Speaker 1: Break was breaking down all the biggest NBA storylines. So
Speaker 1: The Heat Check.
Speaker 2: The Heat Check with Crista Craker, the best podcast covering
Speaker 2: all the drama around the association. Denver Nuggets, Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 2: Everybody's saying, oh my god, they've lost everything. They've lost
Speaker 2: all their depth, They've lost all these key players. What
Speaker 2: will they be able to do?
Speaker 1: They lost Bruce Brown, they lost Jeff Green, they lost.
Speaker 2: Thomas Bryant, who did not play more than a few
Speaker 2: minutes in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: What will they do? The sky is falling?
Speaker 2: They do add Julian Strawther, Jalen Pickett, and Hunter Tyson.
Speaker 2: I like Hunter Tyson a lot. They are your defending
Speaker 2: world champions folks. And Calvin Booth is filling himself. He's
Speaker 2: doing ten thousand word features with the Ringer, and he's
Speaker 2: throwing people under the bus while he's at it because
Speaker 2: why because he just who won a championship and fuck them,
Speaker 2: that's why, blowing up players who helped them win a
Speaker 2: chip and then left Denver. And he's like, you know what,
Speaker 2: take that mental finger, sit on it and spin strap
Speaker 2: in because this feature got weird. The Nuggets returned the
Speaker 2: same starting five.
Speaker 1: And won him a championship.
Speaker 2: Jokiic, Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter, Junior Kentavious Callwell, Pope, AKAA
Speaker 2: KCP and.
Speaker 1: Of course Jamal Jamal NBA Murray.
Speaker 2: They are key bench players, Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, Thomas
Speaker 2: Bryant who have left for greener or more money pastures.
Speaker 2: Calvin Booth had, of course, nothing but glowing things to
Speaker 2: say about them, right, you know, like, just.
Speaker 1: Keep it classy, keep it cute. No, absolutely fucking not.
Speaker 2: No. Calvin Booth was like, fuck those guys. You don't
Speaker 2: want to be on our team, then fuck you. This
Speaker 2: is what he said in an interview. Some of these
Speaker 2: teams were trying to get Bruce Bruce Brown, trying to
Speaker 2: make it worth it, and I'm like, be careful what
Speaker 2: you wish for. Peyton Watson's bigger, Peyton Watson's longer, he's
Speaker 2: more athletic, he guards better, he passes better. End quote
Speaker 2: my quote, Trista's quote pause, that's a lie. I mean,
Speaker 2: he might be bigger, he might be longer, he might
Speaker 2: be more athletic, but he's not a better player than
Speaker 2: Bruce Brown.
Speaker 1: Calvin and you fucking know that.
Speaker 2: Why Because your entire scouting department was sitting next to
Speaker 2: me in the Summer League and they were putting their
Speaker 2: hands over their eyes because Peyton Watson was fucking terrible,
Speaker 2: terrible in the summer league. Hey, Calvin, did you know
Speaker 2: that the when you do an interview, it's all on
Speaker 2: the record because they quoted you and you looked salty.
Speaker 1: If you think he was.
Speaker 2: Done with the ricochet shots on other Nugs players, he
Speaker 2: was striking up that nug and getting a little high
Speaker 2: and saying whatever came to mind.
Speaker 1: We are just getting started.
Speaker 2: His first big move as GM was trading Bones Island
Speaker 2: to a lot of people like they were wondering, what's up?
Speaker 1: Why did you do it? Why did you let him go?
Speaker 1: Two playoffs ago?
Speaker 2: He was important, had meaningful contributions when Jamal Murray was injured.
Speaker 2: Jamal Murray's not injured anymore, folks. So here's what Booth
Speaker 2: had to say. Uh, I knew you couldn't have two
Speaker 2: guys that couldn't guard, and we couldn't have two guys
Speaker 2: that were young and kind of more me guys. Mike
Speaker 2: makes thirty million and he's one of the best shooters
Speaker 2: in the NBA. So Bones There's no place for you.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, why did you have to treat Michael
Speaker 2: Putter Junior that way? I know he was mediocre in
Speaker 2: the finals, but damn it, you didn't need to shoot
Speaker 2: at his confidence by calling him a non defensive minded me.
Speaker 1: Guy that you kind of make it sound like he's
Speaker 1: overpaid you.
Speaker 2: There is no place for you, Bones, get out of here.
