The Mismatch - The Kyrie Show, Clippers Conspiracy, and Jokic’s Influence With Adam Mares | The Void

Episode Date: March 10, 2022

Welcome to ‘The Void,’ where Kevin O’Connor brings you deep inside the NBA with the people who know it best. Today’s guest is Adam Mares. He is the VP of creative production at DNVR Sports and hosts two Nuggets podcasts, 'DNVR Nuggets' and 'Locked on Nuggets'. (02:04) - Kyrie Irving drops 50, a preview of a role for Ben Simmons (07:04) - Will Kawhi Leonard and Paul George return? (11:04) - What to expect from Golden State’s young players and Jackie Moon’s impact on Klay Thompson (15:22) - Darius Garland’s style of play and Evan Mobley coming up big (20:30) - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a weird night, but the Bucks destroyed OKC (24:55) - Is Nikola Jokic the MVP, or the best player in the game? (33:08) - How is Jokic influencing the game? (51:29) - Are the Nuggets Finals sleepers? (56:08) - Russell Wilson traded to the Broncos (01:02:38) - Draft talk about Colorado State’s David Roddy Host: Kevin O'Connor Guest: Adam Mares Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Matt Bellany, founding partner of Puck News, and I'm covering the inside conversation about money and power in Hollywood. With my new show, The Town, I'm going to take you inside Hollywood with exclusive insight on what people in show business are actually talking about. Multiple times a week, I'll talk to some of the smartest people I know, journalists, insiders, all of whom can break down the hottest topics in entertainment to tell you what's really going on. Listen to the boy. My name is Kevin O'Connor. And first up on today's episode, we're going to go through some of Tuesday's games. Look ahead to some other stuff this week and discuss the latest news. After that, we get a deep dive looking at the NBA as a whole through the lens of Nicola Yokic and the Denver Nuggets.

We're talking about the changing role for Biggs, how it impacts the game, the MVP race, how Yokic just keeps improving and what the potential return of Murray and Michael Porter Jr. could mean for Denver and the NBA finals race. As you're going to hear, we're trying something a little bit different with that part of the conversation, more narrative podcast style. I'm not going to lie, I was inspired by Derek Thompson's show playing English. I love what they do and thought we'd try something a little different with that section of the pod.

But we start off with Adamarez, one of the smartest people covering the NBA. He's out of the Denver area. He's the podcast co-host of DNVR Nuggets and Lockdown Nuggets. He's also the VP of creative production at DNVR Sports. The dude wears a lot of hats. He's a busy guy. And I'm thankfully he took the time out this morning to talk about the NBA. him. How are you doing, man? It is a bright and sunny day in the Mile High City. It's actually a

snowy and cold, freezing cold day, but it's a bright and sunny day in our hearts and minds. You know, obviously the rest of Wilson news is broken. And the Broncos are hopefully coming out of their six-year slumber. They very well could be with Russell Wilson. It seems like they got him for a good price. We saw some good NBA games last night. Kyrie Irving scored 50 points. It was the most efficient, according to the true shooting percentage. 50-point game and NBA. history that's won that 132-121 over the Hornets. Adam, I mean, right now we still have a situation here where Kyrie Irving remains a part-time player. Before we recorded the pod this

morning, I saw on ESPN's front page, Stephen A. Smith, like, ranting against Kyrie Irving, still a part-time player. You know, we're getting distracted by the show. Are we getting distracted by the show here in terms of projecting what Brooklyn could be come playoff time or even making the playoffs, considering the fact that they are still in the play-in bubble? I mean, of course. There's no question about it right now.

As things said, I mean, first of all, it's a fantastic game, and it is one of those reminders that Brooklyn, on any given night, can just become unbeatable. I mean, they have two players that are just, there's no solution for,

and Kyrie's not going to drop 50 every night, but when he does, you know, all you have left are prayers. But right now, as they sit, they would face Toronto in Toronto for the play-in. That's a, that's a, sit-out game for Kyrie. So yes, we are distracted a little bit because you start to look at this and you think

there's a scenario where do they match up, you know, do they get paired somewhere where he just can't play a whole lot of games, can only play half of them, whatever. So it is still, unfortunately, a huge, it's hard to get too excited about Brooklyn because of that. But when he plays, man, it's just, it's so weird. There's so many teams this year, Kevin, where you look at him and you're like, they're so good if. Like, every team has this giant if.

It's so hard to project what this playoffs will be. Yeah, you're right, actually, especially in the Western Conference right now. Who are the teams of the outy ifs, actually? I mean, now that you mentioned, who doesn't have an iff right now that's not a big one? Maybe Utah, like, their ifs are more just about how they perform, but not so much are their players going to be there. But I was even looking at Chicago, I saw Caruso go back out east. You know, he's cleared for contact. The Bulls have kind of slid, and I think they're everybody's like fifth or six team out east.

But when you look at it and you go, Lonzo and Caruso made that a great defensive team. Can they be a great defensive team again? And then you add in sort of the clutch scoring and one-on-one scoring that they have out on the wing. So to me, I haven't quite fully written them off because we're writing them off in a moment in time when they just don't have their guys. Yeah, I'm with you on Chicago. I think they've been buried a little bit too soon. And even, you know, granted with the Bulls at full strength, you're not taking them over some of the other teams in the East. It's like the argument I had with Chris Vernon about the Celtics the last couple weeks.

Yeah, they're not the favorite. But they have their team that has a shot and the Bulls have a shot. the Nets are one of those. The Nets are the team that they go from having a shot to being the favorites or one of the favorites if they get a full-time Kary Irving and they get a healthy Ben Simmons. And that's one of the things that like watching last night's game with Kari's scoring 50, Drummond has 20 for them. And with Drummond, he is a big name guy, but he's not someone who actually has the big name status anymore. But he's an important piece for that Nets team that they got in that deal. Bruce Brown is about to be replaced

in the starting lineup by Ben Simmons whenever he actually gets back. And you get Bruce Brown every night he's scoring off, easy dumpoffs near the rim, he's cut into the basket, he's set and screams scoring on the short roll, he's being a nuisance on defense. And we kind of like get an idea.

It's a blurry vision of what the nets are going to look like with Ben Simmons out there. And I don't know. I see the way they're using Seth Curry, running him through all the actions they use Joe Harrison, who's going to be out for the rest of the season. We're not going to see Ben Simmons Thursday night in Philadelphia,

which is a shame. Doc Rivers said they should have a tribute video to him, which would be comical with Simmons sitting on the bench. It'd be cruel to Simmons to do that, I think. The tribute video when he's sidelined? Yeah, it's sidelined, and then everybody's just going to boo the whole time. At some point, you just have to acknowledge the situation and say, hey, man, like, it's a good sentiment, but the moment probably didn't call for it.

We still have other guys not playing in the NBA right now. Kauai Leonard was seen warming up before the Clippers lost the Warriors on Tuesday night. He has not been cleared for contact. There's still nothing on Paul George except Chris Haynes said that the Clippers are being cautious with both of those guys. And he said, I spoke with Coach Liu. And he told me that if they can't get his guys back for games in the regular season, it wouldn't be safe for them to return in the playoffs. Here's my thing.

I think they're coming back. Really? This is just a gut feeling based on, I mean, a couple of conversations across the league with people who believe the same thing as me. But you go back to September and October. Kauai says he signs this long-term deal to increase the likelihood he can come back this season. We see, we hear reports in January that he's ahead of schedule. We get all this stuff in the middle of March and working out before games. And it's, oh, it would it be safe for them to come back in the playoffs if it's not.

the regular season. Well, what if it just is in the regular season and the clippers are keeping this quiet? Because there is a chance he doesn't. I mean, like, we don't know if Seth Bags will occur. They just don't want to, my, my belief based on a lot of things, some of that I just mentioned, is that the clippers just don't want to set expectations too high. They just want to drop the, drop the wodge bomb or drop the press release when it's that time. But I'm operating under the assumption that there's a strong likelihood that we see this crazy good Clippers team, granted they lost last night with Kawhi Leonard and with ball George come playoff time, which is wild to think about.

