Denver Nuggets need more veteran talent to win another title

Denver Nuggets need more veteran talent to win another title

[Music] [Music] all right folks welcome in to pickaxe and roll BRB good friends over at bet online and number 38 I am your host Ryan Blackburn at NBA Blackburn on Twitter part of the Mile High Sports podcast Network and I’m here to talk about your Denver Nuggets final episode of the week here I know it’s a weird time it’s a Friday night not really expecting a big crowd so you’re a real one if you’re hanging out at 900 p.m. mountain time on a Friday night thank you so much for tuning into the show we’ve got some things to cover on the veterans of the team I’m going to try to work on some of these times and then when I’m actually going to go live here but thought this would be easy enough for me and for my schedule heading into this week uh already I’m going to have to change up next week’s schedule as well the next podcast will not be on Monday it’ll probably be on Tuesday but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it again I’m your host Ryan Blackburn hit that like button hit that subscribe button if you can we’ll talk about the veterans in just a little bit here but wanted to let you know that this podcast as you’re familiar with is brought to you by our good friends over at bet online your number one source for the NBA and NHL playoffs this season every stat every matchup and even live odds when the games are being played when the game’s over head on over to their online casino play a game of blackjack or poker un or unwind with 150 slots games head to their website today to get in on the action use promo code believe for your 50% off welcome bonus on your first deposit bet online the game starts here all right let’s get into the show as I said appreciate all the ls were on the podcast have liked what I’ve seen from folks over the course of these last few days and just in terms of the reception of the content if you’ve seen my work over ATM High sports.com then you know that I’ve been going over all of the position groups over there I just posted centers earlier today and power forwards on Thursday so if you missed those make sure to go check them out also wanted to drop a link in the live chat here G to do that right now um this is a link to an andscape feature on Aaron Gordon’s older brother Drew Gordon that came out from Mark Spears a couple years ago about him relocating his family out of Ukraine during the war between UK Ukraine and Russia uh it’s a pretty crazy story and I bring it up because Drew Gordon passed away I think yesterday and it was a really really sad story he’s the older brother for Aaron Gordon played in the NBA played g- leag ball played um around the league around the world and just the way that it happened he he suffered a car crash he was uh was in a car crash and it was horrible to witness and I’m sure that Aaron is really really upset and frustrated and just very down at the dumps right now so make sure to go give the Gordon family some major support if you possibly can those guys are like the family is unbelievable so make sure to go give them your support if possible um all right U Pull up the this comment here what up Blackburn we are too stacked with young talent I don’t have much hope with picking the Tyson what happened with kamagate um I yeah kamagate got traded back during I think the regular season I want to say or he start oh no he got traded as part of the uh trade deadline package with bones Highland over a year ago so he just hasn’t been on the team for a little bit but he’s not in the he’s not in the plans he’s not a factor uh just wasn’t ever going to be a thing so is what it is um but yeah if you’re if you listen to the Pod last week I talked about the young guys Monday night’s podcast I talked about joic Murray and Porter and they did that with the framing of the money and the point production and things like that those three are at the center of everything for what the nuggets are doing right now because of where the money is and the young guys are in a position where they are all kind of kind of congruent together just because they are in that same general picture of money just cheaper contracts the only guy who doesn’t have a cheap contract anymore is Zeke I talked about him earlier today not a great situation they’ll figure out what to do with him but the last group is the Veterans and Denver’s now at this stage because they’re trying to win a championship again that I figur that they would be putting more of an emphasis on veteran contributors on guys who are ready to go now players that decide that you can really win a title because of their ability from top to bottom of the roster to match certain situations and be as good as possible um but that wasn’t the case and Calvin boo decided to do a different thing last off season and he added three rookies put a lot of pressure onto Christian Brown and pyton Watson a seconde players and also put some pressure on Zeke Nagi who was in his fourth year got an extension and ultimately between those six guys the three rookies Christian Brown Peyton Watson zek nji I think Denver got underwhelming production especially in the playoffs from those six only Christian Brown by the end of it was in the playoff rotation and when it’s six out of 15 players on your roster that’s a really tough thing especially when one of the other guys Flaco chantor who we’ll talk about today was out with a torn ACL for the entire year so that is nearly half of your roster that are either young or just like not really in a position to contribute which is not normal for most championship