The Ringer NBA Show - Buyout Market Moves and the New-Look Nuggets | Group Chat

Episode Date: March 30, 2021

Justin and Rob open the show with a discussion of the many buyout market players being picked up, including Andre Drummond to the Lakers and LaMarcus Aldridge to the Nets (01:30). Later, they are joined by Mike Singer of the Denver Post to discuss how Aaron Gordon will fit in his new home, Nikola Jokic’s MVP odds, and Jamal Murray’s struggles thus far this season (13:00). Hosts: Justin Verrier and Rob Mahoney Guest: Mike Singer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Ringer's Dave Hill takes you on a journey into the underground lives and careers of six professional gamblers. This eight-part podcast is a unique look into the gambling world that you don't want to miss. Check out gamblers on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Group chat, the Ringer's weekly NBA group discussion where everyone told us we sucked for the last two years. But now everyone's saying, we're the villains. I am Justin Varyer and joining me today, the woodsman himself, Rob Mahoney. I love a good heel turn. Right.

I was expecting you to roar for me. Did you see the Steve Nash clip? I did. He's been pretty playful in his post-game interviews, more than I expected. Right. That's how I think of you, Rob. Just the playful villain. We will be joined later in the episode by Mike Singer of the Denver Post to go deep on the Denver Nuggets,

one of the more interesting teams in the league right now after their trade deadline moves. But first, I want to talk about some buyout guys. This is the talk of the town right now for good or bad. But we've got a flurry of buyout guys just hitting the market, bigger names than we've probably seen in past years. I want to see if you are buying in on some of the buyout guys, Rob. Well, before we even do that, I mean, I've seen a lot of litigation about the idea of a buyout guy. How do you feel about guys coming on the market at this time of the year, especially in the way that they've done it this time around? Yeah, there was that Howard Beck piece in Sports Illustrated where I guess a lot of the smaller market GMs were not

too happy about some of these big names hitting the market. I'm a little confused about that. Actually, I'm off two minds. On the one hand, I get their point because there is this new wrinkle where it seems like some of these guys are being held out in order to force a buyout, which really torpedoes their trade value and ultimately just ends up with a buyout. Like, there's no way Blake Griffin was getting traded. There was no way Drummond or Aldridge were getting traded. On the other hand, like has anybody seen these guys play of late? I don't think this is going to be like the next, neither of the,

any of these guys are going to be the next PJ Browns per se. It's probably going to be like, you know, here's a big body to throw at Joel and Bede for the Nets if you're Marcus Aldridge. What do you think? No, I mean, and there's a certain degree of irony there too

in the small market teams having a problem with it when, I mean, wasn't Zedrudezogoskis basically the test case for this? You know, when the calves, the calves traded him away and we're trying to get him to come back on a buyout. I don't have any real philosophical objection to it. I mean, I get where the small market teams are coming from, but to me that's a non-unique argument relative to free agency in general.

Like players want to play on good teams, they want to play on contending teams. Oh, and hey, they want to live in New York and Los Angeles. Not exactly breaking news there. Sure. I also think the irony is, I think, not to get ahead of ourselves here, but I do think, like, Milwaukee might have made the biggest buyout acquisition here, although it seems to be like Austin Rivers still has to clear waivers, like he probably is the player who still has more juice in him than in comparison to like Blake

or even maybe Drummond. So I'm curious to see how that pans out. Do you want to start with Drummond now that we're talking about him? So he end up with the Lakers. He hasn't played a game yet, but it will probably debut this week. What do you think about the fit there as the Lakers tried desperately to cling on to a top four seed in the Western Conference? Yeah, I mean, I think there are actually kind of a lot of questions about where you want to

put him into the lineup and the rotation and who you want him to play with. Because if you want to start him, which I think is a perfectly valid thing to do it, and maybe a condition if him coming there, I don't know. But then you're kind of getting in the way of AD and LeBron trying to get into the lane when those guys are healthy and back, which is interesting. But if you bring him off the bench,

then all of a sudden you're kind of doing the same thing to Montrez-Harrel, who, I mean, the Lakers overall are a team that posts up a lot. You know, outside of the Sixers, you know, they really do post guys. And it's not just AD and LeBron. It's Marquif Morris. and it's Montres Harrell and it's West Matthews here and there, what does bringing a guy like Drummond who is so interior bound

due to your spacing and the functioning of your offense and that? I do wonder about those sorts of things, but the way in which this is a dream scenario is Drummond is coming to a team that is already outstanding defensively. And with complete buy-in, everyone on that team

knows what they're supposed to be doing on defense and is really dedicated to doing that, something that hasn't always been true for Drummond. So if he's coming up, to this team with the mentality of oh, I need to fit in with these guys, I'm anxious to see what a fully and consistently engaged

Drummond looks like on that side of the floor. Yeah, I've always wanted Drummond to play more like Javel McGee because I think like he could be like one of the better versions of that. He's just like still super athletic and he does some good things on both ends of the floor. He's a good passer so you can move the ball a little bit. My issue is if he's not

that guy. And they almost need him to not be that guy off the jump and then transition to being the next Dwight Howard Javelle McGee if and when Anthony Davis comes back. And so I'm wondering if there's going to be a bit of whiplash. Like, like you're saying, he does post up frequently. And so I wonder if they'll go to him just to have some offense, to have something as they weighed out some of these injuries. And I think that will be good for them. But the problem is when AD comes back, is he going to want to be the rim running guy? Is he going to be the one who wants to do the dirty work defensively? It will probably be in his best interest. But I'm curious if he's going to be. And if he is, and if he is,

going to be, I do think it will be an interesting wrinkle for the Lakers, a team that has its most success, at least in the regular season last year, going big. And I do wonder if that, like, they reassume that identity of this, like, big, imposing team if you're able to play Drummond AD for

a good amount of minutes in the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, they're going to have a lot of bigs that choose from. And we haven't talked about Marc Asaul really either and how he's going to fit into this. But they, more than any of these other Western Conference teams, are in a position to pick and choose who they want to be playing in a certain series.

You know, and maybe, you know, again, it'll be, it'll be very interesting to see what the expectations are for, like, for Drummond, for himself personally, how much he thinks he's going to be playing in these series. Because if Frank Vogel wants to be totally ruthless about this, they could cut down the rotation to basically play none of these bigs, where AD is your five and you have one guy coming in for spot minutes behind him. But that would mean, you know, Mark Keith Morris is all of a sudden maybe a little grumpy on the bench.

You got Drummond who came here to win a title, but also to play with LeBron and to be a part of it coming, you know, there's a lot of feelings management that Frank Vogel will have to do if he's going to, you know, optimize what this team looks like against every particular opponent they run up against. Yeah, that's my issue, is that they have all of these bigs, but the one they probably need the most is Marquif Morris and he's just not shooting the three ball well. But they're probably at their best, as we've been saying for like two years in a row now with AD at the five and stretched out. And like maybe they can get some of that from a, I was going to say drumming I can't even bring myself to say it.

