Favorite stories about Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets, with Mike Olson

Favorite stories about Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets, with Mike Olson

Listen ala Road Shai hulud damn hello everybody and welcome to the 86th episode of the most critically acclaimed nuggets podcast among those hosted from my living room welcome to the dnvr nuggets’ Serbian Corner my name is miros chuk and I have a pretty big announcement to make I was teasing

Before that I was working for this season of the show to be the most epic yet and and now I can finally say what was going on behind the closed doors of the virtual space the internet is in exactly seven weeks I will finally land on the sacred land of Colorado and spend

The first week of this year’s playoffs with guys and gals of the best community I was ever a part of you can expect some Vlogs from my visit and also live shows that will include me in various degrees of alcohol intoxication since this Adventure is pretty expensive I would appreciate

Support from our little but very loyal group in the form of super chats that would add fuel to the fire this pilgrimage will be it’s been nine years since this guy joined the best fan group in the known universe and four years of my big giant head speaking into the void

About the Nikola yic era nuggets now it is finally time to close the circle for and for me to shake as many hands of great people I’ve met along along the way and those whose faces I am yet to meet okay that was emotional it’s time for some basketball talk uh the week

Started with the Phoenix Suns coming to town a well-rested nuggets showed up with different levels of Engagement from player to player the Suns applied a very smart formula of Grayson Allen hitting his first eight threes Kevin Durant was shooting a lot and hitting some of his shots but what cost a huge second

Quarter slump that turned into from seven point lead to 15 points deficit was nikolic looking like he watched an NBA game from Central European Time Zone the previous night he was very sloppy with the ball and his connection with Jamal Murray was non-existent throughout

The game and yet it was the Suns on the other side and everybody has a good shot of winning against them when the fourth quarter comes the guest team played horribly in the fourth but the nuggets and I have to mention Michael Porter here missed a bunch of wide open shots

To completely take the game Kevin Durant finally started hitting shots late in the fourth so it was a tight game 25 seconds before the end Jamal was running the clock but then slipped and let Bradley Bill make the the last foul they had to give four seconds left they

Played an action for yic to take a runner from the left side but it didn’t go in over time and now Kevin Durant was hitting everything the Nuggets played sloppy still and it was a 10-point loss again not angry for a regular season lost on a random March night but the

Suns were really asking for it and yet they stayed on top what better way to get rid of bad taste from your mouth than some rakia oh sorry wrong show what better way to get rid of bad taste from your mouth than to host the best regular

Season team so far and kick their ass while hitting only four threes three-point shots yes Nicola was ready another 30o triple double Jamal was hitting tough shots helping the bench minutes to stay positive pton Watson was excellent on defense and very useful on offense but the true star for me was the

Lurk Aaron Gordon was lurking staying ready to dunk the ball whether it was a reverse slamp after Jamal’s lob or off the backboard dunk after a missed shot cleaning up with the explosion after yic takes the whole defense on his back or a trademark door slam dunk in one of the

Last few possessions I love you Aaron oh and Jaylen Brown was great and Tatum was nowhere to be found a tough look for him finally last night the Utah Jazz without lowri maranan came to town and the game went exactly like somebody that doesn’t know what a trap game is would expect a

Total blowout 30 points lead at half the Jazz cutting it down to 15 only because nuggets intensity got lower and several wide open shots in a row didn’t fall in Jamal was out of this world with a metric ton of crazy difficult shots that hit only the bottom of the net everybody

Else were the good versions of themselves with special Accent on the young roommates Christian and pton first one hit everything he tried and then the second one showed some really nice finishing in a couple of possessions easy win eight in the last nine games Lavita Abella okay that’s enough ISO from me uh

I’m not Jason tatm in the last two minutes of a closed game for crying out loud so my guest for today is one of my favorite sports writers period you can read his columns every weekend on ddr.com where he writes about all the Colorado teams he is also an Acappella

Singer and a former trombonist but most importantly a very swell and supportive dude Mike aome welcome back to the show mik never going to live down that trombone thing darn it but um hey Merl it’s good to see you you shouldn’t have told me that I mean

That’s such a wonderful detail I um I finally figured out what I love about the format of this show it’s kind of like The Tonight Show you come out and you do a monologue and before we actually do sort of this sit down and

Chat I I love that part of that um thank you funny stuff there um congratulations glad to hear you’re coming our way that’s exciting yes so so it is it’s super exciting to me and the Elephant is out in the open no no wait the elephant

Should be in the room the news are out in the open I don’t know what’s the phrase I’m coming Denver in in seven weeks I’ll be there for eight days and hopefully see two playoff games live what else should I see and do and remember it will be my first time

Traveling out outside of Europe um I’m I’m going to assume but let let me make sure here it’s just you you not you and the family it’s just me it’s just me yeah so so when you go out and do something uh there locally that’s

