The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Will Nikola Jokic & Nuggets start a dynasty after NBA Finals win vs. Heat?

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

After taking down Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat in 5 games in the NBA Finals, Jason Timpf discusses if this is the start of a Denver Nuggets dynasty as their core of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., and Aaron Gordon are all locked into contracts for multiple years. #volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at The Volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great week. Coverage of the NBA Finals here at Hoops tonight is brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? Well, today, June 13th, is the first full calendar day in franchise history that the Denver Nuggets are NBA champions. And so for today, we're going to entirely focus in on Denver.

I have, we're going to do our Chase three-point segment kind of focusing on last night's game and just a couple of the interesting things that we didn't have a chance to talk about last night with Colin Cowherd. So we'll hit that at the beginning of the show. Then I want to do a deep dive just into what this Denver team accomplished, what Nicole Yokic accomplished, kind of a little bit of a brief dip into contextualizing it all time. I don't want to go too heavy into it because I want to save some of that stuff for this summer. And then I want to do a shout out of Jamal Murray as well.

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All right, let's talk some basketball. So for our chase three points segment, we're going to hit on three things that I found particularly interesting in last night's series clinching win by the Denver Nugget. So first of all, number one, I thought it was really interesting that Spolster went all in on zone. So to give you an idea of kind of the pathway of zone throughout the series, and you guys might remember when I was breaking down some of the film, I was on the Miami side of things saying, I think their best chance to win is,

to go all in on zone. Because they just weren't having much success at all, stopping the two-man game in man-to-man situations, except for in game two, which was just an unbelievable defensive performance from Jimmy Butler and Bamette Abio. And outside of that, they were kind of getting cooked, but consistently against the zone,

they, uh, or with the zone, they had some success slowing Denver down. So they, uh, ran zone for 39 possessions total in games one and two. They were well below a point per possession allowed in game one, when they ran zone. If you remember in game two when Miami stole that game, they got stops in their zone on 10 of the first 13 possessions in the fourth quarter as they turned a deficit into a,

I think they went up like nine or something like that at that point in the fourth quarter. But then when they went back to Miami, they barely used it. They used it only 12 possessions combined in games three and four, which was an interesting decision from Eric Spolstra. In those 12 possessions, once again, they held Denver well below a point per possession. They actually didn't use it at all in game four. I think a big part of that was Denver kind of stiff-armed them enough that the games never really felt like they were getable for Miami. And I think Spolster kind of was holding the zone back.

Well, he broke it out big time in Game 5. 32 possessions by far the most that he used the zone in this series. In those possessions, they held Denver to 0.66 points per possession. So if you're wondering how Miami did kind of sort of make a game of Game 5 in the way that they couldn't in the previous two games, I thought a big part of it was Spolstra finally leaning 100% in on zone. Now, would that have changed a series? Probably not, because the truth of the matter is, is lots and lots of reps are exactly what a team needs to solve his zone. You know, I talk a lot about zone as a rhythm disruptor, and there's a reason for that.

So, for instance, during the entire regular season, 82 games, games. The Nuggets faced zone only 218 possessions. Think about that. Over 7,000 possessions against man-to-man defense, only 218 against zone. It's less than 3% of their total offensive possessions. So you just don't get a lot of reps against it during the regular season. Just in the finals, they went against it 83 times total. So almost half as much as they did in the entire regular season in terms of reps just in the NBA finals. And, you know, are used to getting your shots as a player. There's a rhythm not just with a player with his ball handling and shooting,

but there's a rhythm to a five-man unit on offense. You get accustomed to getting shots in a certain way, right? Like Murray and Yokic are accustomed to getting shots in pick and roll a certain way. KCP, Michael Porter, Jr. are accustomed to getting certain shots in those kick-out situations in pick-and-roll. Obviously, Aaron Gordon's used to getting his duckins and his cuts and things along those lines. And when you flip it to a zone, suddenly the rhythm of the way the team gets those shots changes fundamentally.

And that can honestly spring some of these shooting slumps like what happened last night. As a matter of fact, in spot-up situations, Denver's court just 14 points on 24 spot-up possession. So that was number two on my list of most interesting things from last night's game. As a result of Spolstra going all in on zone, he discombobulated Denver's offense so much that they scored just 14 points on 24 spot-up possessions, barely over a half a point per possession. Now, again, this is, I'm hitting on two Miami positive things here to kind of queue up number three on this list, which was Denver's defense. Because in spite of all of that, in spite of Eric Spolstra's all-in-on-zone approach, in spite of throwing off Denver's offense to the tune of their spot-up shooters barely converting at over a half

a point per possession, Denver won last night. And they hoisted the trophy. How did they do that? They did it on the defensive end of the floor. If you guys remember, and I want to specifically hone in on Denver's pick and roll defense. So if you guys remember in game two, when Denver was really, really sloppy, if you guys remember, I said it was Denver's worst defensive performance of the entire postseason. They allowed almost a point in a half per possession in pick and roll.

