Speaker 1: The volume. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at
Speaker 1: the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys
Speaker 1: are having a great week so far. Today is Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets Day. We finally made it to the end of
Speaker 1: our last list of the off season, our power ranking
Speaker 1: season previews, and at number one is the Denver Nuggets,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna talk about their preseason so far, talk
Speaker 1: about some specific production from guys like Jamal Murray and
Speaker 1: some of their younger players as well. And then the
Speaker 1: second half of the show, we're gonna do our full
Speaker 1: season preview. Like we usually do, We're gonna go over
Speaker 1: the offseason changes, their depth chart, talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about what I expect to see from them this season,
Speaker 1: and then talk about why I have them at the
Speaker 1: top of my list of contenders, specifically over each team.
Speaker 1: You guys are the Joe Before we get started, subscribe
Speaker 1: to our YouTube channel, follow me on Twitter at Underscore
Speaker 1: Jason L Team. Also in video content on Instagram and
Speaker 1: TikTok this year, so follow me there as well. Don't
Speaker 1: forget to drop mailbag questions in our YouTube comments, and
Speaker 1: don't forget about our podcast feed Under Hoops tonight. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So the Nuggets are two and
Speaker 1: one so far in preseason. Michael Porter Junior hasn't played yet,
Speaker 1: but all four starters have played and have played well.
Speaker 1: They all have logged net ratings of at least plus
Speaker 1: seven points per one hundred possessions, so they're picking up
Speaker 1: pretty much right where they left off. Yokich has been great.
Speaker 1: He's four out of six on hook shots and floaters,
Speaker 1: right at that two out of three like he always is.
Speaker 1: He's eight of nine at the rim. He's fifty five
Speaker 1: percent effective field goal percentage on jump shots. He's run
Speaker 1: twelve self creation possessions either picking rolls, ISOs or post
Speaker 1: ups and or excuse me, he's run eight of them
Speaker 1: and he's gotten twelve points out of them. That's a
Speaker 1: point and a half per possession. So yo Kicch is
Speaker 1: you know more or less what you expect to see
Speaker 1: from Yogicch. Jamal Murray has been exciting. I talked a
Speaker 1: lot in the player rankings video this summer. I put
Speaker 1: him at number sixteen if you guys remember, and one
Speaker 1: of the things I said was like one of the
Speaker 1: things that he needs to actually be on the level
Speaker 1: of his peers, and I have him higher than most
Speaker 1: people because I value playoff success so much compared to
Speaker 1: other people. I get crap for that on this show
Speaker 1: all the time. Right, But like, in order to get
Speaker 1: up to the level of the Shay Gildes Alexander's and
Speaker 1: the Devin Bookers and some of the other guards at
Speaker 1: the top of the league, he needs to demonstrate that
Speaker 1: he can do it in the regular season. And then
Speaker 1: we got to media Day and Mike Malone basically said
Speaker 1: the same thing, challenging Jamal Murray to demonstrate that he
Speaker 1: could do it over the course of the regular season.
Speaker 1: Now in the preseason, it's tough to kind of like
Speaker 1: put those numbers together from the standpoint of them playing
Speaker 1: limited shifts, right because they're trying to keep their minutes
Speaker 1: down in the preseason. But if I extrapolate out to
Speaker 1: per thirty six, which per thirty six is an imperfect
Speaker 1: way to kind of take like a limited shift and
Speaker 1: turn it into what that production would look like in
Speaker 1: a normal NBA game, Right, Like Jamal Murray actually played
Speaker 1: about thirty three minutes per game last year, but a
Speaker 1: lot of the best players in the league kind of
Speaker 1: hover in that thirty four to thirty six minute range,
Speaker 1: So it's a way to kind of extrapolate out right, Well,
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray is averaging twenty five points in preseason so
Speaker 1: far per thirty six minutes to go with three rebounds
Speaker 1: and nine point four assists per thirty six minutes with
Speaker 1: just one point nine turnovers per thirty six minutes. So
Speaker 1: that's twenty five, three and nine. That's all star production.
Speaker 1: If he does that for a top four seed in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference, especially coming off of a championship run
Speaker 1: where he was playing like a superstar, I think he's
Speaker 1: going to get onto the All Star team at that point,
Speaker 1: potentially even make All NBA depending on how things go.
Speaker 1: And what's crazy is he's putting up that twenty five
Speaker 1: three and nine per thirty six despite going just two
Speaker 1: for twelve from three so far in preseason. He hasn't
Speaker 1: been able to dial it up from there. His mid
Speaker 1: range has been on. He's seven for nine from the
Speaker 1: mid range. He's shown the strength and patience you're accustomed
Speaker 1: to seeing from Jamal Murray around the rim. He's five
Speaker 1: for six at the rim. He looks super, super comfortable
Speaker 1: in their offense. You can literally see things slowing down
Speaker 1: for Jamal Murray. He's got such a great understanding of
Speaker 1: what his role is in this offense as he kind
Speaker 1: of manipulates help defenders and waits for things to develop.
Speaker 1: He's taking great care of the basketball again, guys, like
Speaker 1: fifteen assists in three turnovers so far in preseason. It's
Speaker 1: hard to not be excited about what that kind of
Speaker 1: bodes for this particular regular season. And it extends beyond
Speaker 1: a bunch of different things. Like a lot of people
Speaker 1: have kind of painted the Jamal Murray experience as like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's just a postseason player, and I've pushed back on that.
