Starters finally got back together, Jamal Murray got hurt | Serbian Corner

0:00Hello everybody and welcome to episode 188 of the world's longest center of the market spin-off podcast. Welcome to the DNVR Negances survey and court. My name is Mirzans, you can before we begin, please take a moment to like the video of YouTube and if you haven't already subscribed to the DNVR Sports YouTube channel and at the end we are Negance Podcast Channel. The audio version is ideal for your YouTube or to make your officer come off his time. More bearable. If you want to support the show more directly, you can become a Patreon supporter at patreon.com slash. You just don't see okay, just like my secretive supporters, Daniel Dintin and Johnson. This is the perfect time to join Patreon as you will be supporting the Mirro Does Denver Volume 3 trip as well as I plan to land in Colorado in exactly six weeks. Patreon supporters can enjoy the

1:03ad-free audio version of this show, they can also submit ideas, progress and topics and appear on the show during the summer. The week behind us started at the ball arena versus the Timmerwolves. The nuggets were without all of their NBA level forwards in Aaron Gordon-Peter Watson and Spencer Jones with Cam Johnson who was clear to play on game day. David Adelman started his favorite five of the last few games in Jamal Christian, Julian Cam and Joker and with a clear game plan to take the ball out of Anthony Advert's hands. That set up yielded good results as the home team had at nine point lead at the first break. That was all the dominant basketball we've seen from the good guys in this game. The second quarter was a disaster. The Cam Johnson, Jonas Valentinas led a backup unit, cocked up all the lead immediately and just like in many many many games in the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons, the starters came back and couldn't get the

2:07control back. The Timmerwolves had an eight point lead at a half and the nuggets never came close to getting the lead back. Joker looked great with 35-13 and nine. Jamal was also great in certain portions of this game but it was jarring how bad Cam Johnson looked up until he had to leave the game with the ankle injury that could explain how much he looked like he didn't want to be there nor should the ball. Another rival game and other loss in front of people who paid a lot to see them in person this season. The following night it was the once feared Delta Center in Salt Lake City. Denver was without all of their NBA level forwards so this time around without Cam Johnson as well. So David Adelman decided to start the game with the ball-ball twin tower line-up accompanied by three guards Jamal Julian and Christian. Utah on the other hand was without six guys and I suspect some of those injuries have a lot to do with their open and blatant thanking. Even though Utah was one of one of the

3:12worst teams in the West, even with all of their guys playing, this was not an easy game for the good guys. The other guys from Salt Lake City played very hard their coach will hardly decided to use the loophole created by the dumb NBA bias against the big man and fronted Joker nonstop while guys fronting were slapping the shit out of him. That frustrated Nikola and took him out of the game for large portions of the night especially because he got into foul trouble. The game was decided by two factors Jamal's heroic shot-making and the refs erasing Nikola's six foul in the last minute along with Utah not fouling down one with 15 seconds to go for good 10 seconds of it. It's a weird playing games against teams doing all they can not to win games. Thank God the nuggets didn't lose this one. Three nights later the Lakers came to town and the team from the city of Angels unlike Utah isn't trying to lose. They're just a bad basketball team. Joker had another sloppy triple double night with nine

4:16turnovers and I feel this time around it was more apparent how much out of shape he is right now than in any of the previous games. Jamal had a good shooting night especially from outside the arc and Christian Brown was moving without the ball the most out of everyone on the court so he was awarded with a lot of passes from Joker. Wait too many to be precise. A lot of turnovers happened just before or after Christian would get the ball in the pain surrounded by three players. Yes they were missing all of their forwards but Joker needed to be more versatile when it comes to playmaking. All that wasn't enough for the Lakers and their comically bad defense to get anything more than a wire to wire loss. A team that was horrible in the clutch this isn't one against a team that only had clutch success which still keeps them in the play of contention. Julian Tim and Bruce had nice games and this game was a debut for the newest edition Tyros Jones. The following night last night the Nick's brought their flying

5:19circus with them. The game started with a lot of optimism since all of Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson and Spencer Jones were back for it. The nuggets had their opening night starting lineup together for the first time since game 12 or something like that and they started strong. Jamal was playing well. Joker did too. The good guys had a nine-point lead but finished the first quarter badly up just two points. The second quarter was very bad just like the one against the Timberwolves. Playing Aaron Gordon as the backup five was a weird idea for the first game back. The Knicks went on a big run one of those the starters can upstop when it starts just as we were getting our hopes up that Denver could use the big break to re-energize itself. Jamal rolled his ankle pretty badly and now we are waiting for the X-ray or MRI to tell us more. The starting lineup stayed together for just 23 minutes of their first game together. The third quarter was even worse than the second one. At one point the nuggets missed

