizards would all of a sudden have things to play for, not to not play for. And what does that do to these other teams, like these playoff teams where you're running into the Wizards on a night in March and it's like they're trying to win. And they might be a bad example because they do have trade in AD now, but even if they were healthy, some of these teams that are tanking would still be pretty bad when healthy, which is what people forget.

30:43But a team like the jazz before they, the genre jacks in junior surgery, or would we get more instances of a team like the jazz or like the Wizards, okay, they're not so great in the first half of the year, but they go and make win now trades at the deadline anyway because you know that wins improve your draft position. I don't know that that would fix everything, but I think certainly that would make games more interesting, particularly this time of the year. NBA is a huge soap opera with so many, what, it's like 16 games times 82, that's the total number of games played in regular season. It's such a long, such an exhausting soap opera and it's needed. So the negative, so the teams could generate enough revenue to you know, pony up all of those huge numbers to their players and to the owners as well. I'm guessing they're not getting poorer as well. But more on that in the next segment before that we're going to do a little ranking right

31:46after this break. There's nothing like your first Mac. Here's what people online are sharing. At Doctor Rain says, everything is just so smooth and fast I still can't get over it. Sinking stuff between my phone and this is just chef's kiss. That Mr. Incredible 488 says, Apple Silicon basically cures low battery trauma. That's how they felt with their first Mac. How will you? Introducing the all new MacBook Neo, an amazing Mac at a surprising price. Find out more on Apple.com slash Mac. You're juggling a lot, but you can still squeeze in a financial plan. With the Northwestern Mutual Financial Advisor as your partner, it's not only possible, it's personalized. So if you're tying the knot, closing on a house, or welcoming a little one, you'll be ready for whatever life tosses your way. It's the right time to feel less stressed and more certain. That's a better way to money. Let's get started at nm.com.

32:47The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This episode is brought to you by Marvel Television's Daredevil born again season two streaming March 24th on Disney Plus. Charlie Cox and Vincent Denavrio are back and Kristen Ritter makes her highly anticipated return as Jessica Jones in an all new season. As Mayor Fist tightens his grip on New York City, he marks Daredevil as his top target. Matt Murdoch fights from the shadows hoping to bring down Fist corrupt empire and reclaim his city. Don't miss Daredevil born again season two streaming March 24th only on Disney Plus. I gotta tell you man, my site is getting worse by the week. I need to go to the optometrist to get some glasses, but that's either here or there. So this season I've been doing a lot of top 10 nuggets rankings with all of the nuggets talking heads. And I'm actually doing like a little spreadsheet with each player's ranking during the season

33:49just to see who was where during which part of the season, but since you are not the nuggets talking head, I'm gonna give you a slightly different task. How would you rank by importance in this season's playoffs, the following players, Christian Brown, Cam Johnson, Peyton Watson, Spencer Jones, Tim Harley, we're doing your Bruce Brown and Jonas Valentina. So basically the projected seven role players for these playoffs. Let's work small to big. I think Jonas is the least important of that bunch. After him, and I'm, I think I'm gonna go with, I can't put Spencer Jones, I love Spencer Jones, I won't put Spencer Jones here. You know what's really mucking me up is the top three, because I think it's probably a, I think Christian Brown's gonna be the most important because you look at his, the level of difficulty still has to shoulder on defense.

34:50And while I find Peyton Watson based off what he was doing before his injury a little bit more intriguing, I do still feel like they're gonna default to going with Christian Brown in the most critical instances, which is why I would also put Cam Johnson at number two over Watson. It might be even a reverse of saying, well, if Cam Johnson doesn't have it, is he gonna force you into the decision of do we try to compromise our spacing and play Peyton Watson and Christian Brown at the same time? And then Peyton Watson would clearly be number three there. I'm gonna go with Tim Hardaway Jr. next because I think that just the level of shooting that he provides. If Cam Johnson is going through one of his stretches where it doesn't seem like he wants to shoot or they're, they're not those shots aren't going down, do you pull the Tim Hardaway Jr. card to replace that? How much are you giving up on defense in a playoff setting in that scenario, which would leave me with, I'll go Spencer Jones, then Bruce Brown, then Jonas Valentinus because what I mean, Yoke is gonna play almost 40 minutes a game of the postseason.

