The Ringer NBA Show - Nikola Jokic and a Denver Nuggets Check-in With Adam Mares | Weekends With Wos

Episode Date: January 13, 2023

Wos is back with Adam Mares, VP of creative production at DNVR Sports and the host of two Nuggets podcasts. They discuss the current state of the Denver Nuggets mid-season, Nikola Jokic, and Jokic's critical role with the Nuggets this season. Host: Wosny Lambre Guest: Adam Mares Producer: Jade Whaley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? It's Austin Rivers from the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's a new year and I have a new podcast here at the Ringer, Offguard, hosted by me and my guide Pasha Higigee. Austin and I go way back and talk so much hoop already that we figure those time to fire up the mics and let you in on all of these conversations. Every week, Pasha and I will hit on the biggest stories happening in the league.

And get Austin's perspective of someone currently hooping in the NBA. Tap into Offguard every Friday on the Ringer NBA show feed, on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back, Liggin. Ladies and gentlemen to the latest edition of weekends. I'm your host, Big Waz, aka Wosney-Lambre, and I'm joined by my brother, man, straight from the beach in the sands of Mexico. Adam Marez of D&VR Sports was popping, boy.

My ears, unfortunately, but yeah, man, I'm back. I'm back from vacation and watching my nugs roll right now. I love it. Was that, did you get that from surfing, or were you just regular in the ocean scuba diving? What were you doing? I should make up a cool story so it doesn't sound lame right here. I should tell you, yeah, like, yeah, jet skiing or something. But no, just giving my kids, I got a five-year-old,

then a seven-year-old. And I was just giving them, like, swimming around the pool with them and stuff like that. Wow, this happened in the pool. It wasn't even the ocean. It wasn't even the ocean, bro. Well, man, I wanted to have you on today because you were probably my first guest of the season. This would have been October. And I like to give my guests some chance.

So obviously, I plan to have you on all throughout the year, but I'm like, let's let it breathe. We had that conversation. Let's do it. Let's check in with Adam because I had you on because, of course, I picked the nuggets of Denver to go to the NBA finals this year and win the damn thing. And so I had you on earlier the year. And we both agreed we thought Denver would be pretty damn good this year. They stumbled a little bit out the blocks, definitely. but lo and behold, it is January 12th, Adam,

and their number one in the Western Conference, tied with the Memphis Grizzlies at 28 and 13, 8 and 2 in their last 10, they're 18 and 3 at home. I mean, they are just 21 and 9 in the conference. They are just rolling, one of the best offenses in the NBA, which could be expected.

The defense has had their moments, ups and downs, but it's been trending in the, right direction. Adam, where do you see things currently as they sit for the Denver Nuggets? Oh, man, I see things great. And it's funny because, I mean, they are rolling right now. But this is how it's been, well, as we do this every year, not just with the Nuggets, but with any team that has a guy coming back from injury, you go, you know what, it's going to be 20, 25 games, you got to give them time. And then 10 games into that, it's like, what's wrong

with them? Why don't they look great? I felt victim to that with Murray. I was, I was nervous. I was very nervous 10 games in. course. So was I. I'm telling you. I'm not saying this is you or me. It's like everybody, we fall into the same traps. We set what's going to happen. Then it happens. And then we act surprised by it. And it wasn't just that. I'll say one other thing that I think is under the radar a little bit. The Nuggets went on the road for training camp, on the road for preseason, and then we're on the road for the first two months. Like their schedule didn't have more than a two game homestan until December. So they were on the road for, you know, three, four months

of real actual calendar time before their schedule kind of flattened and they got home for some extended homestands. And you combine that with the fact that Murray and Porter were coming back from injury. They caught COVID in the middle of November where they missed like half their lineup was out for two weeks with COVID. So you factor all those things in. And yeah, the first 21 games or so, they look good, not great, but good. And then this last 20 games, they look like the best team in the NBA. You mentioned offense. The offense has been unstoppable. They've gone up against some of the best defenses in the NBA. There's no defense for what they do on offense. Light work. I'm sorry.

Sorry. 1-20, 130, light work, every one of them, Memphis. You know, it doesn't matter who. And then... The Boston win. I was quite proud of. I was like, yeah, this is the team y'all would probably see in the finals if y'all made it. Yeah, I like this.