they held last night, Miami, to 22 points on 42 pick and rolls. Think about how insane that is. That's including passes, by the way. 0.524 points per possession in pick and roll. Basically a third of what they allowed in game to. I talked a lot about this last night with Colin, but sometimes we focus, and this is one of the many lessons that I've learned in this particular season, and we're going to do one of the off-season videos we're going to do actually this week before I head out of town.

we're going to do kind of like we did last year, like a lessons I learned from the season kind of thing. And one of the lessons that I learned is, you know, one of the ways that we have to evaluate defense is not necessarily just what a defense is capable of during the regular season in aggregate, but also what they are capable of against specific matchups. It's not necessarily can you guard at a extremely high level against all 30 NBA teams. it's can you guard the Timberwolves and can you guard the Sons and can you guard the Lakers and can you guard the heat, right? It's about matchups. And they were able to craft a defense that functioned against all four of those teams. As a matter of fact, they finished the playoff run with a 110.2 defensive rating, which is pretty damn good. As a matter of fact, Golden State last year, which was, I believe, if I remember correctly, the second best defense in the regular season, they finished last year's postseason with a 109.6. defensive rating on their way to a championship. So Denver finished just six-tenths of a point behind last year's champion in their ability to get stops on a per-possession basis, again, because

they found ways to stop the specific matchups they were playing against. I had a lot of Denver fans in my mentions over the course of the last couple of days like, oh, well, you undervalue Denver's defense. They were actually pretty good. No, they weren't. They weren't good this season. They were outside of the top 10 in every single month during the regular season except for January. There was one month in there in January where they were fourth in defense. Every other month they were pretty bad. Post-all-star break, they were still 15th. There was no stretch of defense that was significant where the Nuggets really competed

during the regular season. They were just consistently okay. They were consistently a middle-of-the-pack defense during the regular season. But they found a way in the post-season to craft a defense that functionally got stops against their specific matchups, and that's all that matters. And that's what's funny. Golden State was a dominant defense last year that defended well almost every single month and finished the season second in defensive rating,

and they on a per possession basis were more or less the same impactful defense as Denver in this postseason. So credit to Denver, credit to Mike Malone, credit to everybody in that unit for doing their job. And that's what I thought was really interesting from a schematic approach, bringing Yokic higher out of pick and rolls because he's not a great rim protector in a pick and roll scheme, although he did really well protecting the rim in ISO. We'll talk about that in a minute. But in pick and roll, asking him to block lobs and defend against slashing guys coming down at him at full speed, that's not weaponizing his strengths. But Yokic is a high IQ player with great hands.

So bringing him up in pick and roll was really smart because that allowed him to kind of slap down at the ball on pull-up shooters and dissuade those little pocket passes and swing passes with his hands, rather than having him back at the rim where he was going to be of lower impact. And Yokic got a ton of deflections over the tail half of this particular series up at the level of the screen. So Yokic did a great job in his individual job. And then they brought Aaron Gordon underneath the rim as that low man to kind of take on more of those rim protection responsibilities. And then they were really, really sharp on the back end with their rotations. That's how they crafted a defense that worked in this particular postseason run.

And then, again, in isolation and post-up situations. So Yokic played against a couple of guys, and Anthony Davis and BAM in particular, little Carl Towns as well, guys that actually tried to attack him. And again, those guys aren't the greatest offensive bigs in the world. Bam and AD are more known for defense. But Yokic is also considered a relatively easy target as an isolation, at least considered a relatively easy. easy target and it just wasn't the case in this postseason run. Players attempted 19 shots

against Yokic in ISO and post situations in this playoff run and they scored just seven of those 19 shots. That's just 37% from the field. So even in isolation situations when teams were like, oh, we've got Yokich on an island with BAM or we got Yokch on an island with AD, Yokic was stonewalling those dudes. So again, within the concept of what they needed in this playoff run, Denver's defense was more than good enough. Now, will there be a team that they face in the future? Like, we're going to talk about this a little bit later. If you list out the top eight records in the league, like if you took all the teams in the regular season and ranked them by win percentage from 1 to 30, the top eight teams, Denver didn't have to play any of those guys.

They all, they faced, the highest seed they faced was a four seed. Now, that's not their fault. You play who's in front of you, and those teams at the top clearly had flaws because they got beat, but there will be teams in the future that I think will challenge Denver's defense to a greater extent, but then again, they dominated this postseason run. So we will find out at that point if their offense is enough to overcome that in particular. But within this particular postseason run, given the competition that they faced, they were able to get more than enough stops, which is a super interesting trend in NBA history. This is the first team in decades that does not have a top 10 defense in the regular season and was not a defending champion.

that won an NBA title. So that's how good this Denver offense was, and that's how smart this Denver team was in what they did defensively. They were able to break a decades-old trend in the NBA. I also wanted to shout out all the guys on the roster and Mike Malone, because we talk a lot about details on the show, right? Like static half-court situations are a great way to measure talent, but everything around that situation is about coaching and effort, and focus, attention to detail, all those particular things. This was a great, transition defense. They were fourth in transition frequency allowed in the regular season, meaning they were the fourth best team at preventing teams from getting out in transition.