The Clippers somehow had those guys and they were able to give anything. I think all bets are off, you know, for that first round. I mean, barring them playing Phoenix, I think Phoenix is the one team that you would need 100%. Any team that's going to go against them is going to have to be 100% to kind of play. But you talk about a Memphis Grizzlies team as it sits right now, 7-2, and I think Memphis is fantastic. But that Clippers team is extremely well coached.

They have so much defensive versatility and so many big bodies they can throw and impact the pain and still close out and all those different things. Like, I look at that and I think I'm so skeptical of it just because we're so late in the season. There's not that much time. But I'm so high on the clippers. They're upside as a team. By the way, Denver's doing the same thing with Jamal Murray. And I get it. When you have a major knee injury, so much of this becomes psychological, becomes mental.

And it becomes we don't want to put a pressure on a player. We want them to respond to their bodies and do this or that. So it was meaningful to me that Kauai Leonard worked out in front of media members because it's very easy to have a guy worked out not in front of media members and do the thing you're talking about. So that, it almost feels like a deliberate, hey, this is coming along. This is the thing that's actually still hanging out here. One of the things we're going to talk about later is just how different teams are using

different types of defenses and the way they construct their rosters that best fit the personnel. and with the Clippers, it's like, you know, you bring back to a team that's already very good defensively. You bring back Kauai Leonard, who might not be prime levels. He isn't prime levels anymore, but he can still be a great defender. Paul George, who is a great defender. And I just get excited about the idea of seeing Ty Loo throw out Kauai, George, Marcus Morris, Nick Batum, and Robert Covington. It's like you have five guys on the court who are all 6-8, 6-9,

multi-positional, smart, high, I IQ, hard-working defenders. And I'm like, damn, like that is that, that feels like the future of basketball in some way. It's just a lineup like that. It's a great, I mean, it's certainly one avenue of the future of basketball. That's part of what I love about this era

is there's like five or six different sort of styles or philosophies that it's going to be interesting to see which one wins. It's a bit of a paper-rock scissors, I think. Some teams match up really well against others and less. But, you know, the other thing about them coming back, if they were to come back, I think it makes it really difficult, whether you're Golden State or whether you're Memphis, it makes it more difficult to game plan saying, well, we don't know what they have to give.

We don't know what this team looks like. I mean, as much as we have seen this somewhat of this Clippers team in the past, this is a new, they have new pieces, you know, with Covington and just kind of a new look. So it would be hard, I think, for a Taylor Jenkins or even a Steve Kerr, but especially at Taylor Jenkins to say, we think this is what we want to do? Like, do we want to attack Kauai Leonard? Is he the guy we want to make the mark?

Like, that doesn't feel right. That's a great point. Yeah, you're right. Like, you logically, a guy comes back from injury, you think he's limited, you want to attack him, but this is Kauai Leonard. That's a tough game plan to sell, especially to a young team, like, hey,

you know, Dylan Brooks or whoever, like we want you to ISO-Kawai Leonard. That's our strategy here. Yeah, exactly. I had a thought about it, like, that would be in terms of if they come back late sometimes you just don't know what expect it's a huge curveball i mean that that that'll be the interesting thing on the other side of this because with golden state they got to get jremont green back there's reports that

he'll be back on the 14th uh this month moses moody has recently been starting for for them the last week he had 13 points against dallas on five of five shooting nine points against the lakers on four or four and then against the nuggets on monday he has 30 points It was an inefficient night, 10 of 23, but still Moses Moody, the guy who hasn't played a lot this season. 30 points for the Warriors. Think about Cominga, Wiseman, you hope, comes back. Moody's having some great games this past week, 10 points last night, and the Golden State went over the Clippers. What were your impressions of Moody when you saw him on Monday against Denver?

I loved what I saw from him. I mean, first of all, those games were, you know, Warriors didn't bring their starters, basically. That's the opportunity for those young guys to go out there and do something. And he played hungry. I mean, he played like a guy that was, hey, this is my chance to shine. He outworked all of the nuggets. He was aggressive going to the basket without fear, even against some pretty good defenders, like Aaron Gordon. I mean, he just outplayed and outworked Aaron Gordon, especially in the first half of that game.

He shot the three ball and knocked it down. I don't know if he's going to shoot. I think he was five of 12 or something like that. Trailed off a little bit in the second half of that game started to miss some. But his shot looked good. I just was impressed with him. And the thing that stands out, both with him and Kaminga, I think with the prospects, especially high upside prospects

like that, those guys, there's such a great culture there. The way that they have developed is the perfect way for a young player with lots of talent. I mean, you could give those guys shots, you can give them ISOs, you can give them high volume things, this or that. Those guys have kind of learned how to fit into a system, and then when all the guys are out,

they become the system. And that's what I noticed in that Warriors game, I was so impressed with both of those guys. No, absolutely. I mean, I think Golden State, granted, they've had some whiffs in the draft. I mean, like, you know, we all made mistakes in that draft with Lamello ball and Anthony Edwards. I'm taking Wiseman over ball. Like, boy, like Lamello would look fantastic right now in a Golden State uniform.

But it is what it is. You make mistakes. They still are signing guys like Wantsiskano Anderson, better rotation regulars. Kaming is showing so much promise, like this entire season. He's showing so much promise in improving in the intangible areas. Like, we know he's athletic. He's improving. those intangible areas, making decisions passing the ball,

six assists last night to zero turnovers. It's games like that. And Jordan Poole, not to mention him, like he has been stellar going back to late last season. Golden State's player development has been great. And I noticed before yesterday's game, basketball legend Jackie Moon was warming up with Clay Thompson. Reinforcements on the way.

Will Ferrell shows up just as Jackie Moon, and he's like closing out on Clay Thompson, and take corner threes. I'm watching the clip posting, I'm thinking, hand down, man down.

But then he has one of play with that he turns around and he runs at Clay Thompson with both arms up in there and he screams and Clay still hits the shot. Like you can see the life just sucked out of Jackie Moon in that play. Poor Jackie Moon, an ineffective closeout guy.

Who would have known, not the proper length. I loved it, man. You know what I found out, though, during this, because I'm all for bringing in these,

like, first of all, how great is it that Will Ferrell gets to dress up as himself sometimes? It's the best life. I know. He gets to dress up as one of his characters and real the real world, just cosquailing himself. We should have this more often. Who are some characters

from movies we'd like to see? Even if they're not doing the things that they do in the movie, just dressed themselves. I wish I had some time to say John Wick. But you don't want to see John Wick's doing John Wick's things necessarily. That's probably not. Maybe you do. Maybe you do. I found out, though, that

Denver's G League team, Grand Rapids Gold is actually having a Flint Tropics night where they're going to wear Tropics jersey. So I'm all for this synergy. Maybe this becomes the new Alts. You find some movie jerseys and teams can kind of wear those or something. But I think it's great.

The tropics, we need more tropics in the NBA. There's a great article this morning on the ringer.com. Is it time to make Batman funny again by Miles Surrey on the ringer? I think that also like a funny Batman. I love it. We're coming full circle in some ways.

Also, in the last night's game, we saw the Cavs in their first game without Jared Allen. Dean Wade got put in the starting lineup. Cleveland won over Indiana 127 to 124. Darius Garland, man, continues as he has all season long just to be absolutely stellar at 41 points last night with 13 assists only four turnovers. Garland's command of the pick and roll, his ability to create off the dribble and manipulate defenders. It's funny.