teams now we’ve talked about this with the salary cap and the CBA and the super tax apron and things like that that will really really affect things but I’m very curious to see how Denver handles this going forward because the plan this year I believe was for it to be kind of a gap year for it to be kind of a bridge year for the young Talent to get better and then hopefully those guys are ready to go like Christian Brown pton Watson more ready to contribute next year uh maybe Zeke Nagi is a little bit more comfortable the three rookies go from rookies to being sophomores that was the thinking and I don’t know if that’s actually what’s going to be the practice we talked about that last week or last couple days ago I don’t know if I necessarily agree with that and so you’ve got the veterans now and we’re going to go through the list you’ve got as I mentioned and I’ve got them got them over over here Aaron Gordon kavus calwell Pope Reggie Jackson Justin holiday DeAndre Jordan and throw on vaco chantar onto that list now as well those guys are Denver’s veteran group the players that you know when the playoffs come around you can trust exactly what they’re going to do whether it’s good or bad you know what you’re getting and with Aaron Gordon and kcp we’ll start with those guys in the first segment those two were solid all throughout the year they were pretty good Aaron Gordon for the most part was the the finisher in a lot of cases where joic is initiating actions Murray’s initiating actions Aaron Gordon somebody who connected the team on both ends of the floor both an offensive and defensive player and I thought he had a pretty good year the numbers overall basically the same as they were during the champion ship season maybe the efficiency just a little bit down especially from a shooting perspective but for the most part Gordon his shot selection was really good he figured out what he needed to accomplish and even his playmaking took a little bit of a leap for Denver only 13.9 points per game during his 31 and a half minutes his usage went down but he got a little bit more assists going and all of his numbers was basically the same and then during the playoffs his numbers were pretty comparable to what they were last year except the assists actually went up by two shot efficiency went up three-o percentage just as good if not better uh effective field goal percentage higher he was comfortable for the most part he didn’t have a great game seven in the the game that Denver got eliminated but for the most part he did what the Nuggets asked him to do and so if you’re pointing fingers of veterans Aaron Gordon’s not the guy he was also one of the only players that Denver had that could defend capably all of the different actions and different players that the Minnesota Timberwolves threw at them Anthony Edwards maybe not necessarily the guy that you want to throw him on an island one-on-one but he was able to fill in Denver’s defensive Concepts from top to bottom so was really impressed with what Aaron Gordon did kcp also very good I thought that kcp like uh like the previous year a little bit less usage not as involved in general in terms of what the Nuggets were doing on the offensive end of the floor but on the defensive end just as productive just as good maybe even better uh basically replicated what his numbers were and put together such a campaign with Denver improving on the defensive end that he was considered a potential option to be an all defensive guy now there’s a lot of great guards out there and I think that this was probably the ceiling of what kyp’s defensive contributions are going to be but I don’t necessarily mean that that’s a bad thing like he’s he was very very good basically Elite and he has specific players that he gives a lot of problems namely if you recall Steph Curry guys that need technical skills and moves and uh finesse to get away from the player that guards them kcp does a great job against those guys he very very smart unfortunately guys like Anthony Edwards who don’t necessarily need a ton of moves if they want to get to where they need to go because his first step is so good and he’s so darn strong kcp is not necessarily the guy to guard those players and Denver found that out first like firsthand so I’m curious as to what Denver is going to do with him the theory of the practice for young players is that you develop several options and eventually when the money starts getting difficult you replace with younger Talent you replaced with cheaper Talent whether it’s Christian Brown pton Watson Julian STW whoever that’s the theory I don’t think that Denver’s at that stage though I don’t think that kcp is so old or decrepit or anything like that that it really makes sense to let him go and let him walk he’ll be in his age 31 season next year this was his age 30 season it doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s just going to all of a sudden fall off like I think he’s got another couple of years of playing at this level or close to it which to Denver probably means he’s worth about 15 to 20 million a year and so I think Denver’s got to try to retain him he’s one of the only guys that’s this capable within this role of being able to do it I don’t know what other teams are going to Value him at as opposed to Denver I had this conversation with somebody else I think that Jamal Murray Michael Porter Aaron Gordon those guys are uniquely valuable to Denver and the system that they’ve built as opposed to other teams I think that kcp his value is pretty translatable because you can see what he does on the nuggets and you can see him accomplishing