Speaker 1: If you guys, remember what I said was he kind
Speaker 1: of started to take this leap during the twenty twenty bubble, right.
Speaker 1: That was when he was going toe to toe with
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell, when he was hitting big shots against the Clippers,
Speaker 1: when he was hitting big shots against the Lakers. That
Speaker 1: was when I kind of saw Jamal Murray kind of
Speaker 1: is sending into a great playoff player, one of the
Speaker 1: best guards in the league. Right, But then what happens
Speaker 1: the same thing that happened to most of the players
Speaker 1: that played in the bubble and deep playoff runs. We
Speaker 1: had that really quick, like two month turnaround before we
Speaker 1: started the regular season, and he came into that following
Speaker 1: season kind of a shell of himself. It would be
Speaker 1: it would have been weird if he came into the
Speaker 1: season just locked in and ready to go, right. A
Speaker 1: lot of the core players who played in the postseason
Speaker 1: struggled at that point, right, Like the Heat got off
Speaker 1: to a weird start that season. Anthony Davis before his injury,
Speaker 1: you know, a third of the way through the season,
Speaker 1: he was only averaging like twenty one points per game.
Speaker 1: So like a lot of the guys who went on
Speaker 1: deep bubble playoff runs kind of struggled to start the
Speaker 1: next season. And everyone's like, oh, it's the bubble's fake. No,
Speaker 1: that's not what it was. The guys were just tired.
Speaker 1: They were tired because they just finished playing in October
Speaker 1: or late November or late September. For Jamal, they had
Speaker 1: just finished before they had to roll up into the
Speaker 1: next season, and it's just difficult on players' bodies. Right
Speaker 1: then Jamal actually literally gets hurt and then that whole
Speaker 1: following season he misses the season. And then last year
Speaker 1: he was kind of working his way back from the injury,
Speaker 1: and I've talked a lot on this show about the
Speaker 1: difference between actually being healthy and actually trusting your limb
Speaker 1: from the standpoint of your mentality and your willingness to
Speaker 1: plant hard and make super explosive moves and so like,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a coincidence that it wasn't until
Speaker 1: kind of the later portion of the season and into
Speaker 1: the postseason that Jamal Murray really started to look like
Speaker 1: the old Jamal Murray. So I don't think the narrative
Speaker 1: that Jamal Murray's not a good regular season player is
Speaker 1: necessarily fair. I think he became really freaking good in
Speaker 1: the playoffs in twenty twenty, and he's never had a
Speaker 1: normal regular season since then where he's either not coming
Speaker 1: off of an injury or you know, coming off of
Speaker 1: a playoff run literally a couple of weeks before, right,
Speaker 1: So I think he's just gonna come into the season
Speaker 1: and continue to cook at the same rate he was
Speaker 1: cooking last year in the playoffs. And make no mistake,
Speaker 1: he was cooking like a superstar in the playoffs last year,
Speaker 1: which is why I ranked him at number sixteen in
Speaker 1: our player rankings, ahead of a lot of guys that
Speaker 1: have better reputations around the league. But I thought that
Speaker 1: was an encouraging start to the preseason for Jamal Murray.
Speaker 1: Casey P looks locked in. He's made eight of his
Speaker 1: eleven jump shots so far in preseason. Aaron Gordon's jumper
Speaker 1: has been off, but he's been great in every other
Speaker 1: area of the game, as you can expect. But the
Speaker 1: guy that's really jumped off the screen in preseason a
Speaker 1: guy I've been looking forward to catching up on. I've
Speaker 1: been hearing all this talk about Julian Strawther, Julian Strawther,
Speaker 1: and obviously, like the Nuggets made the fewest changes of
Speaker 1: all of the contenders this year, right Like, if we
Speaker 1: go down my list of the six top tier contenders,
Speaker 1: it's like the Bucks when got Drew Holliday, and the
Speaker 1: Bucks went and got Damian Lillard. The Celtics got Drew
Speaker 1: Holliday and Christops Porzingis. The Sons got Bradley Beal and
Speaker 1: upgraded their role players. The Lakers got significantly deeper, brought
Speaker 1: in gatee Vincent Andorium Prance, a couple of fringe starter
Speaker 1: level players in the NBA. Right like the Warriors, went
Speaker 1: and got Chris Paul and brought in Dario Saraz. They
Speaker 1: all made like these pretty significant changes to their roster,
Speaker 1: and then U Gets basically brought everybody back. And so
Speaker 1: I've been prioritizing my coverage surrounding the new teams because
Speaker 1: we're talking about what's new and what's different, and so
Speaker 1: I've been excited to finally kind of come here a
Speaker 1: week before the start of the regular season, which is
Speaker 1: literally today, a week before the start of the regular season,
Speaker 1: and kind of touch base with the Nuggets and finally
Speaker 1: sit down and watch Julian Strawther. And it's been amazing.
Speaker 1: It was for those of you guys who aren't kind
Speaker 1: of in the loop on this. He was a late
Speaker 1: first round pick, a player out of Gonzaga, like a
Speaker 1: scoring guard wing who's six foot six with a six
Speaker 1: or nine wingspan, primarily played off the ball at Gonzaga.