Like, maybe it's all, I don't know. But like, they just don't have the shooting from that position. And like every team wants shooting from that position. So it's going to be tough. But the guy they were counting on last year, just like, he isn't hitting much. And I wonder if that's going to ultimately catch up to them. Yeah. And in fairness to the Lakers, if LeBron and AD are healthy, that stuff doesn't matter that much.

There's still the two of the best players in the NBA. Yeah. All right. Let's switch to Marcus Aldridge in Brooklyn. I thought they already had this player in Blake Griffin, but a Apparently they wanted to complete the set here. I find this one to be the most curious among the popular buyout guys. What do you think about Aldridge in Brooklyn?

If you're Lamarcus Aldridge, aren't you basically saying either you don't expect to play that much and you're fine just kind of filling spot minutes or you don't think DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin are good enough to hold down minutes? It feels like you're kind of saying one of those two things if you're Aldrich, right? I think you're seeing that DeAndre Jordan is still starting sometimes and playing way too much. And you're thinking, well, if I just get into Kyrie's ear, he's actually running the team. And so maybe I could start from this team. I wouldn't be surprised if he started. Yeah. I mean, again, that could be a condition of him coming there, too, especially with the nature

of the reporting that had him so strongly tied to Miami. Something swung him from one place to the other. But, you know, I agree with you. There's definitely some overlap between what he gives you and what Blake gives you. And with the way Blake has started, I mean, I think he's been pretty impactful. as a ball mover, as a spacer, as a guy, you know, getting some stuff done in transition. Griffin's been pretty good. I don't know that Aldridge is going to give you a meaningful upgrade over that, but maybe the size and the difference is enough, as you mentioned earlier, having another bigger body to throw, you know, really at Joel Embed is who we're talking about here.

Yeah, I mean, I also wonder what it means for Nick Claxton. I wonder what it means for the Bruce Brown at the de facto Offensive 5 experiment. It just seems like they're like constantly throwing conventional wisdom at Steve Nash, and he's just like having to make chicken salad in 2021 out of it, like a 2021 style dish where it has all these nutrients and like the actual good things you want, and they're just like the front office and perhaps, you know, some of the stars pulling the strings here are like constantly trying to add in like, you know, hot Cheetos into the sandwich and be like, no, no, we actually don't want that. We want the good stuff. No, but I mean, that is the, I think Nash is

the reason why you do this, because over the course this season, he's already shown a willingness to press the right buttons to do some pretty dramatic things, depending on what the nets need and who's available, there's kind of a why not factor here. Let's keep him away from other good teams. We'll pull Marcus Aldridge into our locker room instead of theirs, and we'll trust Nash to sort out what we need on a day-to-day basis. Now, it's not a foolproof plan if everyone's a little grumpy at the end.

But given what they have now, given what Nash has been able to do, I think he's earned a degree of that kind of trust. And the last guy here, Austin Rivers, as we mentioned up top. So he technically hasn't cleared waivers, and apparently his contract because it has a non-guaranteed year or two on the end could be attractive to certain teams

just because of the cat math and what that presents them. So we don't know for sure if he's going to end on the bucks, but all the reporting, I believe, from Shams Sharania, suggests that he's going to join Milwaukee if he does clear waivers. I love that addition. It's just another, you know,

would you rather have Austin Rivers than DJ Augustin? That's the thing. It's like, especially between Jeff Teague, who they already have and Austin Rivers, aren't you more or less approximating what DJ Augustine was giving you? And then in that case, you're really offsetting the cost of the PJ Tucker trade.

So I see this as being kind of tethered onto that deal where now you're supplementing your guard depth, you're getting yourself some veterans in case, you know, Dante DiVincenzo is having one of those nights where he's gambling for steals all the time or whatever it is. You just have some steadier hands around. And I know that's kind of a weird thing to say about Jeff Teague when he was kind of a husk of a player

in Boston, but I think between the two of them, there's a useful playoff level contributor. They're not for big minutes, but for spot minutes. Yeah, it also makes the Drew Holiday trade look way better because they were basically banking on their top four, five guys being able to play heavy minutes and carry them in a way that this really deep team in years past couldn't, right? And now you trade for Drew and then you just pick up guys like Austin Rivers on the buyout market. You pay probably a premium for PJ Tucker, but he's another guy you could throw in the mix there. And all of a sudden, they have, like, a pretty solid eight to nine guys there. And, like, you pretty much built an insurance. So you're not relying on Brooke Lopez to be the

three-point shooter he was, what, out two years ago, not even last season. So, like, I don't know, increasingly I'm finding myself being more and more convinced in Milwaukee, especially as we wait for Kevin Durant and Jwell and B to actually play some games here. Well, they played a premium for Tucker, but they also cleared just enough salary to be able to fit two pro-rated minimums under the luxury tax line, which for a team like the Bucks who, you're going to go into every season,

how are we going to spend our mid-level? How are we going to add salary to make this team better now that Yannis has committed to us? And, you know, the math is almost too coincidental that I think it had to be part of their consideration in the outgoing part of that Tucker deal. Like how much can we shed

so we can get ourselves just under this line where if two guys come available we can make some good out of it. And this isn't a best case scenario, but it's pretty solid, given where they were in the needs that that team had. Yeah,

it's been a high wire act ever since the failed Bogdanovitch trade in the off season. But I don't know if they came out on top there in the ledger, but like, you know, this team looks pretty good and more power to them

if they make it out of here with a finals birth, if not any draft picks for the next 20 years or so. But that'll be interesting. All right. never talk about by guys again. Okay, sounds good.

Cool. When we come back, we're going to talk to Mike Singer of the Denver Post and get into some actually healthy, good NBA players who change teams at the trade deadline. All right. Now, we are joined by Mike Singer of the Denver Post, probably one of the busiest guys on Trade Deadline Day. What's up, Mike?

How are you doing? Oh, probably better than you. At the very least, more. rested, probably. How was your deadline last week? It was insane. Fortunately, I had a sense that Javel McGee was coming. I had a sense that Aaron Gordon was coming, was constantly pinging people throughout the two days preceding the trade deadline. And because I felt it was coming, I had stories pre-written with some context on both of those transactions. But let me just tell you, it was a stressful night, the Wednesday night leading into Thursday.

I didn't necessarily sleep a ton. I had my phone on loud. My fiance is like probably just go sleep in the other room tonight. And I mean, I guess that's life in the pandemic covering an NBA team. But she's gotten used to it to her credit. And it was wild. And then obviously, you know, I heard from a lot of people within the Nuggets organization, how is the trade being received?