I was thinking about this watching this game because with Garland, there's so many, the MVP candidates are all big. There's Janus, there's Yokic, there's Embed. So many of the great players we just talked about the clippers, how they can play a lineup of five, six, eight,

six nine guys. And then you have Little Darius Garland, 6-1, under 200 pounds. He's just little and squirmie out there and quick and fast, able to get wherever he wants on the floor. Like, I think, you know, I just said with the clippers, six eight, six nine guys,

it could be the future of basketball. And you say, well, that's one of the futures of basketball. The future of basketball still includes smaller guards doing whatever it is that they want on the court. The basketball is a game for everybody still. And Garland is evidence. That's what's so cool about the league right now, is there are all these different molds.

And I think they all have their merits to him. And they all have their shortcomings. But he was so great last night. He's, I'm surprised there's not. I mean, there is some buzz, obviously, about him. He's having a fantastic year. He's one of the most fun players to watch in the NBA. He is so shifty.

I think he might be the shiftyest, sort of, like, twitchiest player in the NBA. And you watch him on some of these moves. You almost don't appreciate him because they're so fast. And then you see the slow motion replay, and you see that there's, like, seven different shoulder jerks that he puts in a move. And there's just no way you can keep up with him. He's one of the biggest things in the NBA, or one of the most important things in the NBA,

especially from the guard position. Even with this, if you're going to switch everything, you're going to have length this or that, do you have players that can get through that first line of defense pretty effortlessly? And he's one of those guys. You've got bigs at the rim. You can put pressure rolling to the rim. They got plenty of those guys. If you space the court properly, good luck, no matter how tall you are, how long you are, how quick you are defensively.

Good luck keeping him in front of you. And then last night he had the counter going. This is kind of the thing that I think is going to make or break him. And it's going to make him because he's so young, he's going to keep doing this. when he's getting by you three, four times in a row, so you take that extra half step backwards, then he just steps back and drains that three right in your face. And he was doing that last night,

and that's how you get up to those 40-point totals. He's one of the NBA's most efficient ISO scores this year. He's a great pick-and-roll playmaker, creator. He does it all for your team, and now he's paired with their rookie, who very well might win rookie of the year, and Evan Mobley, 22 points, 12 rebounds, five steals, three assists, one block,

just another game of many from him this season where he's just filling up the box score doing literally everything on the court. And some of the shots he hits last night, I know, I know with Mobley, you know, like a lot of the Cade Cunningham supporters are like, well, Mobley can't do that. Or like, Jane Lingery supporters, like, you know,

Mobley can't do that. It's all funny how these games happened. But then last night, Mobley, you know, first half, he just speeds by his defender, has a huge left-hand dunk in the lane, second half off the dribble, hits his crazy turnaround jumper going towards his left.

Final minute he is the huge offensive rebound to tie the game. Like, Mobley can do everything from everywhere on the court. And it could be only a matter of time until we see a lot more of the scoring off the dribble from him like we saw on last science game. But I continue to be blown away by this entire rookie class, and especially Mobley. He's unbelievable. I think we're almost sleeping on him because that stat line you did. We always do points, rebounds, and assists, and then you just kind of stop.

Steals and blocks with him, the numbers are smaller, so they almost pop less. But when you're like just casually, oh, yeah, I had three steals and two blocks. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold up. What? All of those? The guys, the guy's unbelievable. I have, there are few players I'm more confident are going to be, you know, the guys going forward like I am.

He's going to be a guy in this league for the next 12 years. Yeah, you know, I think that's what makes it so interesting with, with that 2021 draft class, because you can look at all three of those guys up top, and there's a chance that they are multi-time all-stars for, into 10 plus years in the NBA. Jaylen Green really has come on a lot as of late, had a thing about him in my article on the ringer on Monday. And Kate Cunningham, these last eight games,

averaging 21.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 5.5 assist. He is in command. The Pistons are winning games. They've won six out of eight, three in a row. I mean, like for Detroit here, you're kind of blowing your lottery odds a little bit if you continue winning. But ultimately, it's not such a bad thing.

if you're winning games, if you have a great young player in Cade Cunningham. And he continues to make advancements. And I think similarly, for Oklahoma City, they lose 142 to 115, but you want to see your gun guys playing well against a team with finals, hopes like the Janus and the Milwaukee Bucks. And in last science game, first of all, it was a spectacular game again for Janus, 39 points, another MVP caliber performance. But this is a weird stat.

Shegildes Alexander had 33 points. points, 14 assists, four rebounds, and 35 minutes of play. And keep in mind, I just said, OKC lost the game 142 to 115, so they lost by 27 points. In those 35 minutes with Gilgis Alexander, the Thunder were a plus four. OKC lost by 31 points. Wow. That's a little bit of time that SGA wasn't on the floor. Like, what the hell is?

How does it possible? That's the perfect tank right there. You win the important minutes if you're talking about what you want to be. And you so horrendously lose those other minutes. We just talked about Garland. John Moran obviously can't keep him out of the paint. Shea's in that group too. You can't keep him out of the paint.

Like it takes a whole team effort to keep him out of driving to the basket and getting to where he wants to be. 14 assists as impressive as the 30 points. That's a lot of points to generate for that Thunder team in 33 minutes or whatever you say. I mean, that's several points per minute you're generating. while you're on the court, it's insane. Yeah, he's a great player. I mean, Gildes Alexander, I think is the type of guy that if Giddy is able to make significant progress, Grant that he's not playing right now as a score.

If Poku, who's low-key, pretty good, the last couple of weeks here, have you seen any Poku? I mean, what are your Poku thoughts, Adam? Man, I don't have, I'm kind of like, and it's not fair, but I'm kind of jaded by the bowl-bill experiment here in Denver. Oh, yeah. There's the, like, flashy novelty. see this is really interesting versus the like, is it really making an impact?

But he's so skilled. I mean, not to compare him to the bowl, he's significantly better. He's just so skilled, the stuff he does pops, but I'm still extremely skeptical. What is the case for Janus to win MVP?

Man, that's a great question. I mean, the numbers have been fantastic. His team has been fantastic. They're so reliant on him. I did this thing a couple weeks back and it's a little bit stale, but I was looking at how does your team do

when you don't win your minutes? Meaning how much are guys, you know, getting the benefit of their team just kind of helping him out. Yanis, I think, was right up there with Yokic in terms of if he doesn't win the minutes when he's on the court, that team would win. A lot of that has to do if they have a great starting lineup. So it's not just him. It's all of their starters. The thing I looked up that was interesting from this year to last year, he's taking the fewest number of shots

at the rim. And he's taking the most number of shots from the floater zone. I'm using basketball reference here, zero to three feet and three to ten feet. So he's, you know, he's losing some of that. I don't know if that's missing Lopez and there's just a little bit less spacing. So he's getting a little bit less there. His dump percentage of shots that are dunks are down since what they were his rookie and sophomore years. So he's actually getting tougher shots, but guess what? His efficiency is the same. So somehow he's just gotten better at slightly tough shots. And if they do find a way to get him to the rim, just a little bit more, you know, maybe his efficiency would be even further off the chain. But last night, I see him taking three,

stepping into threes comfortably, stepping into mid-ranchers comfortably. He's just so willing to do the things that could get him criticized very heavily. to me, I mean, that's a big part of his case. I think that's a great way to put it. He's willing to do the things that he can get criticized for. He doesn't shy away from, you know, having an 0 for 7 night from three because he knows he'll have some four for four nights. And I would imagine for Janus, the way we've seen him talk about his game, the

the great mirror and fader book about Janus, New York Times bestseller last year. Like with Janus, this is somebody who's going to turn over every rock, figure out everything that he can do to become the best player that he can possibly be. And I bet for him, he probably has some internal frustration about, like, I'm doing all the right things. And yet I have a one for seven night. And I can also have these four for five nights. Like he, he just hasn't been able to have any consistency as a shooter, whether it's from the perimeter with jump shots, pull-ups, or whether it's from the free throw line. Like he's, you know, nine of 13 last night. He'll have some games well below 50%. He'll have a couple weeks ago. He had a stretch, I think, of, you know, I think 28 of 30.

straight-made free throws. I mean, there's a ridiculous percentage. So, Janus, again, he's become a do-it-all player. And after this break, we're going to talk about another one of those do-it-all players and Nicola Yokic. Nicola Yokic is the clear MVP with one month to go. Then it's Yonis and NB, they're neck and neck. And then there's everybody else.