Speaker 1: Would take some movement threes and things along those lines,
Speaker 1: but didn't take a lot of pull up jump shots,
Speaker 1: didn't run a ton of pick and roll compared to
Speaker 1: some of the higher volume ball handlers in the league.
Speaker 1: And he's coming into preseason and just looking like a
Speaker 1: classic on ball scoring threat. He's averaging twenty points per
Speaker 1: game so far in preseason in just twenty two minutes
Speaker 1: per game. He's shooting fifty eight percent from the field,
Speaker 1: fifty percent from three. And most importantly, he's brought something
Speaker 1: that none of us saw coming out of college, and
Speaker 1: that's like real fluidity in his dribble pull up jump
Speaker 1: shot game. He's got great feel understanding where the opportunities
Speaker 1: are to take pull up jump shots, like there are
Speaker 1: little gaps and pick and roll coverage, like when the
Speaker 1: big shows not a great time to shoot, but right
Speaker 1: as he's recovering back to the role man, that's when
Speaker 1: there can be an opening between when the guard recovers
Speaker 1: and when the big is rolling away right, soft spots
Speaker 1: in the mid range that can materialize. Right, He's got
Speaker 1: a really good feel for that sort of thing. And
Speaker 1: most importantly, he looks super, super confident. He's methodically working
Speaker 1: off the bounce getting to these spots and just looks
Speaker 1: like he believes he's going to make them. And guess
Speaker 1: what he's made damn near all of them. He's made
Speaker 1: nine pull up jump shots so far in preseason. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: he's taken nine pull up jump shots so far in preseason,
Speaker 1: made six of them, five of them are pull up threes.
Speaker 1: On all jump shots so far in preseason, he's at
Speaker 1: seventy six percent in effective field goal percentage. He's hit
Speaker 1: them off the catch, he hit them off the move,
Speaker 1: he's hit them and pick and roll, he's hit them
Speaker 1: in ISOs. It's been really truly impressive. And again, it's
Speaker 1: not just a dude hitting shots, because we've seen that,
Speaker 1: we've seen a role player come in and knock down
Speaker 1: his catch and shoot threes, right, That's not what this is.
Speaker 1: This is a confident score that is demonstrating something that
Speaker 1: he clearly has been working on all offseason. He's run
Speaker 1: seven pick and rolls and the Nuggets have scored fourteen
Speaker 1: points on them. That's two points per possession. That's insane.
Speaker 1: He's shown the ability to capitalize on the soft spot.
Speaker 1: He's got a beautiful floater. He's taken six floaters in
Speaker 1: preseason and made six or made five of them, five
Speaker 1: out of six. This is like incredibly high level shot
Speaker 1: making and he's doing it. He's doing it at the
Speaker 1: NBA level now. And I know it's just preseason, but
Speaker 1: I think especially when you factor in the type of
Speaker 1: role he's gonna have on this team, coming off the
Speaker 1: bench and looking to be aggressive as a score in
Speaker 1: bench units. These are the quality of players he's gonna
Speaker 1: be going against most of the time. This is the
Speaker 1: guy who straight up did not have a pull up
Speaker 1: jumper in college. He made twenty of them all season
Speaker 1: last year on low efficiency. So this is clearly a
Speaker 1: guy who's been in the gym all summer. This is
Speaker 1: not something that happens overnight. I've told you guys, like
Speaker 1: when it comes to improvements in ball handling and shooting,
Speaker 1: it is incremental. It happens little by little by little.
Speaker 1: And so when you see a guy make a gigantic leap,
Speaker 1: that to me is such a great indicator of work ethic.
Speaker 1: Why do you think I've been so high on guys
Speaker 1: like Jabari Smith Junior? Right When I see guys go
Speaker 1: from a turning a weakness into strength in such a
Speaker 1: short period of time, that to me is a great
Speaker 1: indicator of the intangible stuff. And look like the Denver
Speaker 1: bench needs some guys to pop. When you lose Jeff Green,
Speaker 1: And when you lose I mean Jeff Green wasn't great
Speaker 1: last year, but obviously they trusted him over some of
Speaker 1: the younger guys like Zignage and Peyton Watson. Right, So,
Speaker 1: like when you've got Bruce Brown out of the picture,
Speaker 1: when you got Jeff Green out of the picture, you
Speaker 1: need guys to step up into these positions and show
Speaker 1: some pop and you know, like one for two. I mean,
Speaker 1: Jalen Pickett's been a little bit uneven. I think he's
Speaker 1: kind of a weird player. His release is a little slow,
Speaker 1: it's a little funky, it's got a little bit of
Speaker 1: a hitch in it, And I'm not sure what to
Speaker 1: make of Jalen Picket at this point, But like Julian Strather,
Speaker 1: legitimately looks like he could be really, really good. It
Speaker 1: looks like it could be a huge win for this
Speaker 1: front office. And you can kind of envision lineups with
Speaker 1: like him and Reggie Jackson with like one of the
Speaker 1: starters and like Zeke Nag and Peyton Watson just being
Speaker 1: really young, really athletic, and have the scoring punch with
Speaker 1: guys like Reggie Jackson and Julian Strather to make to
Speaker 1: at least give yourself a fighting chance to float those minutes. Right.