Just you what are what are your sorts of things um around you Miro do you do you get out to Nature do you get out to the clubs do you go to sports what’s your yeah I don’t go to clubs because I’m I’m old and everything is noisy to me so

Yeah I like going to the nature I like I like playing basketball this is this is what I do every week for for several years now so yeah I don’t know I’m I’m kind of a quiet guy but on the other hand I’m guessing there will not be a

Lot of quiet around me in you know seven playoff days that’s that’s coming up in April um I could I could gosh uh you like some quiet around you um down around down downtown um the Denver Art Museum um is not only a beautiful and quiet space um that has some incredible

Stuff uh in and around it but uh the main arm of the Denver library is is right next to it and that all sits right off of um places like uh the all of the downtown complex for 16th Street Mall um and and a couple of beautiful parks there right next to

Um all of the government structure it’s uh that’s a beautiful part of town uh over by city park um and you’ll be here the right time of year for stuff like this um over by city park massive Lake that’s where um the zoo and the museum

Is um actually all of that complex is not particularly far from the dnvr bar um I have walked from city park over to the dmvr bar uh once or twice and that’s only about a mile mile mile plus maybe um so that’s really beautiful um H

You’re you’re going to get to see plenty of basketball uh that’s that’s for darn sure how much are you going to be at the bar as well are you going to just go to games uh at the arena or you going to come into the bar a bunch I I have no I

I’ll probably be at the bar every every night the game is not in in the arena but we’ll see we’ll see I I might be at the bar on one of the games as well I I have no idea it’s it’s just it’s just too far away uh right now but the plan

Is to to be there for at least one one playoff game live you know and then we’ll see what what goes from there so so it’s pretty pretty exciting to me by the way uh to the audience please comment in the live chat what else

Should I do or see I’ll read the ideas after the show but if you want to uh for it to be read on the show please use the Super Chat option so it is highlighted to me I’m a boomer producing this show by myself and it’s difficult to track all the comments

As they happen and we already have the first Super Chat from from my dear friend Patrick Rasen hell yeah this cash is to be spent in one of the Chubbies burrito in the Northwest Denver perfect drunk sponge yeah that that sounds really needed for me to be honest

Chubbies Mak some awfully good food uh Patrick is on the money there for sure yeah and and I’m not really uh up to the task of drinking a lot I actually don’t drink that much in my real life so I I should be prepared with tips like this

You know because I’m guessing there will be more alcohol in involved than than in my usual days I have a feeling there’ll be some rocky at the bar anyway so uh yeah yeah some roia should be at the bar especially for especially for the for the playoffs I think that’s a sound

Business decision for I for sure very Sound Decision especially after wins and I’m guessing there will be about 16 of those in the playoffs so yeah okay let’s let’s take one short break and then we’ll uh continue with the meat of today’s show and that’s your favorite stories about the Nuggets this season

Don’t go anywhere okay we are back and Mike since you are a writer and a dam good one I decided to let you cook this weekend and pick your favorite nugget stories from this season I will read the titles but make no mistake they’re all Mike’s ideas

And stories so let’s start off with the first one let me bring in the graphic so the first story is called Joker rise above the noise please elaborate to to be fair um we were we were each going to do four and um the only reason I threw eight at

You was to make sure that I didn’t overlap on your four um but I really appreciate that you just said that’s a good eight and let’s let’s do this you’re so kind um that was so nice um I might I might be kind I might also be lazy you know

So like this this was good I love this um I you know I think I think to me um what’s been amazing watching Joker this year especially coming out of the All-Star break because you you could feel the team and I think even him grinding down a little bit

Going into the Break um but as he’s come out of the break year over year there’s always been a knock against him before we won this championship this last year right he’s he’s not a good enough Defender he uh you know will never be able to uh be a

Primary piece without somebody big enough around him um even last year after two MVPs in a row you could see that that third one in a row was really grinding on him the way that conversation started to go last year and I think every year there’s been something in the conversation over the

Course of that season that really impacts him that really affects him I felt like coming out of the Break um he last year he really slowed down to basically remove himself from that mvp conversation um and and it feels like this year none of that matters to him you

Know is if he’s MVP if he’s not MVP I think you know I’m I’m certain he wants to win that ring this year but anything beyond that Championship I don’t think any of that matters to him and and I think that all of that noise that can typically pull it

Somebody I I think at least for him and I’m sure for a lot of folks who win a championship um that noise seems to be gone for him this year he does he’s he’s playing with a different attitude does that what for you does that ring for you

Yeah I agree with that actually last year it was Kendrick Perkins that made the whole conversation so poisonous so toxic he actually took his himself from from the race just didn’t want to be a part of it and and I think that was a sound idea and you know give one to