And they've had that thing where, like, a good team will come into town. I mean, even the clipper, I know the clippers aren't a good team right now, but that was one of those games where you could tell Denver was like, okay, we got to measure up. And then the clippers didn't match them at all. And then you watched that one, and it became, you know, a joke. So, but the other side of it, you mentioned the defense. It's hard to read into these sample sizes, but the Nuggets defense has actually been really good. I think it's fifth overall over the last 15 games.

Again, you start chopping things up like this. You're going to see what you want to in the data, but. Of course, but you can say, oh, look at the offenses, look at this, look at that, three point luck. You can do whatever you want with you. But for this group to spend 15 games in the top five in defense, that's huge. Yep. That's exactly it. And it looks the part two is the bigger thing.

If it was just okay, some guys missing shots here or there, but Denver has kind of demoralized teams. And then now you're getting the secondary factor where Denver's a tough place to play anyway because of the altitude. But this whole last week, every team has taken the Denver game off. Like Cleveland, I don't understand this one. Donald Mitchell scored 71 points, had a night off,

and then decided to take the Denver game off. No injuries. Just, hey, I'm going to rest that one. You saw the Lakers do that. You saw Phoenix do that. Like teams now, I think, are starting to just chalk up an L. They see Denver and they just go, you know what? No, thanks.

Yeah, no, it's incredible, honestly, to be watching. Last night, I'm watching them against Phoenix. Of course, a decrepit team. A lot of their guys are out. This is just barely an NBA team. But even still, these are professional guys. Denver makes offense look so damn easy. And it's from all over the place.

They got their, you know, know the bones is and the rest of the guys that like to get out in transition. Kenny loves to get out in transition. Bruce Brown loves to get out in transition. They have that part of the game. They got Yokic grabbing goals, which isn't really transition, but, you know, whatever. But it is. He's playing point guard off of the rebound, grabbing and going.

And then in the office, they can just dissect guys. Like, MPJ missed a slew of wide open threes last night. But I'm like, man, this offense is generating wide open looks for one of the best shooters in the NBA. And it's just easy. It looks so easy on offense. And the other thing that I was thinking about and that I want to shoot to you because I think this is pivotal, all of the moves that they made in the offseason have panned out. And it's three moves.

It's the Bruce Brown, well, the Bruce Brown signing was huge, of course. He just, like from day one, that thing just started clicking easily. Half court, defense. The way he shoots it with confidence from three, like, you would think this guy was a marksman his whole life. That thing has worked in a myriad of ways. They traded for Kenny, right? And at the same time, they traded Monty Morris, which meant that Bones Highland was going to have to step up in his role. And all three of those bets have paid off in spades.

It's like you watch the way like Catavius Caldwell Pope flies up and down the court, especially in the half court where his just movement, when I watch this guy just backdooring people to death, let alone coming off screens to do catching shoots. And, you know, he just looks incredible in bones. I mean, I don't think this guy has ever wanted for confidence, but he's playing with a confidence right now that is just wild. And all of that being said, Adam, I'm somebody.

who thinks they still need another point of attack guy defensively, specifically. And I think they could use as much as I love bones. I think they can use a Conley type in there. I think they can use a steadier sort of hand that isn't yokeish, that isn't sort of Murray. What do you think about what they got right now and what they can use going forward? Well, first of all, to your point, man, I really think Calvin gets it, man. I've been so impressed with him, not just obviously you have to judge a guy on the moves. But even the way he explains the moves, you know, when you made these moves, you were looking at these are all defensive-minded guys.

With the exception of Bruce, who has a really good wingspan, the guys they drafted and the guys they brought in are all long. They're all like above average for their position. And so, you know, with him, he's like, yeah, we're not going to worry about offense at all. Like our offense is set for the next decade. But we just have to put defenders and guys who fit the system. And that's the thing I didn't realize about Kenny Pope is that he's such a willing player. Like a lot of times when you get a guy that can shoot, like if he doesn't touch the ball for a couple possessions, it's like, all right, we got to run a token thing for him. He doesn't seem to care at all, man.