There's a lot of guys in the MVP discussion because we are spoiled by the amount of talent right now in the NBA. This postseason, Yokich will have a chance to prove he's the best of them all. It's still the regular season, though, and the best player in the world's status is earned in the NBA finals. So, Yannis, the two-time MVP, title winner, and finals MVP has a leg up on everybody.

But we're at a transitional point in the NBA cycle, and there's no obvious best player. The last time it was like this was the debate about LeBron James versus Kobe Bryant in the late 2000s. Eventually it was obviously LeBron, but now it's not obvious. as LeBron is still one of the best, and he can be the best on any particular night.

We just saw him score 56 points in the Warriors last weekend, but he's not the clear number one guy anymore. Yokic is one of the few guys who has a chance to steal that status. Here's what Adam said about the value of ranking the league's best players right now. The NBA doesn't have a best player. This is my hot take here, Kevin. The NBA does not have a best player right now. And I actually think through most of its history,

it has not had a best player. Michael Jordan was the best player for a long time. LeBron James was the best player for a long time. Right now, Janice, Yokic, Mb, Steph Curry, Luke at Donch, you got all these great players and they're all within a margin of error of each other in terms of

how you build a roster. We saw the Nick Wright tweet a while back and said Yokic is the sixth best player and everybody got up in arms. Maybe. Maybe he is the sixth best player. But the difference between one and six is so close that we shouldn't be talking about these guys in terms of one, two, three, four, five, six. It's the

basketball has a lot of good players, and for most of its history, it's been that way. We're just stuck in the Michael Jordan way of looking at the league. With no Jamal Murray all season long and no Michael Porter, Jr. since early on in the season, the fact that the Nuggets currently hold a guaranteed playoff spot in the West is remarkable. Denver outscores teams by 9.4 points per 100 possessions when Yokic does on the floor compared to being outscored by 7.2 when he's not. That differential of 16.6 is greater than Janus's different. at 12 and Embedes at 11.3. All three of these guys are monsters, but Yokic leads in that.

The thing is, is he wasn't as much of a fixture in this best player debate last season. Even though he won MVP after one of the greatest offensive campaigns in history, it's just that he's better now. All this talk is happening because he surpassed his brilliance. He's continuing to score at will from the post. If he gets double-teamed, he can still spin into open space to score, and he's always locating teammates with passes. He's carrying the office. He's carrying the offensive load while making significant progress again on defense, as Adam explained. I think, number one, his conditioning. I think he's the most underrated part about his game.

He's one of the most condition. In fact, Chonsie Billups said this before the Nuggets Portland game the other day, that he thinks Yokic is a top five best conditioned athlete in the NBA. I strongly agree with him. The guy, he doesn't look great, but he just doesn't get tired. He plays really... Is that wild that we're at that point? It's so wild.

It's so, I mean, he's a, it's underrated how mentally tough he is, I think. Just, you know, that, that aspect of it. There's a reason he doesn't like to skip games is because for him, he's all about this like, you know, I want to be mentally strong for these challenges. And you watch him even in fourth quarters. And I would say even especially in fourth quarters, the defense picks up. He starts to get more aggressive. His mobility has improved a little bit, although I think that could be overstated.

But it's just his conditioning and his ability now to play both ends of the court. If not for 48 minutes, for pretty close. close to 48 minutes and ramped it up as the game goes on. You think you mentioned Yokic doesn't like to take the games off, like to just keep going. That's like me. If I take one day off from working out or one day off. Right.

I'm being healthy. You know, I'm done. I think Yokic, he takes a game off. He starts playing. He's got these like, I'm not joking about this, these horse training video games on his phone.

So you take a day off and you start playing that game a little bit. you start to miss home, you miss the horse track. And then, yeah, it's like you start from zero again. While eating tacos, I found some stats to explain Yokic's progress on defense. Five regular seasons ago, Yokic ranked 43rd of the 49 players with over 1,000 pick and rolls defended and points allowed per play. That's according to Second Spectrum. Yokic was in the company of old Dirk Novitsky, Vaughn Maker, and Ness Canter Freedom, and that's not the names you want to be around.

But every single season since, he's gotten better and better and better. And now in 2022, he's allowing only 0.93 points per pick and roll as the big man defending the screen. That's the best of his career. And for the 21-22 season, Yokic ranks sixth and points allowed of the 26 bigs to defend over 1,000 pick-and-roll. Sixth, Yolkich has gone from the bottom of the league to the top. Rudy O'Barre and Joel Abeat are on their own. But Yokic is not far behind in the class of D'Andre Aiton. and Jared Allen.

And look at Bobamba. 12th best, above average and trending up. I love it. Yokage gets stops, but he doesn't block many shots. He logs only 0.8 blocks per game. That's lower than Kyle Kuzma and Patrick Beverly. But blocks aren't indicative of defensive ability. Aiton also averages 0.8.

So does Stephen Adams. All three of those bigs defend dramatically differently for their playoff teams. Yokich has made blocks when he needs to. He has 43 total blocks in the season, and three of them have been gained. winning blocks of the buzzer. Yokic is normally just an elite

positional defender who's always where he's supposed to be, but sometimes he can't pick up blocks. He's always felt in control on offense and now he's just operating with the same level of precision with his footwork, pivoting different directions to keep in front of attackers, whether it's as a pick and roll defender, or whether he's

on an island defending outside of the paint. Obviously, Yokic isn't the NBA's best defender, and as Adam said, he does have his limitations with mobility so players can occasionally blow by him on drives to the basket, but Yokic isn't getting roasted like he once did. Five years ago you would talk about you have a rim protector, and that's what matters.

It elevates, you put a guy at the rim, and then everybody else's job is made easier. That's still true today. But I think what we're seeing is, especially with these new rules, but are allowing for a little bit more contact out on the perimeter, is that if you have elite pick and roll guards

with length and the ability to get through screens, all of a sudden lesser defenders, like Oeusovich, Yokic in particular, who has some of the first, best defensive hands in the NBA. If you could just take away that downhill running guard, if you could just take that away, then he actually can defend really well. The way I describe Yokic is he is great at like 97% of basketball. He's really bad at that 3% where if you're running downhill at him and it's like a two on one, he can't jump to protect the lob and he's not

really quick enough to slide his feet out on the perimeter. So the key is can you put pieces around that make it so he's not in that zone? And I think what we're seeing is more and more teams are figuring out how to do that. You mentioned the Chicago Bulls. Their guards are rim protectors because they keep the ball away from the room. The Bulls have fallen apart with all their best wing defenders. Alex Caruso and Monsal Ball have been out a lot of the time, and that's put too much pressure on Nicola Vucovich.

Denver wouldn't be the same without Aaron Gordon for sure. He's an important partner for Yokic because he usually defends the best perimeter score, and Yokic defends the best interior guy. The variety of styles around the league, though, is nuts right now. There are big, long teams like the calves. Rudy Gobert drops better than anyone doing it the traditional way for the jazz. The Celtics are doing really cool things with Robert Williams away from the ball, letting him roam and stay near the rim.

Some teams blitz a lot like the bucks because they have Janus. What the best teams are doing is creating a scheme to maximize their personnel. That's why there's so much variety right now. On defense, the Nuggets found a way to build around Yokic, and on offense, he's allowing them to innovate. What Yokich has provided me is he's unlocked a way of playing basketball that I had never thought of, that I had never seen. And I thought, oh, I thought basketball was this fixed thing. And this is how you do it and you do this.