Speaker 1: I always love Gonzaga guys too. They kind of remind
Speaker 1: me of Villanova guys. Like every guy that comes out
Speaker 1: of Gonzaga just seems to know how to play within
Speaker 1: a winning context and it it knows how to like
Speaker 1: like do the little things. Mark fu just does a
Speaker 1: really good job coaching those guys. All right, let's take
Speaker 1: a look at our Nugget season preview or number one,
Speaker 1: number one Denver Nuggets. I was talking with Logan, our
Speaker 1: head of content here at the volume, and he was
Speaker 1: trying to guess the top three or four of my
Speaker 1: power rankings, and he had thought I would have a
Speaker 1: different team at number one, and then I told him
Speaker 1: I had the Nuggets at number one, and he goes like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. You're a loyalist of the banner. And I've
Speaker 1: never heard that expression before, but I'm stealing it from Logan,
Speaker 1: and it's the catchphrase of this show now, this show
Speaker 1: hoops tonight is a loyalist of the banner. Winning to
Speaker 1: me means absolutely everything in the NBA. I've told you,
Speaker 1: I told you guys, the Nuggets fans in particular, this
Speaker 1: several times over the course of the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: like yeah, I'm going to give the benefit of the
Speaker 1: doubt to winners, but once you've done it, to me,
Speaker 1: now I give that same benefit of the doubt to you.
Speaker 1: Was I a guy who was somewhat lower on Jokic
Speaker 1: than the consensus over the course of the previous few years, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but now that he's proven that he can do it
Speaker 1: at this level, I'll defend him to the dirty end.
Speaker 1: And to me, like, look, I've seen a lot of
Speaker 1: guys push back on ring culture, and like, I understand
Speaker 1: that there are some downsides to ring culture. There are
Speaker 1: different kinds of conversations to have about basketball, right, Like,
Speaker 1: I think we can be a fan of the game
Speaker 1: and appreciate things that go beyond winning. And obviously God
Speaker 1: knows I do that. But in the big picture, why
Speaker 1: do we do this? Why do you root for your team?
Speaker 1: Why does anybody work as hard as they do in
Speaker 1: the off season? They forget about basketball, think about anything
Speaker 1: that you do in your life. Like if you if
Speaker 1: you're trying to be great at a thing, what drives
Speaker 1: you is the desire to win. Winning does matter at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. And like, I understand that
Speaker 1: not everyone sees it the way that I see it,
Speaker 1: But to me, like the championship. The Larry O'Brien trophy
Speaker 1: is completely sacred, and like, when when you've won that,
Speaker 1: it has to mean something. And to me, like, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about this when we get to the competitors.
Speaker 1: I have basketball reasons why I believe Denver is my
Speaker 1: championship favorite, and we'll get into those. But also, like,
Speaker 1: there's nothing theoretical about Milwaukee or theoretical about Boston, or
Speaker 1: theoretical about Phoenix or La are theoretical about the Warriors
Speaker 1: that to me can overcome the tangible, real accomplishment of
Speaker 1: the Nuggets kicking everyone's ass last year. I think that
Speaker 1: should matter, you know, Like I want bragging rights, and
Speaker 1: I think it goes both ways. If you lose, you
Speaker 1: get motivated to get back to the top, But if
Speaker 1: you win, that's got to mean something. So I've got
Speaker 1: the Nuggets at number one for right now. We'll talk
Speaker 1: more about the reasons why here in a little bit
Speaker 1: a little offseason recap. They lost Bruce Brown, Thomas Bryant,
Speaker 1: Jeff Green, and Ish Smith. They added Justin Holliday and
Speaker 1: a couple of draft picks in the late first early
Speaker 1: second Julian Strather and Jaln Pickett. We talked about earlier
Speaker 1: the depth chart. Right now, they're a little finn but
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that in a minute. At guard, Jamal Murray, KCP,
Speaker 1: Reggie Jackson and Julian Strawther. At forward, Michael Porter Junior,
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon, Christian Brown, Peyton Watson, and Justin Holliday. Just
Speaker 1: In all Day is kind of like a guard forward.
Speaker 1: Christian Brown could technically be a guard forward as well.
Speaker 1: At center, Nicole Jokic, DeAndre DeAndre, Jordan Blatko, Consar and
Speaker 1: Zeke Naji. Dignagi's another guy that can kind of kind
Speaker 1: of masquerade as a guard or excuse me as like
Speaker 1: a forward as well. Depth concerns. A lot of people
Speaker 1: talking about depth with the Nuggets, but these are these
Speaker 1: are the same types of concerns that surrounded the Nuggets
Speaker 1: last year. Right All the things that I could say
Speaker 1: about the Nuggets this year, do they have a good
Speaker 1: enough bench? Are are can they withstand a significant injury?
Speaker 1: Can they defend at a high enough level? All of
Speaker 1: those things were the same questions surrounding the team last year,
Speaker 1: and they kicked everyone's ass. And so again, like I
Speaker 1: try not to Galaxy brain this kind of stuff. Are
Speaker 1: are they going to be able to like, are they
Speaker 1: gonna be able to withstand a significant injury? Probably not.