That guy just fits in. And he'll get three shots in a row, and then he won't get any shots in a quarter. And he just doesn't seem like he minds that at all. And he's doing the stuff, I say this all the time, that your boys and your family are not going to high five you for after the game. Like when he's getting skinny on a screen that's being set on him on a freaking Steph Curry type or a myriad of guys are like that now, a dame type or whoever, you don't get props for that. But Kenny, even when he's not touching the ball, he's doing those little things on defense and on offense. Like cutting hard back door, you might not get the rock there, but it forces the defense to reacters might open up something for your teammate.

It's, it's, it's, I'm, I'm the biggest Kenny guy in the league. I, I really, I knew this move was going to work beautifully as soon as they do it. Because I watched him a ton here in L.A. with the Lakers when their team actually made sense. He was so beautiful as a role player and he's just doing that endeavor, but sorry to interject. I'm just such a, I'm just in the tank. I think, man, I think all of Denver is too. And the thing that I love that you said was the cut point, because you're right that a cut, like, we all know Yokch will find you on a cut. But it really is that it's hard to get a guy to cut over and

over and over again. And sometimes it's not the first one or the second one. It's the third one. And that's what not just him, but all the guys seem to be so bought in, even Michael Porter, I got to give him a lot of credit. Even Michael Porter, who is, you know, he's on a max contract, so he's got that. But I think sees himself as a superstar. This year has committed to playing like a role player. And maybe the superstar part will come in the weeks and months to come. I still think he has more to his game. But he's committed to just like, hey, if I have to cut to open up for the other guy, if I have to do two, three cuts in a row, as exhausting as it may be, like, our offense is going to find the open man. And this is why I think, like, a lot of people have

looked at Denver's three-point shooting, number one, three-point shooting team in the league. They've got like five guys shooting career highs. And I think it's natural to say, okay, that's going to come down. That number is not going to stand. And maybe it won't. But I've always said, I don't think it has to do with the openness of a shot as much as it does the rhythm of the shot. And Denver's rhythm right now is just so perfect. that every guy is just moving in sync. And they've had this for 10-minute stretches. They've had it for two-game stretches.

But they've had it now for like 10, 15 games, where it just seems like all five guys know exactly what to do, where to be, and they're just working connected and in concert. And Kenny Pope, Bruce Brown, Michael Porter, those three guys weren't there last year. They're here, and they're all doing it. And it just takes things to another level. Yeah, you know, while I hear you,

and obviously because I know how locked in you are with this team, you watch that Dallas game where Luca at the end of the game is just straight up like I'm finding Yokic and I'm attacking his ass even if I don't attack him directly

I'm going to attack the guy that he's supposed to hedge on he's just like but Luca of course he's a Harvard grad when it comes to attacking picking for old defenses like he is just the most studied and the most

he understands it the best and he's an extreme example. But I do think that against the best of the best is going to take more than Denver's guys knowing where to be and actually being there. It's going to have to be like defensive talent. You know what I mean? And that's where I get scared.

And I know Golden State is going through what they're going through. But I think in the playoffs, and I keep saying this over and over again, as much as they do that beautiful game stuff, Steve Kerr going to spam Steph Curry picking roles when he has to. He's going to keep jamming that button and running it and running it. And I wonder, do we think, because again, it bears repeating. They are the most unstoppable offense in the league.

There is no offense as good as theirs. There's no defense design that could stop it. Will that be enough and the collective defensive talent and will that's already in the building to play against the best in the playoffs? I mean, that game is an interesting one. Dorian Finney Smith makes five threes in that game. Tim Hardaway goes six of eight. Guy still got to make shots.

The guy still got to make sure. And it was a one point game. So to me that was one of those games where it's like, first of all, Dallas is good. I know there's a lot of talk of Luca doesn't have a second superstar or whatever. I kind of don't know that he needs one. I actually think that that's like we're misreading how to build around Luca when you complain about those things. But nonetheless, like that was a game to me where it was early on.

Right after that is about when we talk about this 50. I think it was about 15 games ago when that game happened. I think Denver does a good job against Dallas. And to your point, they ran really hot that game, and Denver was one point shy of them. I feel like Denver's defense has actually showed that they can guard players like that. You know, Yokic out on an island.

