Nuggets Offseason Crossroads

We’re still trying to process how Denver goes out early against an injured Timberwolves team, and we’re not letting the easy answers slide. We argue the offseason through two lenses, Rational Randy versus Brian, to figure out what the Nuggets can realistically change around Nikola Jokic. 
• the case for injuries as the main story 
• injuries revealing roster flaws like shaky ball handling 
• the missing backup point guard problem in playoff minutes 
• depth breaking down when wings and bigs get hurt 
• reacting to David Adelman returning as head coach 
• coaching strengths in X’s and O’s versus motivation and counters 
• run it back logic built on health and internal development 
• blow it up logic focused on trading Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon 
• prioritizing athletes and defenders to survive playoff matchups 
• why the Jokic window changes the risk calculus 
• reading the press conference and the leverage game 
• draft lottery hopes and why the West feels brutal 
please wish your mom a happy Mother's Day. 

Transcript

Season Fallout And Two Personas

Brian 0:04

All right, everyone. Welcome back to Fandom from Afar. The Nuggets season has been over for a little bit. I've had some time to process, some time to calm down and really reflect. And with all that said, it is still devastating how poorly the Nuggets played this playoffs and went out early to an injured Timberwolves team. I I don't know what to say. It's it's one of those things that obviously, if you heard my last episode, I pretty much crashed out after game three just because the Nuggets played so poorly. They looked like they didn't care. They had been called out by name by JD McDaniels and still got outplayed by an injured Timberwolves team. And it just looks like that this version of the Nuggets is over, which uh it breaks my heart. This this has been my favorite team in all my life. Like the fact that we have Jokic, yes, but how well they played together Jamal, AG, it used to be Michael Porter Jr., but now Cam Johnson. Like there is such a fun basketball team there to watch, and it just seems like it's over. So that was why I crashed out after game three. That is why I couldn't record after they got eliminated. Shout out to Spencer Jones, who had a great game five and kind of helped us get one victory, maybe give us a little bit of hope. But then, of course, game six happened. The Wolves totally outmatched, still beat us, and there's really no excuse. They were more injured than us, but they wanted it more. And just the fact that they really had no problem beating us just shows that I think things need to change, and so that's what we're gonna do today. I won't be as emotional as that last episode, but I do want to go over some points, and I thought it would be fun to have a discussion, if you will. I'm going to have two points of view in this discussion, and one will be he'll be the person that doesn't overreact. He's more realistic with the options that the Nuggets have. He knows it's hard to win championships, and he knows that the salary tax puts a huge limit on what teams can do and how they can build the team. So that point of view, let's just call him rational Randy. He he is very rational, very level-headed. The other point of view, let's say that person lives and dies with every game. Maybe they live in Florida and host a podcast about the Nuggets. Maybe they stay up way too late watching the Nuggets, even though half the games the Nuggets don't care. Maybe he is super emotional after game three and really gets down on his favorite team. And this point of view will want changes no matter what. Let's, for sake of argument, just call him Brian. So between these two arguments, we're gonna ask questions and we will let each point of view answer them, and hopefully it'll kind of help you guide what you want the Nuggets to do this offseason. But let's see how it goes. So, first question What went wrong with the Nuggets this year? Well, Rational Randy would say injuries. Injuries were all that was wrong with this team. He would say that the Nuggets built their most talented team they've had in the Jokic era, and that injuries robbed them of a chance to really build some cohesion and togetherness. When the Nuggets were healthy, they played extremely well and won a lot of games. So Rational Randy would say it was just injuries that went wrong this year. Brian, on the other hand, he would agree with Rational Randy that injuries were a big reason why this year did not go as planned. But injuries showed the flaws in the roster. We thought we had a very deep team, and on some nights we did, but as the injuries continued to build up, it showed some of the severe weaknesses in this roster, mainly ball handling. We didn't have a backup point guard that we could trust to handle the ball in high pressure situations. Jalen Pickett had moments, Bruce Brown had moments, but when it came down to it, each one of them is not a true backup point guard for a championship team. When Peyton Watson and Aaron Gordon got hurt, it showed our lack of depth at the big big man position. We couldn't guard powerful players like Julius Randle, we couldn't guard anyone out on the perimeter, and the injuries just kind of robbed us of whatever depth we thought we had. So while both point of views say injuries, it goes to show you that maybe both people were right in this situation. Next question. Are you happy that Adelman is coming back? If you didn't see, the Nuggets have already announced that David Adelman will be coming back as the head coach. This was his first full season as the Nuggets coach after getting kind of thrown into the fire right before the playoffs in the previous season. And so they have announced that he's coming back. So Rational Randy, he would say yes. He thinks Adelman was dealt a difficult situation with all the injuries, and he did the best that he could. There may have been instances where he didn't, how you say, motivate the team, but he's a young coach and he will learn the ways to do that. It's not in his personality to be as fiery as Michael Malone used to be, but he can find other ways to motivate the team and put them in the right position because he is excellent at the X's and O's part of the game. Brian would say no. I thought he was over his head and it just seemed overwhelmed at times this season. He would get overly emotional at different times and do reviews that just were not helpful. I know that's part on his assistant coaches looking at the iPad behind him, but he was supposed to be a tactician, kind of an X and X is a O's genius, and I