Speaker 1: But I could say the same thing about every one
Speaker 1: of these teams, Like, if Jamal Murray gets hurt, the
Speaker 1: Nuggets aren't winning a title, sorry, right, But if Dame
Speaker 1: gets hurt, of the Bucks winning the title, no, Like
Speaker 1: I would argue even the Celtics are kind of precariously
Speaker 1: on that debt line because they don't have the high
Speaker 1: end half court shot creation, right, Like if jaln Brown
Speaker 1: or Derek White gets hurt, like, they probably can't win
Speaker 1: the title. The Lakers, if Lebron James, even if Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves went down, I'd immediately be thinking the Lakers have
Speaker 1: no chance, right, the Warriors their core six or seven
Speaker 1: guys type of thing. Same thing goes with the Suns, Like,
Speaker 1: none of these teams can withstand a significant injury. The
Speaker 1: league is too talented, it's too a deep and wide open,
Speaker 1: and there's too much parody at the top. So I
Speaker 1: don't think that I don't think that that's a valid
Speaker 1: criticism when the same could be said about any of
Speaker 1: these teams. Now that Bruce Brown loss is significant. He
Speaker 1: was like a sixth starter for the Nuggets last year.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, he was fifth in scoring
Speaker 1: for the Nuggets in the postseason. He went for double
Speaker 1: figures in fifteen of their twenty games in the playoffs
Speaker 1: and had some pretty significant matchups that he dominated, most
Speaker 1: notably against Angela Russell in the Lakers series. They used
Speaker 1: him for twenty seven minutes a game throughout the entire playoffront.
Speaker 1: So that's significant. Now that brings to the next question. Okay, Jason,
Speaker 1: you are saying that they've lost Bruce Brown, who's this
Speaker 1: significant piece, and they didn't bring in anybody who's of
Speaker 1: any sort of significant influx of talent, right, Like, I
Speaker 1: like Justin Holliday, But is he even in the same
Speaker 1: stratosphere as a player as Bruce Brown. No, like these
Speaker 1: younger players. I really like Julian straw the But like,
Speaker 1: how many times an NBA history does a rookie come
Speaker 1: in and monumentally swing championship hoods? Never? Right, like can
Speaker 1: Zeke Najee and Peyton Watson come in and play at
Speaker 1: a similar level to Jeff Crean, DeAndre Jordan front line
Speaker 1: or Thomas Bryant front line. Like, yeah, I think that
Speaker 1: I think they can, but those were that that's a
Speaker 1: pretty low bar, right, So, like, I don't think there's
Speaker 1: anything significant that they did as an improvement. So the
Speaker 1: question is if that's not the case, And the Bucks
Speaker 1: got better added Dame, and the Celtics got better added
Speaker 1: Drew and Chris hops porzingis right, and the Lakers got
Speaker 1: better adding Gabe Vincent Andorian Prince and bringing everybody back
Speaker 1: for the continuity and bolstering their backups position, and the
Speaker 1: Suns brought in Bradley Beal and and brought in better
Speaker 1: role players than they had last year, and the Warriors
Speaker 1: bringing Chris Pollock. If that's the case, why do I
Speaker 1: still have the Nuggets at the face as of as
Speaker 1: the favor of favorite still And it's really this simple
Speaker 1: to me. They still have the most unguardable offense in
Speaker 1: the NBA. All you most of you Nuggets fans might
Speaker 1: be aware of, uh swipe a cam he covers the team.
Speaker 1: He's actually gonna be doing a show this year with
Speaker 1: with Matt Moore and Adam Morris, two guys you know,
Speaker 1: I think you do the Lockdown Nuggets podcast. So if
Speaker 1: you haven't met Cam, You're gonna meet him this year.
Speaker 1: But I went on his show last week and we
Speaker 1: talked for like an hour and forty minutes about a
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff around the league, but we talked a
Speaker 1: lot about the Nuggets, and we talked a lot about
Speaker 1: their specific playoff roun last year. And you know the
Speaker 1: thing is is, I I really do think that the
Speaker 1: talk of the defense from the Nuggets in the playoffs
Speaker 1: was a little overrated. And the only reason I mean
Speaker 1: that say that is the Wolves were a bad offense
Speaker 1: all year, the Lakers were a bad offense all year,
Speaker 1: and the Heat or a bad offense all year. So
Speaker 1: I do think that there's something to be said about
Speaker 1: like the Denver Nuggets offense not really being challenged to
Speaker 1: the point where like you could actually find out what
Speaker 1: they're capable of. But on the other side of that coin,
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves, the Lakers in the Heat were three of
Speaker 1: the very best defenses last year, as specifically within the
Speaker 1: postseason context, and those rosters that were available, because obviously
Speaker 1: there were some roster changes along the way, those were
Speaker 1: really good defenses that the Nuggets cut to pieces, like
Speaker 1: utterly demolished. There were little moments here or there where
Speaker 1: the Lakers got some stops, or the Wolves got some stops,
Speaker 1: or the Heat got some stops, but at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, the Nuggets were able to solve those defenses.
Speaker 1: And so, like, the reality is is, in order to
Speaker 1: beat the Nuggets, you need one of two things to happen.