Another guy it’s it’s fair I mean it’s it’s not it’s not as often that that a guy will get three in a row while everybody is screaming that he’s not the best player in the world and we actually saw those takes like 15 days before the playoffs started like people were still

Screaming that he’s not even a top five player in the NBA and then we of course we know what happened after that and of course we know that the Nuggets won in the weakest playoffs in the history like playing against the worst competition imaginable against you know six seeds

Seven seeds eight seeds not like those those teams have have beat the number one seeds and number two seeds on the way like yeah it is what it is this year I I agree this this year I I just cannot imagine it becoming that toxic again and

Especially you know when you have that certificate on your on your back of being an NBA champion a dominant NBA champion like people are not going to go that easy and take some crazy routes to to try to by the way uh Shake Gil has a wonderful season and I think the the

Race should be really close between him and Joker I don’t think anybody else is really that close to those two guys and it’s really might come to the last game of the season to see which team will have you know advantage in the in the rankings yeah uh to to sway those last

Voters that didn’t already decide who they’re voting for so it’s going to be fun I’m of course rooting for Nicola to get another another one is just because of the you know you you need the hardware to get on the Mount Rushmore and I’m so certain he belongs on the

Mount rushmer of of NBA after 75 Seasons what is 76 77 Seasons now I know he’s not the top 75 player of all time we we elaborated that was so dumb so dumb after being an MVP but but it really but you’re right Shay’s having such a beautiful season

And and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him get it and I think it’s welld deserved if he does get it um I’m I’m as biased as you are because um I’m I’m the Homer you are but I also you know there’s an awful lot um leaning in

Nicholas’s direction as to why I think he’s very deserving of of another one um and I think I think the part of all of this that makes me happiest is at least for him um he doesn’t care how much further up that mountain he goes he

Doesn’t care if his face is on that Rushmore or not he just he just wants to keep playing and playing his best ball and uh man he’s he’s sure doing it he’s he’s having an incredible year so we mentioned Shay already the NBA superstars are out of this world don’t

Get me wrong so I put the stat the other day that Joker’s five worst games this season had a 22.1 rebounds and seven assists uh on average now you can find some other players with similar numbers like Janis or Luca but Joker’s impact on the games is so much Beyond his

Incredible numbers I feel this is his most dominant season so far uh even though literally no numbers across the board suggest that he’s not recording a career high in any of the categories now you’re an all sports guy was there a player out there in the last however

Many years you’ve been been following various sports that impacted his team as much as Joker does on a nightly basis these last few seasons I I was also lucky enough as a kid uh growing up out in LA to just happen to catch on to the

Front end of the magic era basically and and he’s still um he’s the guy I end up comparing the most to Joker because of the way the teams play with them on and off the floor the the onoff numbers for those guys the the the ability to levitate everyone else around them

Raise their game to that degree it’s just it’s just something that you don’t see in too many guys um LeBron is is that guy they’re any any other four guys on the floor is are that much better because they’re out there with him you know and and that’s Joker all day um man

It’s hard to think of too many it’s it’s it’s uh Stockton was a was a floor lifter um gosh not not to that degree yeah especially basketball is specific because you only have five guys on the court so it’s easier for your Superstar to to influence everybody else on the

Court than you know for instance in football or you know however you call it the American Football and every other name that we compare him to now is all names that were taken in the first I mean there’s there’s no mysteries in any of those you know LeBron went High magic

Went High Stockton went High all of the guys that joker nuggets compared to were the very first guys drafted out of their draft um not not buried somewhere down in the second round so just Just Amazing Just incredible yeah one day somebody will make a movie about Joker being

Being selected as 40 41st pick that’s that’s just they’re just honestly honestly I actually have a rent prepared from from another for another time because people in Serbia are always down on Joker because he has missed several um years of playing for the national team and I actually did some research on

It and Nicola has been in the NBA this is his ninth season so his n theoretically ninth uh opportunity to play for the national team actually that’s not true because there have been two years with no competition so seventh uh chance for him to play for the

National team and he of course missed some of those but funny thing is he was never called up for the national team before he came to the NBA so so it’s exactly the same problem happened here in Serbia like what happened on draft night nobody knew how good he he is and

That’s actually amazing that’s that’s my favorite part of the show like he came out of nowhere yeah just out of except for people that actually played against him and that will always tell you no man you don’t want to play against that guy that guy is the Beast you know even his

His like like 10 10 years and and early 20s okay let’s let’s get to the second story for today and uh maybe the second most intriguing guy uh on the Nuggets this season so it’s it’s pton Watson of course Payton’s Ascension this is this is how

