The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd’s Instant Reaction -  NBA Champion Denver Nuggets

Episode Date: June 13, 2023

Colin and Hoops Tonight host Jason Timpf give their instant reaction to the Nuggets NBA title clinching Game 5 victory over the Heat, if Denver has a shot at a dynasty, and what some other contenders need to improve to beat them.  Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates! #Herd #Volume #HoopsTonight  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We go round and round. At the end of it, we talk about what Miami has to do and the Celtics have to do. Is this team beatable? Let's head to 45 minutes breaking down the Nuggets championship season. Colin, does that ever get old for you watching a team hoist the trophy? Oh, no. You know, tension makes movies and sports better. It was sloppy.

I mean, Denver was really tight. Mike Malone at one point said, we're tight. I mean, they couldn't hit free throws. They couldn't hit threes. But you know what? They hit their gimmies. You know, they're good in the paint. I thought Michael Porter redeemed himself with a couple of big moments.

And I also thought you can say that, you know, Denver's not this defensively. I thought they were pretty good. And the fourth quarter, I thought they were relentless. I thought they were kind of dictating, kind of pushing running Miami off the line. No cheap baskets. made everybody work for everything. Like, you know, they always say offense is talent and skill, defense is effort. Like, Denver can be good defensively.

They're so good offensively. They don't have to be great defensively. But on a night when they couldn't hit anything, I thought their defense in the fourth quarter was really strong. They rose to a really high level. You know, it's funny. I was digging into this coming into tonight, obviously, as I kind of expected, as I'm sure you did as well,

for Denver to hoist the trophy. And one of the biggest storylines is this is basically the first non-defending champion in decades to win the title without a top 10 defense in the regular season. It's a significant achievement. It's kind of a break of the mold, so to speak. But what's interesting is as you dive into it, their defense has been excellent in this postseason run. Coming into tonight, their defensive rating in the postseason was only about two points

worse than Golden State last year, who was an outstanding defense during the regular season and continued to be so during the postseason. Now, some of it, I do think it was about matchups, and this is kind of the beauty of basketball is like, it's not necessarily how great of a defense you are in a vacuum. It's how well can you guard the Lakers? How well can you guard Miami? How well can you guard Phoenix? And with those particular teams, you know, Phoenix didn't quite have the amount of rim pressure they needed. The Lakers didn't quite have the amount of off ball shooting they needed. Miami had all the off ball shooting in the world, but they didn't have the real high level shot creation that they needed. And that's the thing is like, again, in the NBA, you don't have to be, it's not about

being that great defense in the grand scheme of things. It's about your specific matchup. And they took it very seriously in this particular postseason run. Mike Malone harped on it constantly. They all talked about it constantly after that game two ugly loss to Miami. And you know, what's interesting is they were missing threes like crazy. This was a classic Eric Spolster game. They ran about 40 possessions of zone in the first two games of the series. Then almost completely abandoned it in games three and four. And then that was almost all they did tonight. And it was a, it did a great job of disrupting Denver's rhythm. And they were missing a lot of open shots. And what's interesting in basketball is you can't control shot result. Like if you're getting good

looks, you fire away and you just hope they go in, right? But you can control the defensive end of the floor. And I thought their second half was probably their best stretch of defense in this entire postseason. Hell, they had Jimmy Butler pump baking at ghosts and not wanting to shoot the basketball. Bam and a bottom was missing everything around the paint. It was their defense that got it done. And that's what I enjoyed about it is like at the end of the day, it was some of the traditional things that ended up winning in the end. Yeah, I think they went from a good team to a very good team. And you wonder, when you look at Yokic and Jamal Murray's playmaking ability on top of the points, are they potentially a great team? You know, Murray is a score and Yokic is a

score and playmaker. That's a very good team. But, when Murray adds the element, oh, I can make plays for others, along with Yokic, Gordon, an elite defensive team, all-time great size, then you start going, wow, they got a, they got a lot of things here. Like Pippen, you know, Michael wasn't a playmaker. He was a great score. Pippen wasn't a playmaker. He was a great defender.