What's kind of the public perception of it? And in my opinion, I think it was very much viewed that they were one of the winners of the trade deadline, them in Miami, especially just because the Nuggett scene was on the ascent. They were nine and three before the trade deadline. Then they go and get two blue chippers in Aaron Gordon and Javelle McGee. I'm just messing. Maybe Javill Mee doesn't qualify.

But a hell of an upgrade for them, in my opinion. I feel like we're nearing the point where we need a word for the angst and dread of NBA media around the trade deadline, around free agency, when you go to sleep with the distinct feeling that if you fall asleep, something is going to happen. I feel like this might be like a post-Paul George Kauai Leonard phenomenon where you wake up and the NBA is just a different place. That one was wild because I was in a bar later that night because it was like the first time where it seemed like there was an opening.

We were getting updates from, was it Chris. Carter, who is like the Kauai whisperer, like saying when we were going to get the trade. I was in a bar. There was a earthquake that night. That was the time where there was that earthquake in Vegas and it stopped the Zion game. And then I was back at my place. It was like midnight. And that is when it hit. And then I was working until early in the morning. But luckily this one wasn't so bad. Mike, you can tell Mike is a former editor because he was prepped in advance. We love that here. Yeah, I make my editor's job easy. I'm like, this is coming. We're going to be set. Don't worry about it. I was, I woke up that morning. I think at 6.6.30. You never know when you can sleep long enough. So I was just like, oh, screw it. I'll get up at 6.30. Start reaching out to people on the East Coast. The Nuggets were fortunately on East Coast time at that point. So I didn't feel like I was really bugging anybody at 6.30 in the morning. And, you know, that's just kind of how it went. You just start pinging people. And I don't feel badly when it's that early because you know. know things are happening. You know teams are starting to get active from the night before,

starting to kind of look at things with a clear mindset. And that's kind of what happened. And I think I was telling you, Justin, before we started this, like, if the Nuggets only would have traded for Javel McGee, that would have been just a laughable upgrade if that was in and of itself. And in my opinion, that foretold that there was something else coming after they landed to Javail. So then, then, you know, the red flags are all up after the Javail deal. Sure. Well, I mean, the Nuggets have been involved in trade rumors for what seems like an entire year, maybe even longer. They might continue into next season if this doesn't go well. Like, why were these the moves? And specifically, why was Gordon, the guy that they finally

pulled the trigger on? I mean, the Nuggets knew that they were very, very thin on the wing. After Jeremy Grant, I'm going to say, blindsided them in free agency. The Nuggets were under the impression that he was going to return. He ultimately doesn't. He goes to Detroit. And the Nuggets did not have a 3 and D kind of stopper. They had Will Barton, who's an undersized three, in my opinion. You have Michael Porter Jr. who's still learning NBA defenses. They've recently moved him to the four. So you don't really have a way to protect the perimeter and kind of slow down the Kauai's, the LeBrons, the Lucas of the world. So they knew that they desperately needed somebody of that ilk. And there's not that many guys in the NBA like that. I reported that they were

interested in Harrison Barnes. Obviously, the Kings ultimately did not end up moving Harrison Barnes. But when you kind of looked across the landscape, Aaron Gordon was the guy who was available. And I can tell you that the Nuggets did a ton of background research on Aaron Gordon and found that, A, he was amenable to change. He was obviously looking for probably a better environment, a more structured environment, some within where where he could grow with a team that had a real, a real competitive chance in either conference. And also the Nuggets viewed Aaron Gordon as an undervalued, underappreciated guy in Orlando because he was probably miscast as the second or third offensive option, in my opinion. And the Nugget said, hey, if we go and get Aaron Gordon,

we're not going to rely on him as much from an offensive, offensive standpoint. He's going to be probably the fourth or fifth option. But defensively, he's going to be our guy. And so I think that when they viewed Aaron Gordon, they saw him as a guy who they could get the best version of if they brought him to Denver. And ultimately, the price was right for them. And they recognized, you know, if we're going to get a real piece in Aaron Gordon, we're going to have to go up assets, something that they've, you know, historically hated to do. Yeah, I think the key part there is the Nuggets doing their research to find T was amenable to change, right? because when deals don't go down, especially between targets and teams that have been heavily rumored for weeks going on months in advance of the deadline or the offseason or whatever it is,

I think we have a tendency to look at those quote unquote failed deals as, oh, they didn't offer enough. Or this other team went over the top and offered so much. But, you know, that kind of background is so crucial. And it's really similar to me to like the situation with Kyle Lowry, for example, where your price for him and how much you're willing to give up depends on. on whether you think he'll resign. And it's almost that same kind of, you know, trying to get in a guy's head, figure out what his motivations are,

figure out how he would fit with us, not only on the court, but whether he's going to defer to a guy like Nicola Yokic, whether he's going to fit in with a guy with Michael Porter Jr. And what we want to do with him, it seems like such a huge part of a deal like this coming together. Nuggets care so much about the character and the personality of the people that they bring into the locker room. They do extensive research, be it draft prospects,

be it free agency, be it potential trade deals. They care so much about the people that they're bringing in. And they have cultivated a really strong locker room, a really like close-knit locker room with a lot of good dudes. Just like forget about the basketball players. Like Nicole Yokic is the guy setting the tone there. He couldn't take himself less seriously than he does. And that trickles down to the rest of the team.

So what they found in their research was that Aaron Gordon, hyper-competitive guy, was hungry to, to win, obviously cares a ton about defense. And this is the most important thing that he would be, he would be willing to accept his role. He wasn't going to be a, you know, an on ball creator, a one-on-one guy who can take guys off the dribble. He would accept being just that slash and cut ducking guy with the nuggets where he's going to get so many easy dunks off of Nicola Yogic. It's like, I think his basketball life is about to get so much easier. We saw a glimpse of it in his debut the other night. But life is about to get so much easier for him offensively. And if he commits

defensively and holds his own like he did the other night against Atlanta, guarding Trey Young, guarding John Collins, how many guys in the NBA can switch and do both and competently guard both of those guys? Like, he is going to be beloved there. And in my opinion, all parties win, given that he accepts his role and is cool playing that fourth or fifth offensive option while being that defensive stopper that, again, they badly needed. Yeah, it was cool watching that first game against Atlanta on Sunday because it seemed like any time he would find daylight, like Yokic was right there, like the ball was right on him. He had that one where he, like, he took a Murray backscreen and he cut to the rim and it was

just right there and he did this like, it looks like he was moving at half speed and he still managed to do like a 360 dunk. And then he had the one where he was like, he was setting a pick and roll for Yokic and he had that dunk. Like the possibilities there are really, really, really. really exciting. And it already seemed like the ball was zipping and like those guys already kind of played with a with a certain degree of chemistry, that fivesome in the starting lineup. Rob, did you watch that game? What did you think about like the early returns of a Gordon in Denver?