didn't really see any creativity in our offense that was coaching. I think it it seemed more so that the players kind of were figuring it out on the fly. And so there may not be better options out there. So maybe it is best that Adleman comes back because he knows the team, but who knows what the team's going to look like? And is it comforting that Adleman's coming back? I'll say definitely not. But maybe maybe there's just no other option. So I don't think there is a right answer on this one. It is what it is. I've I think Adleman coming back is a to-be determined. The third question: What changes do you want to see? Rational Randy. He's gonna say, We can we can just run it back, bring the same team back. All we need to do is get healthy, maybe add another ball handler that can be our true backup point guard. And we can always bank on internal development with some of the young guys getting better. We saw how much better Peyton Watson got last year. There's still hope for Julian Strother, maybe even Daron Holmes, and we just need to be healthy. Brian would say blow it up. It is time. Jamal Murray is one of my all-time favorite nuggets. Aaron Gordon, I think, might even be above him. They both brought us a championship, which I thought I would never see in my life. But for the past three years, both guys have shown that we cannot depend on them in the playoffs for different reasons. Jamal, extremely skilled, but overwhelmed by athleticism. AG can't stay healthy. No matter what he does, no matter how much time off he has during the regular season, it seems like he cannot stay healthy during the playoffs. And so I love both guys, but I think the Nuggets need to be honest and say we need different options. And so I would say trade Jamal, trade Aaron Gordon. If we need to, trade Cam Johnson and Christian Brown, but we need to do something different. We need to try to optimize a team around Jokic while we have him. Jokic, we're never going to get another player like him, and we can't just keep saying, oh, if only we can stay healthy, or oh, if only we didn't run into this team. It almost every team seems like it's a bad matchup for Jamal Murray now. And every year Aaron Gordon is getting hurt. And so if we do trade them, it's going to it's going to hurt because not only do we love those as players, but I think we have a much higher perspective on them than probably the rest of the league. And so the return that we would get for both guys will probably not be great. But we have to keep in mind that when players come to play with Jokic, they get a little bit of a bump. They all of a sudden start playing a little bit better than they used to just because he is a basketball genius and one of the best players ever. And so I would love to trade Jamal in AG and get defenders, just get pure athletes. Hopefully do like a Jamal for multiple players or an AG for multiple players to provide a little bit more depth. And I know this is kind of a cliche term nowadays, but like I want to get dogs that are not afraid of the big moment that will get in and play some defense during the playoffs because the Nuggets have been missing that. We would just be wasting another year until we're forced to do it next year. Next question. Okay, so that is a lot. If you could pick only one of those changes, which would it be? Rational Randy would say, health. That's all we need. Health. We have a great team that just needs to stay healthy. Brian would say, We need athletes. We have been overwhelmed by athleticism in the last three years. We need to get more athletic. Okay. So the final question is what would be your dream off season going into next year? Rational Randy. Everybody gets healthy. The young guys develop. Peyton Watson comes back on a team-friendly deal. And we sign a quality backup point guard. That would be a championship team. Brian? Brian's gonna say trade Jamal, trade AG, get multiple athletes that can defend, sign veteran minimum guys to fill out the roster that still fit that mold, so that if we do get injuries, we have reinforcements, we have people that can play. The Nuggets got themselves in such a hole trying to draft just smart basketball IQ guys, and I think at this point we have to say it did not work. And by that I mean this is after the championship. Calvin Booth kind of went all in trying to get almost like super seniors that were very smart trying to get mature basketball players that could fill in and be role players around Jokic. And I'm talking about guys like Hunter Tyson, Jalen Pickett, even Daron Holmes, Julian Strother, like all these guys, they are incredibly skilled basketball players. They just are not athletic. Now, you will say he drafted Peyton Watson as well, and and that worked out wonderfully. But going one for five or one for six in those categories, that's just not going to work. So we need if they have to be older veterans, but they are athletic and can play D, that will be the offseason that will give me hope. If we're running it back and just hoping that everybody stays healthy when they have proven over and over and over again that they cannot, oh it's just gonna be hard to be excited for the season. So I think both sides made great points. I have a confession to make. The second character named Brian is based off of me. I know, I know. You're shocked. I really hope changes are coming. I really hope the Nuggets will do something and not just say that they're gonna do something. They had a press conference yesterday with not only Josh Cronke, but also the general managers and the head coach, and I thought DBR made a great point that they were almost overly trying to stress that they might run it back, which gives me hope because the DBR guys made a great point that it almost seems like they're really trying to set the baseline that, oh yeah, we're just gonna run it back. We don't need to make any trades because they know they really do need to make trades and they don't want to have zero leverage going into these deals. And so that does give me some hope. We'll see what happens. If you're listening to this on Saturday, the draft lottery is happening tomorrow on Sunday. I really hope that some of these top picks go east. The West is already a bloodbath, and we do not need some of these amazing college prospects coming out this year to join that fray. So we'll see what happens. We're gonna take a break from the podcast, and we will be back probably around the finals time, maybe around draft time, and we'll just have to see how this offseason goes for the Nuggets. And if you're listening to this this weekend, please wish your mom a happy Mother's Day. Go, Nuggets.