And there's a little bit of wiggle room positionally, but generally speaking, this is how it is. Yokic has taken it and completely reinvented the way I think of the game. And I think, wow. In the same way Steph Curry has, Steph Curry started shooting all these deep threes and having a quick trigger. And you think, wow, look at how this, the ripple effects. of that and how all of a sudden now the league evolves. Yogh, to me, has done the same thing. I think Yonis is doing very similar things.

Embed is more of a traditional center dominant, but maybe a little bit more of that traditional route. To me, that's the story the league should be telling, is, hey, we always thought the game was played this way, and there's been little changes on the margins. But right now we're seeing the game being a whole new avenues of the game of basketball being discovered, and let's explore all the implications of that.

What does it mean if you have a point center? How does that change the different ripple effects and how you can win at the NBA level? To me, that's what's so interesting. Yokic being a point center allows Denver to do everything on the court. But he became this. He improved as a shooter. He improved as a defender. He got in shape.

He was drafted 41st out of Serbia. 41st. Yogic is 27 years old now having the best season of his life because he's always adding more to his game year after year. And that's what I asked Adam about. What's the latest thing that Yogi is? which has added. Every year he adds little pieces to his game and the thing over the last two years, so he added this last year, but he's gotten better at it this year, is his attacking closeout game. You know, his three point shot now, people are biting on that. They're worried about it.

And he's just gotten really, and it's funny to say, really quick with his first step so that he can get his defender on his hip. And then he's just so good at slowing him down. Once he gets on the hip, he just keeps him there, kind of leans on him all the way to the basket and then powers it up. So his first step off the dribble is one of those things that has unlocked his game. And Denver will go to it. If they're clogging the paint against him and sending extra defenders, Denver will actually get him on the move, set him screens from the wing, so he's cutting into the basket, catching it on the move,

and then making one dribble moves towards the basket. So that part's unlocked a new aspect of his offense. I feel like his offense, his scoring specifically, is a bit underrated, at least nationally. I mean, everybody, like the playmaking, all the passes, like the whip over the head he had the other night, the passes go viral from Yokic, which is unusual because like most other players, it's not the passes that go viral. But with Yokic it is, it's just his scoring doesn't. Sometimes it's slow. It doesn't look like it's a typical highlight. He's not dunking over people, but he is one of the league's most efficient isolation scores.

He is the league's best post playmaker plus score. you can argue Embed's a better score, but not a better score and play America like Yokic. He can attack closeouts like you said. He can run off screens. He can run, pick and roll for you with a small guard screening for him. Yokic, like there's no, there's no answer for Yokic when he has the ball on his hands. There's no answer.

He's, I mean, he's the league's 13 best score right now in a point per game, you know, just looking at point per game. But he's the most efficient of all those guys by a pretty wide margin. Exactly. The high volume guys, he's on another level in terms of efficiency. A whole other level. And I think what happens here why his scoring doesn't get talked about, because I honestly think he's one of the best scores in the NBA, why it doesn't get talked about the same way nobody really replicated Kareem Skyhook. It just never caught on that everybody was trying it. Don't get scores, these weird little like one-handed scoop shots and just things

that no players going to the gym to work on. And I just think that's part of it is you're not, it's not that the Rose and Fallaway where you're like, man, that's a pretty shot. tried, it's hard. Yokic does things you've never tried before, and you never will try. Because he improvises in the moment. I remember I interviewed Yokic, I don't know, four years ago, something like that, whenever it was in Denver, and I asked

him, like, have you practiced, like your accuracy as a passer? Is that something like you practice? He's like, no, I just look and I, the ball goes where I wanted to. Like, he's almost kind of amazed at his own ability. And I'm sure it's similar for him, with those types of weird scoop shots you're talking

about. He just sees the rim and it goes where he wants it to go. Supreme Body Control. You saw that video with Steph Curry the other day, that incredible video where he makes like 20, 30 shots in a row. Oh, yeah, the warm-ups, right? He shoots the 20-foot floater, goes way up in the air and goes in.

Again, I'm not sure he was magic. Yeah, he just sees the rim and it's like, this is how much I need to put on this shot and it'll go in. I think Yokes the same way. He just, like you said, he hasn't practiced these moves or this touch. He just has the body control to know. exactly what to do to make the ball goer at once.

Yokic reminds me of a self-taught guitarist. The technique may not always be technically perfect, but it can be perfect for this particular person. Jimmy Hendricks wrapped his thumb over the neck. Yokic does improv dance on the post, and it works, even if it's different from everybody else. Nine players have posted up 250 times this season. The Nugget scored 1.11 points per postup by Yokic.

That's first by a wide margin with Embed's second at 1.05. Now, I know six fans are going to say, how about strictly as a score? But even if you remove the plays when they pass the ball from the post, and only look at the post-ups when they try to score, Yokic still scores with greater efficiency than Mbid. Both of them are elite. That's why they're in the MVP conversations together.

Adam is right, though, that Embed is more of the traditional type. He studied Hakeem. He took from Dirk. He absorbed so much from Biggs across errors. So, in a way, Yokic and Embed are very much similar in that stance. but Yokic is like his own genre. And here's an interesting thing I actually think about a lot with Yokic. This last, you know, 12 months have been tragic for the Nuggets losing Jamal Murray the way they have.

If there's one really overarching super positive thing that comes out of it is Yokic has been forced so far outside of his comfort zone. And things like this, I suspect next year when Jamal Murray's back, that number's going to go down. Out of sheer necessity, you just don't need him running off of screens like this. Denver did that out of necessity because teams were clogging the paint and doing this or that. But what I think is nice is Yokic has added so many parts to his game and the team now is confident in all these different parts of his game that will be in the back pocket for years to come now of, hey, we can do all these different things. We don't have to, but we can do all these different things if we need them in a playoff series or what have you.

You know a funny thing I did one time? I put out, who has a better career highlight mixtape? Carmelo Anthony or Nikola Yokic. And the result of this poll had some something like 15,000 votes. And it was 50% to 50%. And the quote tweets and replies to this all said, this is the dumbest poll I've ever seen. It's obviously blank. It's obviously Yonkid.

It's obviously Miller. And I just thought like, hey man, people like such different things. Those two have like no crossover, right? And skill set. People like different things. And I think that's the part that's so cool about basketball. It doesn't have to be one way. It can be a lot of different ways.

you're 100% right i mean i think with yokic the fascinating thing with him is can it be replicated can players play in his mold i don't think anybody has his you know pinpoint bull's eye vision but what is it that maybe other teams can learn from the way in which the nuggets do construct their team around him that could be implemented elsewhere even if they don't have that supreme godly level of passing ability that he has i think it's a lot like with step kury in that I don't know if there will ever be another Step Curry, but there are a lot of B versions of Steph Curry. I mean, Damian Liller's a great player.

This is no insult to say he's the B version of Steph Curry. And you've got other guys that are maybe the B or C version. And I think in years to come, we might even have an A-minus version of Steph Curry. Maybe we'll have another step-cury. I don't know. I never want to close the door on that. But I think teams learn that, hey, there is value to having a quick trigger.