And they were third out of all the playoff teams in preventing teams from getting out in transition. And then rebounding. They grabbed 53.8% of available rebounds in this postseason run. That was the best out of all of the teams that played in this playoff field. So ending defensive possessions by preventing teams from getting on the offensive glass and keeping them out of transition. Those are little details that helped keep those defensive ratings down. Again, like if I look at that defensive rating, they finish the playoff run at 110.2, which was only 6 tenths of a point worse than Golden State last year. A huge part of that is being really, really sharp on the details.

That's what it's, again, we talk like, it's like same thing with Jamal Murray. When we're talking about Jamal Murray all time, there are going to be people that are going to be like, oh, well, he's playing with Yokic, so it's easier for him. yeah, you're right, but who cares? This is a basketball team. And Jamal Murray contributes to this particular basketball team in terms of actual production at a level that is that of a star. So even if you don't think he's a star, he's sure as hell is for this team. And the same thing goes for the defensive end.

Like if you're out there and you're like, oh, well, Denver didn't play a truly great offense. Yeah, you're right. But it doesn't matter. In this postseason run, the teams that won were the teams that won, And Denver beat all those guys. So I'm sorry, but at the end of the day, they have the Larry O.B. And this is just the way things shook out. It's not about being a great defense in a vacuum. It's about being a great defense against your opponents in that postseason run.

Denver was. They got the deal done. But those were just some notes from last night's game. Our three points were brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. Unlimited 1.5% cash back is just the beginning. Earned 3% on dining at restaurants, including 10%. takeout and eligible delivery services, 3% on drugstore purchases, 5% on travel, purchase or chase ultimate rewards, and 1.5% on all other purchases.

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You can have Angie tackle your home service project from start to finish. Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's A.N.gI.com. A couple other quick notes from last night, KCP, the champion KCP. I told you guys, you Denver fans, that I loved rooting for KCP when he was with the Lakers. He was one of my favorite players on that team. Made so many big plays for that Laker team on their way to an NBA championship. He had a massive three on the left wing in last night's game.

He had a clutch steel on that Jimmy Butler drive at the end of the game. Hit a couple of clutch free throws as well. Even though he struggled at times during the series as part of Miami's defensive scheme, you just could count on KCP to make some huge play. in that game, and he did. Bruce Brown, a nightmare offensive game. I think he was something crazy, like four for 14 from the field, but he had that massive offensive rebound putback at the end of the game. And it was an interesting note on Denver size, because on the play, I can't remember who took the shot on the right wing. It might have been Jamal Murray, I think, took a tough fade away.

But on that play, I think it was Jimmy Butler boxing out Aaron Gordon. Lowry's guarding Bruce Brown, and Lowry knows that Jimmy needs help with Aaron Gordon because how big he is. So Lowry double teams Aaron Gordon on the boxout, which leaves Bruce Brown a free run to the rim to get the offensive rebound put back. So again, like that overall size was just so dominant for Denver throughout this series. And this is my last note that I wanted to hit the inevitability of Denver. So Miami takes one point lead with less than three minutes left on a Jimmy Butler post up. And Denver goes down and runs a two-man game.

They have Caleb Martin on Jamal Murray and Bam Etabio and Nicole Yokic. They switch it. On the switch, Murray runs to the right corner, which is the strong side corner, which most NBA teams will not help out of, especially with a good shooter like Jamal Murray. That pins Bam etabio out of the play to where he can't help. Then Nicole Yokic just attacks that side of the floor on Caleb Martin, gets all the way to the rim for a wide open layup. Literally nothing.

Again, pivotal possession, down by one, final three minutes of an NBA fine. game and Denver just gets this incredibly easy basket by virtue of their unguardability because there was just nothing Miami could do. And the Bruce Brown putback, same type of thing. Miami goes back and takes the lead again. Miami gets a stop this time. But because they had to double team Aaron Gordon on a boxout because he's freaking huge, you get this easy put back for Bruce Brown and they take the lead again. So again, when the chips were down, Denver won with the same ranks that they demonstrated all season long. And I love that. I love that kind of, that kind of symmetry in basketball. You know, like you don't win with luck. You win with what makes you great.

And what made Denver great all season long was the unguardable two-man game of Jamal Marie and Nicole Yokic and their overwhelming size on the glass. And those were the two pivotal plays that won them the trophy. I loved that a little thing that I love about basketball. All right. So let's now kind of zoom out a little bit on this particular. postseason run. Sergeant Nicole Yokic. So finishes the playoff run, averaging 30 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists on 63% true shooting, which is obviously amazing.