You call it please start on it and I’ll pick your brain along the way I you know I loved the fact that at the beginning of this season and this has been a topic um across a ton of the post game shows for for the guys as as we win more and

More games this season but I love the fact that nobody still knew exactly what we had in pton at the beginning of this year and given what we now have in him what we now see in him that there’s a guy who somebody like uh Bill Simmons the other

Day when he’s talking about the Nuggets going to see the nuggets and he said that is a guy that I would trust now if I was the Nuggets I would trust pton Watson after watching him right um he’s he’s moved that far up that list I would have been thrilled with

50% of what he has achieved this year right I’d have been I’d have been so excited about what we had with pton that that way and I I think you know we’ve been so lucky on so many fronts with so many guys that have come across um in in

Winning this championship in these last few years and and also obviously done some really incredible drafting some really thoughtful uh caught some real lightning in a bottle with several of these guys but he’s not that far away from what we were just talking about with Nicola

Right as far as lightning in a bottle he he had played so little college ball you know and with with where we drafted him there were a lot of people scratching their heads as to that that seems like a real overreach I think for a lot of folks and and look at him

Now yeah it’s of course drafting pton drafting Christian possibly drafting Julian strotter will’ll see how that develops in the in the future but these guys are such incredible draft picks but at the same time we have to give flowers to the player development team on the Nuggets because Nicola whenever he

Speaks to to you know journalists in his native language he will always mention AUST to yakovich and the player development team who is doing an amazing job on the nuggets and you know there are a lot of teams that you will you will will hear like oh those guys suck

At picking Talent no maybe they just suck at developing Talent it’s completely possible this is the reason why no no high pick even uh hits there so it’s it’s a it’s a big part of it I’m I’m really happy about it and the season started with Calvin boot telling Kevin o

Conor of the ringer that he is happy Bruce Brown got the bag but people should be careful about what they want since pton is bigger longer a better Defender a better passer and I I actually thought he was still drunk from the parade but Pon definitely looks like

The sixth most important nugget today do you see him as the guy that plays the most total minutes of the bench in the playoffs for the Nuggets I I think he absolutely is and and while he’s while he is longer and while you would think

Of him more on those you know fours and fives basically or at least threes and fours um as as he’s defending he is able to defend you know one through five uh completely I think he is absolutely I miss Bruce and I think Bruce was um the perfect fit for us um

Pton is still young and pton on occasion even in this last week you see him make some some youthful errors still but all in all uh he certainly seems to have made himself almost if not as much a positive as Bruce was by the time we were hitting

The playoffs I I tend to agree with what Simmons was saying the other day it makes a lot of sense it’s crazy like yeah you last season you had Uncle Jeff you had Bruce and then you have Christian Brown here and there somewh sometimes he was playing sometimes he wasn’t and Bruce

Was actually the only guy you could have count on 100% sent and be sure that those minutes will go fine and you know they still went six and four so this season it kind of feels like pton might be that guy that’s as reliable as I

Don’t know if that’s true we still have to see it in the playoffs in real playoff minutes by the way I was browsing browsing through pton stats from this season and because he has played a bunch of minutes at the end of last season in fake games with literally

No significance his per 36 numbers last season actually look better than this year’s you know because he’s actually playing real games but one thing I forgot and this has nothing to do with pyton he appeared in three games in the Phoenix series and all of those nine

Minutes were garbage time of course it was three blowout wins I just wanted to remind the themselves of how that series actually went yeah it wasn’t close at all he um you know even though he was coming in he came in for a few important minutes there I seem to remember him

Guarding Durant on a few plays that uh and and that’s his hero right so um it’s I remember them chatting on the court even so um yeah but but to that end uh still that many minutes in his rookie season that few minutes in his rookie season um that few contributions still

Able to make in the playoffs um he’s he’s a very different guy for us coming into the end of this year for sure yeah yeah I I feel I feel fine and the the stories we will we will talk about in the next in next segments uh we’ll

Explain why I’m I’m still fine in in the west as as Jam rant would say uh we’ll take a short break don’t go anywhere okay next story mpj’s lack of flower or demands now this is an intriguing title Please expand um I am so impressed with Mike

From the guy who came in the doors here basically who uh walked Walked In basically with a bit of an attitude of you know gosh it’s nice that they’ve got that mvp here for to to back me up as it were um and and some of the early

Thinking by Mike around you know I should be getting the ball more I should be I should I should I I I right Um You just don’t hear a lot of that um language from Mike anymore and you don’t see as many negative games from him whether you’re thinking about it in terms of plus minus or or a little more Advan stats you don’t even in the games that he’s not pouring the ball in the

Way he can and and has been recently um he still is getting you a bunch of boards he still is getting you blocks and Steals and he’s not a defensive negative people are are not prone to trying to uh exploit him on that end of