You know, like Chicago didn't have a lot of that hybrid stuff where you could do both, right? Even Shaq and Kobe, known as scores. So Yokic and Murray both become 10 plus a. assist guys. You know, the other thing is when you're when you're a really great team, you not only win championships, but you often change the game. The Warriors changed the game. Denver now, with their length, are they putting it into small ball?

You can't really play small ball with them. You have to have an enormously successful shooting night. They're just too long. They're just too big. and I think to myself, great teams not only win, the Kansas City Chiefs not only surpassed New England, they've made that sort of defense first game. That kind of game doesn't match up with Kansas City.

You just can't stop Kansas City if you give them 12 possessions. You just can't. And so not only is Kansas City now better than New England, they've kind of ended the idea of ball control because Mahomes needs 13 seconds and he can drive down the field. And I think what Denver's doing, are they ending small ball? Do we look at now, Miami's a pretty small team of BAMs done on the floor. Golden State, they just don't match up. They just can't get anything down low. And I also think it was a throwback series. Denver's very

much points in the paint. A lot of guys hitting twos. They want a championship at a night they couldn't hit free throws or threes. I kind of like the old school stuff. I got to tell you, people are going to watch them. And I think people are going to say, Okay, the small ball. Remember Houston for years, chase the warrior small ball and they could never win. They were shooting 30, 40, 503s. You sort of look at Denver and think, oh, there is another way. Length, twos, playmakers.

I don't know. I find Denver captivating to watch. I feel like I'm watching a little 70s and 80s and 2023. I feel like I'm watching a little of both. Yeah, they represent some proven methods that win in the NBA and some. new methods, you know. And what's interesting is Golden State last year was kind of a small team. But if you look back, like, size has been winning in the NBA lately. Like this Denver team, gigantic. That Milwaukee Bucks team in 21, gigantic. That Lakers game in 2020, gigantic. That

Toronto Raptors team in 2019, massive. Even that Warriors team with Kevin Durant, when you really put Kevin Durant with Andre Guadala and Draymond Green on that front line, they were massive. They're just, you have to win with size in the NBA. And what was so interesting with this particular Denver team, and this is what actually your Kansas City Chiefs reference kind of makes sense to me. Like, I can't tell you how many times over the years as a toured Cowboys fan, I'd be watching like Aaron Rogers put together these long, drawn out drives.

And then it just felt like the cowboy offense could never get in a rhythm. And the three and out is almost just as much of a product of the rhythm as it is the defense just because there's a flow to football in the same way there's a flow to basketball. And it's when you see a team that's going to get a million offensive rebounds and they're going to score consistently, get back in transition and force you to attack their set defense. Sometimes Denver's best defense is their offense. Just by the way they beat you up on the interior of the other end of the floor. I do not. One of the one of the weird subplots of this series is Jimmy Butler and Bamette Obio could not make a shot in the paint to save their life.

Like they were, they were awful, awful shooting inside the paint in this series. and a big part of that is those dudes are banging with Aaron Gordon and Nicole Yokic all series. And it just wears on you. And so that's a big part of their attack. And then as you go down the roster, you mentioned Jamal Murray, and that's such an important part. His playmaking has been a revelation in this playoff run. He's averaging over seven assists a game. That means Yokic and Murray are giving you almost 20 assists a game. Yeah. And then you've got the Murray, the, the, the, the, um, KCP, Michael Porter Jr. element and the Aaron Gordon element, all these guys are coming back.

This to me feels like a team that could just as easily make four or five consecutive Western Conference finals and win multiple championships. Yeah, it's, I said this on the air today on Fox. I said 16 teams made the playoffs. 15 either lost or were taxed, got blown out in a couple of games, except Denver. I mean, Denver was kind of like that Laker, that Kobe. Shack for his title, it's like, even when they didn't play well, they won. I mean, Denver didn't play well tonight. And one, there's an old saying years ago, I remember Pete Carroll saying this is when the Seahawks won a championship, he said, you had to play so well to beat us.

He goes, we go back and look at our losses on that Russell Wilson championship team. And he goes, I mean, the teams would play like flawless football, no penalties, no turnovers. He said it's a great sign. And I think he said this before they won the Super Bowl. It's a great sign when teams have to play, you know, nearly flawless to beat you. And now tonight, neither team was flawless. But I mean, Denver, if you go back, Jason, they rolled. They humiliated Minnesota. They swept the Lakers.