30, 14 and 7 in the finals on 67% true shooting. Some play type data. 1.05 points per possession in ISO, that's great. 1.11 points per possession in the post, including passes. That's incredible. 1.26 points per possession in Rollman possessions. That's incredible. 25 offensive rebound putback.

So we averaged more than one a game, just grabbing the ball and putting it back in the rim off of a miss. Some shot type data. He shot 42% on catch-and-shoot jump shots. Remember last year with his wrist injury, just couldn't make a jump shot to save his life. That was a big one that ended up helping them. 46% from three. That's obviously ridiculous. Rescue possessions.

Yokic took 28 off the dribble jump shots and made 14 of them. So he shot 50% on pull-up jump shots. Now, a lot of those are those crazy, like, one-legged step back, fade-away shots that he takes. He shot 50% on floaters, 57% on hook shots, and was 65% at the rim. Some crazy passing data. The Denver Nuggets scored 23.7 points per game just on Nicola Yokic assists. How crazy is that? So that means that in total, Nicola Yokic generated over 54 points per game in this postseason run between scoring and passing.

Zooming out, kind of looking at things all time. Again, I'm going to do a ranking of all the all-time. playoff runs later on this summer, so I don't want to give it any sort of specific number, but just kind of looking at it at first glance, it's certainly one of the very best offensive playoff runs that you've ever seen in terms of scoring, volume, playmaking, efficiency, and the quality of defenses he faced, going against Rudy Gobert, going against Anthony Davis, going against Bamadabaya. Those are three of the very best front court defenders that we have in the league,

and he just thrashed all of them. As a team for Denver, I thought this was one of the most dominant team playoff runs we've ever seen. They were never truly threatened. They had a net rating of eight, meaning they outscored teams by eight points per 100 possessions in the playoffs. That is the highest since the Warriors in 2017 and 2018, which, by the way, these are just crazy numbers. The Warriors outscored teams by 13 points per 100 possessions in the playoffs in 2017, and the outscored teams by 11 points per 100 possessions in the playoffs in 2000. So that gives you some perspective on how ridiculously good those Warriors teams were.

But the Nuggets are the highest net rating team since then at plus eight. Trivia time. Who do you think was the second best team behind the Warriors since 2018? The answer is the Lakers. In 2020, they were plus seven in net rating in that postseason run. Now, like I said earlier, part of it was the talent they faced. Again, just by virtue of the Bucks having that Janus injury and just kind of being out of rhythm and falling apart and the Celtics regressing so much defensively,

they just didn't have to face any of the top eight records in the league this year. That's not Denver's fault. Again, you face who's in front of you. But I do think this will probably be the most dominant playoff run that this core will face. I do think they'll face bigger challenges in the future. But to me, that's exciting. That to me is what's fun about basketball. You guys know how big of a LeBron James fan I am.

2020 was LeBron's most dominant playoff run. They never got threatened. They never trailed in his season. series after game two. His scoring and efficiency numbers were completely off the charts. Literally by far his most efficient postseason, average 30 on something crazy, like 67% true shooting in the finals. LeBron was just ridiculous in that entire playoff run, and they kicked everyone's ass,

and they went through a lot of big names, just like Yokic did, right? Like went through Damien Lillard, went through James Hardin, went through Nicola Yokic, went through Jimmy Butler. It was a dominant playoff run from LeBron, but when you're looking at LeBron's four best championship runs, like that's last place probably in terms of just the level that he got to. Because one of my favorite things about sports is when things are stacked against you and there is some adversity and your team actually isn't way better than everybody, these superstars have to dig deep and they reach something that's like another level of greatness that's inside of them.

And that's what's so exciting to me is like, Yokic has another level he can get to. You saw it a little bit in clutch situations in this playoff run. So Nicola Yokic attempted field goals at a rate of 28 per 36 minutes when the score was within five with less than five minutes left. So in clutch situations, Nicole Yokic attempted shots at 28 per 36 minutes. So he was way more aggressive when games were close late. In those situations, Yokic shot just 39% from the field and 17% from three. So as you know, when things get tough, when things really bogged down, efficiency tanks, because it's harder to score in those situations, there will be playoff runs in the future where I think Denver will face better teams and Yokic will have to be better. And that's what's crazy. He will be. I think that when we look back at Yokic's career when it's all set and done, he will have some playoff runs that are like that, where he had to down 3-2 because, you know, like for instance, 2012, right? Boris Bosch pulls an abdominal muscle, misses the Pacer series.

They're down 2-1 in Indy. LeBron drops 40 in game 4 to bring it back to Miami-2. Bosch comes back in the Celtic series, coming off the bench. He's a shell of himself. KG's kicking his ass. They're down 3-2 in the series. Wade's knees acting up. They don't have this overwhelming talent advantage.