35:52I don't know how important Jonas Valentinus ends up being to that rotation. So the only amendment I would have to your list is your initial feeling about Spencer Jones. I would put him above Tim Hardaway Jr. Because I'm not sure Tim Hardaway Jr. is going to be able to play in all of the playoff games. He might, you know, be benched in certain series if he's just constantly attacked on defense. So if it's not even him, maybe you're just attacking the combination of Jamal Murray and Tim Hardaway Jr. And you need to figure it out how to defend better in a playoff environment. And is the thinking marriage just okay, our spacing might be bonk, but Yoke is just and Murray are going to figure it out anyway. So what's the point? Yeah, that's, I think that's only fair. I think that their spacing is compromised already with Christian Brown. Honestly, I'm not sure we can talk about the optimal spacing. What we can talk about with Christian Brown in the lineup is just be stout on defense and

36:54they can be stout when they can and just run, run with the wall, run Christian as a is there a case because I think if I was galaxy bringing in or maybe if I was coaching them nuggets, would I put him in the number one? Is there a case for Peyton Watson to be number one here if he's healthy? I still think it's Cam Johnson, because of all the things he can do, not sure he's going to do, but, but he can do. And yeah, I talked touch pass against the rocket was it does a rocket came to Christian Brown in the corner. Like that's just the, the Cam Johnson that doesn't seem like he's just thinking he's just playing. Yeah, yeah, he is amazing. He just need to have his confidence up and and hopefully we'll we'll get the best version of him. It's it's not easy, by the way, he's not been playing competitive basketball for several years now before he came to the nuggets. So I mean, let's be fairly he's been on the nets. Come on. So it is difficult for him to come back to his, you know, young Phoenix years when he

37:59was a really good role player for them. So it's it's not an easy task for Cam Johnson. I still think he is versatility there might made, might make him the fourth most important guy on the team. And then it's it's a pick in between between Peyton and Christian, honestly, depending on actually think Peyton Watson has more confidence in his shot than Christian, maybe too much confidence. But we'll see. I love it. I Peyton Watson just was a revelation for those like few weeks in the season. Well, I've I've I've again loved it. And I guess so what you're saying is, but who has the quit. So you're saying Christian Brown would have like who is David Adam, I'm going to have the quicker hook for if things just aren't going according to plan. He's going to give Cam Johnson more latitude to work through. Let's say shooting struggles than Christian Brown, if that's happening to him. My fear is he's he would love to close with Tim Hardaway Jr.

38:59And I don't think the nuggets have a great track record of closing the games with Tim Hardaway Jr. And I'm afraid. I'm afraid for it. Yeah. Yeah. They're crunch time defense has been pretty bad this year. Like it's bottom five. Yeah. So yeah, hopefully, hopefully they're going to figure out a way to have either Christian or Peyton in that closing lineup. And it depends on the opponent, it depends on the way the guys are playing that night. So I would feel equally confident about closing with either of those, meaning I wouldn't be 100% confident in either, but we're going to have to see what it looks like. It's to be fair when everybody is healthy. I think the nuggets have a very deep team and should be able, you know, if they're decisive enough on coaching, that they should be able to find solutions for different problems in the playoffs. Unlike last season when they had no options at all, like they had five and a half guys before

40:03they got injured. Yeah, bottom five and they were like bottom five and bench differential last year. I think this year they're they're around the top 15 if not better than that. So they're definitely built to I'm curious to see how deep into his bench bag. He's going to go in the playoffs this year because we always talk about how rotations tighten up. But we've seen a couple teams in recent years, the rockets last year, the Pacers, the previous two years. Basically, we've seen some teams go a little bit deeper, depending on the matchup, and I'm curious if the nuggets will end up going that direction this season, which is also I'm hoping there. I want every team to be super healthy, but when there are those bigger questions where I really don't know the answer to them and don't have an opinion, that's certainly on what they should do one way or the other. I'd love to find out the answer that that's one of the things. So I released this morning, I really listened to your pre-trade deadline episode about the nuggets. That was like, I believe the only show dedicated completely to the nuggets. I mean, I cannot expect you to have 10 of those during the season, but I digress to

41:06hard here. You were among the rare analysts back in July who were brave enough to call the Michael Porter plus an unprotected 2032 pick for Cam Johnson, a salary dump move. Yeah, you acknowledged it would help them boost their depth by creating more flexibility, but the only real move they have made that was enabled by that first move was the trade for Jonas Valencionas. Jonas was of course a big upgrade on Daria Sharich, and thank you Sacramento for just existing. More than that, they only signed minimum contract veterans, which was something they could have done regardless of the aprons and other fancy words, the NBA owners made up to save their billions. After that, they traded away Hunter Tyson for salary cap relief and squeezed the ever-living shit out of Spencer Jones's first real NBA contract just to stay under the tax line. In a season when Nikolae Okucin is in his absolute apex and Jamal Murray is playing his