The guys that worry me the most are not the Lukas of the world, the wings of the world. It's actually more the quicker guards. Because even hunting Yokic, like, all right, Luca's going to get his. And if he wants to go out Yokich all the time, he's still going out of seven-footer. There's still like a lot of length that they can stack the deck with.

We don't let you shoot that step back all day. that's fine. But King Yolkich, if that's all of a sudden is Steph Curry. That's the one where I start to think like that. That actually puts you in a real bind. So I don't know. I think Denver's defense is a work in progress. There's no doubt about that.

But they've actually got a lot of length. And I think when you look around the league and say, who's good defensively right now, the one thing they all have in common is they've got like four guys that are six, nine or bigger. And Denver right now is right there. They got Jamal Marie, who's 65 at point guard. They got Kenny Pope who's 65. They got 611.

small forward six nine Aaron Gordon who plays bigger than that and then yoke it so they and then they've got off the bench there's they've been the emergence of zik naggie a third year player zich naggie is is i like his energy yeah he plays with a with a really high motor which again i can't stress this to people that's listening that shit ain't common in the NBA it's just not and so it's cool to watch him play sorry to into he's just long though i mean he's six foot 11 as well you know jeff green is really long and mobile and i i think that's a big part of his when you go up against the Luca, do you just have a lot of length

that you can throw at him so that he's constantly seeing arms and see him bodies? And I think Denver has that enough against a team like that specifically. Tip off the NBA season with Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. New customers get $150 in free bets

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1-800 gambler dot net in West Virginia. You know, I love talking to you about the Yokic conversation around the league. I don't know if you saw Bill, you know, he's on the Yolkich train. big time. He had me on the show and he thought that I might have been waffling.

I'm like, no, I'm completely in a tank. I'm Yokic'd out. And, you know, Van was on it. I think Van is speaking to a contingent of people that exist, right? Both fans and I believe players in the league, like peers who feel like Yokic sort of gets judged on a different curve. than the rest of the players. They say the same thing about Luca. They say the same thing about Janus, quite frankly.

You know, basically the foreign guys. You know, the overseas guys, the exotic guys. Where are you at with this conversation? Because we talked about something similar to this last year where it was just like, I mean, is it not obvious that Yokin's playing at an MVP level? Like, what are we even doing here? Where are you at this year, a year later?

And still being sort of a thing, You know, as far as the conversation around Yokic... Let's get into this. Because I think it's actually pretty interesting. I don't know if you caught this a week ago or whenever Denver played Memphis, Stephen Adams was asked about Yokic and his relationship with him. And he said, just so you guys know,

us foreigners all talk shit about the American players behind their back. And he said it tugging cheek. And he does something. The feeling's mutual, right? Let's not kid ourselves. The American players all... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is a beautiful point.

Everybody's, like, uncomfortable and they want to dance around. Like, why is this? Whenever you cover a player, you see all the criticism. So, like, I see people say, why doesn't anybody ever criticize Nicola's defense or this or that? I'm thinking, like, all I do is wake up and read people criticizing Nicole's defense. So, but I'm also, like, entrenched in it, right? So I think those criticisms are there. The MVP thing, and I thought the pod was good, you're going to be surprised, you know,

some of the stuff Van Latham was saying to me. I understand. I think we do a bad job historically in the NBA. It's one of the worst parts about it in that we write a dude's legacy before it ever happens. And then we project the present as if we know that legacy. And right now, you know, talking about an MVP and Bill saying like, hey, this guy is the most fun. And this guy looks right now like he's as good as, you know, these greats that have gone on to have all these accomplishments. Nicola Yolkich hasn't had a healthy team in the playoffs since he was, what, 24 years old?

like his legacy is ahead of him it's not behind him it's not it hasn't happened yet it's right now and i think for all the people like van and all the others who say like hey are we getting too far ahead of ourselves i would say if the nuggets don't find success this year that conversation is fair it's fair game i don't think the conversation for anything that has happened up to this point is fair so for me i look at it and i go whether you want to debate MVP's you know are we exited you know how much is that about now or hey, no, LeBron should have won six or seven. I would say you're probably right. We've made this mistake for years trying to say, hey, what is this guy's legacy?