In fact, you can look at it now. Phoenix beat them twice and actually little pushback, not at the end of the series, but you look at Phoenix and you think Vogel make DeAndre 8 and a little better player, better defensively, certainly. Durant a full season, Booker a full season. CP3 probably resigns. They go get somebody on the bench. I'm not saying they're going to beat Denver,

but you look back and it's the one team that made them uncomfortable a little bit was Phoenix. Otherwise, they hammered people. I mean, it was really, you start, I mean, the average win in this series after tonight, it's probably about six, seven points a game. But when you look at how Miami's sort of discombobulated like Milwaukee and made, teams look, Celtics look so bad in the final couple of games, then Denver pretty much, Denver played its worst game in a month and won. That's not a very good team. That's a great team. Do you have some projects around the home, the condo, the townhome of the apartment

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but there's nothing like live and there's nothing like being there in person for last minute amazing deals on the best tickets to comedy shows, concerts, and your favorite sport. Check out Game Time. Download the GameTime app right now. The Redeem code is me, Colin, C-O-L-I-N, $20, $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Go out and have some fun this weekend. Again, download the GameTime app, $20 off your first purchase. The redeem code is C-O-L-I-N. Last-minute tickets, lowest prices, guaranteed at game time. That becomes an interesting exercise to kind of think about what the rest of the league does from here, because I think it's going to affect in a bunch of different ways. You talked about Smallball, and I 100% agree. Like, there's just,

there's no doubt that if you try to march into a series against the Denver Nuggets next year, and you want to play four dudes that are below 6-8, then you're going to be up against it from the standpoint of competing on the glass and in the physicality areas of the game. I mean, Miami did about as good as you possibly can do because of how well-coached they are, but even they looked physically overwhelmed at times.

And look at what ended up as most of the pivotal plays at the end of this game were offensive rebound putbacks and Yokic just mauling dudes around the rim. It was their size that got them beat at the end. Now, as I look around the league, though, like everyone's got to make significant improvements. Like I think Phoenix had some real success with pull-up jump shooting against this Denver team, but they need to confront their size issues.

That's going to be something they have to confront. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And then the Lakers, ironically, were by far the most successful offense against the Nuggets. That was so weird about that series. You go in there and you're like, Lakers are the best defense. They're going to be great. Denver cooked L.A. more than they cooked any of the other teams.

Like, it didn't make any sense. And then on the offensive end of the floor, we all talked shit about the Laker offense all season. and the Lakers were actually the most successful offense against the Nuggets, in large part because of LeBron James rim pressure, Rui Hachamura rim pressure. They were actually able to attack the paint in a way the Miami Heat couldn't, but they have to make so many improvements in terms of their perimeter athleticism because guys like Bruce Brown and Jamal Murray just absolutely destroyed them.

And so all these teams have to make significant improvements. You're going to see, I think you're going to see a lot of teams get really aggressive this offseason because they know they're not good enough yet. And I think you're going to see a couple of things. a couple centers, get some big paydays that don't make a ton of sense. As guys try to throw money at an extra body to throw at Yokic, I think you're going to see a guy like Dwight Howard back in the league. Like, it's going to be, this whole summer is going to be like,

how do we deal with this team who's bringing all their guys back? And it's going to be an interesting challenge. Well, I mean, for years and years, the Spurs had Robinson and Duncan, and then the Lakers have always had bigs. And, you know, I mean, it's why a Portland goes out and drafts of Greg Oden, right? You start looking around the league and you're like, you know, you see it all the time in all sports. Who's in the NFL? And when Peyton Manning's in your division, everybody drafts edge rushers.