The Court any longer and in the midst of all of that um as he has gotten to be a more complete player a better player a guy who we couldn’t do this without he has not gone back to that attitude of Look At Me hey what about me you know

He’s um he’s very much I think taken on the attitude not only of the team but of Joker as the leader he uh I think he sees things a lot differently now and he’s a much more mature person he’s he’s just a much more mature human being and

And I think that shines through in a lot of great ways not only for the team but for him yeah the only knock ever really on on Mike on the Nuggets was the size of his contract and I really miss the days when we were less informed as fans

Because I was I was a witness of of Jordan’s six championships I had no idea that Scotty Pippen was playing for like two million per year in all of those Championship I had no idea and I I didn’t care I mean it’s just you know this is the bunch around Michael and

They winning championships now if you wouldn’t you wouldn’t know the size of conts of all of the guys you I mean everybody would love the Mike as the third or fourth best player on the team and nobody would would have anything to to say against him but you know it is

What it is we we know too much uh the starting five without Mike simply isn’t incredible on either uh uh of the sides of the Court you can sub in Payton for Mike and stay great or even better on defense but now your spacing is worse same with Christian Brown there’s just

Not a lot of guys in the whole NBA that can be as long as and engaged on defense and as deadly from outside and tenacious on the glass so contract be damned I just pray we get as many healthy Seasons from Mike as possible by the way Mike

This season already played the most games in a single season in in his career so there’s still like what 18 games to the end and he already surpassed his his uh threshold and he also plays the most minutes per game of his career almost 32 are we gonna call

Him Tony Stark at some point Sorry Sorry adamaris I know you well he’s he’s he’s got the he’s got the gear right on the on the boot at least on the one side um I man I I hadn’t thought about it this way until you brought up the contract

But I can’t think of any other team in the league that would have Mike in on a Max contract that wouldn’t be thinking of him as their number one or their number two right and and it takes so much pressure off of him to be on this

Deal and be able to alleviate for us the way that he does um but I think in return has given him an opportunity to grow into this game where um with all he’s gone through physically with all he’s gone through emotionally um it’s not he’s not been forced into a

Situation where he’s had to be the guy where he’s had to come back too soon where he’s had to be any of those things and so um yeah I think it’s it’s amazing how this has worked out for he and the Nuggets both in the long run that way

Yeah I agree I agree it’s it’s just wonderful I always say how impressed I have I am with his uh you know family upbringing like he’s so about the right stuff and I I I give my flowers to his parents first and foremost it’s just it’s just amazing he completely won me

Over I was a skeptic once I admit that I I was always a skeptic on on guys that don’t have the the full you know length of of basketball moves and stuff they should know about basketball but he has filled in so nicely uh during his tenure

On the nuggets and we can really uh speak about him as a super specialist let’s call him like that he’s still a specialist but he’s a super specialist and there’s not a lot of those on the market yeah yeah okay let’s let’s do one more story for this segment and this one

Is called Christian Brown’s soft sophomore struggles and turnaround so it it is a roller coaster let let’s hear it I mean every well not everybody uh a lot of guys go through second-year struggles especially when you know folks start to figure them out and um put them in positions that they

Were not in in those rookie Seasons you know when they were doing things that were unexpected because nobody had had scouted them basically um and I think chrisan was being put into a lot of those situations um in the early part of this season and found him self

Struggling both in terms of uh what teams were forcing him to do but also seemed like maybe he was pushing himself in directions that weren’t necessarily his strengths um it just feels so much and coach was talking about this last night because it was one of the questions postgame you know talking about

Christian and and how he’s progressing and and I think he said a lot of it really thoughtfully from the perspective of I think Christians just getting back to what made him strongest um but you also saw last night you know a lot of times early this season he the guy

Charges to the basket and he was taking a lot of charges early on in the season because of how people had scouted him from last season and how he was doing that he’s got a nice little Euro something he’s starting to work out a little bit and uh in these last few

Games has found his way to the hoop on some of those you know three guys charging up to the rim and he’s threading a needle to get the ball up and into the rim um his three looked a lot more solid the other night I think

He was I think he was three of three four for four three for three three for three yeah is that it yeah so I mean five of five in total is that it okay perfect thank you he’s uh he’s heating up at the right time but

I also feel like he has addressed all of this situationally faster than a lot of guys do in that second season and uh thank goodness really good timing for us coming into the into the playoffs exactly so there’s this thing that the NBA has and no other

League does and it’s the huge number of regular season games that allows teams to have huge budgets and therefore to share the pool of vast majority of world’s best players but on the flip side this causes almost all the NBA players getting used to losing games very often like 20 teams really competes

Every year and that is why even the best teams end up with 20 or more loses losses before the playoffs this is why one’s great winners like Bogdan bogdanovich or Luca donic just to name a few dominant European MVPs are forced to get a a pet on the back much more often