We can't give him too much. And then they go on to have great careers. And it's like, oh, yeah, we should have given him six MVP's, but we started thinking too far in the future. So for me, I look at Yokic and I go, right now he projects talent-wise as a regular season player, and even as a playoff player so far, to be an all-time great, to be a top-20 player. The numbers bear it out.

The success, the on-off stuff bears it out. But he does have to win. And if it doesn't happen this year, there have been excuses in the past. But if it doesn't happen this year, then I think it's all on the table. The thing is, I think it is going to come. I feel more confident than ever that I think that success is going to happen for him. So another thing that I just think doesn't get, and I think it's been more pronounced for me watching the NBA this year, is just that being MVP caliber and I get it.

Oh, for God won three straight MVP's back in the days. That meant blah, blah, blah, blah. And all of this team success, I'm like, it's not enough to be an MVP level player. Luca Dodgers is playing at MVP level right now. His team is barely 500, okay? I'm sorry, the league is just way better. MVP level play in and of itself does not produce 50, 60 wins the way used to. The league is just way better across the board.

Again, just 10 years ago. that processed Sixers team that was led by the immortal Michael Carter Williams, bro. There is not a single team like there's not a single team in the NBA that wouldn't wax that team. Nine out of ten times they played them. Like, I'm talking about the worst of the worst. Houston would wax them. Okay. San Antonio would wax that team.

Like, we just don't have that kind of NBA anymore where it's just like, okay, well, if a guy is good enough to have dominated on the level that we've seen LeBron and Mike and Will and Kareem and all these people dominate in individual seasons and he's not good enough to take his team to the conference finals automatically he's a fraud I just I just happen to not believe that I just think that the league is so much much better right like two years ago especially I think it's less so as we get away from the pandemic get away from the bubble but two years ago nobody played and by design like that was like some people are like how could we give it to them there's only three guys that played the whole year even now you got teams like usually you would

have more competition with from a i don't know maybe a kawai or something like that but teams have just gotten smarter i guess smarter put this in air quotes smarter about hey more annoying yeah lamer whatever you want to say about wrestling dude and so there's less competition of guys that are actually just showing up to play every single night but i think here's the here's the thing for you. MVP, whatever, he doesn't care, so why am I going to care? The thing I will say that I think he gets reduced a lot of times to, oh, he's this great passer, right?

Here's the thing. He's one of the best mid-range jump shooters of all time. He's probably the best floater zone shooter of all time. Let's throw out what guards or whatever. I think he's the best floater like three to seven feet from right from that spot. Like, if people don't understand that you literally can't stop this man from scoring with one guy. It's impossible.

Like, it's impossible. Like, I've watched people in their head be like, well, fuck it. We just don't let him shoot threes. Like, you can't let him shoot. And if you, and sometimes you close out hard because he's wetting every single jump shot. His big, slow, fat-ass dribbles right fast. If people keep trying to put this context to try to explain him, here's another one. If you were to rank the best two-man games in the NBA, Yokic would be part of like four

for the top 15 and that that's his real value like when you talk of VP a lot of people are thinking like the one-on-one battle like think of this yokech at jamal murray deadly combo can't be solved unstoppable can't be solved yokech aaron gordon kind of the same thing like you like same thing like you have to put yourself in a compromising position if you're going to try to guard it you switch then yoke's got a power forward on them or whatever you know you got bones in yokitch right now have closed games and closed you know closed them really really nice k c p bruce brown right now sets the screen for Yokic or Yokic sets the screen for it.

It doesn't matter. Whoever has the ball, it's deadly. You can't stop it. So that to me is what people I don't think quite realize is it's not just passing. It's not just like, oh, he's good in the post or elbows or whatever. It's that every single way you break basketball down on the offensive end, he's 99.9th

percentile at every single one of them. Yeah, yeah. Every single part of it. Look, the passing, is what it is. Yeah, Ben Taylor. I want a shout out to my man from thinking basketball. A Ben, I'm drawing a blanker.