6:22something like 17 consecutive field goal attempts. Joker started settling for the three-pointer when he realized he was getting no help scoring wise and his game was over before the last break. 38, 8 and 5 in 30 minutes. At least gave us hope that the big guy is on his way back to the top level four. We did get to see the local hero David Roddy on the court as well. All right, enough of four play. Oh my god, seven minutes of four play. It is time to bring in my guess for today. To me he is the second most important Colorado Springster after Nikola Tesla. And one of my favorite nuggets voices I grew up to between my ages of 38 and 46. The Denver Stiff's Living Legend is a guy I probably call my friend. He is Gordon Gross. Welcome back to the show. My friend, how you doing? Slightly better than last night. Do we completely honest? It's not really last

7:26night for me. It's like early this morning. I woke up at 3 a.m. stayed up up until 6 a.m. to see the nuggets get slammed when 38 points. That was a horrible experience. To be completely honest, I didn't watch the fourth quarter at all. I didn't go to sleep because my I wanted to say cholesterol, but I mean my I was too pumped to sleep at that moment. So yeah, I couldn't I was just staring at the ceiling and thinking like, oh my god, I'm gonna need to talk about this game in 12 hours or so. And we are. We're gonna talk about it. Welcome. Welcome. We'll go ahead it up. What kind of day did you have yesterday and today? It's really tough when you work all week and then you're like, I'm gonna enjoy some basketball tonight and then no, no, you're not actually gonna enjoy this game at all. So

8:31considering that Jamal's injury was not what I was afraid that it was when it happened, like until you saw the replay, you just see him go down grabbing his leg like that and screaming. Oh yeah. And I was like, please God don't have this be what it could be. So it wasn't. It looks like he just rolled the foot and it's not a tear or any terrible news. So fingers crossed all the fingers. We're gonna cross a bunch of fingers. But yeah, I did not enjoy ending my week that way. It was what it that way. Yeah. And that was the big question for this show. And I have to stop dressing you up as a doctor on these shows. Tom Nails is definitely not been a good omen so far. So you think it's just, you know, can you and I know you have some experience with with possible injuries. Could you try to figure out what kind of ankle sprain is it? Well, it's the way he rolled his foot is

9:36a way that you expect the foot to be able to go. So it you run into more trouble with sprains that go the other way because it tends to involve tearing things. In that sense, he just stretched out some ligaments or whatever. It looks to me like it's not that bad. I would normally give somebody a two to three weeks sort of expectation on that with it being Jamal, who probably tried for a week and a half. But I would like him to take some time. Like he has been playing career highs and minutes per game. I don't really want him having to push everything in. Having a couple of weeks off would actually probably do him really good before the stretch run. So it's not the worst thing in the world. It does mean the rest of the nuggets are going to have to step up though. Or they're going to be in the play in territory before Jamal comes back. So that's very, that's a very important

10:41thing here. Do you think there are any silver linings from playing without Jamal in the next? Let's call it few days, a few games. There are four and one so far this season without him playing now. A lot of those games came early. And one of those was was it in Philly that heroic minus seven victory with nobody. They somehow won that game as well. So they have been quite successful so far without him. And at the same time, he does need some rest from from grinding season so far. So what would be that like the biggest benefits for the nuggets from this definitely not an optimal situation losing a key guy this late in the season? Not optimal. And it takes away their pick and roll, which is their normal plan of attack. But I have to say, especially if Watson is back shortly, it's not that bad. It actually they should have enough offensive firepower. What

11:47pissed me off about the next game was if the only two guys who came out to play were Nikola and Jamal. Like nobody else showed up for that game. And I understand that Cam and A.G. are working back from injury. So they're running like 80, 85%. They're just trying to get some cardio in. They're not really in full game shape yet. Like I understand all of that, but I hate the tentative play from everybody else. I hate it. And Spencer came back and he never played basketball before. So that wasn't great. He was off for a week and went to get and played in the year. So then the nuggets have to get their rotation guys to be first off able to play with each other. And second off capable of doing something on the floor. So I am hoping that the few games will call it a few. And I just wanted to be a few and not several. The few games without Jamal

12:51Murray will hopefully help them be more decisive in their action. Christian Brown yesterday. And it's been a it's been a thing for a minute. But he's he's back to full speed as far as running. He looks good in the open court. But he can't finish man. And by the you know, by the third quarter, he was passing out of transition opportunities because he had already bricked four of them. Yeah. So, you know, and then he has the open shots from three and they're not going in either. Nobody's did last night. They just had a they had a very low energy and no reserves. Energy reserves kind of night on a back to back. They didn't have their legs and nobody can make shots except for, you know, Joker, you know, Nicola made shots. But that's because he's to go, right? That's his job to do that. It's great to see his touch coming back with some of the fall the ways on the baseline and some of the other like, you know, running push