Than what they ever did before luckily this is not the case for Christian Brown a two times NCA champion that became the NBA champion how important is it in your opinion to have a guy of such pedigree on your team you know I think um and honestly I

Think uh before his championship at Kansas um I think there are high school and even youth uh National Youth championships yeah that precede him as well um there are habits that are bred in doing all of that that um I think are very important ones to hang on to and to

Keep and and I think more than anything there’s no replacing a high pressure situation whether that’s a high pressure situation for an 11y old or a 17y old or a 24 year old you know I think every time you go you run through that fire you come out a little bit more refined

Right so yeah so so Christian has a much bigger role this season as you mentioned he shoots a lot more and with that volume his percentag is plummeted but it is comforting that his free throw percentage is better than his rookie season you you always want to see stuff

Like that so all of his per 36 counting numbers improved except for the steals which slid from 1.2 to to 0.9 per 36 do you think his bigger load on offense is what caused his early struggles on defense it’s a good question um I think

That’s a part of it um I could see it just as easily being the uh you know we talked about Payton and how he might end up being the Bruce replacement nobody was talking about Payton as the Bruce replacement at the beginning of the year everybody was saying I wasn’t everybody

Was saying it was Christian right and so I think I I wouldn’t be at all surprised especially with um all he has shouldered in his past if Christian didn’t try to bite off a little more than he could chew at the beginning of the year just

Saying now now I am this guy and and I don’t think he was quite ready for that just yet and uh he seems to have course corrected pretty nicely okay we have to to interrupt the show right now because we got a huge uh Super Chat from RP

43 it’s $40 Canadian dollars so miroslav’s news were was more anticipated than LeBron’s the decision enjoy Colorado Miroslav thank you thank you so much for your support it really means a lot it’s an expensive Venture definitely so so the these things are going to on to help hugely okay let’s

Let’s take uh one more short break and then we’ll slide through a couple of more stories before the end don’t go anywhere okay next story kyp’s all defense season so nuggets fifth starter fortunately gets much more flowers than the fifth guy from The Beatles right so Mike cook

Um all I’m saying is that I don’t know that they could have hung a more perfect carrot out in front of kcp this year than saying hey we think you deserve and we think you should go for that first team all defense um he is playing out of

His mind all season long um what a what a what a spectacular season he’s having this year I hope somebody’s keeping count of how many defensive players of the game chains he has uh hung this year around his neck um I have a feeling it’s more than half the games we’ve played

And he’s just having just the numbers are even bearing it out um but but you watch those moments at the end of games where whoever’s hot on the other team is still just starting to light it up a little bit and especially if it’s somebody of of contavious size um he

Just shuts it down time after time and yes especially in fourth quarters I mean the it’s no coincidence the nuggets are so amazing in the clutch it’s just that yes they have a perfect offense but you need a lot of stops to to get you know big net rating in clutch and and

Definitely kcps is one of the guys most responsible for that part so a to Christian Brown a champion it was so important to get a guy everybody hates to play against a through pest outside on both outs side of the Court you can easily see he has so much more he could

Show on offense but he isn’t Jeremy Grant he wants championships and he already has two so Kenny Pope’s role is actually slightly smaller than last season all of his numbers are ever so slightly lower this season even without Bruce Brown and I think that’s en encouraging since that means that young

Guys got the proper chance and results tell us that was a successful transition so far don’t you think I think that makes sense and I think it also means that in a lot of ways I feel like we’ve had a lot more games this season as well

In which we have played a strong enough game that we’ve been able to play more of the reserves that there have been an awful lot of fourth quarters that we’ve been able to bring the bench in bring even the tertiary players in and and give them more time and so um yeah let’s

Let’s save those minutes and that gasoline for when it all matters here in about 20 games I agree I agree we we have I believe three more stories so so I might go a bit faster on those please so the next one is uh what has been to be like what is

Been like to be the Champs All Season opponent wise now this is something you’ve seen many times in different sports so without a further Ado I I think the biggest surprise to me out of all of that um and and maybe it’s just naive to feel that way um the the

Lower tier teams that come in just swinging from their toes basically because we’re we’re the measuring stick for everybody now this season right and so even the teams that they’ve only got nine wins they’re still you’re you’re getting everything Detroit has tonight basically right and and it just while while that’s something

That you can discuss um 64 games into a season it’s a very different emotion um it’s you’re you’re running a gauntlet it’s it’s crazy I’ve it’s it’s different to experience it than to talk about it for sure so I I plan on calling Sam espandar a brilliant podcaster and a Pioneer

Among online live shows who covers the Golden State Warriors but I want to wait for the second championship before asking him what to expect when covering a full grown Dynasty so my question to you is how you can recognize when the team is struggling versus when they just don’t