Sorry about that, Ben. Where he was breaking down, Yokic's passing. It's just like, guys, it's not, this isn't just like, oh, he's a really good pass. Like, no, this guy. He is a genius level passer, and you can't guard him with one guy. And the stats are funny, too, because you'll see his stat line, it'll be 41 points, right? And then 10 rebounds, seven assists. And then the next night, it's 11 points.

18 assists. And that's all about how the team is guarding him. So this is why I say there's nothing you can do because we're going to force him to the left block. All right. He scored from the left block. Today we're going to force him to the right elbow. All right, he scored from the right elbow today. We're going to double passes. We're going to single score. So like every box score he puts up is just a direct. You could almost without watching the game, look at the box score and be like, oh, that was their defensive strategy. Okay. I see what happened. And, you know, my favorite part is like this guy doesn't even, he doesn't even monopolize the possessions. You know, like his usage rate has gone up as the season has gone up.

But, like, it's, we're not talking about Russell Westbrook here. Like, like, we're talking about, like, it's crazy. It's crazy the production with the amount that he doesn't monopolize possessions. I mean, I always use this term for himself. But it's kind of the same vein in that it's not one-on-one. You get high usage by being one-on-one. He's just a two-on-two player. So it's constantly spreading.

His usage is always cut in half. It's just cut in half with the rest of the team. Two-man game with Bruce, two-man game with KCP, two-man game with Jamal. Yeah. And look, you know, if people want to give it to Embed or Lucca or whoever this year, I don't, I'm not going to be grudged them because those guys are playing incredible. Tatum is playing incredible. KD before you went down. Incredible.

Like, I wouldn't begrudge people for liking those candidacies more. But don't tell me this guy's disqualified because of things that happened in 2020. This is ridiculous. the guy, he's one of the best players in the league. I don't even know why we're doing this. But I just wanted to touch on that. And last but not least, man, I got to ask you because it's become a pet topic of mine. When is Christian Brown going to get more run?

Really? Please. It's part of my sick fascination with competent white American players, Adam. But when is Christian Brown going to get more run? I just, look, I like his size. I like his tenacity. You know, the same thing we said about Zeke Nage, like this guy, he plays hard. He takes up a challenge every time he plays.

And he could make a jumper. Obviously, he ain't going to be killing nobody off the dribble or anything crazy like that. He's not the red rifle. He's not as versatile in how he can attack people. Of course, and of course I'm talking about Kevin Herder, another one of my favorite plays. But, like, I'm impressed by Christian Brown a little bit that I've gotten to see of him when he's on the floor. Like sometimes you think, oh, maybe he's six, They say 6-7.

No, he's, I'm 6-5. I always measure these dudes when I'm standing next to them just to see if they're for real. I'm saying, uh-huh. Wow, you're 6-5? That was a good humble brag. I didn't realize we were going there, but just came up naturally. But I always try to measure these guys up to see if they're like lying about their height or whatever. But he's legitimate 6-7.

Like, he's a big dude. I think his time will come. You mentioned Bones Highland. Here's the interesting thing about Calvin and about the nuggets. Calvin has, I think, stated that, hey, there's going to be uncomfortable moves to come in the future. Like, when you're at this stage, you get a little uncomfortable in terms of, like, who you might have to trade away. And I look at a player like Bones, who's been really great and looks like a great, you know, future player, a very good present offensive player, but a great future player. And I think, does Denver need offense?

Do they need his offense? They might. He takes him to a whole other level. He saw last night he made five threes in a row, just broke the game right. open by himself and he has that kind of talent. I think he's a star in this league. But you look at that and you think, well, right now, if he's in a playoffs and he's going up against Luca, isn't Luca just finding him every single time? And like that's a hundred pound weight difference, skill difference, you know, like, child abuse. For real, though, I'm not even lying. It's a big weight difference.

So I look at Christian Brown and I go, he's a playable piece right now. But he doesn't fit because Bruce Brown is there, who's for sure going to play. And Bowen-Til is there who's for sure going to going to play. But I do wonder if Denver looks to move on from bones to a team who's looking to the future and who maybe has more of a ball handling three, a Joe Ingalls type. I know he won't be the guy that's available. But to me, if you replaced a bones with a Joe Ingalls type, you would have one less negative defender. Your offense isn't really good. I mean, your offense's already so good. You're not worried about it. And maybe that now slides Bruce Brown into the rotation as a guard, which is his natural spot and makes Denver even better

defensively, which is the real question they have to solve. Yeah, I think that's the beauty of having a younger team. That's the beauty of having a every year MVP level of player in your building locked in for the foreseeable futures that they could play the playoffs this year. Let guys, give guys the opportunity to fail or not fail. And then they, you know, approach the offseason with the mindset of, okay, how do we improve upon our weaknesses? so I'm not worried about that.