Speaker 1: You need a team that is a truly elite offense
Speaker 1: and a truly elite defense, which we'll go through the contenders,
Speaker 1: but I don't necessarily think one of those teams exists
Speaker 1: right now, or you need one of the core Nuggets
Speaker 1: players to get hurt. And so, from that standpoint, to me,
Speaker 1: like I can count on the Nuggets offense to find
Speaker 1: a way to score against anybody in the league. Is
Speaker 1: there a team that can hold them to that level
Speaker 1: that those defenses did last year, because God knows what
Speaker 1: it could have been if they faced four offensive minded teams, right,
Speaker 1: Can they find a team that can make them work
Speaker 1: as hard as some of those defenses did, but also
Speaker 1: make them pay on the other end. I don't know
Speaker 1: if that team exists. Because you can't say whatever you
Speaker 1: want about the Nuggets defense, the Jokics, pick and roll coverages,
Speaker 1: they use the schemes that Mike Malone implemented. They worked
Speaker 1: well enough against the teams that they played against last year.
Speaker 1: And so I mean, like, I don't necessarily see a
Speaker 1: team that can solve that specific problem. And like, here's
Speaker 1: the thing. Will the Nuggets repeat? Probably not, just because
Speaker 1: of what NBA history tells us, Right, Like, the last
Speaker 1: team that even won their conference two times in a
Speaker 1: row was the Golden State Warriors with Kevin Durant and
Speaker 1: Steph Curry. So every year we see different teams win
Speaker 1: their conference and different teams win the championship. That's just
Speaker 1: kind of the nature of the NBA at this point.
Speaker 1: Too much depth of talent, stars are linking up all
Speaker 1: over the place. It's just really really hard to dominate
Speaker 1: the league the way teams have done in the past. Right,
Speaker 1: But that said, is there any single team that I'd
Speaker 1: pick over the Nuggets? Like, for the Bucks, they have
Speaker 1: a real perimeter defense issue, and they're also super vulnerable
Speaker 1: from the standpoint of depth and injuries to their core players.
Speaker 1: For the Celtics, did they really alleviate the Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: half court offense shot creation element? Not really? And they
Speaker 1: sacrifice depth to upgrade at point guard and center for
Speaker 1: the Suns. I really don't trust their ability to get
Speaker 1: into a damn rock fight and defend and rebound and
Speaker 1: be physical and be able to knock down pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots while doing that, not to mention just the
Speaker 1: general process of taking pull up jump shots primarily in
Speaker 1: your offense and us never really seeing a team win
Speaker 1: a title that way. The Lakers have all the depth
Speaker 1: in the world, but they lack perimeter defense too, And
Speaker 1: then we talked about this ad nauseum all summer, but
Speaker 1: their shot making is a huge weakness against the top
Speaker 1: teams in the league. Unless we see some gigantic improvement
Speaker 1: from Lebron and ad and then the Warriors, I think
Speaker 1: they're clearly worse than all those teams, even though I'll
Speaker 1: always consider them a competitor a contender because of their
Speaker 1: starting five. They're older, they're smaller than everybody. They lack
Speaker 1: depth as well. So like again, if I had to
Speaker 1: choose the field or to choose the Nuggets, I would
Speaker 1: probably choose the field, just because of what NBA history
Speaker 1: tells us from the same point of just parody and
Speaker 1: how you have to get lucky now to get injury luck.
Speaker 1: You gotta get a match up here or there that
Speaker 1: breaks your way. You gotta avoid one of the top
Speaker 1: teams in the league because they happened to choke and
Speaker 1: lose early. Like you, I'm not criticizing the Nuggets last year,
Speaker 1: because every title has been like this, Right, Like the
Speaker 1: Nuggets didn't have to face the Celtics or Bucks and
Speaker 1: primarily faced limited offenses, and they were a limited defense.
Speaker 1: They got a little bit lucky. Right. Looking at the Warriors, right,
Speaker 1: you catch the Lebron and Ad messing around with Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook thing, and how that kind of removed them from
Speaker 1: the equation. The Sons, who are the best team in
Speaker 1: the league all season, there's this weird COVID thing, and
Speaker 1: then Luca mentally dominates them, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you have a pretty limited Dallas Mavericks team in the
Speaker 1: conference finals, right, and then you get to face a
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics team that's obviously very good but is led
Speaker 1: by a super young superstar. They got scared in front
Speaker 1: of Steph Curry. You go back to twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: and it's like, wait, the Paul George No Kawhi Clippers
Speaker 1: were in the conference finals and Trey Young and the
Speaker 1: Hawks were in the conference finals and Giannis had to
Speaker 1: play a team with no top ten players to win
Speaker 1: the trophy. You know, you go back to twenty twenty
Speaker 1: and it's like Kevin Durant and Steph Curry are on
Speaker 1: their couches for Lebron and Anthony Davis to dominate everybody
Speaker 1: in the bubble. You go back to twenty nineteen and
Speaker 1: you have the Kevin Durant Klay Thompson injuries, like it's
Speaker 1: just You go back to twenty eighteen and you have
Speaker 1: the Chris Paul injury when they're up three to two,
Speaker 1: Like every champion gets lucky. That's just the reality. It's
Speaker 1: such an important part of the equation. And so in
Speaker 1: a league this deep, it's it's hard to imagine things
Speaker 1: breaking right for the Nuggets. Again just based on what
Speaker 1: happens in recent NBA history, but there is no singular
Speaker 1: team that their specific situation appears better to than Denver
Speaker 1: for me, so in a wide open league, and this again,
Speaker 1: I want to be clear, this is a basketball case.