LeBron goes on the road in game 6. Down 3-2. It scores 45 to bring it back to Miami. for game seven. Like those are those moments that I think are like the difference, there's a difference between a dominant playoff run and like, you know, a truly impressive playoff run in terms of individual greatness and face of adversity. And so I'm not penalizing Yokic in any way,

shape, or form there, but I do think Yokic will have other playoff runs in the future where he's forced to dig deeper and do more. And I'm excited to see what level he can reach when he's on that level. Because you just don't know what a player is capable of until you see. them there, right? Like, Kyrie gets traded from the, and I'm just using LeBron as an example because he's my favorite player, and I know Yokic is your guys' favorite player, Denver Nuggets fans, and this is kind of the moments that I'm excited for you guys that I got to enjoy rooting for LeBron James.

In 2018, Kyrie Irving gets traded. They don't have a talent advantage against their opponents. LeBron, 34, 9, and 9 in the postseason, 62% true shooting. He had 840 point games, a 50 point game. So you get the point. Like you get to see like this other level of individual greatness when the adversity goes up. And who knows? Maybe this Denver team is so damn dominant. And maybe Yokic is so much better than his peers that he never has those moments. And if he does that, like trust me, guys, if Yokic just rips through the league for the next five years and racks up three to four titles and never looks bothered, that's where you're in MJ territory.

That's like Michael Jordan in the 90s where he was never threatened. But it's because he was just so much better than everybody. for so many years. I don't think this particular season is proof of that in concept. I think it needs to be over several years. But I am really curious to see what happens over the course of the next half decade with Yokic and with this Denver team. So in summation, I would say that because LeBron didn't win the title in 2018, I would say that this is probably the most dominant and unstoppable offensive playoff run that I can ever remember seeing. In terms of inevitability, complete and total unguardability and getting the trophy.

I don't think anyone's ever done it better than Yokic in this particular run on the offensive end of the floor. I also think it's one of the most dominant team runs of all time. I think this Denver run is going to be remembered fondly. I said before the finals that I think this Denver team is better than anybody since the Warriors. The net rating data has kind of confirmed that. Yokic dominated several of his peers along the way. He dominated Carl Towns, Rudy Gobert, DeAndre Aiton, Anthony Davis, and Bametabio.

I think he's clearly solidified himself as the best basketball player in the world, and he will be number one on my list when we rank players this summer. I'm just saying that when we look back at his career 20 years from now, I don't think this will be his best playoff run, because I do think there will be playoff runs where Denver gets threatened by better teams, and Yokic has to reach another level, and I do believe he'll get to that level, and I want to give the proper credit then.

I don't want to, like, pretend this is the greatest thing we've ever seen when I genuinely believe Yokic is going to do better in the future. Jamal Murray. What I said before the postseason, if you guys remember, I said one of the biggest things we have to be tracking for Denver in this postseason is can Jamal Murray get back to the star level he was at in the bubble? And that's exactly what he did. He averaged 26, 6 and 7 on 59% true shooting. He shot 40% from 3 on 8 3-point attempts per game. That's like Splash Brothers shit right there.

This is the wild part. Pick and roll shot creation. Jamal Murray was the very best pick and roll ball handler in the entire NBA in this postseason. He scored 1.17 points per possession when he shot or passed out of pick and roll this year. 18 players in the postseason ran at least 100 pick and rolls, including passes, and Jamal Murray finished number one. Better than Steph, better than Jalen Brunson, better than Devin Booker, better than James Harden. You guys get the point.

And again, obviously Yolk Chelps, but like I was talking about earlier, nobody cares about in a vacuum. I mean, obviously in a vacuum matters if you're ranking players and things like that. But the bottom line is, is Jamal Murray's contribution. to the Denver Nuggets, regardless of what's happening around him, are equal to that of a star player. And so, in my opinion, that makes him a star player. And I will be ranking Jamal Murray as such when we do our player rankings. I understand some people see that differently, but that's just the way that I see the game. It's kind of like what we talked about with Draymond over the years. Like, yeah,

Draymond has some limitations, but strictly with the way he contributes to the Warriors, he contributes at a level that goes far beyond box score contributions. And so I feel the same way, about Jamal Murray. I think he proved himself as a legitimate star. I also think he's primed for a breakout season, and I'm going to save that for our next topic. 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 for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping them

I'm not so great. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions,

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and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right what you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes,

follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jek.

And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84's big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now.

Thank you finishing that sentence. And, yes, I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A look ahead for Denver. I obviously see dynasty potential here for several reasons.