13:56bank shots. But for the other guys, they've got to figure out how to make an impact on the court because it can't just be the Jamal and you know, could show it can't not if you want to go anywhere in the playoffs. You've got to figure out what you've got to bring. And I know a G will figure that out. And I if Watson's back like at some point soon, that would be great. I think that'll help. Can being back helps with ball handling. And you can get him on ball more without Jamal in the game. So there are there are things you can do now that you don't have enough guys back. But I they've got to want to do those things. And so far when the going gets tough, the nuggets have not gotten going. One thing I was thinking about and to me, it's not a big surprise that the nuggets defense, especially against these good teams, have just fallen off the cliff because they

14:56had a lot of minutes from Tim Harvey, Jr. A lot of minutes playing together with Jamal Murray. And this is the situation where where you you don't have a lot of resistance in the in the outside part of the of the half court defense. Can Jamal's resting help defense a bit maybe maybe play some more minutes with more defensive minded guys and try to to to create that net trading needed more by defense than by offense. Well, but the problem is who's the defensive guys? Like Ty is Joe doesn't play any defense. So that's like you added a point guard like that was the point of wanting to add on to ball originally back when they were looking into that. They must not like the medicals. But you know was that you had a guy who could defend the point guard position. And the nuggets don't really have that. So I mean they can they can play CB at the one. And you could

16:01run a lineup of like brown at the one Watson at the two if you want. Cam Johnson at the three, you know, and all of a sudden you're big and mean and you know AG at the four. And now you're like, yeah, let's show me some defense. And that that's kind of fun. But again, somebody's got to make shots at that offense. You know, and I don't know that Watson and AG coming back off of injury and Cam. Wait, that's three guys coming off of injury. And then Christian still hasn't found his shot since he returned. You're asking for some trouble. So they're probably going to sub in Tim and then your defense starts to fall apart because that's not his job. His job is to be a bench shooter, not to be a starting to guard, trying to stop a six, seven guy from getting in the paint. Like the the problem the nuggets have is their first line of defense has been crap. And Jamal was actually quite good in in the playoffs in crunch time normally as a holding the line on

17:01the perimeter. But right now, especially in guarding a worse, you know, perimeter guy from the from the other team. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want him on the first guy. But if he's on the second guy, then you know, he's got a shot. Um, he just tries to stay in touch. Like his job is to maintain distance and make it so they can't just dribble to their preferred hand down the way in at will. Because Yokech can't stop that. Like that's he's not going to because he was getting foul trouble. So you don't want like I want him to overlay that and let the guy go get the bucket. I do not want him getting in foul trouble trying to get blocks. He's not going to get. Um, so if they can shore up the outside perimeter defense, that's certainly helpful to them. But I don't I don't know that it will be more easily done without. Um, Jamal Murray, but they're going to have to focus on it because they won't have his scoring. So if you're not going to have his scoring, you better find some defense. And that that was my frustration in

18:03last night. Who was the third leading scorer for the Nuggets last night? I, I think I saw in a text, I haven't seen the box score at all. This is how, how apathetic I was. I believe it was their own homes. Yes, it was. He played seven minutes. Jeremy Paul, it's texted it to me because he is a big neuron fan. I am too. Uh, but I'm apparently the nuggets are not. And it's extremely frustrating to me to see that they have a power forward that can score that they refuse to play. And meanwhile, you can't get buckets, you know, and your offense is dying on the vine. And he can stretch out to three point lands. So you've got to cover him. Like these are the things that are driving me crazy about David Adelman. I, I understand that he's, he's been trying to put a patchwork offense together for the whole year. And I have been defending him for, I don't know, since those injuries started, because at

19:06the start of the year, it wasn't a problem. They were terrific. They just had some clutch problems. Then the injuries happened and then they were still holding it together. And David, you're like, well, David's obviously doing a good job because they're keeping it together with four, five, six guys, not available. That's a good job. Man, since he's gotten some guys back, it has been terrible. Hold that thought because we are going to talk more about David Adelman after these short messages. Don't go anywhere. I didn't want to go here immediately, but you inspired me. You mentioned how, how their homes seems like a guy who can score. And they're just not playing him. And I, I'm on the record for saying that it's really important to have some luck at the beginning of your NBA career. So your coach trusts you and gives you chances to play. We've seen some guys who are really high lottery

20:07picks, whose careers just got completely derailed because their coaches didn't trust him. Like Darko Militrić. Now, I know people think he is like the biggest flop in the history of that. He's not. But he got like a 10 year NBA career. Yeah, he could have been way better. Had he didn't land on the championship winning Detroit with Larry Brown. But I don't want to digress too hard from what I'm trying to say. You mentioned David Adelman struggling with putting back some guys into the rotation. The team just hasn't played well, since they had more more options, really, because they had no options. And you could say he did a great job. But what else could he have done? Well, there was there were no questions answered. Yeah, you know, they, they only had eight available bodies. He's going to play them all. And then you're, you're fine. But a very specific question related to last