Speaker 1: It's not just I am a loyalist of the banner.
Speaker 1: I do believe the Nuggets deserve to have the bragging
Speaker 1: rights throughout this entire season, but also fundamentally, they have
Speaker 1: the best player in the world, the most unguardable playoff
Speaker 1: offense in the world, and they have proven the abilit
Speaker 1: to take limited offenses in the playoffs and guard them
Speaker 1: well even if they defend well on the other end
Speaker 1: of the floor. And Jamal Murray has proven multiple postseasons
Speaker 1: now to be able to produce at a superstar level
Speaker 1: as a legitimate number two alongside Nicole Jokic. That makes
Speaker 1: him a say for bet. They also have the best
Speaker 1: home court advantage in the NBA statistically, It's just hard
Speaker 1: to go any other direction right now as a pick
Speaker 1: than the Denver Nuggets. All Right, two mail back questions
Speaker 1: before we get out of here today versus from Felipe,
Speaker 1: Most people have Phoenix above the Lakers, even though they
Speaker 1: can't guard Jokic or ad How would you see a
Speaker 1: potential Phoenix Denver in Phoenix LA matchup? So Denver in LA,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, are the two most physically imposing teams
Speaker 1: in the entire NBA other than maybe the Milwaukee Bucks, right,
Speaker 1: and that's really more of a Yiannis thing, right. Their
Speaker 1: front lines are just massive with the Lakers. It's like
Speaker 1: you have to deal with Anthony Davis, you have to
Speaker 1: deal with Lebron James and his big physical matchup attacking.
Speaker 1: You have to deal with with Ruby Hatcha Mura and
Speaker 1: his big physical matchup attacking. They're going. They're big all
Speaker 1: at all these positions, right, even their guards. I mean
Speaker 1: they're not as athletic as they should be. But D'Angelo
Speaker 1: Russell can post up smaller defenders. We saw him do
Speaker 1: that to Steph Curry a lot in the postseason last year. Right,
Speaker 1: we go to the Nuggets, they're huge. It's it's Nicole Jokic,
Speaker 1: probably the most physically imposing center in the league. It's
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon, you know, in that archetype of big, strong
Speaker 1: role player forward. He's one of the top three or
Speaker 1: four guys in the league at that position. It was
Speaker 1: a great rebounder, six foot ten. There was a play
Speaker 1: in the game, remember Game one in the NBA Finals,
Speaker 1: that they just opened up against the heat by just
Speaker 1: giving the ball to Aaron Gordon the post and him
Speaker 1: dominating everybody. They play a six ' ten to three
Speaker 1: in Michael Porter junior. Jamal Murray is a big physically
Speaker 1: imposing guard who can inflict that on smaller guards around
Speaker 1: the league. So the Lakers and Nuggets to me, are
Speaker 1: the two most physically imposing teams, and in order to
Speaker 1: beat them, you have to hold up under that physical
Speaker 1: onslaught And like, I have no doubt that the Sons
Speaker 1: are gonna win a shit ton of regular season with
Speaker 1: all their offensive skill, but like there is there is
Speaker 1: something to be said about playing in a physical environment
Speaker 1: and the impact that has on your ability to knock
Speaker 1: down pull up jump shots. In general, it's really difficult
Speaker 1: to knock down enough pull up jump shots to be
Speaker 1: an efficient offense. But when you factor in doing that
Speaker 1: against the team that's beating you up on the other
Speaker 1: end and wearing you down and making those jump shots
Speaker 1: even harder, I don't think it's a coincidence that most
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooters go down in efficiency when they
Speaker 1: end up in settings like that. We even saw Steph
Speaker 1: Curry have his least efficient postseason or postseason series since
Speaker 1: I think it in like five years. It was back
Speaker 1: to like the twenty nineteen series against the Rockets because
Speaker 1: they were so damn physical with them. The Lakers were
Speaker 1: all over the place, Like I just I'm not a
Speaker 1: doubter in the Suns in what they're capable of from
Speaker 1: the standpoint of their ceiling with all the talent that
Speaker 1: they have. To me, it's just a simple reality of
Speaker 1: the way playoff basketball goes. It always degenerates into a knockdown,
Speaker 1: drag out fist fight, and the teams that rely on
Speaker 1: really tough shot making as a posed to as like
Speaker 1: a as like a counter, like the Nuggets made a
Speaker 1: lot of tough shots Yo Kitchen Murray, crazy end the
Speaker 1: clock shots in key moments throughout the postseason. That was
Speaker 1: not their bread and butter. They made those shots when
Speaker 1: they needed to as like a ceiling razor. For the Suns,
Speaker 1: that is who they are. In that first preseason game
Speaker 1: that Booker, I'm gonna check up on the Sun's more
Speaker 1: recent preseason games later this week, But in that first
Speaker 1: preseason game, Booker, kd and Beale took twenty one shots
Speaker 1: in what fifteen or sixteen of them were pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots. That's not their counter, That's not how they
Speaker 1: rescue possessions at the end of the clock. That's literally
Speaker 1: what they do every single possession. So I just don't
Speaker 1: trust that in a seven game series the way that
Speaker 1: I trust Enver. In LA final mail back question, I
Speaker 1: was curious why you don't talk about the WWNBA during
Speaker 1: the offseason, considering the WNBA playoffs occur when NBA basketball
Speaker 1: is in its off season, and it would give us
Speaker 1: some basketball content to go over. Also, I am just
Speaker 1: interested in analysis on at WNBA games. I'm watching the
Speaker 1: WNBA finals now and their style of play is very
Speaker 1: different from NBA ball. So I don't cover the WNBA
Speaker 1: for the same reason I don't cover college basketball. I
Speaker 1: am a big believer and like, if you spread yourself
Speaker 1: too thin, all it does is sacrifice the quality of work.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of people out there that cover
Speaker 1: THEWNBA and do a really good job. But for me, like,
Speaker 1: in order to be the best NBA analyst that I
Speaker 1: can be, I need to devote my attention and energy
Speaker 1: towards the NBA and so like, I have a very
Speaker 1: specific calendar, right like from basically now all the way
Speaker 1: through to the middle of June, it's NBA basketball. But
Speaker 1: then when we get to the middle of June, like
Speaker 1: immediately after that, I'm going to start looking at draft prospects,
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to watch a ton of college hoops.