42:07by far best season of his career so far. I have to ask you, as somebody who is not only not a nuggets fan, but somebody who actively hates the nuggets and never watches their games, and that by the way goes for all the other franchise since that's what national NBA writers do, how do you feel about the optics and the actual impact of the moves the new nuggets front office has done so far in the offseason and three of them like honestly, I think it came Johnson move when you're it looked better in the offseason than it does now and that speaking of someone who wasn't just wasn't sure where they landed on it. This is something that I have to play out a matter of course, but the Spencer Jones thing is that you know them going about the tax maybe I just I can't bring myself to care because you knew it was going to happen when you look at how close they were to ducking it, but they did part of the they kind of played up that like we're not really hard-capped anywhere we could do whatever we want and then it's right will you duck the tax anyway. It's something to just note and file away and if you get to the playoffs and you wind

43:10up losing because wolf camp Johnson certainly isn't good enough. I think that's point number one or if you realize you're not deep enough, that's something you could point to even the Spencer Jones contract is just well now he's going to be and they can keep him if he want, but like now he's going to be a free agent as well at a time when you have to deal with Peyton Watson going into free agency you're going to make a decision to on Jonas Valentino's salary for next season. I don't think many people expect him to be back. So it's uninspiring might be too strong, but you mentioned like you have Nicole Yokichet as apex you'd like to see them be as aggressive as possible with that being said and this is where I did give the nuggets credit at the time and I think we might have talked about it again at the trade deadline. I don't know you would have to cite like what was the better scenario for them with the 2032 first round pick. You went through a bunch of players that were available to deadline and it's like because they've gotten Kobe white like and just nobody really tickled us at that level and maybe that's a case for them, but you also might be sitting here as if you're a nuggets fan depending on how the playoffs unfold and what Cam Johnson looks like.

44:13I would have rather might have just had my 2032 pick in my back pocket for this summer if we needed to go out and do something. So it's TBD still you can you can make the case that it was never there was no way it was ever going to be as much of a no brainer and that's how I felt like it was being portrayed is when they made the move for KCP, which I felt was okay. They got cheaper, but I thought it was a clear upgrade for what they were doing. I thought this was a little less clear and it looked even if Cam Johnson has a bad playoffs. If he's back next season, who's to say he's not better these are the types of moves that need to play a play out over time and I'm not even I don't even look at this through the lens of a look who a Michael Porter Jr. has done for the next this season that Michael Porter Jr. was never like he has an agency in Brooklyn, even though he's not super bald dominant. He's had an agency in Brooklyn that he was never going to have in Denver and so you need to put we need to put that aside and then the role he was playing also wasn't easy because you bring in Cam Johnson and look it has taken him a while to kind of adjust to it. I don't know where I'm going to end up on it ultimately, but right now I don't feel

45:16I don't feel like I was wrong over the offseason at least not yet. The one thing I think they they pumbled the ball on on purpose because they didn't want to go over the over the tax is they could have just signed somebody with an MLE and I'm not even sure they had to to use a mini MLE I think they at one point in time they even had a full MLE at their disposal they just didn't want to use it because you know they were trying to save money. So that's that's the kind of deal I'm I'm alluding to I agree with you they probably couldn't have done much better with that trade. I actually applauded the trade of Michael Porter I love his dedication to basketball with all his health issues that he's still an NBA player. We all know the limitations, physical limitations Michael Porter had and still was able to to

46:16be a good player of performer in some of the playoff series because he was such a great shooter and and honestly always available. So I I'm on the record that that was a good move but then I was just underwhelmed with the rest of it I expected more I expected to see more fireworks. I know yeah they get some nine guys 10 guys on the roster they could have had another one and and now they have tires of Jones as a buyout candidate and I'm not sure he's going to play more than like 10 minutes in these playoffs and yeah that's kind of disappointing from from my point of view and I agree but it also comes back to when I was trying to undermine my own point about the cam Johnson trade. What is the opportunity that they in theory passed on that was well then they should have done this and so that's what's really I really think like this is just going to come down to like maybe a little bit with okay well what happens with Spencer Jones after the season