it somewhere else so whether it’s the Philadelphia 76ers or the Orlando Magic or another team that frees up cap space to get a starting shooting guard I think that kcp will be a valuable commodity on the free agency market this year so we will see what ultimately happens with him but um Cedric is very adamant in the chat about does kcp stay uh look I don’t know I would bet that he stays I think that it is more likely that he stays than that he goes but I want to make sure to prepare the audience and prepare the chat prepare nuggets fans in general that this is what’s like what’s naturally supposed to happen based off of the CBA based off of what has just been signed is that you pay your core guys and then the role players the contributors get poached off by other teams other teams that can pay more money like a team like Orlando for example that has multiple guys on rookie contracts and poo banero fron Vagner and they have freedom to pay their role players a little bit more money so that’s going to be dangerous Denver’s going to have to watch out for it perhaps kcp can give Denver a HomeTown discount that would be extremely valuable so we will see what happens I’m curious as to how that process goes but for right now let’s take a break when we come back we are going to chat about the other veterans on the roster and whether Denver got enough from that group and in the third segment I’m going to talk about this balance between Youth and development versus veterans and winning because there is a balance there and Denver’s walking a very fine line we’ll be right back on pickaxe and Roll But first I got to tell you about number 38 the home base for Mile High Sports Denver stiffs nights out watch parties everything in between number 38 does a tremendous job of putting together a great venue for people to just go out and Vibe go out and hang you want to go get a beer number 38 is the place to go you want to watch the game number 38 is the place to go you want to set up an event get some food have some fun on out on the lawn go watch the some live music number 38 is the place to go make sure to go check it out number 38 in Rhino they do a great job we do pregame podcasts there when we’re in season G to be interesting to see whether the Rockies can keep it up we’ll be right back on pickax and roll all right we’re back pickax and roll Ryan Blackburn here thank you so much for tuning into the show hit the like button hit the Subscribe button if you’re on the audio side make sure to rate review And subscribe to the audio feed especially on audio podcasts those are or apple podcasts excuse me that is the way to support the podcast if you are hoping to do so all right let’s talk about the other vets let’s talk about Reggie Jackson Justin holiday DeAndre Jordan and I’m going to throw in vaco chanar in here as well Reggie what happened with Reggie um I think that a lot of people were correctly um I’ll say hesitant about the Reggie Jackson signing back on July 1st June 30th whenever it actually happened um it was known that Bruce Brown was going to go Indiana signed him once that became clear both Reggie Jackson and DeAndre Jordan were retained Jeff Green went uh and I think a lot of folks were like okay is that it because the Nuggets signed Reggie Jackson to the taxpayer mle and they did that with the intention of just kind of carrying over using him as a stop back stop Gap option and hopefully the young guys specific specifically Jaylen picket maybe Colin Gillespie would be ready to take over for the point guard position this year that didn’t ultimately happen and the reason for that was Reggie played 82 games and Michael Malone was very reliant on Reggie Jackson to get Denver into their sets with their second unit replacing Jamal Murray in the starting unit and I do think that Reggie did a good job with the ladder of replacing Jamaal Murray when he needed to start Denver mostly got similar production from Reggie Jackson or maybe not as much volume but they got good efficiency good passing he fit well with what the Nuggets were trying to do with their starting group and they found a way they found a way to win win enough games in those minutes the problem was when Denver was healthy Jamal was out there and then Reggie tried to figure out what to do with the bench sometimes Jamal Murray would stagger with the second unit and they play Reggie and Jamal together those LS were bad sometimes they would not have Jamal stagger they’d have like Michael Porter out there maybe they went to all bench especially at the beginning of the year those lineups weren’t good either so Reggie wasn’t able to play with Jamal that became very apparent and in the playoffs Reggie only played in the non Jamal Murray minutes and maybe Denver should have had more non Jamal Murray minutes because he was not very good but that ultimately ended up being around n and a half to 10 minutes per game for Reggie Jackson in the playoffs and that’s just not enough from your only other ball handler on the roster and so I think Reggie mostly like he mostly did his job this past year I don’t want to like put too much pressure on him because I didn’t really have that high of expectations in the first place but I think for what the Nuggets were asking him to do he went above and Beyond I think it was more on Jaylen picket it was more on Colin Gillespie it was really more on Michael Malone for not necessarily getting those guys ready to go especially Jaylen because he’s under contract for several years and you want somebody like that to play at least a little bit and Jaylen basically played nothing at all so I’m curious to see what that looks