Speaker 1: I'm going to watch specific film on specific players and
Speaker 1: specific traits that might be able to translate to the
Speaker 1: NBA level. Then we get in to the free agent
Speaker 1: period right in July, right, and then I have NBA
Speaker 1: Summer League, right and then my wife and I like
Speaker 1: to go on vacation for a little while, and then
Speaker 1: when I get back, like there are specific things that
Speaker 1: I want to do every single summer. The player rankings
Speaker 1: are something that are very important to me. To me,
Speaker 1: that's like kind of a really fun part of the
Speaker 1: NBA off season is like where are these guys at
Speaker 1: in terms of bragging rights going into this following season?
Speaker 1: And also, if anything, I'm looking to cut back in
Speaker 1: how much I work in the off season. I was
Speaker 1: talking with my wife the other day, but after we
Speaker 1: got back from Japan, because I took like sixteen days
Speaker 1: off of work, which was the first time I had
Speaker 1: taken a significant chunk of time off since I got hired.
Speaker 1: And over the course of the following ten weeks, I
Speaker 1: did fifty five videos and that's literally five and a
Speaker 1: half per week, and I literally I've talked about the
Speaker 1: powers that be already and I've talked to my wife, like,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that next year. Like it just I
Speaker 1: just I need to eventually take it a little easy,
Speaker 1: especially with how hard I go during the regular season.
Speaker 1: So it would be a disservice if I did a
Speaker 1: half assed, bullshit job covering the WNBA, and I don't
Speaker 1: see any sort of opportunity in my schedule to do
Speaker 1: it well, and so I'm going to leave it to
Speaker 1: the people that do it well and just focus on
Speaker 1: my specific wheelhouse, which is the NBA. But that is
Speaker 1: a great question. I'm not one of those guys who
Speaker 1: hates on the WNBA or thinks it's boring. Whenever I
Speaker 1: do flick channels and turn on a WNBA game, I
Speaker 1: enjoy it because I love basketball, and I'm super impressed
Speaker 1: by the individual players. I have really enjoyed women's college hoops.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed the w the Women's National Tournament. Last year.
Speaker 1: I wanted to order the Sabrinna Ynescu basketball shoes from Nike,
Speaker 1: and they straight up don't make them in my size,
Speaker 1: so that was a huge bummer. Like, it's not an
Speaker 1: anti WNBA take, it's just literally the reality of my
Speaker 1: predicament from the standpoint of time management and me not
Speaker 1: wanting to put out, you know, half aster bullshit content,
Speaker 1: but great question. All right, guys, that is all I
Speaker 1: have for today. Don't forget to keep dropping mail back
Speaker 1: questions in the YouTube comments. We're now officially done with
Speaker 1: the power rankings. We're gonna do probably two more preseason
Speaker 1: reactions this week of some kind, and then probably on Monday,
Speaker 1: we'll probably do some form of season predictions episode of
Speaker 1: some kind, and then Tuesday we are covering Nuggets, Lakers
Speaker 1: and what is it Warrior Suns. I'm not even sure
Speaker 1: what the second game is, but we will be getting
Speaker 1: into the usual routine of covering our daily NBA live
Speaker 1: starting next Tuesday. I appreciate you guys rocking with me
Speaker 1: this summer. I know I announced a new YouTube channel yesterday.
Speaker 1: I don't know when they're officially launching it, but it's
Speaker 1: supposed to be this week, so just keep an eye
Speaker 1: on the When it's actually official, I'll start announcing it
Speaker 1: at the beginning of every show. But I think one
Speaker 1: of my biggest goals this year is to build that
Speaker 1: YouTube channel into something significant. So when that does happen,
Speaker 1: if you guys could take the time to subscribe. I
Speaker 1: would really appreciate it, but again I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: and all your support over the course of the summer
Speaker 1: and for supporting through those lists. We will be back
Speaker 1: tomorrow with more preseason reaction contents. The volume