Like that's the way the sport works. Yokic is just now moving into his prime. He's got six more years of it. He's in the best shape, by the way, he's been in in his career. So, I mean, if you really go back at the end of the year, Yokic, I think sat five of their last seven games. So they went on kind of a losing streak at the end of the year. year they're not going to stay in regular season they didn't play starters right if you take that out in this team i mean trade deadline on we should have seen it common they just thump people all the time

home road thump people um and it it's uh i got to tell you i like new stuff i'm not a rearview mirror guy i love having a new potential dynasty i don't know if they are but it has the makings of one i mean when LeBron went down to Miami, you felt like, oh, this could be special. But D. Wade was always a guy that hit the floor a lot, aged very quickly. It was like a running back, not many years. And so you could see by like year two, it was like D. Wade wasn't as good on back to back. She kind of sounded like there's going to be an expiration date pretty quickly on this run. But I look at, I look at Denver and I'm like, at least for three more years, at least three more handful.

because I think, to be honest, Murray, Yokich, Porter, and Gordon are right smack dab in the middle of their prime. Like, not near the end of it. Like three years from now, let's come back and talk about it. Then they're closer to the end of it. But this will be fun. By the way, I also love KCP. Bubble team. This team hit a big three in this game.

I love guys. Free throws, too. And a big steal. I love guys like that. There's every championship team's got a guy. I love the KCP. He's had an interesting. career. If he goes to the free throw line, ladies, talking to all these guys, settle down,

settle down. It's like KCP. It's like telling everybody, hey, I've been here. So I just, nothing I didn't like. And by the way, we all love Miami, but they need Dame. They need a score. They need another player. So the good news for Miami is they lost, they were overwhelmed, but you know exactly what they need. They need a score. From the standpoint of Denver and a potential dynasty, the part that makes it so possible is Yokic's durability and what he's capable of doing when the other guys are not available because both Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray are constantly dealing with nagging injuries in one way, shape or form. And like even Jamal Murray this year, like he got back to where he needed to get in this postseason, which was one of the biggest

storylines coming out of the regular season. It's like, can Jamal Murray be what he was in 2020? And he ended up eating way better than that even. But he was dealing with some nagging stuff with his knee, Michael Porter Jr. and his back issues flare up from time to time. But what's great about the Yokage thing is like, you can just throw four dudes out there with him and he's winning 50 regular season games. So like you're not going to suffer in the standings. You're not going to struggle. You can buy rest for Jamal Murray during the season and buy rest for Michael Porter Jr. And then when those guys are available in the postseason, it's the simple fact of you better find a way to score on them easily on the other end because there's just nobody ever really

truly bothered them in this postseason. And that's, and that's, you know, and that's, you know, just going to be a recurring theme. As far as Miami goes, and this is what is so interesting from the standpoint of continuity and I actually wanted to bring this up because it was something I talked about a lot after game four. But I do think it's really interesting that from like 2017 to 2021, it was kind of like the mercenary era, right? Like the Warriors signed Kevin Durant outright.

And they win a couple championships in a row. The Raptors trade their continuity for Kawhi Leonard, a mercenary, comes in, they win a title. Well, Braun James ships off a half decade of draft prospects in the Lakers to bring back Anthony Davis. They immediately win a title. The bucks coming off of a really disappointing loss to Jimmy Butler in the bubble. They go out and they trade for Drew Holiday. They immediately win a title. That was kind of like that era.

But now we're in this era where it's like suddenly you saw last year a Celtics group with Marcus Margelland Brown and Jason Tatum and Al Horford that had a ton of reps together that made it to the finals. And then you saw a Warriors team with a bunch of dudes who've been playing dead. together forever make it to the finals this year the heat and in the nuggets teams that had been together for a while and my theory on this is like there's so much talent in the league now yeah every team has two stars it's like Philly's like the 10th best team in the league it's like they got hardening and beat and Tyree's maxi it's like everyone's got two stars everyone's got good role players so it's the groups that play the best basketball yeah that end up winning and so you have to learn how to play good basketball over years and so I do think it's interesting how continuity is

taking center stage yeah and it's also um the league is cyclical. Like, you know, you see this all the time. People copied the warriors for years. Even when they didn't have great three-point shooters, it was just like, okay, we've got to become that. And you're like, no, you can get twos. You know, Denver, Denver was so confident

and its ability to get twos, they can shoot threes. And they're good at it. But they're not beholden to it. And so, you know, champions usually have people that copy them, right? Like, it's cyclical. LeBron and Durant move and they have success. So everybody thinks that's, that's, but Kevin Durant and LeBron are two of the 12 best players in league history or 15 best players.