First of all, do you remember seven years ago, seven, eight years ago, off the dribble threes were thought of as like, hey, don't take the, you take one of those, okay, but let's not take too many off the dribble. Now everybody understands not just that it can be a weapon, but when and how to deploy that to make it a weapon. I think similar things are true of Yokic that we probably won't see another Yokic, but we will see a B version. In fact, I think we already have one in Sacramento in DeMontes-Sabonis, who's a fantastic player who does a lot of the same things Yokic does, just maybe at a little

bit lesser scale, especially some of the scoring and some of the touch. So I think we'll see an evolution of Biggs, are maybe not in the Yokic mold, but who are thought of of, they don't have to just be a rim roller, rim protector. If this guy can dribble a little bit, how do we use that to our advantage? If this guy can shoot the floater's own shot,

how do we use that to our advantage? And now all of a sudden you start to get a little bit more creative. Guys that make it to the NBA, by and large, have some elite talents. And rather than look and say they don't have the right talents, you look at it and say, how do we use these talents to our advantage? another B or C or D version of Yogan to think about in the NBA is

Alperin Shengun with Houston. Schengun can really pass the ball. That dude on the post has so many great moves. His footwork is so smooth. I love Shengoon. He's another guy built in that bowl. Then you have in the 2022 draft, you have Chet Holmgren, seven-footer out of Gonzaga. He can hit threes, protect the rim in a high level.

And I mean, in high school, he showed way more. as a playmaker bringing the ball up the floor, initiating half court sets, and he has playing at Gonzaga, playing next to Timmy, he gets a lot of touches there. But I look forward to seeing how he develops in the NBA. And then you get Victor Wenbenyama.

I look forward to seeing how guys like him coming in the 2020-true draft. That guy, I'm very intrigued by. Talented Biggs, Paulo Van Carrow, for that matter, Adam. I don't know how much you've watched him at Duke, but Van Carro can pass, dude. At 610, 6-11, there's a lot of talented Biggs coming into the league right now where all of them, I talked

to, they were on Sharp with the Nets before this season for a story I did on Brooklyn, and I asked him who are the bigs he watches, and he said Yokic first. I love it. I love it. So that's a rookie with a totally different game than Yokich, who says Yokic is the big he watched most. So you're going to have a lot of guys

coming into the league that are doing that. I think two things are becoming huge market, like, this is how you can really add value as a prospect coming into the league. Great basketball IQ. in a well-rounded skill set, not necessarily an elite one. One of the guys I'm thinking about here as I talk about this,

Kenrich Williams, not a great finisher, not a great shooter, not a great ball handler, but he really sees the game well. He understands, like, how things move. And you get the ball moving. If you have guys that can collapse the defense and you have guys that can knock down shots and space the floor, having those connector pieces is so big. And I think even for bigs, for centers, you don't have to be a yokeach, but if you just can read the court at a good level so you can fit alongside

whatever your team's Yokic is, whether it's a wing or guard or what have you. To me, that's becoming the most valuable commodity in the NBA is those connector pieces. The Nuggets built this roster to have all connector pieces around Yokic. You get Monti-Morris, high IQ playmaking guard. He can shoot up the catch. He's actually the guy that hit that game-winning three off of the Yokish game-winning assist a couple weeks back. Will Barton, veteran, who brings the spark.

Aaron Gordon brings defense. He has a great feel for passing. Him and Yokch just have that type of. two-man connection with their exchanges back and forth that just rubs off on the whole team. And with Yokic, he's had guys like that all through his years playing in the NBA, whether it's been Jamal Murray or Gary Harris or Michael Porter Jr. Now, Bryn Forbes, the Nuggets for years now have been getting guys that they insert into dribble handoff, pick and roll two-man actions with Yokic, because the goal is to surround Yokic with players

who compliment him because he always finds a way to make those guys better. but without Yokich though, that Denver defense has had a lot of struggles this season, at least early on. The thing I don't think people realize about the Denver Nuggets is that the bench for the first two-thirds of the season to date were so atrocious. It's so bad.

Awful. Denver, I had this stat. Nuggets just won, not this last game, but the previous one, the second time they played the Kings where Yokch was in the negative, meaning the Nuggets lost the minutes Yokic was on the court. It was only the second time the season the Nuggets had won a game. And I think he was like a minus one. And there was only a second time all season.

They had won a game where he was in the negative. So, and not just that. How many did they lose? Like, what are they? They were two and 12. So Yokic is actually not in the negative very often. I mean, that's a low number. Yeah, exactly.

Like, that's not many games he's even a minus. Because he's like, what, a plus 10 net rating, something like that when he's on the floor of the season? And I think you could actually go through on basketball reference and sort, you know, his plus minus, just how did the Nuggets do when he was on the court? And if he was a plus one to plus nine, the nuggets were about 500. If he was a plus 10 or above, that's where they won. And that was really what he had to dominate the minutes he was on the court in order for the nuggets to have a shot early on.

But what DeMarcus cousins has done, they've had a soft schedule with him in the lineup. They have a couple good wins. But a lot of these have been against the kings or against the rockets and it seems like that. But what he's done is he's made those bench minutes. He draws a lot of fouls. He creates a paint presence. he's been a fantastic playmaker, and that bench is either won their minutes

or lost them by a very small margin, and as a result, Denver has been rolling since they've gotten him. And I honestly, that's the part I think is real, is you just have to have a bench that's not a disaster. Exactly.

You watch Boogie and you see him handling the ball at the elbows as guys run through him for handoffs or cut to the ram. He can pass or drive. That is so much more like what Yokic does with the starter. So if you get that out of Boogie

for five, 10, 15 minutes per game, in the playoffs, that's going to really help that bench survive those non-yokic minutes. But, you know, Michael Porter Jr., him getting back, that's one of the big keys. He was cleared to practice with teammates. So his return is looming here. But would help the most is the return of Jamal Murray, who's still sideline after ongoing surgery on his torn ACL back in last April. He was dunking in October, according to reports, but they're definitely playing a cautious with

him. Adam, can we expect Murray to report before the playoffs? The reports have been a little bit more ambiguous. And I think a little bit, if you read between the lines, I'm not sure I expect him back, you know, this month, meaning maybe he returns right at the playoffs or slightly right before it sometime in April. Or maybe it's even beyond that.

He has not been cleared by all reports to start doing five-on-five contact workouts. And so coming off of, you know, a pretty major ACL injury, there's a pretty long ramp-up period for that. And if he's not doing contact yet, you start to look at it, is he, at minimum, them three, four weeks out, five weeks out. I'm a little bit more bearish, I guess, on Jamal Murray's prospects returning and making an

impact, but I do think Michael Porter is around the corner. Are we running out of a runway here for Murray and even Porter Jr. to get back into, you know, 80% of what they were before ahead of the playoffs? Well, so this is what's interesting is Michael Porter in a lot of ways is a less disruptive player than Jamal Murray because he is a spot-up shooter first and foremost. and he has other talents, but in his young career so far, even Denver has been slow to unroll some of his isolation game or post-up game. He's mostly been a spot-up guy running off, you know, grabbing rebounds, being a cutter.

And I think in that way, if you're replacing a Jeff Green in the starting lineup or even coming off of the bench and, you know, replacing a Jim Michael Green or somebody like that, it's not that disruptive to what the team's doing. You just plug in a better shooter and a better cutter in that spot. with Jamal Murray, I do think we're probably running out of runway because as we've seen with guys like Zach Levine in the past, coming back in the last month of the season, you know, it takes a month just to get your legs. Even if you look at Clay Thompson, there was a ramp up period for him, not just to be playing more minutes, but before he really started to make consistent shots and be able to defend at the high level and this or that. And with Denver, Jamal Murray is going to have the ball in his hands as much as anyone not named Gioch, you would assume. So he would be a very disruptive player if he were to return and yes the runway is getting very very short for the nuggets to figure that out this is the way i think about it adam so porter junior are 100% right like with his style of play he's not the type of guy who has to come in and handle the ball all the time and

disrupt everything that they're doing he can be a spot-up shooter a cutter or a slasher he can get his occasional pick and roll reps and if there's games where he's like absolutely on fire that's when you can ride him for 20 25 30 plus points with jama murray even the way i look at it is even with a short ramp up, I think Murray's the type of player, he doesn't need to be disruptive. I think Murray can come back and he can play a minimized role