47:20if he ends up leaving with like we need to have a discussion or you have paint and watch and ends up leaving is like well well anyway then would you blame Spencer Jones for asking the nuggets not to resign him like would you blame him after all the benefit pinching around him they were literally squeezing every dollar out of his hands right I mean they could make the case we were giving you an opportunity though too that you've gotten this it but yeah it's I wouldn't blame it like for someone who hasn't been even like not it just hasn't been paid like hasn't even been close to like being paid more than packing peanuts for sure like I wouldn't blame him for wanting to leave the nuggets of someone's offering more money but it's they're going to have the ability was he's going to be an early bird restricted guy for them right like so no team they can't theoretically be out bid for him unless I'm misremembering what his classification is and I don't think he's not the type of player that's I don't I be shocked if he gets the full mid level personally but yeah I wouldn't you can't begrudge him if he wants more money at this point especially

48:23even if they didn't penny pinch around him like had he been making like full like standard minimums the entire year I didn't like this is his first chance to to get paid so I but I really like camp Johnson is the it was cool that they were able to get Valentinus but there's only so much value you can assign to even though I got ahead of my skis with him to start the season at the end of the day if your yoga just backup your when it matters most your role is going to be eight to ten minutes a game this comes down to what does Cam Johnson look like in the playoffs and there's been when we open the season I think I was on this show and we were talking about he wasn't just missing three like he was badly missing some wide open threes then it looks like he's kind of hit a stride and then he's through running through the mud for a little bit and now it's like right or these last couple games like we're going to start to build something here it's really just going to come down to what does he look like and I think that's when it'll be fair to relitigate the trade most unless you personally believe there was player X opportunity Y that they should have went out and and done this that they didn't yeah I agree I don't have a real name to mention here

49:29I would have to go back in time and see who was available at the time I do agree sometimes you just have a theoretical move in your in your mind and if there's nothing on the market it doesn't make sense to to sign somebody just for sake of signing now you mentioned the top three guys from our previous exercise Cam Johnson Christian Brown and and Peyton Watson all three guys have something to prove in these playoffs like all three guys Christian Brown was horrible in last year's playoffs when he was supposed to shoot and he just couldn't Peyton hasn't been there yet he didn't get enough chance last year and Cam Johnson as I mentioned he is just unproven at this at this moment because he's been out of playoffs for so long so so so we'll have to look and see okay let's take our last break and after that we're going to have some fun with the Western conference power rankings don't go anywhere

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51:35march 24th on disney plus Charlie Cox and Vincent Denofrio are back and Kristen Ritter mix are highly anticipated return as Jessica Jones in an all new season as mayor fists tightens his grip on New York City he marks daredevil as his top target Matt Murdoch fights from the shadows hoping to bring down fists corrupt empire and reclaim his city don't miss daredevil born again season two streaming march 24th only on disney plus so then i already mentioned i only i think they're only four good teams in the west but since this is not this is not me being a dictator on this show i'm going to let you choose your favorite six teams on the in the west and give me a couple of you know on the dimensions if you would like oh favorite like just ones i watch or you tell me no no not favorite i mean that's like could i rank to the west we're talking favorite this is going to get fun yeah i know i know it starts with the kings because then everybody's favorite uh let's

52:41work from one to six so okay see you still clearly number one for me uh just have this conversation on my podcast Denver is still unless you're just going to tell me they're not going to be healthy they are still number two i think the attention that's being paid to their defense just throws away the too often the context of like Aaron Gordon's barely played and he's the guy that ties everything together they have about a league they have a better than average defense i think they're 13th in defense against top 10 offenses when you are the nuggets and you know what your offense is going to be that's actually incredible uh so and the data on when Aaron Gordon is going to be on the floor just with their core lineups i think the defense is going to be fine so there's still number two for me until someone comes in improves otherwise after that i do have the spurs at three i'm probably a little bit more hesitant than everybody else i maybe i'm getting too pilled i up on i i just feel like castle maybe Dylan Harper even the way that dearen fox might be defended in the playoffs i'm curious to see how the spurs go about solving that i know castles been making