I think the best sign is that honestly, the nuggets were a little bit sloppy. Like they were trying to move the ball. Guys weren't quite catching cleanly. The timing was a tiny bit off and they still looked pretty dominant for a lot of that game. And, you know, Gordon finding his spots, I think he was balancing really well, being in the weak side corner versus being in the dunker spot. And that's a tough thing for guys in that position to know when to do which.

But he has a good court sense. And one thing I kind of underestimated in how he was going to fit with this team was the outlet factor. The idea that, you know, not many teams in the league have five guys who can handle on the court basically as a starting lineup,

but Denver's uniquely positioned to have five guys who can handle with size for their positions. And as you alluded to, Mike, Will Barton is a little miscast and a little undersized as a three, but you move him to the two, and all of a sudden that lineup looks pretty huge. That's the thing.

With Aaron Gordon, it crystallizes the nuggets defensively. He can play that three, four. He can alternate with Michael Porter Jr., depending on who's the more difficult defensive cover. Obviously, Will Barton, like I said, was a little bit undersized when he's going up against opposing threes, Paul George, you know, guys of that cast.

And so you switch him down to the two. And now he's got good size. He competes defensively. And now, like you alluded to, Rob, the Nuggets, again, care so much about having playmakers and versatile guys and guys that can, they call it positionless basketball. Obviously, when your center is essentially a point guard and your point guard kind of plays like a two guard. And who knows what position Aaron Gordon is, like, there is so much versatility on both ends of the court. And this is kind of the brainchild of Tim Connolly and Calvin Booth. this is what they had in mind.

They always talk about gathering talent and accumulating as much talent as possible and then just letting it work, letting itself figure out on the court. It's part of the reason they went and got FACU Campazo in this offseason. It's just a fun playmaker with a high basketball IQ, and they're like, screw it. We're going to roll him out. He might be a little undersized,

but let's see if he can make meaningful impact on the NBA court. And obviously FACU has done that too. So this is a franchise that's not scared to take a, to take a chance to take a risk. And all these things are kind of coalescing and coming together, which is really giving them a real chance, in my opinion, to come out of the West, either this season or next season,

while they still have Gordon under contract. How much did the Jeremy Grant departure kind of loom over this franchise just in the first half of the season? I mean, the easy comparison of Gordon kind of filling that role is there. But do you think, like, they felt the departure? And do you think that, like, led to this deal ultimately? and for them to look to kind of fill that spot? There is no doubt that Jeremy Grant stung.

Like, I don't think that they would readily admit that. But like I talked about earlier, they expected Jeremy Grant back with the Nuggets. They thought he was going to be there starting four moving forward. They even talked about it in the postseason last year. Michael Malone said, we expect him to be here for years. And ultimately, Jeremy Grant wasn't happy with his role.

Jeremy Grant wasn't happy not starting over Paul Millsap, which in retrospect looks pretty damning. But the really important thing that, you know, the comparison, everyone keeps asking me about Jeremy Grant versus Aaron Gordon. Jeremy Grant was a second round pick who floundered around the NBA, Philly, Oklahoma City, then Denver, and finally realized he established himself as an NBA player, and then he goes, you know what, I have a higher ceiling than this.

I can do more than be the fourth or fifth offensive option. That is ultimately why one of the reasons, why he wanted to go to Detroit to be a featured option. But then you look on the flip side, you look at Aaron Gordon. He was already featured. He floundered in Orlando. They only went to two post seasons. He only went to one himself because of injuries.

And so what's happening is Aaron Gordon, they're making the bet that he will be willing to accept a lower role on offense. They are making the anti-German Grant back. And they are saying, look, Aaron Gordon already got paid by the magic. He doesn't necessarily care about quote unquote, proving himself or establishing himself as an NBA figure. This was the fourth overall pick in the draft. You know, like this is a high caliber blue chip guy with a ton of NBA potential.

So part of the reason they felt this was a necessity was the Nuggets had an infrastructure that kind of begged for a player like this. And again, the fact that they knew that his mindset was going to be right coming to Denver made them more comfortable giving up the 2025 first. pick and RJ Hampton, who I can tell you that they just hated to give up. Yeah, I'm curious about that trade return, Mike, because when you forecast into the Nuggets future, what element of that do you think they will ultimately regret giving up most? Is it, you know, Gary Harris for his primitive defense in a playoff series, you got R.J.

Hampton, as you mentioned, they loved, or that future first. It's probably Hampton. I know that Orlando loved Hampton going into the draft. It's not often you get a chance to get the guy you were coveting. X amount of months later, if you're Orlando. So I think they jumped at that. I know that RJ Hampton was the key to the deal. Like I don't think Orlando does the trade without RJ Hampton.

Ultimately, and I know this doesn't necessarily answer your question, but ultimately, Gary Harris has been out for a month and a half. Like, he was not contributing. RJ Hampton was in and out of the rotation, given that he's a rookie and they didn't necessarily know how much they could trust him. And obviously the depth was there. The guys that they got back are going to be immediate helps. That like to the earlier question, why do they do this trade? They added an aggregate positive.

Like there's no other way to look at this. They added a ton at the deadline and didn't lose a lot of immediate help. In the future, R.J. Hampton's going to sting. He was a 19 year old with a ton, I mean, just freak athlete. I don't know if I'm overstepping my boundaries, but he reminds me, he has Westbrook athleticism, in my opinion. I think he is that good and is elite speed. So the Nuggets saw him as a combo guard, a two, three guy in the future. Ultimately, his offense, like it was a work in progress. He kind of just goes too fast for his own good right now. But they loved him.

They thought he had a ton of upside. And that's the one that's going to sting. Yes, Gary Harris Hurts, who was really integral to what they did in the postseason last year to get to the Western Conference Finals when he came back late in the Jazz series and then helped them a ton against the Clippers. But the Nuggets started to find their defensive. putting the last month. And it was impossible to look at the team and be like, man, they really miss Gary Harris

because the defense started to figure itself out. So I'm going to go with Hampton on that one. And that's, I mean, that's crazy. And I think a tribute to the way the Nuggets have built their team and the way they've drafted that a guy who was, I mean, Hampton was like the 24th pick, mid-20 somewhere in there, that, you know, the Nuggets, I think, as well as anyone in the league, have found mid-to-late firsts, you know, guys off the scrap heap. repurposing players from other teams and said,

okay, all of a sudden we have a rotation that is now 10, 11 deep with viable NBA players. You know, they almost have the good kind of problem now of deciding who's going to play and who can't on a nightly basis. The guy I'm really curious about in terms of their depth is Jamichael Green, who was great in this first game. But once Javelle McGee is a part of the rotation, once you're playing Aaron Gordon's starters minutes and you want to find time for Paul Milsap and, you know, Michael Porter Jr. is playing the four.