You can move around the league all you want. It's not going to, you're not going to duplicate their championships. So I think Denver, I do think people will look at Denver and try to get bigger to combat them. It was like when the Spurs had, you know, early in the Spurs when they have Robinson and Duncan, it's like, wow. Like this is, this is a lot. And I think people will try to combat that. But I think a lot of what Denver does is unique to them.

There's just not many guys like Aaron Gordon in the league that big. I mean, just, I saw him the other day. He was doing something after a game and he had like a sweater on and he was at the microphone. And I'm like, that ain't sit-ups and deadlifts. That dude is just built, not like any human I've ever met like 6-10, broad. He's just not on the market, right? Like, Yon. I've played an basketball game against him.

I'm aware. He's huge. So Yokic is not on the market. Like some of great teams, Steph Curry is not on the market. You can try to duplicate it. LeBron wasn't on the market. So you're going to see some imitators and people try to get bigger. But, you know, great teams everywhere.

Mahomes isn't on the market, right? You can try to duplicate so much of it. Denver's unique. I think they're going to alter the game. I think they're going to have copycats. and I think they're going to be around for years. I was so happy for the city because I've always said Detroit and Denver don't get the love, but everything works in Detroit.

They like bowling. I've seen the ratings. College basketball. You know, New York City is a great sports city, but they don't love college football. They don't love NASCAR. Detroit loves everything. Denver is the same way. Denver loves everything.

Every star was out tonight in Denver. Every coach, every player. It was like it meant so much to the city. And it's the fans there are, you know, I grew up with the orange crush. And, you know, that was the loudest place in the league. And I don't know. I just, I felt, I really felt I was so happy for Denver. It meant so much to the city.

I mean, you see, Peyton Manning moved there. Right after he played, he said, this is where I want to, this is where I want to be the rest of my life. And he's biting his lip and he's sweating. And I'm like, God, it meant so much. It was such a joy to watch. I mean, it was, it was one of the great quarters of intense, sluggish, open jumper missing basketball in a long time. Like it was, you kept saying to yourself, okay, Denver doesn't deserve to win.

You can't miss free. When Brown missed two free throws, Christian Brown missed two free throws. I'm like, bro, come on. You can't do that. You can't win a title like that. But I just have a feeling like elevation tonight. Like, I'm really happy for Denver. I love competitive basketball like that.

It's funny. There was a quote from Jeff Van Gundy during the game when he was talking about Max Drews playing through his struggles. And he's like, he's like every coach loves a player that is competitive when he's struggling. Because a guy who's struggling but is competitive will attempt to find ways to affect the game even when he's not making shots.

Like, do you remember that ridiculous chase down block that Max Drew had in the fourth quarter with like four minutes left where I think it was, I think it might have been Jamal Murray. somebody had a breakaway layup. I think it was Christian Brown. Yeah, yeah, and he came flying in and blocked it. And I was like, that is just sheer force of competitive will when he can't buy a bucket.

And there was literally like 10 of those dudes out on the court tonight because nobody could really make anything. You know, even Yokic missed one of his late little push shots that he always makes. So I wanted to talk about a little bit about Yokic and his place atop the league because I think even as we talk about the tier that you had mentioned, which is Luca Janice, Yokic and Steph. I think that Yokic has demonstrated a level of offensive, I don't know what it's called, like inevitability, like consistent shot creation. That's even a level above some of those guys.

This kind of reminds me a little bit of LeBron in the early 2010s where there's kind of like the changing of the guard where it's like Kobe's tailing off, right? And Duncan's tailing off. And so LeBron's kind of fill in that void. And then some of the younger guys, like KD just wasn't quite there yet. Steph Curry's not quite there yet. That's kind of the way I'm looking at this right now.

Like Yokic feels like he's at the absolute peak of his powers here in his late 20s. And Janus is like dealing with some flaws in his game in the half court. And Steph just didn't quite shine through against that dominant Laker defense the way that Yokic did. And Luca's struggling in the margins of basketball. Like he's unbelievably great, but he's struggling defensively. And he's struggling with his attitude. and he's struggling with kind of maintaining the flow of a team with how kind of ball hoggy he can be sometimes. And so like do you do you potentially see Yokic starting a run here where he's the best player in the world for a while?