21:10night's game was Aaron Gordon's role last night. Like, what did you think about his level of play on the first game back? And what did you think about David Adelman putting him on the backup five? I was mad about back up five. I'm not going to why do you I was mad about backup five because he doesn't have the first off, it's it's wearing. It's, it's, he is not a five. He'll do it because he's a strong guy. You know, he's athletic. He's determined. But you wear him down doing that. That is a playoff adjustment that you make in the playoffs against teams like OK, see where you cannot play Jonas Valentinus. Last night, they apparently decided they couldn't play Jonas Valentinus in the, in the game, you know, I guess a very big team. I guess a big team like I don't understand why you're going small on purpose with guys who are just coming back from injury. You know, it drove

22:14the crazy. So like I said, I know he said even before the game that he has to experiment and there's like going to be a lot of weird lineups because he has to try stuff before the playoffs because he doesn't know what he's got yet because he hasn't had time to do anything during the season. I get that. I understand that. However, you don't want to put too much of a burden on the guy that you desperately need to be healthy for the playoffs. We don't go anywhere if Aaron Gordon is not 100%. Aaron Gordon being Aaron Gordon is literally the most important thing for the Nuggets outside of Murray. You'll get help help like you he's your defensive linchpin. He's your backup five. He's the dunker spot guy. He can now go out to three so he can pull all those guys out from away from Joker and keep them away from him. He can, you know, run, he can bring the ball up as a secondary ball hand or so that it's not all on Jamal to do that. He can set up the offense. He's a

23:14screener. He like he's your energy guy. He's your emotional leader because, you know, Jamal and Nicola are both like this. They don't they're not especially emotional on the court and we're not inspiring ways. So Aaron Gordon is that guy. He's everything for you. There's a reason he's Mr. Duggett and the fact that you're trying to run him out there as a five, you know, in his first game back from injury after he's been gone for most of almost three months. Come on, man. Come on. So the stunning lineup last night played for I believe five minutes and nine seconds together and they were plus plus seven. Are we gonna cling to like such small, small sample data just to reassure us that we actually do have the guys. We do have the horses. I mean, we know what works. We need to wait for for it to be able to expand to more of a

24:18game. So the nuggets took the thunder to seven games with three and a half players. Like they had one guy with a separated shoulder, one guy with a bad hamstring and a bad calf. Another guy with a bad wrist. Like and you still took the thunder to seven games last year. If the nuggets had won that game, they could have potentially won another title last year with three and a half guys. So we know it works. We know that they have who it is. Now missing Mike this year that is a big deal. Mike played in all those games. He was a warrior. He went out there hurt or not hurt. Like he was ready to play. But in the playoffs, Mike has not been. How can I put this a volume scorer? And he has not been like a a stalwart defensive piece. Mike has been the extra guy. And he didn't got what wasn't met up proof. Definitely. Like he was really bad in certain

25:20matchups. Yeah. Yeah. But again, that's that's fine. So you're you as you switched him out for Cam, who is better defensively, who has a better handle, who's not as fearless of a shooter. Mike, Mike doesn't care about being afraid of shooting. Mike will shoot anything. Whereas Cam is thinking about it and he's thinking about it way too much. So, but it does free up opportunities for Peyton Watson without Mike here, who also showed this year that he can play. So if you look at who the who Denver's top eight guys should be in the playoffs, they're going to play about eight. You know, they are stacked. They should be very good in the playoffs. But those guys have to be healthy. So yes, like it works. I don't I don't need proof of concept. Like we saw it. We know what it looks like when they won. We know what they were missing when they lost. We know what they have back. So Tim Hardow is going to be a huge get for them. Like that's that's

26:22terrific for, you know, extra playoff points. But you're not going to be closing with him. The guys you're closing with need to be the guys who need to be healthy. And so far, we're getting there. But I it definitely looks like where you may slip out of home field, a home court advantage. And we're going to have to do it on the road. And I don't mind that. It helps next year's draft pick, I guess, because they're going to be, you know, the more the games they lose this year, the better their draft pick is in the coming draft. But it's going to be, um, they're not going to have a lot of time to gel. They're not going to have a lot of time to figure each other out. And what the rotations are when everybody's back. Because now with Jamal being out potentially a couple of weeks, you're looking at three or four weeks to ramp it up before the playoffs. Who do you think is more in problem here? The players or David Adelman with