like and whether Denver going forward can find more opportunities for a guy like Jaylen pick it to play but Reggie Jackson has a player option I kind of like there I see both sides of it for him I’m not sure if he’s going to get more than five million per year on the open market so it might be in his best interest to just pick up the option say he wants to stay in Denver but I can also see him declining the player option trying to get more of a long-term deal more long-term security maybe get an extra year going forward on a player option and maybe that’s with Denver maybe that’s not maybe he declines the player option with the hope of resigning a similar deal with Denver maybe that’s for a little bit less money like a two years8 million deal maybe it’s a three years $ 122 million deal something like that but I think that there is a possibility that he’s back but I don’t necessarily think that Denver is going to want him back and Calvin Booth will make the decisions there I’m sure that Michael Malone if if if Calvin Booth can get another capable veteran in there I’m not sure that Michael Malone’s gonna be super tied to Reggie Jackson specifically so we will see what happens we’ll see whether Denver decides to run it back with Reggie with Justin holiday I was pretty adamant that this was going to be a good signing that this was a good fit for Denver Justin holiday only plays ultimately plays to 900 minutes fills in pretty well shoots over 40% from three Off the Bench basically that’s all he does on the offensive end and that’s fine dadford didn’t need him to do that much more and then per 36 he averaged 1.5 steals per game that’s pretty solid as well so he was pretty good he was pretty helpful for what the Nuggets needed and then in the playoffs as turns out he was pretty helpful and the Nuggets won his minutes he had the leading plus minus number on the nuggets for the entire playoffs that’s more than Nicole yic more than any of the other starters obviously those numbers were dragged down by the second unit or by the second round but Justin holiday is a player that fits really well and does a role and does a job and it is him that I think is a really good example for what nuggets fans should want from a veteran because he didn’t play the entire season he was in and out of the rotation didn’t really develop much Rhythm or anything like that but when he did play he was solid and then when he did play in the playoffs he was very solid he was very good and so that’s a good expectation for what I think nuggets fans should want from their 11th to 15th guys especially any veterans that they bring in you want somebody that can fill that kind of a role doesn’t necessarily have to play every single night but can play whenever you need them to and is available and ready to go so if Denver brought Justin holiday back I’d be just fine like that would be a pretty solid resigning now what I will say is that there are so many Justin holidays out there in general like you can point around to the wing Market to the uh veteran guard Wing forward markets and find a Justin holiday type like those guys are very available now Justin holiday already fits in with Denver maybe that’s a good option but Denver does also have behind their starters in kcp and Michael Porter if they do resign kcp they have Christian Brown they have Julian St they have Payton Watson my thinking is that Justin holiday is probably a little bit too much overlap between what a guy like Julian St could provide so I’m not necessarily sure that they should overlap too much I think if they did bring somebody in like especially a veteran in that same mold the player should be a little bit bigger that way that they could play a little bit more size with their second group and that would be my expectation but either way I thought that Justin holiday did a good job he did his job and he is who he is at this stage and that is a pretty solid player next DeAndre Jordan not necessarily a solid player anymore I think that DeAndre doesn’t really fit with what the Nuggets need on the court off the court he’s a perfect fit he’s the exact right player that you need in terms of making sure to manage things that are off the floor managing the bench area connecting with players lifting young guys up he does a great job of putting his arm around a teammate making sure that they’re staying engaged staying in the game and there is a role for that there’s no doubt about it the problem is that if you are asked to play him then it’s not going to really go well he had the second lowest net rating on the team this year behind zek Nagi and the reason why DeAndre Jordan was asked to play this year was because of zek Nagi and how much he struggled I think that if I were to be given a choice between zek Nagi and DeAndre Jordan I think that Denver should keep DeAndre Jordan and they should try to move zek Nagi for a better backup center because I don’t think that DJ should play but I also think that there is a clear option for him to be around for him to be available and connecting with the team now he may decide he doesn’t want to do that he may decide that he would prefer to just retire to get out of the game entirely but if he wants to be back and he wants to be around I think the Nuggets will listen they’ll try to keep him available they’ll try to stay available and have a roster spot available to him but is it the right call Denver needs all of their roster spots one of the things that we saw from this year was that not having vaco chanar Denver only had 14 guys available and then you had three rookies so that’s 11 guys available especially in a playoff context