53:45his threes he's at like 41% or whatever it is since the all star break i just that's that's a small sample relative to the rest of his career and relative to his limitations uh what are they going to do if it just we've seen it a little bit what what are the spurs do if stef castle has a big guarding him do they have a solve for that and so i just worry about their offense from that perspective as well as and this is he's so tall it might not really matter but victor win by nyama shooting under 33% on wide open threes so he's hitting like his contested threes at a higher just curious and there's the experience factor too uh tom ziller and his new letter at news letter not nude letter well had the stat that of the past 15 champions the only one of them that didn't as a core of a playoff series victory beforehand before winning that title was the bubble lakers they had the brawn who would want three titles to that point and so i just how does wemby fair in the playoffs how does castle harper fair fox hasn't even been to the playoffs a ton vissell who's been great never been to the playoffs either this is where things i think those

54:48are probably the consensus three best teams even if your order is different now i think this is where things start to get interesting i'm going to go with the wolves at number four they're doing their best to make me look wrong but this team i feel like has made a contenders business model out of looking wildly inconsistent in the playoffs but they're going to be a tough out excuse me in the regular season only to be a tough out in the playoffs and this almost works in their favor but it is problematic if you watch the wolves even semi occasionally you could come away from all these games thinking that their biggest flaw is something different it's the dependence on rego bear it's the lack of secondary ball handling it's anti-edwards decision-making when he gets double teamed it's their reliance on Julius Randall you just go back and forth and pinball all over the place i almost that's almost good for them though like they they don't have the best record against winning opponents this year um but when rego bears on the floor their defense is

55:50by and largely and i think anti-edwards has gotten better as a playmaker as someone who has more variability in his offensive bag i love the addition of iodisunmu i think don't even chenzo gives him an element of ball handling um that people don't give enough credit to they're just i they're so inconsistent i can't bring myself to put them above the spurs who feel right now like their top end outcome when you look at all the guys that can make plays with the ball in their hands in a half court the the wolves lack that for me and i'm just i inherently distrust Julius Randall as a basketball player he's the if you built a team where if you only looked at the box score numbers you think they were like doing okay but then you watch them and you understand why people may not like them or think they don't impact the game at a high level he's i think he's one of them for me and just one just one small remark about anti-edwards while we're still on the on the team of wolves it's just Nicholas he had an interview in serbian a week ago when he was asked what are his

56:54favorite players to watch and he jumped immediately to anti-edwards and one of the things he said about him is like he is probably the best defender in the entire league when he wants to and and that might be anti-edwards problem because he completely destroyed Jamal Murray in playoffs as a defender on ball defender and you just don't see that in every game during the regular season and i guess you you are you know expecting to see more of that in the playoffs their defense is just devastating if anti-edwards is on top of this and and i understand as you mentioned like he is one of the guys who was always connected to the nuggets him and and Kobe White like the two guys you and grand were trying to shoo horn onto the nuggets for years and i think he's he's a great fit there and i agree about about uh about Randall because he is a guy who will completely destroy

58:02your team and then he's going to just disappear and and you you will have no no use from him if you're the team of wolves and it's a we well we didn't mention it's been talked about a bunch not having to kill Alexander walkers just a really big deal for that team is like if they still had him you start to wonder okay they might have a case even be over the nuggets just but i don't he never would have been when he became offensively in Atlanta but he was so important to their defense and i think you've seen that this year just by virtue of looking at Rudy go bears on off defensive splits which remain they're always kind of insane but this year is just a special brand of what is going on here you can watch it with the wolves too where in some of their lineups guys just forget if he's not on the court and it's almost like they're funneling people towards the basket and it's well no one's there right now and like Nas read or Julie's friend like those aren't going to be the guys to to stop them but you're right you're right on Edwards's defense where i guess yoke is right on Edwards's defense for sure and they have the wolves seem like they might have that playoff

59:03switch which maybe they deserve benefit of the doubt over the spurs i'm still putting the spurs over the wolves and then five and six i will go with the lakers at five i think just having luca in a playoff series and even reaves his on ball dynas and his ability to play off of it's a big deal where where i think you could put them lower is just the numbers when they also play with lebron have not been pretty i know their defense has been better lately lebron has also not been around for that they've got a little lucky with a point in three point shooting i think there's definitely been when you're looking at mark is smart even deandre eight and jackson haze has been pretty good for them there might have been more effort there it's more of just the luca and reaves and even just lebron and the playoff factor i think their offense should at least have enough counters for any defense they face my sixth theme this is gonna sound insane but i just don't think the rockets are a serious basketball team anymore i don't know why you trade for a 37