27:26the short, with the short period of time to gel before the playoffs? Well, I mean, Adam and has to put guys together. Like you can't gel if you're not on the court together. So he has to get his playoff rotations figured out. Which is another reason that I mad that he hasn't been playing guys like to run homes when all these guys were missing. Because you don't know what you have in him. I mean, this is his second year. It's his first playing, but it's his second year. And you still don't know if he can play for you. You still don't know if there's a role he can fill for you either in the playoffs or next year. And you wasted all this development time by not playing him with all these injuries. So it's worth about time. This is what happened to Julian Strother. Um, last year is he got injured and he got pulled right out the rotation because they don't have time to prep for that. They're trying to get prepped for the playoffs. So March and April, you're lining up your rotation. You're getting your guys right. You're getting them used to their roles. So in that sense, that's one reason why they put a G at the five, I guess,

28:29to remind him that he's going to be doing it. You know, but you still don't want to break that out too much in the regular season for him. You need him to be fresh. And you're not going to be playing. I assume everybody on back to backs, currently, because there are no back to backs in the playoffs. So you don't have to get used to that. You need guys to be fresh and healthy. So at least the guy who has to figure out how to keep guys fresh, how to keep his rotations updated, how to get guys playing with the guys they're going to play with in the playoffs without wearing out all the guys that are going to be playing in the playoffs, because we still have back to backs coming up. We have the hardest games in the league. You know, this week, we have the hardest schedule coming down the stretch in the league. So it's rough. The nuggets are going to have to figure it out against high quality opposition. And they're going to have to figure it out without a lot of time. So Adam and his guy under the gun for this. The players know each other. They hang out together. Most of them have played together. It's a matter of, are you going to put them in a position to succeed?

29:32Okay, let's take another short break. And after that, we are going to talk a bit about the big guy, Nikolay Okic. Don't go anywhere. So Gordon, Joker looked out of shape to me in previous game, in previous games, especially, especially in the game against the Lakers. He looked really sloppy and against Utah as well, I guess, but not so much last night. How do you feel about his current state? And how do you analyze this extended run of play that was bad, you know, relative to what we are used to from from the best player in the world? Yokech has never been a tentative player. So the problem with coming back from his first major injury. I mean, he's had the risk problem, but that he doesn't jump on the wrist. Like, you know, he doesn't have guys falling at the wrist.

30:34Like, he's got guys crashing into his knees all the time now. You saw him get really mad at Louis Dort, but that was about the third time in that game. Dort or somebody had tried to crash into his knees. Dort was stepping on his foot, trying to back into his legs earlier in the game. Like, he is very sensitive about that. So you see him not jumping quite as high, trying to get rebound. He got out rebounded by Mitchell Robinson against the next, but that's partly because he's not willing to put all of the pressure on the knee. He's not willing to jump and risk landing on somebody's foot. So he's, I don't think he is still injured. I think he is cautious. And I think that he, like last night, he started breaking out some more of the moves we're used to seeing from him. And so I'm glad to see that. But I personally think that it's a lot of, a lot of caution about returning from injury. And you said, you said fitness, it is extremely hard to be nearly 300

31:37pounds and seven feet tall and stay in shape for running on the court. Like, you can use a bike, but it is not the same activity. And so he just in order to play and get into shape, he has to play himself into shape. He's done it before he's doing it now. I agree with you that he's out of shape. The one that's been weird to me is the terrible turnovers. Like, that's, that's what I haven't understood is like, I know you don't ever make these. This is not a problem that you've ever had. Why are you throwing directly at that guy? Why are you throwing the ball? Just lobbing it up and hoping someone comes down with it. Like, there have been some lazy turnovers. And I haven't enjoyed that. But as far as fitness, I, I agree with you that he has been out of shape. But that's what happens when you can't use your knees for a month. So he's getting back on that. He'll be fine by the playoffs. I'm not worried about it. And you saw some of that actual quickness coming back against the next. And that's good to see.

32:38So this is purely anecdotal. I haven't checked the line up data or play, by play data to be sure this is true. But Christian Brown is getting a lot of passes from Joker recently, mostly because he is by far the most active of the ball in half court office. He just, he just keeps cutting and offering himself for the pass. Should he tone that a bit down or should the other guys become more aggressive? Because I would love to see that offense become more egalitarian, especially in case Jamal misses several games here. They need to get more offense for more guys and not just getting ball to Christian Brown surrounded by three guys. And he's somehow trying to finish between the trees. Right. And the problem they also have is that Christian's cardio has always been really good. I was it Adam and who compared him to Corey Brewer,

33:39who could just run forever on a court and then just go hang out and have a good time and not be tired at all. Like Christian Brown's cardio has always, always been really good. Whereas again, guys coming back from injury, they don't have it. Like Cam Johnson can't be running around like that. Like he's, there's a reason that Cam and AG were still on the court in the blowout fourth quarter because they hadn't finished getting all of their allotted time for court cardio. So they were just running up and down the court, trying to get their cardio in because you've got to get back into game sheet. So yes, I think everyone else does need to cut more and do be more active. But that's not to be willing to shoot part of the reason that Christian cuts is because he's not willing to shoot. Yeah. Like he's more than willing to cut to the basket and try for a layup, but he doesn't trust his three point shot and they need him to have one. So personally, I think he should stick his ass in the corner and get a lot of kickouts and practice kicking, getting that shot made from the corner three. And like, worry less about the cutting because he knows how to do that part.