Yeah, I mean, I think the best player today is Yokic, Yonis second, Luca, third. Yonis struggles with free throws confidence late and Lucas struggles with playing with somebody ball dominant. Those are real factors. Yokic doesn't really have that. And so I do think, I do think he feels different. He also, and this is really a thing, and there's more than one way to do it, but there's an egosness to him, meaning he'll be easy to play with. Kobe wasn't. I mean, Kobe won force of just a willfulness.

And then with Shaq and then with Gasol, like Kobe willed his way to a championship. A lot of that was Jordan. Jordan was no easy to play with. There's a lot of different ways to do it. Then you get Magic and LeBron where they make everybody better. I feel like Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, LeBron, and Yokic feel similar to me. That stylistically, they're all different. But their ability to make minus players plus players, B minus player, a B plus.

C minus player or C plus. Like, I mean, Murray was an A player in this. I always thought of him kind of as an A minus a B plus. And I'm like, no, he was an A player with some A plus knights. And he's not doing that without the screens. inevitability is a good word. Like Russell, Magic, LeBron,

it wasn't just them. I've said this before to you. The greatest stat in LeBron's basketball careers in high school, where he averaged like 26 a game as a junior. He could have scored 50 a game as a senior. He scored 27. That told me all I think,

all I needed to know about LeBron is junior and senior year. He averaged like a point and a half more. That's never been LeBron games to outscore people. It's always been about elevating. others because he knows he can get his points. And it's like that that told you what LeBron was. I mean, LeBron James, best basketball player ever, if I said, what do you think he averaged his last year of high school? You'd be like, 48. You're like, no, one more point than his junior year. And I think that's the key. I think free agents and people are going to look Jason at Yokic and be like, Denver's not a bad place to live.

Right. Harden Luca, it's like, man, am I going to get the shot? Am I going to get looks? You watch Jalen Brown explode in New York, Jalen Brunson exploded New York. You're like, holy God, Luca got in his way. Man, there's a lot of guys, a lot of Kevin loves,

a lot of Chris Bosch's, had really big careers, gave up a lot of numbers and said, I want to play with that dude. A lot of people going to want to play with Yokic. That's an egoless guy. I mean, if you were a shooter,

it's like, who would you want to play with? Like, I mean, that guy, is, I mean, he literally is, does not, like he'll win the MVP award and he'll turn around and celebrate with his family. You know, it's like Tim Duncan.

It's, it's really easy. You become your star. Somebody once told me this. It's the smallest locker room, the fewest players. So your star has more of an impact on the culture and the attitude of the team. Like in the NFL, you split at halftime, offense here, defense there, baseball, bullpen, a third of the teams down there. Basketball, stars, it's not about getting a star.

It's about getting the right star. Like Yokic, LeBron, Magic, Russell, they were the right star. And that's why you have all these potential championships to meet Yokic. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes

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Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

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And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. I think they're going to get a couple of really good players at a discount this summer. One of the biggest things that I've noticed in the buyout market over the course the last few years, but also in that veteran minimum, mid-level exception market is guys typically target playing time. You'd think it'd be money. You'd think it'd be a market. You'd think it'd be a championship. It's like, no, it's usually playing time.

And big shock, basketball players like to play basketball. And especially when they're at that phase in their career, when internally they have that combination of confidence and experience where they feel like they can really help. And the thing with Denver is they're going to lose Bruce Brown in all likelihood because he's got something like a $7 million. player option. He's going to opt out of that. He's going to go somewhere and get one of those like $15 million a year type of contract. No question. And the other thing too is like this is a team that

had no backup center. So hey, want to be a backup center? There's two shifts tonight. They're waiting for you. You get to play whenever Yokic is off the floor. Like that's your job. If you want to, oh, and you get to compete for a championship. You know, like last year it was DeAndre Jordan. What if this year it's a like a better version of that type of player, you know? And then same thing goes for that bench wing, bench guard type of stuff. Like they never really could figure out that backup point guard position. It was Bones Highland for a while. I was like, okay, let's get Reggie Jackson in here. Okay, Reggie Jackson's not working. Well, we ended up just using Bruce Brown and he's going to be gone. So who's the backup point guard that they're going to be able to sign because it's like,