I don't know how much time is left for Jamichael Green. It's a good problem for the Nuggets. It's not a great problem for Paul Millsap, Gailmigy, or Jamaica Green. You're right. They have too many guys in the front court. And in an ideal world, I bet you Tim Connolly would have been more comfortable

giving up Zeke Nage, another really, really good prospect who they got at 22, who, you know, he's a really good shooter, can defend on an island, he's big, he's intelligent. Like, he's just, he's a really great guy, really great prospect, too. And ultimately that didn't happen. So they have a log jam at the fore.

And Paul Millsap can be a free agent this summer. Jamichael Green has a player option this summer. So there could be minutes next year. But this year, you might have some angry campers, especially if you sold Javel McGee on coming here and playing and, you know, bring in that championship experience, that championship pedigree. And then he can't get off the bench because Paul Millsap and Jamichael Green

are your backup fours and fives. it's not an easy problem to have. I don't know what the conclusion is. I think Michael Malone's going to have to grease some wheels. We know how much he loves Paul Millsat. He was integral in bringing him back in free agency. But I know that Michael Malone was also really important in recruiting to Michael Green as well. So look, I wish I had the answer.

I do know that Zieg Najee is probably on the outs for the rest of this year. You know, that's kind of the trouble is how do you develop this dude? And the other unfortunate part, I think for all of NBA Twitter, is that Bull Bowl is probably going to continue to ride the pine. Like, I see no world where he gets meaningful minutes, unfortunately. Oh, no. I don't want to hear. I'm sorry.

I apologize. By the way, do we have a definitive answer on whether or not it's Michael Malone or Mike Malone? Because I feel like at one point, it just became Michael Malone the entire time. And I was like, this guy seems really not the buttoned up type. I'm surprised he went the formal. Oh, it's definitely Michael. Oh, it's definitely Michael. My first week, my first week on the Nuggets beat, I wrote a story and I said Mike Malone in the paper

and I heard very quickly that he preferred Michael. There is, and I tell all kinds of people, it's Michael. Like, hey, ESPN, hey, ringer. It's Michael. Just FYI. He seems like such a Mike, though. You know, I don't look at him as Michael. What's the personality difference between a Mike and a Michael, do you think?

It's a great question. I'm going to throw a wrench into the question because over Zoom this past year, we hit the, is it a trifecta or is it more than that? The moderator goes, Mike Singer, and I asked my question to Michael Malone about Michael Porter and about Jamichael Green. And it went crazy. I think Malone was, I think his brain broke for a second. Beautiful. Well, I mean, you were talking about just like the crowded front court. So the obvious next person is probably to talk about here is Michael Porter Jr.

he probably was the angriest of campers previously, but it seems like he settled into a role in that starting lineup. What is like the experience been like for him this season? And what do you think the trade is going to do for him just like going forward? I think Michael Porter has basically earned a lot more trust this year from Michael Malone. I said Michael. Basically, I think that they were kind of trying to figure out, is he a three? Is he a four?

And then Jamichael and Paul Millsap both got. hurt. And then they put Michael Porter at the four and he was less vulnerable defensively inside. And so then again, you have Paul Miller, then you have Will Barton playing the three, which obviously isn't perfect. But at least you figured out that Michael Porter is more dangerous near the basket. He's an incredible rebounder. He also has a ton of length and can kind of use that length to deter guys driving. So I just think that he's a lot more protected as the four. And then when you go and get Aaron Gordon, essentially what you do of you, you've insulated Michael Porter Jr. Because Aaron Gordon can help you on the wing. He can help you inside. And whichever

is the easier matchup, Michael Porter is going to take. Like Aaron Gordon is this kind of, you know, chess piece that you can deploy in all kinds of manners. And the nuggets are not, you know, they're not touting Michael Porter Jr. as a first team all defensive guy at this point. But before, you know, we knock him, like I have seen demonstrable growth on the defensive end from him, be it awareness, be it engagement, just be an effort. Like even his weak side rotations are there. And I've noticed that and those weren't there last year. Like he didn't necessarily know that. And that's difficult to be thrust into a playoff series and not really no defensive coverages. And he was picked on and targeted. And I think the coaches saw it. I think he knew it. And he kind of

committed. He said, you know what? One time we had a Zoom and he was like, I got tired of y'all saying I couldn't play defense. And it was just like a like a screw you guys moment. And like he broke the fourth wall. And, you know, I really do think he's gotten a lot better defensively. And, you know, what people forget about Michael Porter Jr., he has barely played a full regular season. I think he's at like 87 regular season games in his career, which is just like mind numbing when you think about this third year guy who everybody can't stop picking on or talking. about.

This is, you know, maybe going a little bit outside the lines of the game, but I think there is something to, to that installation you were talking about, Mike, of insulating him defensively and also insulating him from a certain kind of defensive criticism where if you're Michael Porter Jr., and I'm with you, I think he's made pretty meaningful strides defensively this season. I mean, even in that Atlanta game, you just saw second efforts he wasn't making last, or he didn't know that he was supposed to make. I mean, who knows what the situation was.

But if you're doing that all season and then you get to the playoffs and the predominant story of a Nuggets playoff run is you can't guard the guy you're supposed to guard I mean I'm sure part of him is just like man fuck this I put it in I tried to do my best I tried to work and it's you know I still am getting picked on for this stuff and just having Aaron Gordon there

to shift the conversation around the team to shift the framing of what the Nuggets issues and problems are I think that's a meaningful thing there's no doubt it's a meaningful thing there's also, there was also a lot of, I'm going to call it either undue or unfounded criticism pointed at Michael Porter throughout the first half of the year. Frankly, because Jamal Murray was not playing up to his potential. So when your number two is not doing as well as he can do what he's capable of doing, you point the blame elsewhere and you say, okay, well, why is it number three

picking up the slack? And Porter was still just trying to establish himself and build trust with Malone, which has been an up and down thing. Like, that's not sugarcoat it. There have been times when Porter was benched, when he probably shouldn't have been benched. And he caught, I think, 39 DMPs his rookie year, which if you kind of see your background, I don't know if people can see the background,

but you have a forest in the background. The forest through the trees is very much a Michael Malone debate. Can he see the big picture from, you know, when he is in, when he has his blinders on it, he's in season, and he's trying to win and compete and climb up at the Western Conference. Like, that's a hard thing to do, develop Porter, while you're also trying to win on a nightly basis in the West.