1:00:04year old kevin to rant and then you kind of just sit tight and it's all like a steven Adams is injured like if he's that important to your offense because you're planning around miss shots i don't reach effort has got i love reach effort i know he's gotten a little bit more runway lately but you don't know if e me o doca is going to play him in crunch time or is it going to be a josh a kogi situation we've even seen him pull alperin shankoon because he seems to think that alperin shankoon might be the worst defender on the planet i don't trust their offense it's too reliant on kevin to rant right now and even if they get friend man fleet back i won sometimes like we forgot new friend man fleet is he's really good but he's not some engine of an elite half-court offense now getting to play with kevin to rant changed that a little bit so i'll come back from an acl injury if he does come back so what what is the grace period is going to need so i'm going to go with the phoenix sons they oh nice the way they play is there a team that you're going to feel the you could win by 15 and you might just come out of that game bludgeoned because you're just

1:01:06going to feel the way they play they get up on you defensively high pickup points they don't play especially fast but they crash the offensive glass not even just from the corners like what we're sheer Fleming is doing i don't know how much he plays the playoffs right now but like coming in from the 45 degree angles are really just with with the tip outs if they're getting actual development from someone like a common mallow watch too who has been incredible like he's lived up people talk about a shoplocking he's he's living up to the mobility on the defense event getting if jell and green can get better or if Dylan Brooks can get healthy their offense might be pretty bad in the playoffs if they like you're sober line on devon booker but i don't you have to show me the evidence that i should trust the rockets is offense in the playoffs much more there they're like 17th or 18th i think in first chance offense and that's going to not get like the second chance opportunities those are things that we should be able to see teams take away more of inside of a of a postseason setting that's probably my spiceiest take i might just be so down on the rockets that they sat pat at the trade deadline when they so clearly needed spacing or more creation

1:02:11that i'm overcorrecting here but i'll just for fun z's i'll go am i and put the clippers if you told me garland and choir healthy but that that's a big if for both of them and i even put the clippers above the rockets at this point i love it i love it and i'm i'm glad that you mentioned phoenix before the clippers because i'm just sick of people picking the clippers again like like did you see how good they are in the last 45 days or whatever like come on guys it's the clippers how many times do we we need to say this i get the fatigue from that but choir has been special this year special and available and so if if garland's healthy and the center position could be especially with the neater house or injury like that maybe that gets a little bit wonky for them but if garland inquire both healthy again like i said i might put the clippers over the rockets they're not i'm not putting them in the top the top four feel pretty set in some order whether like if you have where you land on the nuggets the four good teams yeah the four good teams are

1:03:12that's right the mere sloth metric that we need to come up with i'm sorry i'm asking him for it it's just facts it's just facts okay thank you so much then for doing this do you want to to promote some something you've written on the british reports recently just go check out i'm publishing all the time for your reports if you want to check out my written work go ahead check me out on br and uh if you have not already consider giving the hard would not general NBA podcast uh uh a try we don't talk about the nuggets ever we repurpose our time to listen to michael porter jr's podcast rather than watch nuggets games but we can talk about every single other team and only only sort of have a bias against the nuggets ever since they traded michael porter jr it's it's a it's very seriously unserious and fun uh show both by dan and grand there both my uh parrot podcast shows okay thank you so much and that is all i've prepared for you today my dear listener and with please take the word prepared very loosely be well be safe

1:04:15be kind to everybody call your mom and until next week don't forget that my plan is to be nuggets forever not to brag or anything but our beast new seven ninety nine meet in three boxes kind of a big deal the other guys give you just one side we give you three sides not to brag you get a meaty sandwich curly fries mutt sticks a sweet treat and a drink all for just seven ninety nine it's more meal for your money more meal for your money more meal for your money what would i come from our bees we have the meat and participating our bees for a limited time you're juggling a lot but you can still squeeze in a financial plan with the north western mutual financial advisor as your partner it's not only possible it's personalized so if you're tying the knot closing on a house or welcoming a little one you'll be ready for whatever life

1:05:21tosses your way it's the right time to feel less stressed and more certain that's a better way to money let's get started at nm dot com the north western mutual life insurance company Milwaukee Wisconsin this episode is brought to you by marvel television stair devil born again season two streaming march 24th on disney plus Charlie Cox and Vincent Denofrio are back and Kristen Ritter mixer highly anticipated return as Jessica Jones in an all new season as mayor fist tightens his grip on New York City he marks stair devil as his top target mad murdoch fights from the shadows hoping to bring down fists corrupt empire and reclaim his city don't miss stair devil born again season two streaming march 24th only on disney plus