hey, guess what? You're going to get 27 minutes a night. And especially during the regular season when we're trying to eat innings and you're going to get to get to start when Jamal Murray's taking his rest days. Like there's going to be. people that slot into that spot. And, you know, it's funny because we talk a lot about what kind of dynasty is Denver capable of. I tend to think that next year could be the most dominant year of this entire kind of Denver Nuggets experience. It's that confidence of champions that always comes back. Underrated thing, Jamal Murray's first full season coming back from the knee where like he's got the confidence of that great playoff run. Jamal Murray has never had like that I made the

all-star team and I made second team all NBA season. That's probably. probably going to be next season for Jamal Murray. A guy like Michael Porter Jr. He had some struggles in the finals that will get him in the gym all summer working on specific things, particularly putting the ball on the floor. I think Denver could win 60 games next year and repeat. Like next year's the year. And then the other thing, too, Phoenix is just still a ways away.

Like they might take them two off seasons to get the requisite pieces. The Lakers obviously are in a similar predicament. Like there are a lot of teams out west that like this Golden State thing. Like what if they have a significant turnover this summer? I don't think them running it back is enough to beat Denver. And so I do think there's a chance that next year ends up being one of the more dominant years for the 90s. Yeah, I mean, when Kevin Durant went to Golden State, like the first year was the most dominant. And then, you know, apathy, you know, that overconfidence sets in.

Denver's, you know, even though Denver's a really good offensive team, you know, there are, you know, Gordon's not a naturally gifted offensive player. Yokish is a very unique point center. Jamal Murray is not what I would call twitchy. He's an okay ball handler. It gets very sloppy at times with one hand passing. And sometimes he can always get a shot, a lot of fallaway stuff. But I don't consider him a dynamic athlete. I think, I think, Devin Booker, I think he's a more dynamic athlete.

I think Jamal Murray became a little bit better playmaker than I suspect. And I thought they were kind of even players. So there's still a team sometimes getting into the offense. They hover around the outside. You know, I'm like, okay, guys, okay, guys. It's a beatable team, but I think what they'll have to replace, some of their gifts are just unique body types. I mean, Michael Porter's, that move tonight down the floor behind the back,

that's a very unique move. Gordon's unique Yokic, a lot of what they present, they're just unique body types that aren't on the market. And so if they lose a brown, you can go find a shooter. You'll find a shooter. So, but they're, but they're, it's interesting. It's not that they're not beatable. It's just that, like, I think if Phoenix found a couple of bench pieces and Chris Paul came back,

I think they'd be a handful. I think they really would be a handful. I think D'Andre Aiton is going to be 15 to 20% better just because of Vogel. If they could get a bench piece, a really nice, you know, like almost a Malcolm Bragg. in like, oh, okay, just 16 points. Somebody, a white or a Brogden from like Boston, that kind of player. But what they have, and I think the organization's been good at drafting and developing, what they have is unique bodies.

There's just not, those kind of bodies are, you know, you see certain NFL teams that have defensive linemen. Philadelphia has three or four body types. And you're like, you know, they're not available on the market. Nobody lets Aaron Donald go. or Fletcher Cox go or Chris Jones or the Chiefs go. And so it's not like you're just replacing shooters. You can find guys that can shoot.

Yokic Gordon Porter big. That is, I don't know, I watched them and I don't want to be hyperbolic, but I watch them and I'm like, this is, you can beat them, but you'd have to shoot really, really well to beat this team in a seven game series. Weird bodies is such a perfect way to put it because it's Yokic is like somehow bigger than all the centers. Like it's just bigger than all of them. And he's just going to manhandle him on his way to the basket. Aaron Gordon is built like Bamat a bio but like can play on that small forward position out on the wing.

Super twitchy. Oh yeah. And Michael Porter Jr. is just way taller than every movement shooter in the league. And then Jamal Murray, I think one of the big advantages he has over a guy like Devin Booker is he's, a little bit trunkier, a little bit lower center of gravity, super strong legs. So he can bump guys off and get to the basket and those sorts of things. He is, he is, he is, that's perfect. He is tron.