But it feels like the gravitational forces have aligned, and it feels like Malone's trust and Porter's mutual trust in him is in a good place. And so he's the four going forward. And I think the next, again, just like Jeremy Grant, they expect him to be the four for years to come. You know, I've expressed a little bit of skepticism on this podcast. about Porter as a star. And I think I still have some of those questions,

but over the last 15, 20 games, I mean, he looks like just about one of the most dangerous second side players in the league. I don't know how much you want to run an offense through him theoretically in the prime of his career down the line, but he's just like just so enormous

in driving to the basket combined with the fact that he can shoot over anybody. I mean, this version of Michael Porter Jr. looks like such a dangerous player. If he, again, if he buys into that cutting and that moving and that off ball role, like, just like Gordon, Yokic is going to find him so many times just cutting baseline or slipping in, you know, from the elbow. Like, there are just so many easy baskets to be had. And the reason it works is because you have Yokic who is so unselfish.

Like how many other elite, elite franchise players do not give a damn about scoring? Like he does not. He will do it when the game calls for it, but he would rather have 20 assists than have 40 points, which he, by the way, is capable of doing. So I don't know if we're ever going to get into the MVP debate, but to me, I always say this when people ask me about the MVP. He is so malleable and can kind of shift his game to whatever the defense gives him. And if they're double teaming him, he's cool to pass. If they're going one-on-one, he will dominate you in the post. So the reason the Nuggets work from an offensive firepower standpoint, when you have four options like they do in Yokich, Murray, Porter, and Gordon, like as long as everybody's moving and everybody's unselfish, this offense, I really don't know how you stop it.

I really don't. They are so dangerous. Granted, one game is against the Hawks, cart before the horse, all that jazz. I still think they look unstoppable. Let's have the MVP debate here because it does seem like Yokich is becoming the frontrunner. If only by default here,

because everyone else seems to be falling off, except for James Hardin and Hardin has his own issues. He probably will encounter with some of the voters here. My question is, like, we expected this leap from Yokic last year, and it didn't happen. And it almost took him, like, perhaps the same thing you were talking about with Gordon,

where it took him a little bit of a fall in order to really, like, find himself, a little bit different in how it happened. But I'm curious, like, why do you think it was this year that happened? Is it the personnel? Is it something with Yokic? is the conditioning? What are you saying from him up close? It's, you know, that's really interesting because a lot of people thought that given their deep

bubble run and given that they only had, I think, 60 plus days off, like, and given that he didn't come into camp last season into shape, everyone kind of assumed, well, Joe was probably going to have a slow start this year. He's probably going to, you know, maybe ease into the season like he did last season. And one thing that I don't. don't think, I haven't asked him this, and I've been, like, dying to ask him this. Like, Joker got married this offseason in Serbia. And I kind of wonder whether he was like, you know what, I'm in the best shape of my life coming out of the bubble. I'm going to get married. I'm going to stay in fantastic shape. That is. And you use them for the wedding photos is what you're saying.

I know that that's a ridiculous theory, but I love it so much. I'm going to stick to it. That's the goofy theory. And then the real theory is that this. This dude is insanely competitive. I know he doesn't come off it and he's funny and he's quick-witted and he's kind of like, you know, self-deprecating and all of those things. But I did a story on him at the All-Star break with his trainer. And this has been a process for six years building to an MVP level player. Like he lifts after every single game.

He doesn't eat bad food. He told me that he feels bad because of all the work the Nuggets trainer, Felipe Eichenberger has put into him. He feels bad when he eats chicken wings or has a beer or like this dude used to drink a gallon of Coke every day before coming to the NBA. He hasn't touched a Coke in six years. That is like discipline and an MVP level commitment to your body. And I do think that he heard all the chatter last year.

I think he was like, cool. Everyone's, you know, mocking me. Everyone thinks I'm overweight. Cool. I'm going to dominate fools. And that is what I think. That's the mindset that I think he approached this season with. You asked why he made the leap this year.

I think it was like, look, I had a fantastic bubble run. We made the Western Conference finals. Do people think it was a fluke? Both of our three one comebacks. Like, he doesn't care what people think. But at this point, he was like, I'm just going to dominate. Like, I'm going to show you that I can dominate. And he's putting up career highs across the board.

He is on pace to tie Wilk Chamberlain for the most assist ever. from a center position. All the advanced analytics support him, like head and shoulders above the next person in terms of win shares, BPM, VORP, all that shit. And he wins it all. But the thing that's going to be hard for him and the thing that should endear him

to the off-brand NBA media is that he doesn't sell himself. And he doesn't care to sell himself. And that part is, in my opinion, it's endearing. I think it's hilarious that James Hardin's like, I'm the MVP. LeBron James is like, I deserve more MVP. And I frankly, I put this on Twitter the other day, I don't know what to ask Nicola Yokich about the MVP because he does not care about it. And he will not publicly talk about it. He's like, I guess like it's cool. It's nice that they like me or they vote for me.

But like that's not my concern. Yeah, I want to ask about that part of it because, I mean, LeBron is better at this than anybody in terms of the marketing around an award. I noticed starting from the beginning of this season, he was like throwing out a tagline of what he wanted his message to be and it was that he wanted to be quote available to my teammates and that was about oh I'm going to play every game I can

and I'm not going to load manage this season and now that he's injured it's like I'm going to show up and coach from the sidelines to show my value the MVP stuff is so tricky in that way because it is so message heavy you know I think Hardin is now breaking into this race in a way

we might not have expected earlier in the season what do we think is the the biggest threat to Yokic winning at this point. Because I agree he's the front runner. By performance, he is the best player who has played the most games, who's had the biggest impact. Do we think, you know, whether it's the Nuggets in the Western Conference standings, not being like a top, top, you know, two or three team,

do we think it's Harden, you know, crashing this race? Where do we think the threats to Yokic's case come from? The biggest threat, it's either Hardin and who has just been incredible since going to Brooklyn. He, like you mentioned, has a narrative issue. I was on NBA TV the other night and they go, what do you think about Nicole Oakesh's MVP chances? I tell him what I think, but then I talk about Hardin. And my problem with James Hardin is that when we talk about value and how subjective the word valuable is, why are we not taking into consideration the first 10 or 12 games that James Harden spent in Houston and the value that he like, like dragged away from

the franchise. Like he wasn't, it's not just the trade request, in my opinion. Like he was a net negative, like a toxic like person in that organization. And so when we're considering the whole full scope of the 72 game season, why is that not a part of the equation for James Harden? And I realize could sound like I'm stumping. I'm not necessarily stumping for Yogi. I'm just saying, why is.

are we only looking at James Hardin in a vacuum with the Brooklyn Nets? That's my, that's my one issue with Hardin. Then, from a threat standpoint, Janus, like, still a freak, you know, is there voter fatigue, potentially? What does, what does one need to do to surpass two consecutive MVP's? Like, is there a barrier, like, you know, a reasonable doubt that you need to surpass ask if you are, Janice, I don't know what the answer is, but if Nicola Yokic is going to win,

voters are going to need to kind of remake their definition of what the MVP needs to be. This is not a freak who can jump from the free throw line. This is not a guy who can shoot from 45 feet out like Steph or Dame. Like, you need to watch Yokic on a nightly basis to see the way that he elevates his teammates and lifts everybody up,

how unselfish he is, the passing, the score, the rebounding, whatever we, like any statistic, anything you need him to do, he can. And then you talk about like meaningful clutch moments. The dude has a bunch.