34:42How optimistic are you for him to figure out that mental block he has with his outside shot and just let it fly? You know, for these players, because last season's players were a disaster. He was just Christian. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, I have the same concerns for him and Cam Johnson. And I don't like having two guys that overthink like one of the benefits of Mike, as I said, he doesn't ever think about shooting. He just does it. He has golden retriever personality. He just, yeah, see a ball. I go do the thing. And so I wish Cam and Christian were like that because they're obviously aware of the noise and they're obviously aware of the shortcomings. Um, they both shoot to three great. They're both very good three point shooters. When it doesn't matter. It's when it matters. When they're wide open, when it's the closing seconds of something that they can't do it. And you kind of, and that's, that's what they miss with KCP was KCP was really

35:45good at not caring and making those shots. Mike is good at that. They need to get good at it. And I don't know if they have enough time to get good at it. So we're going to see how it goes. But I do have those exact concerns that you have for the playoffs. And I would like them to start working on making those shots now. Like I don't, I don't care about them making layups. I care about them making three. What do you think about the fact and I started thinking about this on the, on the last show? Jamal has been really, really, really good this season. Yeah. And since Joker came back, it feels to me that he is scoring more from the isolation than ever before. He, he does use Joker screens. Yeah. But then he will just, you know, do some, some, freelancing and in the end hit a tough shot. Is there something about the mechanics of two main game that's not working well?

36:48So he decided to, to go in that direction more compared to previous seasons? Well, guys are falling back on the pick and roll. They're not, they're not getting up into Jamal. So because they're not, he's pushing it to eight feet and hitting a floater. He hit like three of them last night in the first quarter. Yeah. You know, it is beautiful. I love watching him hit that shot because then, you know, if he doesn't make it, Yoke, which is right there for the rebound to tip it back in. So what's happening is rather than trying to close off his ability to get to the rack right now, they're falling back onto Yoke, it's and trying to get in the passing lane. And so it's not really a, it's not really a pick and roll. He's not really rolling to the rim. He's going to an open spot on the court. So like you said, he sort of zigzags and he goes out to the, you know, just outside the paint right around six, eight feet, you know, maybe 10. And then he's pushing up, pushing up a shot and he's making them. So I mean, I love these making him.

37:48He's always always been a tough shot maker, but he's been way better at making that shot this year than he ever was before. So I love him getting that shooting touch on the mid. That's good. Um, but I, I think that they're actually working on that as a counter for when they take away Joker on the pick and roll in the playoffs because guys have seen that from us forever. So it's going to be up to Jamal to make sure he can still score when they refuse to allow him to get the ball to nickel it. OK, one last big subject about the Nuggets at large. Why do you think they are losing so many games versus good competition and also at home? Is it just their health bill being a dumpster fire? Or is there something else to it that it's different compared to previous seasons? Do you think the other teams know the Nuggets way better than in previous years?

38:52Maybe there's more scouting, maybe there's more like, I don't, I don't know, some AI involved in like, like stuff, you know, some, some, some numbers crunching that's better nowadays when it comes to scouting than before. It just seems to me that every, every team knows what the Nuggets want to do. They do, but the worst problem that the Nuggets are having is not that they can't score even early in the season. They were scoring in the clutch. The problem is they aren't stopping anybody from scoring. So the problem is nobody is afraid that they are going to get their shot wrecked coming at the Nuggets. The Nuggets haven't been scaring anybody in the clutch all year. And so part of that is because they've been without a G and Watson for most of since the counter year turn really. But it's, it's also a problem of, um, you know, you'll get trying to stay out of foul troubles, stay on the court, not put them at

39:53the line. But what I haven't liked more than more than, um, execution in the late stages, which is problematic is the lack of energy, the lack of caring about the home court. Like Denver has not gotten up for home court games. They're not using the crowd. They're not getting excited. They're not getting mad. They're not getting anything. They're not doing anything. Um, they don't come out with any sort of intention. They don't maintain that intention. Um, and at some point, I don't know if that's just the mix of players they've got or if that's a coaching problem because, uh, you know, maybe David Adamin doesn't chew enough ass on the sideline. You know, like Malone would doghouse you for a week for some of the plays that seem to be unpunished or commented on that we see now. Like if Mike did some of the stuff that cam or Christian or whatever does, like he would be in the doghouse for three or four weeks, you know,