One, Yokic is the best player in the world and he's only 28 years old. Two, Yokic is remarkably durable. Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. have dealt with nagging injuries over the years, but you just throw four dudes around Nicole Yokic and you're winning 50 games. So honestly, like, there's, it's very hard to imagine them slipping too far in the standings, and they can be very deliberate with the way that they manage, you know, like load managed, guys like Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. So like, it's just easy to see them getting a really high seed every single year

and being healthy in time for the playoffs. Um, three, Jamal Murray is the perfectly complimentary co-star. to Nicole Yokits, and he's on the same timeline. Four, the whole starting lineup is locked up for two more seasons. KCP has a player option after next season, but he should be retainable, especially given the number that he's at right now in terms of the ability to add raises,

as long as ownership is willing to pay. And even if ownership is not willing to pay, he's probably the most replaceable out of the five guys in that lineup. Like, obviously you guys know how much I appreciate KCP, but like Michael Porter Jr. is a 610 movement shooter that's tough to replicate anywhere. else in the league. Aaron Gordon is like Bam at a bio, but on the wing, that's really difficult to, to replicate. Obviously, Yokic and Murray is impossible to replicate. So like KCP's like that one guy that,

like, if I swapped him out for a league average two guard at some point in the next two or three years, like Denver's still going to be really good. So as a result of that, like, it's easy to see the core of this group, the main basketball identity of this group lasting for the better part of a half decade, which is a big element to a dynasty. Continuity is huge. They already had continuity going into this particular pro-season run that's only going to grow over the years. And they have proven playoff traits.

They are huge. They score in the paint. So pull-up jumpers are not their bread and butter. It's a supplementary thing for them. And they rebound the hell out of the basketball. Those are all things that are proven to win in the NBA. I think next year in particular has the potential to be their most impressive season from start to finish.

There are a couple reasons why. They have the confidence of champion. and this is a big thing that Bill Simmons talked about in his basketball book that I really liked. The idea that once you become a champion, it's like the weight of the world is lifted off your shoulders. You have a new confidence. Yeah, there's some other stuff like the disease of Moore and all those different things. But for the most part, you're at your peak as a basketball player when you feel the confidence of being a champion. And there's no moment that can scare you because you've already succeeded at the greatest moment in basketball.

So I think that'll help them a lot to Jamal Murray in his breakout season. So I talked about this earlier. Jamal Murray, I thought, was just dealing with coming off of the bubble in his first season after the bubble, then he got hurt, then he obviously missed a season. And it's like this season he's working his way back into rhythm as he's learning how to play again after the knee injury. Next year, I think he's going to have his best regular season as a pro. I think he's going to make an all-MBA team. I think he's going to make an all-star team. I think he's going to be dominant and available throughout the season, average close to 23, 24 points a game.

I think Jamal Murray is going to have his best regular season as a pro next year. that's going to help Denver a lot. Michael Porter Jr., I think, learned some valuable lessons in the NBA finals about how important it is for him to defend and rebound and how important it is for him to be able to score by putting the ball on the floor. As Miami kind of chased him off the three-point line, I expect him to address that in this offseason. I think like him in particular stands to gain the most this off-season from the struggles he had in the finals, although he made some huge plays last night. Lastly, the rest of the league, I think, is going to take a couple of years to catch up to what Denver's doing. Milwaukee, I think, needs to completely retool.

Boston's best approach is to stand pat and hope Jason Tatum gets better, which might take a couple of years. Philly's going to retool. Miami wasn't close. Out west, like LeBron is aging, so like the Lakers need to get much better. I actually view the Lakers still as the best,

the biggest threat to Denver next year. If you look at net ratings, yeah, I know they got swept, but every single one of the four games was closed. The Lakers had by far the best net rating against Denver. All the other teams kind of got their ass kicked in every single one of the games, aside from a couple crazy,

Devin Booker hot shooting performances, right? But LeBron is aging. He's going to be in his 21st season next year. Like if he makes it to the Western Conference finals next year against Denver, he's going to be 39 years old. Like 39. Like, are you kidding? You know?

And so the Lakers would have to get much better this offseason to make up for that. But like maybe Anthony Davis can make some improvements. Again, I see the Lakers as probably the biggest threat to Denver next year, but I don't view them as much of a threat. Phoenix needs like four more good players. And that's really hard to do. one off season. Memphis, I don't think, is close. Sacramento's not close. Golden State needs to retool. The Clippers in general, it's just a really tough matchup with Denver. They really struggle

with their size because they don't have interior size and rim protection. So really, aside from a massive trade, like a league altering trade, I really think Denver has a chance to go 60 plus wins and defend their title next year. Now, in the long run, I don't view this team as unbeatable. And I do think that I don't view them ripping off three, four championships in a row or anything like that, but I do think repeating is a really, really good chance for this Denver team. So congrats to Nuggets fans. You guys have an awesome team. You guys have an awesome player in Nicole Yokic that I've really enjoyed watching.

In the next few years, they're going to be a ton of fun. Again, like, I think the title is sacred. I know some of you Nuggets fans are frustrated with some of my predictions this year. I feel like I've tried my best to explain them to you. you like I have rules. I have rules for my show. I'm always going to favor champions. So yeah, did I really think Anthony Davis was going to play better than Nicole Yokic in the Western Conference finals? No, I was hoping he'd keep it close, which he didn't. But going into the series, AD is a champion, Yokic is not. For me, that meant something. I understand that for some of you guys,

you have different rules and you don't see it that way. That's totally fair. But that's the way I see it. And that same benefit will benefit Yokic in the long run. When Luca next year is having an amazing season and he's in the Western Conference finals against Denver and all these talking heads are like, Luca's the best player in the series. I'm going to be like, no, Yokic is the best player. He's a champion. Luca's not.