I wish I had the number offhand, but he has a lot of clutch game winners, game tires, like last few minutes. He's always there and he's always available. You talk about LeBron always available. Joker hasn't missed the game this year. So, you know, I feel almost because he won't sell himself, I feel an obligation to accurately portray his season.

and, you know, like, he is doing everything expected of an MVP. Paul Millsap used the phrase, it would be a sin if he didn't win. And, you know, frankly, from where if the season ended right now, he would get my vote. Yeah, the most harmful thing Yokic did to the team was say that he was from Harvard in those pregame intros or whatever that was, which I have to say is one of my favorite things from COVID. It was the bright spot in my life for that one week that happened. I mean, the one thing kind of going for him just off of the

deadline is like they might win more games. If we're saying that like their place in the West is probably as big as disadvantage, like, you know, Lakers aren't going to get much better with Andre Drummond. The Clippers are still kind of fighting themselves and now have to work in Rajan Rondo. I mean, the Jazz and the Suns are probably going to still reel off wins. But like, we could be talking about a top two team in the West by season's end. And if you're looking at like the main competitors,

you're saying, well, Hardin has the issue at the top of the. the season. You're saying, Embed, maybe he plays enough games. Like, Embeded is probably the one I would worry about the most if he comes back and starts playing like he did at the top of the season. And then, like, Janus, like you mentioned, just voter fatigue. Who wants to make him like the first three time or back to back to back MVP and who knows how long? And so, uh, I don't know. I would put him up there right now and I would, I would make him the clear betting favorite. Rob, do you, like, are you in on the Yokic MVP train or do you think like someone like Janus could derail him here?

I mean, I think Janus definitely could derail him. I'm going to have to sit down at the end of the season and really come to terms with the Janus of it all and how much of that is our perception of him and what he's supposed to be in the Nuggett, sorry, the Bucks playoff failings past versus what has he been on the floor? Because he's still been great by every measure. And the Hardin part is still tricky. And I want to float in something by you guys that I've been thinking about with Hardin, which is if a lot of us are looking at the return that the Rockets got for Hardin in the

trade and saying that. This is kind of underwhelming. This isn't what you would want for a superstar. How much of that is the timing of when Hardin's trade request went down, picking his destinations in the position that put the rockets in? Because if we're talking about broad definitions of value, do we take something like that into account for a guy like Hardin? And the fact that, you know, I mean,

Raphael Stone is having press conferences defending that return. So maybe the Rockets are perfectly happy with it. But I do wonder about that piece of it, where if you're a superstar who demands a trade, who's also in the running for MVP, how much are we factoring in? Not only those first 10 games that Mike alluded to in terms of kind of sandbagging for the Rockets a little bit,

but the position that he put that franchise in, in terms of vis-vis his trade. You know, it's really interesting you say that because outside of the statistics, outside of, you know, narrative for Hardin, the raw value is what the Rockets got in return. That's the very raw value. at this point.

And so, and I don't, and unfortunately, I don't think we can answer that with all the draft picks. Like, Raphael Stone said, like, evaluate the trade in five, six years. And you're like, all right, dude, are you still going to have a job in five or six years? Like, I think that that's a fair question. But, I mean, Hardin, like, I just don't think that there's a, there's an emotional and there's a human element to the voting where nobody is, in my opinion, I would be hard pressed to believe that people will vote for Hardin after. to use your words, sandbag to franchise, after he kind of sunk their value, where are the Houston Rockets right now? I think they just finished a 20-game losing streak. How much of that can be pinned to James Hardin's trade request? And does that not, you know, when you, when you

bolt a franchise the way he did and kind of leave with the stench that he did, like, in what world can you separate his post-trade request to his current, to his previous, you know, franchise, if it's in the same season. To me, I just don't think voters will reward a player who did that, especially when a guy like Nicola Yolkich has said he wants to be in Denver. He likes this small market. He likes winning here. He goes, a couple weeks ago, he gave the quote, you know, I don't really want to go anywhere.

And maybe we can bring in some help. But who knows? He goes, I'm just joking. And you're like, okay, dude, I don't really know what you need by that. But Joker doesn't ask for help. He's done it here. He views himself, I think, in the same light as a Tim Duncan and Dirknewitsky, those type of players, franchise guys.

When you're talking about narrative or legacy or that type of jazz, to me, I just feel like voters are going to side with Nicola in that regard. Yeah. I think the biggest advantage for Yokic and probably the disadvantage for Hardin is just the trauma. Stephen Silas's face every time you see him. Like every time he gets a hug from John Wall, in the back of your mind, you're thinking, this is Hardin's case against him. Because it's getting rough there.

It's getting particularly brutal. So I can see the attack ads coming pretty soon. Well, I'm going to talk quickly just about the other guy in the Nuggets, big three, four, whatever they are at this point. Jamal Murray, who just seemed like a different player in the bubble and has shown that player occasionally, but probably not as consistency, consistently as we would have liked, which seems to be the case for his entire career. Where do you see Jamal right now? Do you think like we'll see that guy in the bubble ever again? Or, you know, what can we expect from him going into the

playoffs? There's a bunch of things going on with Jamal. So the beginning of the year, he was battling all kinds of injuries. He had an elbow. He had a shoulder issue. He had a glute issue. Like, he's a gamer. He prides himself on playing through pain. So not to make an excuse, that is one thing that was happening with Jamal Murray. The second thing that was happening with Jamal Murray is that he was mentally exhausted. The bubble kicked his ass. We saw how emotional he was. We saw all the social justice reform and how much that moved him. You know, I think it was the jazz series when he broke down after that one game. And to do that and to exert that, much mental energy throughout the entire playoffs like he did. I mean, he was unbelievable.

He needed to detach. He basically went home and turned his basketball brain off. Like, I'm sure he was in the gym playing with his dad and his brother. But to that, like outside of that, I don't think he wanted anything to do with basketball. When he came back from the All-Star break a few weeks ago, he goes, I didn't even pick up a basketball. That's why he struggled for the first few games after the All-Star break because he just needed. a mental break. And, you know, to his credit, like he played through it. He did his best.