40:59pulled at the first sign that he ever does it again. And Adam is not doing that. Adam is like, well, who do you think should be out there? I guess you guys can coach yourselves. Well, obviously they're not coaching themselves. So maybe you should do some coaching and maybe you should go ahead and, you know, work out some rotation problems. And maybe you should go ahead and set some standards because I haven't liked the standards that they set for themselves in ball arena. And that's, it's been an ugly standard this year. There's no reason they should be losing because it's not just a good team. They've lost at home to some crap ass teams. And there's no excuse like you should be taking care of your business at home. And they're not doing it. They said early in the year that it was easier to focus on the road because there's no distractions of whatever's going on in your home life. I think that's crap. I, if that was true, everything would be better on the road and they're not. Like, you know, you can't tell me that like living in the York,

42:00it would be easier to play, you know, on the road. Sure, there've been fewer distractions than living in the York, but guys who live in the York to okay on the York home court. So maybe it's a you problem and you guys need to sack up and get your focus right. And that starts from the top down. I don't think Adam and his set the tone correctly and it's starting to frustrate me. We've seen teams on a back to back resting guys on the first half of the back to back to play at full strength in Denver because they feel they can win. Boston just did it. Last week, Nuggets fortunately won that game. Right. But, but yeah, the ball arena is not a fortress at all this season. And, and you watched the nuggets for way longer than I have. Closely, how would you compare David Adelman to other great coaches? Not just for forget, Mike, I'm long for a second. Just if you compare him to other great coaches or other coaches in general, the nuggets have had the do you think are you optimistic about playoff success

43:06under the soft ruling David Adelman have shown so far? Well, so the probably you have with comparing to old coaches is that these are not old players. Like back in the day, you know, guys are playing for 50 grand. Like it's not that. You're trying to coach up a guy who has a $200 million contract. A guy who's going to get a $300 million contract. A guy who's playing for a $100 million contract, you know, you're not going to be out there. Just, you know, chewing them up. Malone got away with it for a while, but Malone got fired. You know, and part of the reason he got fired was because of a front office beef. And part of the reason he got fired is because people were tired of that kind of talk to them. Whenever you have a hard ass coach, you almost always go to a nice guy coach right after plenty. A nice guy coaches win that's, there's nothing about Adelman that says he can't win his style can be fine. My concern is I haven't seen any level of defense from them ever this year.

44:09You know, and part of that is injuries, but part of that is what the hell are you trying to take away from somebody? Like you're not taking away threes and you're not taking away the rim and you're not taking away transition. So what are you taking away? Like I, I have not waked their defensive coaching and that's not Adelman's bag. Adam is the offensive guy. Adam and I are done for that. And I haven't seen any indications that that's some sort of X is a nose genius, just lying in weight. I haven't seen it. So I am a little worried that the defense is about to get exposed in the playoffs. But that's what seven games are for. Like over seven games, you make adjustments. We don't know if Adam can make adjustments. We, I mean, he, again, we saw him in the playoffs last year. They did great. They were fine. Like they, for what they had available to them, they played with fire. They played with effort. They played with intensity, but now we've had a really long season of injuries. And Adam is trying to get them through to the finish line to say, we just have to turn it on when it matters.

45:12And for all that Mike Malone said, there's no switch. You can't flip a switch. The nuggets absolutely did flip a switch in 23. And I am hoping that they're going to have a switch to flip here because they need to flip it. But you're really trusting vets to know that they know where the switch is and they're going to find it. Okay, let's take our last break. And after that, we are going to take out our crystal balls and try to predict what's going to happen in the next week. So don't go anywhere. Okay, so Gordon, here's the thing, we might be, and I'm, I keep refreshing the Twitter feed just to see if anybody is going to report anything on Jamal today and no luck so far. Yep. So tomorrow, the nuggets play in in Oklahoma City, in Peacom Center, and the time is 530 mountain time.

46:14Now, this is an important remark for the European audience of this show. America will have a date day, light saving day tonight. So the difference between the central European time and mountain time is going to be nine hours for the next three weeks before Europe also changes its clocks. So just a small remark for people when they check the clocks mountain time, central European time, it's going to be a nine or difference. And I still have no idea what this time is. I have to figure out tomorrow. What do you think is going to happen tomorrow in OKC? And before you answer, I have to tell you, I was talking to a national writer a couple of days ago before the next game. And he's a guy who watches way more nicks and nuggets combined than what I do of nicks and nuggets.

47:15I just watch the nuggets non stop. And he told me the nicks are going to smack the nuggets and he was also afraid about this OKC matchup as well. How do you feel about it? Well, I think the nuggets will get up for it like these are the guys that they got into a beef with last time. They're always up for OKC like they they view OKC the rival OKC views them as a rival. It's not a one way rivalry. They both teams know the title goes through them. Like if they're both healthy, that matchup in the playoffs is the one that determines the next Western conference NBA finals. Entrant because nobody else can probably take them in seven. So I expect Denver to be up for it. My problem is I don't know if Denver has the firepower without Jamal. Like because if you don't have the defense and you don't have the firepower, what do you do it? OKC will throw waves of guys at you. OKC is deeper than you are and they've got plenty of offense and plenty of defense and they get plenty of whistles.