That's just my way of kind of working these things out. It was never a hate for Yokic thing. I had some Yolkish fans say, or Denver fans be like, well, why did you have him seven before the season? Again, I told you guys, I don't typically, I typically don't value centers very much. So I had Yokic and Embed, very low, if you guys remember, and I had all wings higher up on the list. Well, guess what? We've learned. Like, my big thing is like, Colin Coward used to say this forever on his show.

It's not about getting it right. It's about being, or it's not about being right. It's about getting it right. Like, I don't care about being right. Predictions are silly. I'll be honest with you Nuggets fans. Like, as wrong as I was about Denver, how wrong were you guys about? Miami. Did you pick Miami to beat Milwaukee? How wrong were you guys about the Lakers?

I know a lot of you guys were really down on the Lakers during the regular season, said things like they're not going to make the playoffs or they're not capable of beating anybody. Well, they made it to the Western Conference finals, you know? So like predictions are silly and that's fine. This is sports. I love that sports is unpredictable. If it was predictable, we'd all be in Vegas making bets. You guys have heard me say that before. So like at the end of the day, it wasn't any insult to Denver fans. It's just the way that I personally make these I always have favored champions. That's why I had Milwaukee and Golden State as teams that I thought had a better chance to win a title than Denver this year. I favored those teams. The Lakers,

in LeBron James and Anthony Davis, I had seen those two guys win a championship together with good role players. So I was partial to that particular team. Even with my prediction, I picked the nuggets in every single round except for the Lakers round. Even there, I was going with NBA history. Every NBA champion in the last several decades has had elite rim protection and an elite defensive front line. And the Lakers did, and Denver did not. Now, I was wrong. I learned. But what we're going to do on this show is we're going to adjust over the years as we learn more information.

I used to think centers weren't very valuable. So I had Yokic at 7 and Embed at 8. But then what happened? Yokic clearly demonstrated that he's better than all the dudes in front of him. So now I'm going to have Yokic at number one. I'm just reacting to new information. And that's what I'm going to continue to do over the years. And Yokic, to me, has earned a whole lot of leeway going into next season.

I don't care if he's averaging 15 points a game in March. And I don't care if Luke is kicking everyone's ass. To me, the trophy is sacred. To me, everything about what we do in sports is about winning. Now, there are other things in the game that we should enjoy and appreciate, but winning is always the main thing. And if you don't make it sacred, then you cheapen it. And I don't want that.

When Yokic is sitting there holding the finals MVP trophy, to me, that moment is so incredibly sacred that if we apply the requisite amount of appreciation and respect to it, it makes it mean something, which is what I always want. I always want it to mean something. I don't want Yokic to be forgotten next year just because he's coasting through the regular season while other dudes are trying hard because they haven't won the trophy. yet. That's just the way that we do things on this show. But at the end of the day, like, I always have loved this Nuggets team. I've always known they were capable of winning. I had a

list of eight teams that could win the title going in. The Nuggets were on that list. I just gave preferential treatment to teams that had won. Now Denver's one of those teams, and they're going to be one of those teams that I favor moving forward. All right. So before we get out of here, I wanted to just kind of shout out you guys. So this is my, the end of my third full season covering the league, my second season covering the league with the volume. I take this shot very seriously. As you guys know, I devote a ton of time to it.

We did more than one show per day during this postseason run. Ryan and I, Ryan Abramly, and we're going to talk about some of the staff here in just a minute, but Ryan was my first producer when I started with the volume. He's become a very good friend of mine. him and I sat down in October and we were like what are our goals for this season and we had a really lofty one we wanted to average over 100,000 views per day on YouTube in the playoffs and at the time it seemed insane because in the playoff run last year like we hit 100K a few times but it was pretty rare and we certainly weren't averaging anywhere close to that and it was lofty and but we worked extremely hard. at it and we ended up accomplishing that goal. We averaged over 100,000 views per day in this postseason run. And to me, I'm just, I can't believe it. I can't believe that the way that you guys

care about the way that I want to talk about the game. It validates some stuff for me because, like, I remember when I got into this business, like, so many people were just focusing on drama and focusing on hot takes and debate shows are ruling the business right now. And like, I just wanted to come in and talk about the game the way that I wanted to talk about the game and keep it about basketball as much as possible, while also sprinkling in some of the bigger picture stuff that I've always loved as a kid being a fan of the league. And to see you guys return that to me with your support over the course of this year has been a really humbling experience. And honestly, it's been one of the greatest joys of my entire life

to build this show and to have your guys' support. And I'm incredibly thankful for you. I'm incredibly excited for what we can accomplish in the next couple of years. We've got to come up with an even loftier goal for next year when we're sitting in the chair at this point. But I just hope you guys know how much I appreciate you guys. I read the YouTube comments almost every single video. So if you've said, I will say like this, one of the things that sucks about this job is it's sports, right? Like, like, let's say for instance, you're a Denver fan and you didn't like something I said about Yokic. Like, it's just a, it's a basketball opinion, right? Like, it's a basketball opinion. I can't tell you how many times I get direct messages or or mentions from people that say

awful, awful, awful things to me about a sports opinion. And every single time it was evened out by the hundreds and hundreds of you guys who said incredibly kind things to me. And thanked me and told stories about how you've got... One of my favorite types of comments to receive is when you guys say that you love the game more because of what I'm saying. That to me is the best compliment you can possibly pay me because I love the game so much and I want the game to grow and to see it grow even just within the context of this show is really, really cool.