where maybe he doesn't need to change everything the Nuggets are doing and he can be a lesser version of what he was in the past or maybe he is taking more spot-up threes. Maybe he is doing more off the catch, less on ball. Like we've seen him in the past. And this Denver team right now,

they have the ability to accommodate a guy like that. Either way, if Michael Porter's back, he's a more reliable and consistent shooter there. And then he probably staggers some minutes with the starters. Denver has been, in the Yokic era, a top three offensive rebounding team in the NBA every single season. This year, I think they're somewhere around 17. And those numbers have gone up since DeMarcus cousins has arrived. But I think a lot of that is that Denver hasn't had pressure from the corners,

meaning guys that are like, hey, teams can't leave this guy or that guy open. There's been Austin Rivers there, you know, Will Barron, guys that can knock it down, but not guys that make teams say, hey, don't help off of this guy. And as a result, you pack the pain a little bit more and you're not getting those secondary shooting opportunities. I think Michael Porter is a guy that alleviates that. You can't leave him open in the corner. And that's going to allow Aaron Gordon, Nikola Yokic, to use their size advantage and to stress

the defense thinning, get a lot of those second chance points. To your point, Adam, the nuggets can get way better this season. I genuinely believe that whether it's from the return of Porter Jr. and Murray, or as you said, how the game can change. for them with guys like that back on the floor. This Denver team to me, they're right now sixth in the Western Conference. According to the Fanbill Sportswork,

they have the ninth highest NBA finals odds. To me, I think that is fair and accurate. I would bump them up ahead of the Utah Jazz in terms of who has the best chance of winning the finals if they do get Murray and quarterback. But this team is a final sleeper. The thing is, is nobody's watching. in Denver. Harrison Wind had a tweet last week citing the sports business journal statistics

about TV ratings and Denver with Altitude Sports was last with a 0.19 rating. Just in comparison, the Warriors had a 7.6. The Spurs have a 2.29. The Blazers are 2.28. The Nuggets are just not being seen in the Denver area. And as Harrison said in his tweet, the glories of Nuggets basketball led by the best player in franchise history continue to go on watched. Adam, can you explain what the deal is with Altitude Sports and why Denver Nuggets fans are having a hard time watching games? Altitude Sports is owned by the Cronkies and it's the only RSN that is a one-off, meaning that's not part of Bally's or NBC or whatever like all these other ones. So it's not a bundle. And I think that what's happening, Comcast has pulled, they're no longer carrying altitude sports.

They're saying, hey, it's not, you know, these RSNs don't bring in money. Not just altitude, but all across the nation, they're not worth sort of what they've been paying to carry. And so there was this big lockout, this big dispute that is now going on its third year with Denver, where locals, if you have Comcast, which I think somewhere around two-thirds of everybody in the Denver metro area, has Comcast as their provider. And by the way, if you don't get Comcast as your cable provider, you still have to have them as your internet provider. So it's a lot of people would say, well, just go to another cable provider.

Then you end up paying double because you have to get internet from one and cable from the other. So it's really difficult in Denver. You have to really be committed financially to watching the Nuggets in Denver. And sadly, that's why we have this golden era. By the way, it's not just for Denver Nuggets basketball. I think Yokic is going to go down on the Mount Rushmore of Denver sports athletes.

One of the four, but you talk about John Elway, you talk about maybe a Torell Davis or a Joe Sackick, Patrick Wallach. Denver's had all these across sports, some great Hall of Fame athletes. I think Yokic will be a top five, top four one when it's all said and done. And we're in his prime.

And the city of Denver has largely missed the last three seasons. It's a crime. It's inexcusable, really. I mean, like the NBA, I'm not sure how much power they have with RSNs. Like, that's just the way it is right now. It's not like the NFL where they have CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, right? Like, where you have these, there's only four stations or NFL network as well, where every game is being played on. For the NBA, like, I don't know what the next TV contract is going to look like or the one after that's going to look like, but with all the talk about Amazon and streaming, like, how can the NBA allow Nicole Yokic to not be seen easily by the fans of the team that he plays for?

It just seems like something that shouldn't be happening in a multi-billion dollar business. And I just can't help but think in the context of Yokic, what can the NBA do to assure that every eyeball that wants to be on a Nuggets game is watching that Nuggets game, It doesn't need to go to some sketchy, you know, illegal streaming site or someone who's not technologically savvy and knows how to click the X's might ruin their whole computer and stuff like financially. I mean, you know what I mean? It's just like you shouldn't have to have people do that to watch a freaking basketball game. As much as people are illegally streaming it, though, it still creates a barrier of entry. Like there's still people, not everybody is even going to attempt this illegal streaming thing.

Exactly. You mentioned. They're going to not bother. That's what's going to happen. There's not going to bother. And I think you mentioned like this is a Comcast problem. is an altitude problem, but I do think it's an NBA problem. And the NBA over the last 15 years has had moments where they've seen around the corner and been ahead of the curb and been

creative. I think this is an area where they've dropped the ball and you're starting to see it in Dallas. You've even seen it in New York where the NBA does need to rethink the model of how they distribute their product locally. And it's going to only increase as a problem, I think, that I hope the NBA has at least been thinking about and planning for it. So Russell Wilson trade, you mentioned that at the top Adam. He was traded to the Denver Broncos. Congratulations. You seem very excited.

Thank you. Thank you. They trade Drew Locke, Noah Funt, Shelby Harris, two first round picks, including nine overall. And this year's draft with two seconds and a 2022, fifth round pick for Russell Wilson and a 22 fourth. He had to get that fourth round pick in there or else the deal's a no-go. No-go. Russell, congratulations. Thank you.

Thank you, thank you. Here's the thing. I was actually listening to Simmons's pot earlier and he made the perfect comment here about it. Sometimes when you're, when he'd been down,

and the Bronx have not just been bad since the Super Bowl. I mean, they won the Super Bowl. I mean, they've been so boring. They've been so boring. You're talking about like games with five first downs.

You're talking about games with five completed passes the entire game. So sometimes you go, you're always thinking, we want to win, we want to win, we want to win. Sometimes you just want to have a chance

that you want to be entertaining. And finally, The Broncos have a quarterback that is a deep, you know, a deep ball threat, which is just something they haven't had. They got a new coach that wants to throw the deep ball. And by the way, you have a great receiving core Cortland Sutton, Jerry Judy. You got some guys that are going to be going deep. So I'm so excited. I don't, are they going to win the Super?

I have no idea. I'll let the football analysts talk about that. All I can tell you is that every Sunday I have dreaded because I have to spend three hours with the Broncos and they're boring. And I would rather be doing anything else. And now I can't wait for football Sunday. I mean, since Peyton Manning, you've watched your leading passers, Trevor Simeon, Case Keenham, Joe Flacco, Drew Locke, and Terry Bridgewater. And now you're going to a guy that has won a Super Bowl. He is going to be a future Hall of Famer, and he's quote unquote only 33 years old, still in the prime of his career.

This isn't like when the Broncos actually got Peyton Manning, is it? Because with the Bronng wasn't the same guy the year they won the Super Bowl. Broncos had a dominant defense. Last season, the Broncos are 20th and DBOA for defense. And you mentioned that offense with the Broncos and all the weapons that Russell Wilson is going to have it. Is Wilson in this loaded AFC West? You get Mahomes now, Herbert, Carr. Is Wilson here to carry?

Does that make it so much different than those Manning ears? I mean, I don't think it's going to be like me. I mean, the first two, two, three seasons with Manning, I mean, he was, they as a great player. They have a great deep. They have different things. But he was the offense, man. I mean, he just did everything. I don't think it's going to be like that.

I will say, I think this Broncos team that has some great young players really lacks leadership. So I'm hopeful he brings that. But just the deep ball threat, like, can Denver stay in games? Can they have a decent offense? But then they just have that big game offense that terrifies everybody. That's the thing I'm hopeful for. And I kind of think he's going to bring it. By the way, another angle to all of this.