48:25So they get all sorts of stuff. You know, Denver has the MVP. You know, they've got Yokech, but it's a question of whether or not the nuggets are going to be able to. It's not just about intensity. It's about execution. Can you finish those transition drives that Christian has been butchering? Can you make the threes? They made eight of 43s last night. Can you make three pointers? If you can do that like they did against the Lakers, then you'll be in good shape. If you can't, you're going to be in trouble. So if we look at the next five games at OKC versus Houston in Denver at San Antonio. At Los Angeles and back in the in Denver against Philadelphia. Those are five games potentially without Jamal.

49:27What would be the satisfying record for you from those five games? What would be par for the course? I mean, three and two is fine. It's a bunch of back-to-back, too. Like you have what, two back-to-backs in there? Just one, just one. OK, we have one back-to-back in the next five. Houston, San Antonio is a back-to-back. Right, so there's actually another back-to-back between Philadelphia and Memphis. That's what I'm saying. We have, they just keep messing with us on the thing. So it's a matter of you're going to be playing so many nights. I don't expect the energy to always be there. I don't expect the execution to always be there. But you've got to find ways to get some of these victories done. Now Denver has played well on the road. So that's always helpful. It would be great if they would also decide to play well at home. But I would love three and two. I think three and two is fine.

50:28Anything better than three and two is amazing. Two and three isn't the end of the world. Anything under two and three is starting to make it really hard on yourselves. Because then they will be in play-off, like play-in level, they'll be like seven in the league. There's seven in the conference. And so you don't want to be there. You're trying to keep your head above seven. If you finish sixth for the year, you play the three seed who cares. You can take them. If you finish third, you're going to have the same matchup just at home. And are you sure you want to play at home? So for me, anything in that range is fine. But Denver can't afford to blow too many of these games even if the opposition is really tough. So the joke question would be, are there purposely tanking their seeding right now because they suck at home. They want to start every series on the road. But you know, man, if you get too close to the sun, if you get too close to the plane,

51:30you might tank everything. Right. You have a bad shooting night versus an inferior team. And we've seen the nuggets lose to inferior teams so many times this time around. So they better have a plan. They better have counted the wins they need to get the top five. I don't even want to say top six seed because that would be really dangerous for me just too risky. Well, the thing that you have to worry about as the nuggets is that you do need to have guys on rest. Like I said, we have back-to-backs coming up. There's two of them in the next set of six games. You don't want to be playing Aaron Gordon and Cam Johnson on back-to-back. There's not necessarily like you just that you're not trying to prep them for that. So one of them should play one of the games and one of them should play the other one of the games. Like you should stagger them. You should make sure that you've got, you know, a stagger going on of for Spencer as well.

52:31Like he doesn't necessarily need to be doing that both. You've got guys so you're going to have to pick and choose your light-ups. You can't just run your top eight into the ground this week trying to get wins. So in that case, you need to prioritize health and continuity and working on getting ready for the playoffs over wins. But you still need the wins. You're not in the playoffs yet. You don't have a locked-in seeding. Like these are important games. So Adam and I is going to have to balance those two things because like you said, you can't afford to drop too far. But also you can't afford to what happened, you know, two years ago when they went for the number one seed in the playoffs and then they got exhausted and had nothing left against Minnesota. Like you can't afford that either. You've got to have some reserves left and you've got it. You've got a deeper team now. You need to take advantage. Play some of your other guys like I swear to God because this is the whole reason you have them is to save your top eight guys and have them healthy for the playoffs and

53:34not exhausted. So do that. Be there. Well, I have to tell you, Gordon, I feel better after this show because I was pretty down as you know this from our talk before just before the show. I feel better and yeah, let's get hopeful about the nuggets getting healthier and healthier and more cohesive. And at one point showing us that the power, what's the phrase from the Star Wars, the power of this fully armed battle station. Yes. So so we can actually see it. When are you on the call next for the Denver Stifts for the that's up to I'm actually having to do the recap and preview for the Oklahoma City game. So I have to watch that game. So that's that's going to be you know, I can't duck out that that was on my schedule.

54:35But as far as the stiff show, like that's that's probably whenever, whenever Zach goes ahead and gets back to me. Okay. Okay. Hopefully, hopefully soon because we need to listen to you guys at the end stretch of of this season. That is all I'm prepared for you today, my dear listener and please take the word prepare very loosely. I'm basically just let Gordon cook for an hour. Be well, be safe, be kind to everybody, call your mom and until next week, remember that my plan is to be nuggets for you.