And so for all of you guys who said kind things to me over the years, over the year and sent me kind of direct messages and nice YouTube comments. I just want you guys to know how much I appreciate you guys. And I look forward to continuing this journey with you guys. The team. So Ryan Brumley, like I said, he's our lead producer. He's been incredibly valuable to me personally and just helping manage the grind of the season

and help keep me with the positive attitude and obviously helps to kind of focus and funnel my view of basketball into a version of the show that actually works and is successful in the modern media landscape. Paul Farrington, he's our big YouTube guy. He, again, if I'm working two videos a day and three videos a day sometimes and staying up super late, he's always staying up super late with me to make sure that that content gets out and puts all the chapter markers in there and does all those things that make the show work. So shout out to Paul.

Carson Breber, he was a big time guest on the show this year. Helps me a lot with some of the nitty-gritty stuff. that I don't get to spend as much time on, particularly like the draft and some player development stuff. I think he's one of the smartest basketball minds out there, one of the best young basketball minds that we have covering the league. And I was skiing down in Whistler for my wife's 30th birthday when I got a call from one of my bosses when he told me that Carson and NerdSash was getting picked up by the volume and he had a show. And I was so, so, so happy for Carson because he just deserves it. And it's really cool.

to see him have a show at the volume now as well. Shout out to Logan Camden as well. You two guys are awesome and I'm excited to work with you guys covering the draft next week. Josh Rodriguez is another guy who helped a lot, especially just with filling gaps when guys were in and out of town for vacation. And then Josh Goldman, mainly an idea guy, just helping us kind of come up with things to talk about during the season. And then lastly, Mr. Logan Swam, the head of content here at the volume, and then Mr. Colin Coward for making my dream come true by giving me this opportunity. And every single day I get to talk about basketball, which is, like, literally, I just feel incredibly lucky and blessed to do so, and I couldn't have done it without

those two guys. So shout out to the team. Again, like, I know it's just me here talking on the camera, but there's a lot of guys behind the scenes that make this whole thing work. Offseason plan. This week, we're doing a lessons we learned video probably tomorrow or the next day. We might hit some trade-free agency stuff if something interesting comes down over the course of the next couple days just quickly before I head of town. I go out to town on Friday to Montana and I'm going to be gone through next Wednesday. And unless there's huge breaking news, I'm just going to take a break. I'm a little burnt out after how much we worked over the course of this postseason run. So I'm going to take a break. But we will be back on Thursday next week for a draft show that night, a live draft show.

We're going to be doing it with the nerd sesh guys and Colin Cowherd. So that should be fun. Then free agency on July 1st. It'll be a little weird because I'm out of town in Texas for my cousin's wedding. I had a bunch of people in my mentions going like, why are you a Cowboys fan and a Lakers fan? Well, I'm a Lakers fan because of LeBron. I'm Cowboys fan because my entire family is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Both of my older siblings were actually born there. I was born right after we moved to Tucson, but the Dallas Cowboys are a big cultural thing in my family. But I'm in Texas. So our free agency coverage might be a little delayed just by a few hours. I think July 1st is when free agency starts and the weddings that day.

So I probably won't be covering that until the following morning. Then we're doing Summer League. We're actually going out to Summer League. I think the NerdSedge guys are coming too. I think Liv Moods is coming. So we're going to do a bunch of, I think Chris Manix is out there too. We've got the Blue Wire Studio in the wind for a couple of days. So we're going to do a bunch of stuff out in Vegas for Summer League.

Come say hi, too, if you see me. I'll probably be down at the UNLV Rec Center playing some basketball. want to come place and pick up, and then I'll be always hanging out in the arena. Just follow me on Twitter. You'll get to see where I'm at. Come by, say hi. I really want to meet some of you guys. And then I'm going out of town for a couple weeks in the middle of July to San Francisco

for the final dead and company show. And then I'm going to Japan with my wife for a week. So we'll miss some time there in the middle of July. But then I'm in town for pretty much the rest of the summer. I got a lot of big plans. We're going to be doing all-time player rankings, current player rankings, ranking playoff runs. And then once we get into that second half of September,

That's when we'll start our season preview shows focusing on the top teams in the league. All right, guys, another season in the book. The Volume. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put it, on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me.

Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw,

unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.