But yeah, I'm glad you, you like me, love Christian Brown. And MPJ, what do we think about his season so far, man? Like, you know, he had to take some time off with some lagging injuries. Like I mentioned earlier, he's played so far. He hasn't four shots. I mean, that's a guy that he would take 40 shots a game if you just told him, hey, you have free ring, go do your thing. But this year he hasn't done that at all.

And his efficiency has been through the roof. He's been like a soldier, you know, like, hey, we're running this system. you've got to fit into it. He's bought in a fully. And then the Nuggets defense with him on the court goes up. It gets way better. And as I mentioned, I think the length is a big part of that. The last piece for him, and I think it's the most important one, is going to be his athleticism because he hasn't come back with that this year the way he had it earlier on his career. And by the way, if you ask him, he says his most athletic days were his senior year of high school. That's when he felt the best. I don't know if those days are ever coming back just with the

surgeries, but we have seen him even recently look more athletic. And these last two, three, games, he's been dunking the ball. I've been talking about how he didn't have very many dunks on the year. The last couple of games, it's almost like he's made a point to get to the rim and finish above it. And to me, that's the big piece for him. He's been great. I think he's at 15 points per game or somewhere around there. But if he starts getting to the rim, grabbing rebounds and getting those buckets at the rim, that's what's been missing from his game. And it takes Denver up a whole other level. I think he has star talent. It's just his career has been so cursed to this point. but the nice thing about Denver is they've built this number one seed with him being a role player

and I think there's opportunities in the back half of the season for him to expand a little bit. All right, man, you heard it here first from my man Adam Mores of DMVR sports. You can find all the DMVR. We do post-game shows for every Nuggets games. If you're in Denver, you want to come hang out and watch the Nuggets with some Nuggets fans. Come to the DMVR bar. That place is always popping for Nuggets games, man. It's no place on earth like it.

But I got to get you before I get out, though, because I know you're high on the Nuggets. It's just like how high are you? Do you not like to do this? Like are you feeling confident that they have like a realistic shot? Where would you tear them? To be honest, I was extremely high when the season started. I think watching the deep, like watching where the problems could arise on defense made me a little less confident. But like I'm at the point where if they don't play Golden State at full strength, they're going to win the championship.

That's just how, that's where I'm at right now with the Denver. Nuggets. So long as Golden State isn't fully healthy. And I still think that's a seven-game series. Like, I still think they're going to give them hell winning if they play them. Because Golden State don't got an answer for Yolkits either. Right. But yeah, if they don't play the Warriors, they're going to win a championship. I mean, yeah, that's, that's where I'm at. That's how confident I am in this bunch. Like, the sort of continuity stuff that they were working out and still kicking people's asses on offense early in the year to watch it, just be just humming just perfectly now, like a German-engineered car.

I'm just like, yo, this is crazy. This unit is just filthy. It's just filth. They're not going to be stopped by anybody. It's just a matter of the matchup. And like you said, a jitterbug guy like Steph Curry, who can kill you from 35 feet in. That's going to be a pain in the, you know what, to deal with it. That's how I feel as well.

And I'm with you the same thing about Golden State. I do think that's the toughest matchup. But same thing where I look at them and I go, yeah. But that's not a lock that Warriors will win either. That's a 55-45. And I'm not even sure which way. No. That's a good battle.

Right. 100%. All right, that was our show. Make sure you locked into everything else on the Ringers NBA feed, man. Hey, we got Austin Rivers. New pod about to drop. Of course, make sure you're messing with the real ones. Make sure you're messing with group chats with me, Vary and Mahoney on Wednesdays.

The Answer with Syrin and my man Kyle Man. Yeah, man, we'll see you guys next week. Peace out. Enjoy your weekends.