That's why he's not as twitchy. He's not dynamic. He's just, remember Andre Miller, the guard? Yeah, that's a good example, actually. Yeah, just like, you wake up and he's got 23 and you're like, none of them were pretty. They're all kind of fallaways from the angle. It's those guys are hard to defend. Yeah.

And I agree with you. I don't think they're unbeatable. I don't think this is the 2017 Warriors. And I'm excited for that just as a basketball fan because there's a version of this where they are going to be in some wars. They're going to be in some six, seven game series in the future, especially with the CBA when things get crunched, like sometime three, four years from now, one of those dudes on the wing is going to get, you know, is going to have to be moved on from just simply

from the standpoint of the financial elements of it. So, like, they're going to be in some wars and we'll get to see, like, you and I've been around covering the league long enough to know that not every playoff run looks like this. You don't always just dominate. Like there are going to be tougher ones, but it is nice when you get one like this. So congratulations to Denver Nuggets fans. You guys have a really, really fun team to watch one that I'm excited to cover. And shout out to the Miami Heat for making that NBA finals as entertaining as it could have been under the circumstances.

Eight seed. Eight seed. It's like hockey. You get that in hockey. Have to get them some players. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's, yeah, but here's the good thing for Miami. We know what they need, right?

Like they've got a rim protector. They got a big. Yeah, they need a really, you know, even he's probably not the guy because they've gone through Tyler Hero's immaturity issue. So they wouldn't be attracted to Jordan Poole, who similarly got some of those. They've had, they've gone through that with Tyler Hero. But they need, they need a star shooter because, I mean, I thought what you said earlier, Jimmy Butler was, I mean, he was. I mean, he was running from the ball for about a quarter and a half. Like he didn't want to shoot.

He had no interest in it. Like LeBron got crushed for that in that series against Dallas. Like LeBron's running from the ball. Jimmy did a little bit of that tonight for about a quarter and a half. Like he was, he had eight points entering the fourth and like stop shooting for a while. So yeah, I mean, it's sometimes when you lose how you lose and you get fumped, it's like, okay, there's clarity. Here's what we need. And they have some pieces.

They do. They've got some guys that don't want to pay. You know, Martin, they've got some guys like that are probably going to leave. You can work a deal. Pat Riley is a maestro with that. You can work a deal with Portland. So I think we know what they need. What's interesting is if they go out and pursue Dame,

does Boston just bring the guys back? Because you can. And Brad Stevens is a little bit reticent on making big mood. He's got that sort of Midwestern, you know, predictability. Like, let's go back on it. Let's work harder. And that's a very admirable, redeemable quality. But I don't think Brad Stevens is going to take a big swing.

But Milwaukee's rebuilding. Darryl Morey will be aggressive. Miami's going after Dame. If they land Dame, Miami feels better than Boston to me. More explosive. They've got like, whereas I get Jalen Brown and Tatum on the wing, Robert Williams, you bubble wrap him. Marcus Smart's a defensive guy.

I still don't think they have a assistant. facilitator, Dame, Butler, Bam, Spoh. It's like, oh, yeah, that's a, that feels like a potential championship team. Well, and what Spolstra and Pat Riley have demonstrated is that they're going to find three or four useful players that no one else in the league wants. And so you can afford to give away big salary filler for a guy like Damien Lillard or like I've seen Dejante Murray being thrown around in some trade rumors. He's another guy I'd take a look at if he was available.

But like if they could get another legitimate. shot creator that takes some of that off of Jimmy Butler. Again, Jimmy and Pat, or excuse me, Spoh and Pat, they're going to find three or four dudes that have a chip on their shoulder, that were undrafted, that didn't get all the attention that they wanted. So they play hard every damn possession of their lives. And they're going to find a way to round that out. I agree with you. I think Boston's going to be the one team that kind of runs it back just because I don't think they stand as much to gain from an aggressive trade as some of these other teams do. And you're right. You talk about like knowing what you need, like Milwaukee knows.

We need a significant turnover in our half-court offense. You know, Philly knows that as well. But I do think that we're going to see a lot of teams get really aggressive this offseason. So Jason is always great stuff. Great season. Now we've got a draft coming up. We got some free agency. Got another three weeks to bat this stuff around.

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