I don't know if you've seen this. This might be a Denver thing. Maybe you're seeing it. Vaughn Miller goes in the, pandering Hall of Fame. He is an A plus pander. He has been on Instagram and Twitter all week. Just missing Denver. Hmm, 5280 in my mind. Like just constantly teasing that he wants to come back. Last week, running it back sounds nice here in L.A. Like, he's just pandering to everybody. He's just, he's going to, over the next couple weeks, he's just going to mention every single football

team like, hmm, Tampa Bay. Maybe I go there. Von Miller, build them that leverage. Yeah, exactly. got to respect it really i respect the hell out of it would you welcome him back oh my god are you kidding me he's one of the local i mean he's awesome he's the best personality he's such a personality and then i mean he is a bronco like he went out there we're all happy for him you know he went out there in l a but he's a bronco so yeah i would love to have him back yeah you guys would have uh plenty of coverage of that that return on to br if that would have so d nvr you got you guys do more than just like pods it's also articles videos too

Oh, we have written content for, yeah, it's like a hybrid model of subscription and free content. That's cool. We do pregame shows. We do post game shows. We do merch. We have a bar. We have a bar. We have our podcast studios are inside of our DNVR bar, which is the best sports bar in all

of Denver. So we have all kinds of different stuff going on. We do tailgates. We do party buses. I mean, it's the whole thing. It's media. It's community. It's apparel.

It's all of that stuff wrapped up in one, hyper-local. I mean, first of all, I always wish the ringer had a bar. A ringer bar would be great. A ringer bar would be amazing. I would love to have a place like that in L.A. or some other city to pass. And you guys, I mean, speaking of you guys just, I think I saw you guys expand it to Chicago last week, right? That's right. That's cool.

We went into Phoenix and started P.H.NX last October. And then just last Friday, we launched C.H.D.O. And one of the best cities in all of America, Chicago. I absolutely love that city. I love the people. I love the food. Chicago got a bar? too, Adam?

Do they get a bar? Chicago's going to have a bar. Yeah. It'll probably be 10 months. With pizza? You get a deep dish there too? Oh, you know we're going to have some deep dish. You know we're going to have some deep dish.

Some hot dogs, all that stuff. But yeah, it's great, man. Chicago is a fantastic staff out there. I'm so excited. We got some big name people in Chicago and the studio out there is absolutely gorgeous. I was fired up going out there and meeting all those people and seeing the content they're coming up with the creative people out there. I'm just, I'm so excited for them.

So, Adam, how many hats do you wear? You're a Nuggets podcaster. Right. You get the VP title of DNVR here. I mean, what's a day in the life of Adam like? It's a lot of hours. It's a big one. But yeah, obviously, I leave the Nuggets coverage.

And I leave all the creative content creation over what we call the All City Network. So these are, that's the parent company now of DNVH and X and CHGO and expanding very rapidly to new markets. But yeah, I try to set the tone for content, really create the content that comes out of our network. And hopefully, in my opinion, what is going to be the next generation of content across the U.S., hyper-local, community-driven, you know, we're all fans of our team and openly fans of our team, but try to stay grounded in reality. And, you know, not just trying to do like the Barstool fanboy or anything like that. We try to stay grounded and give reasonable takes while also empathizing with the people. we're talking to. One other question I don't want you to be too biased here,

but tell me about David Roddy out of Colorado State. It's impossible. Yeah, tell me about David Roddy. 6-5-240, 250. I mean, it's a white body. Looks like Barclay, right? He is a Barclay, man. He's a total Barclay. He's like a Barclay

Yolkich hybrid. I mean, one of the smartest players in the league are, sorry, in college hoops. Just a winner. Knows exactly what to do. That CSU team It has been absolutely fantastic. I have some big wins under their belt. And he's just fun, man.

There's nobody in the NBA with his build. We were talking about this earlier. Justice Winslow maybe, but he's actually like a wider, thicker Justice Winslow. But the guy can pass, he can shoot a little bit. He can dribble. He can defend. I mean, he's almost Dramon Green-esque in the way,

at the college level, at least, in the way he can guard every position. And I just love, I have a man crush on this guy. He's like one of my favorite college basketball players I've ever said. I have no idea if he's a pro, but he's a fun as heck. college basketball player to watch. I'm at the point with David Roddy where I feel,

I'm not sure I'll have him. We're going to do the draft guide launch next week on the ringer, which I'm excited about. And I haven't finalized any rankings yet for the top 30. Roddy, he's right on the bubble, late first round, early second for me.

I mean, people are all over the place with him. I talk to some NBA people. Some people love them. Some people think, why would you even draft this guy? I say, how could you not draft a guy with that type of feel for the game,

the hustle and effort and intensity? I mean, granted he plays, you know, for Colorado State in the Mountain West, it's not the greatest competition, but you can still see so many of these translatable qualities that are at least worth a shot that you can. Plus, the fact is that before this season, he stunk shooting from three. Right. He has become a knockdown three-point shooter. If that's not an outlier, if teams find out through pre-draft workouts, we're talking,

And, you know, like really, we're talking second round pick, pre-draft workouts when it's the middle of March right now. But with Roddy, if you find out a guy like that can actually stroke it from three, yeah, you should take a shot on him. Because you're betting on, like we've talked about, throw this entire podcast at him. You're betting on players who know how to play. Yes. You know what? You know what? Roddy's one of a quite of a lot of guys in this year's draft class that have that type of mindset. So I'm increasingly excited about the 2022 draft class.

And Adam, I'm also excited with this podcast that we did together today, man. This is a lot of fun. This is so much fun, Kevin. It was a blast. We covered so many topics. It was great, man. I want to thank Adam again for joining the board. I love that conversation, man.

That's one of those shows where after you record it, you feel good about it immediately. It was the same thing with Tuesday's mismatch with Chris Vernon. It just felt like a good show. But I really hope you enjoyed that conversation with Adam. It made me think a couple of things that we didn't get to talk about. And that's teams are going to have to get through this guy. guy and Yokic for years to come in the playoffs. And it makes me think about how the Phoenix Suns will be crazy not to keep DeAndre Aiton.

You're going to need guys like him in order to beat a Yokic, to beat Ianis, to beat it and beat. That's something to think about. And the same way teams were thinking a couple years ago about, well, how can you beat small ball with Draymont Green and the Warriors and Steph Curry? You're going to have to think about how do we beat Bigs, how do we beat and beat and contain somebody like him. And in this year's draft, we mentioned Chet Holmgren earlier. He's not really that mold because he's so skinny, but there are a bunch of bigs this year. You get Walker Kessler out of Auburn, who is manning the center next to Javari Smith Jr., the guy that everybody's

talking about is a potential number one pick. Kessler is a shot blocker. He's got some skill. He can move on the perimeter. And even though Yokic is smoking everybody on the floor, Kessler's the type of guy that teams are going to want. Kristen Koloko from Arizona, another big with a lot of versatility. He's going to get stronger. in the lower body, but a guy like him I'm thinking about has a chance. Williams from Duke, there's a lot of bigs that can play the post and play more single coverage if they're able to grow into their bodies.

And that's something that teams are going to have to find because these guys are not going anywhere as long as they stay healthy. They're going to be competing for championships for many, many years to come. And so just to wrap up the conversation, that's why Yokin's is one of the guys who has a chance to become the best player in the world. Thank you again to Adam RAS for joining The Void. Thank you to Jesse Lopez for producing. And a big thank you to you, as always, for listening to the show.

Please do us a favor, give us a rating and review. Pass along the show to a friend if you think they might enjoy listening to it. It's always good to have shows and podcasts and talk about it with your friends. So pass on along if you enjoy it. It really does help out. Thank you again. Have a good one.