Care because they know they they have what it takes to win again um good grief I I think it shows pretty easily when they’re not put putting forth the effort uh last night’s third quarter comes to mind right um there’s there’s a big difference in how this team looks when

They’re just not committed to playing playing ball the right way and and I think that’s true of anybody um that’s another thing Malone said last night you know the these are Pros they’re not going to just stop taking shots stop trying hard so it’s it seems pretty self-evident

That way and I I think what about for you I I think you’re right and it’s kind of a it’s like if we believe nothing is wrong ever and every time they play bad we can say yeah they’re just I I I think this is what Golden State Warriors fans

Have been doing for like how many six seven years now like yeah they had people don’t remember this outside of Golden State but they won championships and then they were in the lottery there wasn’t any Middle Ground there like they got some really good players because

They were they had high picks in the lottery you know Steph get injured clay gets injured and they they get high draft picks and they almost pulled pulled that off but they they really messed up their draft picks well they also hit that once in a lifetime salary

Cap bubbles that allowed Durant to come in for a hot second so they they nailed it man they really did I I really Lov the Nugget uh sorry I really Lov the Warriors before they brought dur rent and then I hated them so bad and I I

Often think about would I hate the Nuggets if they would do something like that like you know bring in jannis or Luca or somebody like that would I just say F that man I don’t want to see that but on the other hand it’s kind of a

Nice place to be when everybody hates you like if you’re not good you’re not going to get a lot of enemies right I I’d grown up with the Lakers as a kid and while I was already falling away during the Shaq and Kobe era when they finally brought in uh Payton and

Malone that was that was it for me man that was the Death Star all of a sudden I I hated those guys so I get you we have a good comment from the boy’s dad about Michael Malone and that’s a perfect intro for the next story

That is called Malone 3.0 now this is going to be great I can sense it please take us for a spin with it I you know I felt especially after the end of that first season um Malone was pretty self-critical of himself after the first year with Denver in how much he

Recognized that his emotions um tended to drag especially a young team along with him when he got very upset when he got very hot about things or even even even over emotionally happy about what had happened he saw that he was taking those kids through those highs and lows

As well um it was something that he called out on himself and I I felt like he tried really hard to change himself and I kind of always thought of that as Malone 2.0 you know in a lot of those ways but that was still the guy that did

A lot of things like in those early years was still doing a lot of platooning you know uh was still going by a book um didn’t play a lot of rookie minutes or youth minutes if uh he could avoid it basically he he very much had sort of a

Pre-programmed idea of his approach and I I think this is a lot of what I was talking about with Joker up top too I think that ring has definitely kind of taken the shackles off for him that way in terms of he seems to coach much more from his gut be much

More free flowing um in in how he makes Not only his substitutions but um you you can see an angry Malone timeout even 15 seconds into the second half just coming from a mile off now right you know when it’s coming and he’s gonna give those guys hell and they’re going

To come back out and course correct they’ve they’ve worked out a really solid uh scheme for them with him so so I I just believe that Michael Malone talks to Nikolai yic about old things nuggets much more than people would imagine I think Nicola loves the fact

That Malone is so old school and not everybody likes that Jeremy Grant Bon Highland sorry about that I must have catched the C on the mountains earlier today the Nuggets half court offense always start the same and they probably have the same number of main actions as

All the other NBA teams but the amount of counters and soles they have for everybody should probably be credited in equal parts to Michael Malone and and coaching seminars junkie Nikolai yic uh I believe our coach is perfect both in being a great caters to Stars guy and

You need to have that to survive in the NBA but also in being a guy with enough authority to ride his Guys across the roster so he can take them to their goals what do you think I love that um it’s funny you uh that cough cough

Jeremy Grant um who do you think’s got bigger regrets now Jeremy Grant or bones Highland uh for for not being able to be a Malone guy basically oh bonees Skyland didn’t make any real money so far yeah it’s it’s it’s rough it’s really rough what what he’s facing he might he might

Still get better but I don’t know Jeremy at least got his bag that’s fair and and Jeremy is and Jeremy is a good player with uh a good coach now I I think a lot of Chanty but Um but I think you’re right I think that’s a great way to look at it um Malone is a very specific sort of a guy and I think you’ve got to be willing to people laughed when he said he was going to we were going to be a defensive

Team that first season when he came on as coach and he said we were going to be a defensive team there there was an aible Ripple of laughter that ran through that room and and now even though you could still argue maybe Jamal and NCA are the weakest defensive spots

On the team neither of them are a weak Defender they’re both plus solid Defenders it’s just that then the guys you name after them are ridiculous Defenders right I mean even even Mike now just because of his length and his Hops and all of the rest um Aaron kyp Payton Christian just defensive