Speaker 2: No soup for you, sir, No soup for you. Jesus bro,
Speaker 2: what is Calvin Booth up to? I've never seen this
Speaker 2: from a GM in my life that's currently a GM
Speaker 2: of that same team. The article where these quotes came from,
Speaker 2: published by The Ringer, mostly about how he started this
Speaker 2: dynasty or how he wants to build one in an
Speaker 2: area Erarow where dynasties are very hard to build. The man, Calvin,
Speaker 2: you did not have to do Bruce Brown and Bones
Speaker 2: and MPJ like that.
Speaker 1: As for the team, Calvin Booth.
Speaker 2: Is very high on the guys that he selected in
Speaker 2: the draft, as you might imagine. Julian Strawther from bust University,
Speaker 2: the WCC aka Gonzaga, the other two Hunter Tyson and
Speaker 2: Jalen Pickett five years college ball. To me, that's very interesting.
Speaker 2: Most gms would say if you played four or five
Speaker 2: years in college, you are worthless. But if you're a contender,
Speaker 2: you say that guy can help me. Right now. I
Speaker 2: don't have any time to waste with these little puppies.
Speaker 2: I need a finished product. And and that is what
Speaker 2: Christian Brown was, and Christian Brown is going to take
Speaker 2: another step. Will any of them be as good as
Speaker 2: Bruce Brown. I don't know, but I tell you what
Speaker 2: I like Christian Brown. The Nuggets are still going to
Speaker 2: be very hard to beat. Why because nobody really has
Speaker 2: found an answer in their off seasons for Jokic.
Speaker 1: That's about as simple as it gets, folks.
Speaker 2: When you have Jamal Murray and you have Jokic together,
Speaker 2: and you add Aaron Gordon. By the way I saw
Speaker 2: stat today, the Jokic to Aaron Gordon assist duo was
Speaker 2: only second to James Harden and Joel Embiid. That is
Speaker 2: fucking scary. You should be frightened by that stat. And
Speaker 2: they are only getting closer by the second. Aaron Gordon said, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you think we have chemistry on the court, We're even
Speaker 2: tighter off the court. It is nightmare scary hours for you.
Speaker 2: If all three of those guys are healthy. The problem, though,
Speaker 2: is big risk.
Speaker 1: Is that they were a very very healthy team last year,
Speaker 1: healthier than they've been so.
Speaker 2: MPJ played eighty two out of one hundred and two
Speaker 2: games despite missing forty five percent of his games in
Speaker 2: the previous three years. Jamal Murray played eighty five of
Speaker 2: one hundred and two games last year, but missed fifty
Speaker 2: three percent of the games.
Speaker 1: That he was supposed to play the previous three years.
Speaker 2: And Aaron Gordon, who played eighty eight of one hundred
Speaker 2: and two games, he missed thirty three percent of the
Speaker 2: games in the previous three years. So none of this
Speaker 2: is a guarantee, folks. But I tell you what, if
Speaker 2: we're gonna make an NFL analogy, this is the San
Speaker 2: Francisco forty nine ers of the NBA, the least amount
Speaker 2: of flaws that you can find. A GM who, despite
Speaker 2: being obviously mean as a snake to his former players,
Speaker 2: knows how to build a roster where he talks about
Speaker 2: having a lack of redundancies in his lineup. KCP was
Speaker 2: a massively important move, and I like the Nuggets a lot.
Speaker 2: The West is a pit of vipers. You never know
Speaker 2: who's gonna rise up and strike at any moment. The
Speaker 2: Lakers have definitely added some depth and athleticism. They find
Speaker 2: a way to increase their size and the ability to
Speaker 2: try to match up with Jokic. That's gonna be fun.
Speaker 2: But listen, one thing is for sure. As long as Jokic,
Speaker 2: Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon are healthy, this team has
Speaker 2: a chance to repeat and win three out of the
Speaker 2: next five and boil boy will they need some contributions
Speaker 2: from those role players. Otherwise they're probably gonna get traded
Speaker 2: and Calvin Boo's gonna say some mean things about him.
Speaker 1: Next week though Eastern Conference. We move on.
Speaker 2: That's all the time that we have for this episode
Speaker 2: of the Heat Check. Came back Monday for an all
Speaker 2: new episode. No come back Friday. Actually, we have an
Speaker 2: interview with Frank Michael Smith, a content creator in the
Speaker 2: NBA space. Fucking electric dude built a massive business.
Speaker 1: I cannot wait.
Speaker 2: We're going to interview him later on today and then
Speaker 2: follow our many episodes that are going to drop unexpectedly
Speaker 2: throughout the season, and follow us as we head into
Speaker 2: an all new and.
Speaker 1: Season.
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Speaker 2: Big shout out to William my new producer, and big
Speaker 2: shout out to you.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time.