He never cited this before. He actually got the break. But this is a reality. This is things, these are things he was struggling with. And then the other thing that I think is less talked about is Jamal Murray set the bar so freaking high in the playoffs last year that I don't, he's never admitted this, but I strongly believe that this is the case. He put so much implicit pressure on him.

all anybody wanted to talk about is he going to be an all star this year? Is he going to be an all NBA type? Can he sustain what 75% of what he did in the bubble? Is there any world where he can you know, um, there's some kind of carbon copy of what he did in the postseason, uh, throughout the regular season, which is to your point, what everybody was pining for. And I think that put a ton of pressure on him coming into this year. And again, he hasn't admitted this, but my sense is that he struggled a lot with the expectations of being just this elites. I mean, if we're being honest, he played at a Hall of Fame level throughout the postseason. Now, just do it for 82 games in another COVID-wrecked year. And, you know, we'll all just accept that on its face.

Yeah. It's definitely going to be an interesting one. So where do we think the nuggets end up here? Rob, do you have a sense of if this put them into like a different category and different tier in the West maybe? I think they're probably in the same tier, but they've kind of moved up within it, if that makes sense. I think the top tier of the West is still healthy Lakers. Presumably, we see that. I think the Jazz have earned their way into that category. And the Clippers kind of flirt with it, but I'm never really sure where they stand. And then I think the nuggets are the best of that second group. They're better than a flaky version of the Clippers. They're better than the Sons. and they're credible against everybody.

I mean, to what Mike was saying earlier, I really don't know how you're supposed to guard them. I don't know what you're supposed to do with that. And what Gordon brings you is the hope of stops. You know, you all of a sudden have a little bit more going in terms of being able to match up with some of these better teams in the West that just makes them more of an imposing threat in these seven-game series. If you're looking at the West hierarchy,

they obviously have a history with the Jazz, coming back from the 3-1 in the first round last year. Obviously, I have a history with the clippers coming back from the 3-1 in the second round. Did not fare well against the Lakers. They did not have Will Barton in that series, and they obviously did not have Aaron Gordon in that series. There is a world where the playoffs break perfectly for the Nuggets. Like, if the Lakers fall to however far they fall,

what if they see the Clippers in the first round? What if they just beat up on each other? And the Nuggets, I can tell you, given that they have two years with this core of playoff experience, are not necessarily scared of the Sons. The Sons have done it in the regular season for sure. They look dangerous and not to take anything away from them, but the playoffs is a different animal. Sure, Chris Paul is a beast. But like some of those other guys are not playoff tested.

If you were to give the Nuggets some truth serum, I don't think that they're, quote, unquote, scared of any of those opponents. I think that there's a plausible path to beat any of those teams. I don't necessarily know that it's going to happen, but there's no reason they should be scared of any of them, as good as they are, especially just considering the momentum that the Nuggets have built over the last month of the season. And some of that is, I think the Nuggets can go into any close game

against those teams knowing that they probably have the best crunch time player on the floor. And that's against teams with Chris Paul and LeBron James, and Kauai Leonard. Yokich has been that good in huge game situations that they can feel super comfortable going star to star against the best teams in the West. You know, part of the reason they got Javelle McGee, in my opinion, like this was kind of why I saw the tea leaves.

They go out and get Javele McGee because they assumed that the Lakers were going to get Andre Drummond in the buyout market. They saw that coming. And Isaiah Hardinstein, who was Nicole Yokes' backup, wasn't going to get it done. His foul rate's ridiculous. He's 22 years old.

Like he's still, he is a decent NBA prospect, but he's just not who the Nuggets needed this juncture. And the Nuggets looked around the league. They say, we need rim protection. We need championship experience. And oh, a guy who's familiar with Denver, Javelle McGee has three championships, comes back to the team. And immediately is going to be that enforcer on the second unit. If they do run into a Lakers team that has a hell of a lot of size and strength down low, which obviously is not Nicola Yolk, just forte.

And they'd be screwed. got into foul trouble, like most teams would if their superstar got into some issues. Yeah, I'm with Rob here, where they've almost set themselves up to be like the major spoiler if we're saying that like the assumption is the LA teams

are going to be the favorites there. Just the team makes sense more than it did before. Like they cashed in on some of the young guys, but they have so much talent on that team. And now it just feels like everybody is in the right spots. I have some questions about like what they're going to do with that second unit. Like I'm curious if

like, Mike, I saw you were talking about this the other day. I wonder if Will Barton, his best role might be in that second unit and moving Monti Morris into the, into the, uh, the first one. But I don't know. It just seems like they have the pieces and unlike a son's team, which is still heavily reliant on young guys, especially DeAndre Aitin, uh, and the jazz who like, you know, it seems like they figure out the Rudy Gober thing, but I do wonder like if you're getting smaller in the playoffs and, uh, you know, I do wonder if that's going to be a factor there. I don't know. They just seem like the team that's best positioned to take advantage of Anthony Davis not being there for a playoff series or Kauai Leonard not being up to what he needs to be. Honestly, you could do a whole personality profile of someone based on whether they think Monty Morris or Will Barton should be starting for this team.

I am so happy that you brought that up. I'm so happy. Like, in a vacuum, Monti Morris should be starting alongside Jamal Murray. The Nuggets have actively tried to get Jamal Murray off the ball throughout this. entire year. They think that if he's not facing pressure, bringing the ball up the court, then it might be easier for him to get his shot coming off a roll or something along those lines. Monta Morris is an unbelievable facilitator, distributor. And when you pair him with four dangerous weapons like the Nuggets now have in that starting lineup, like it just makes sense. However, in not a vacuum, in the NBA political world, Will Barton carries more cashé than Monta Morris does. And Will Barton's paid like a starter. He's been a starter in this league. Monta Morris just got an extension this offseason and is paid to come off the bench.

That I'm not saying Monta doesn't deserve to be a starter, but Will Barton carries more clout at this point than Monta Morris does. And frankly, I feel weird about criticizing it if it works. Like if they're winning, then I don't know what grounds I have to, you know, to raise those questions. like if there's an issue if if will barn starts taking away a lot of shots from guys then like yes and they lose get monta morris in there and let will barton uh basically run the show in the second unit and get his shots like if i was michael malone i might go to will and say well you're going to get a lot more opportunities and looks if you played in the second unit does that argument land well with will doubtful uh so i don't know what they're going to do but it's one of those good problems. Like this team is so deep. They probably go 10, 11, 12 guys deep. And so Malone's going to have to make some just really difficult decisions in the next couple months. Yeah. It's going to be exciting. I love when teams do switch it up at the deadline, if only because you get the second half of the season to like really explore the possibilities. And like we said,

this is a team that could be anything. They could be in the West finals. They could be in the finals down the road here. That's probably a good place to end it. Mike, man, thank you so much for joining us. We can catch your work at the Denver Post and what's your Twitter handle? At M Singer. Cool. Thanks so much for joining us, man. Thanks, me. Appreciate it. This is fun. All right. We'll be back next week. Until then, we'll see you.