Juggernauts it’s uh it’s a Malone team it’s a Malone style Team all the way yeah I I agree about the defense part people talk too much about the one-on-one defense because that’s such a small part of basketball defense is about the team and it’s so funny to me when you have everybody you

Know uh making fun of of Nikolai as a defensive guy when he had Jamal and Gary Harris like small guys in front of him or even worse when he had faku Kaz and Austin Rivers in front of him and yeah you see Nicola doesn’t play defense and

Then you do the same thing to Joel and beat you remove Ben Simmons from the team it’s five one suddenly suddenly this defense is not so exciting as it used to be so it it’s so funny it’s so funny I I just I just have to tell you

Michael Malone has a really high approval rating in Serbia because he is such a intense guy people here love that about him and there was this rumor that he was supposed to become you know the assistant to the to the coach of Serbian national team several years ago it was

In the time of Igor kosko if I remember correctly and everybody was so positive about it because yeah he is an american guy but he’s our guy we we get him so so yeah Michael Malone of course like every other NBA coach has his weaknesses of course but his strengths overshadow

Those so hard and he’s as I said he’s just such a perfect compliment to his team and you know people joked about him saying that his team is going to be a defensive team well he only needed eight years to make it work so the moral of the story get your coach eight-year

Chance and you get there just all you need is that 8-year contract and you’re good to go it’s perfect 8year cushion and you know who is impatient in the NBA come on it’s okay okay last story for today and might be my favorite one is called How Much I deeply despise the

5280 jerseys so my story would would have been how much I hate the fact that teams have more than two jerseys in a single season but that’s just European perspective what is your issue with the highly non-metric number on the jerseys um it’s well it’s it’s not necessarily the

5280 um I actually I love that we’re calling that out I love that we’ve got it on the court actually right in front of the free throw line I think that’s the perfect spot for somebody as they’re looking down and dribbling to be thinking about how Gass they are

Basically um and and you see player after player uh talk about how much that stuff gets in their head so I think that’s great um I describe them as the 5280 uniforms because that’s they’re just so ugly it’s uh they’re the three primary colors it’s literally like we gave a four-year-old

An opportunity to to take a swing at this um the blue is still very visible above the black the numbers are the same size on the 5280 as they are for the player numbers I just I I I don’t know um I’m I only dabble in design not the

Way dline is great at it but uh wow uh feels like somebody got their very first try at building a jersey and and somebody accepted it so that’s rough I I I I have no no opinions on that honestly because I I just I just don’t don’t understand colors that that

That well it’s just for me like the nuggets are a blue team and let’s let’s not make them red or I mean I I guess they’re also yellow that that works too give them blue yellow and white and why do we need the black jerseys I mean I

Know they did look cool I have to say that but it’s just it’s not the Nuggets colors come on guys like you can do the different shades of blue I guess I don’t know when we I didn’t like last year’s third Jersey the one that just had

Denver on it and that’s the one that we won every in important game of the playoffs in so now every every memory through history is going to be in that butt ugly thing as well so sorry for that yeah it is what it is okay okay so that’s all for this show

Everybody go check out Mike’s latest piece on the AVS on the ddr.com by the way the AVS are my second favorite Colorado team not because they’re awesome but because hockey is the only other American Pro Sport I understand and like so also an 82 Game season just just the

Same uh just very similar calendar as well yeah exactly maybe maybe you’ll get to see some of that at the bar too yeah we we’ve seen him attending the the the games and I I totally understand I know he also attended some some Rockies games before as well so that’s

Cool that’s that’s that’s really nice I haven’t seen him on on Broncos games but it is what it is I guess that’s that kind of era for for the Bron by the way you you know everything about corado sports what is this thing about Broncos trading away all of their good guys like

Is it because you get you know the you get something in return when you give out your good guys you get a possible award in the in the future I I have some strong opinions in there and as a Broncos fan a lot of those opinions contain some some four-letter words but

Um but I I think the term fire sale comes to mind um and I and I think at this moment they are conceding that this is not going to be their moment so how can they most successfully rebuild with the pieces they have whether they do that or not uh remains to be

Seen yeah we we’re having a fire hail yeah exactly all right that’s all for this show as I said uh I will see you again next weekend don’t forget to smash that like button on your way out so until uh next time oh let me just give another shout to shout out to

To our super Chatters Patrick and RP 43 you guys rock so until next time jakar Samson

This week, Miroslav announces huge personal news before talking to Mike Olson, DNVR’s columnist, about Mike’s favorite Nuggets stories from this season so far.
Which aspects of Nikola Jokić’s, Michael Porter’s, Peyton Watson’s, and Michael Malone’s seasons are the most interesting to Mike?

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