and then you lost zek Nagi because he wasn’t able to be very good that’s 10 guys available Deandre Jordan if he is also on the roster that means you’ve got nine guys available the five starters Reggie Justin Payton Watson Christian Brown that’s just not good enough so either Denver’s rookies have to become playable going forward or vaco chanar has to get healthy and be available and be an option or they got to use that roster spot that DeAndre Jordan has if you see what I’m saying so it’s going to be interesting to see how Denver runs it and I think that this is a good point from fiveish realistically you don’t play all 15 guys on a roster I’m fine bringing back DJ I totally agree with you the problem is when you get down to a playoff rotation and you can only play nine or you can only play eight which Denver ultimately figured out that they could only play eight um that’s where you run into some issues so I’m C ious to see how they handle it but I like everybody else I do kind of expect DeAndre Jordan to be back actually I don’t expect DeAndre to be back I don’t I think that this will probably be done and there is something to the fact that Denver’s like current group with kcp with yic with Murray like those guys have to be better veterans they’ve got to be guys that learn how to do what DJ’s doing but you don’t necessarily have to have that player play all the time so maybe it is better to have DJ or maybe there’s a different kind of player that they could add like I don’t I could point out a variety of different guys but Wesley Matthews from like who’s been around he played for the bucks this past actually I think he played for the Hawks this past year maybe he’s a guy but who who knows the Nuggets know it better than I do just how valuable his contributions were it is hard to put a number value on how valuable that is so if they deem it worthy who am I a judge and finally vaco chanar who I didn’t mention in the topics and I’m I’m sorry for not doing so vaco chanar should be healthy and available next year honestly he should be healthy and available for the Olympic qualifiers that I believe Slovenia is going to be a part of prior to the Paris Olympics so nuggets fans you’re going to be able to get a an idea of what Flo looks like coming off of the Tor ACL not sure how much he’s going to play not sure like whether he’s going to be a massive factor for that Slovenian national team he starts every year most of the time he’s very very good and he fits really well with Luca so I think that there is a possibility that he plays he starts he’s very good and then he uses that as an a prop to get himself ready for the NBA season but we’ll find out we’ll see what happens I wish Good Fortune for vlaco he is on a team option so Denver can ultimately decide whether they want to pick that up or not I don’t really know uh but I will be very curious as to how Denver handles that because like I said the Nuggets need all of their roster spots they need everybody to be doing something doesn’t necessarily have to be on the floor but they can’t have too many guys that cannot play so we’ll find out let’s take another break when we come back we are going to chat about the balance between the veterans and the rookies or the the young guys we’ll be back on pickax and Roll But first Scott the Huff hey what’s up it’s the Huff I love to have fun so tune in to my podcast the Huff uncensored I give on filter takes on Denver Sports crazy news from around the world plus you never know which one of my characters is going to swing by well I hope one of them’s your mother oh Conor mama is always here for you what in the blue heck is going on here so subscribe and get ready to laugh to De Huff uncensored anywhere you find podcast follow me on social media at dehuff podcast swiper just texted me a link that the Bulls asking price for Zack line is dropping and that he’s basically going to be a salary dump by the end of it I’m curious what that looks like and whether like I I don’t think that he’s a factor for the Nuggets but it’s going to be interesting to see what the Nuggets decide to do and if they were to make big changes then like Zack LaVine is a distressed asset that that makes some sense but I don’t know I I think that that’s probably too much Denver’s probably rocking the boat a bit too much if they decide to go get him because it means probably getting rid of one of murrer Porter so probably wouldn’t consider that but interesting to see it figured I’d share okay final segment here pickaxe and roll make sure to like make sure to subscribe that would be helpful the balance between the youth and development of the team versus the veterans and trying to win I think both have a place for a winning culture I think both have a place for sure and that’s why there are significant contributors from both contributors that said that weird young guys bring energy they bring a breath of fresh air in a lot of cases Payton Watson I think is a really good example of that where he was a different like he was a different piece that the Nuggets were able to throw out there and use as a change of pace he gave them dunks and alley oops and highlight blocks and just a fun developmental track for the team and for the fan base to really keep track of for the entire year and it’s too bad that he didn’t finish the year in the playoff rotation because I think that he like that would have been valuable time to see him in a situation where there’s a lot of pressure ultimately I think that players like that are exactly what you need in order to sustain winning because you need other players that can sort of give you a jolt to the system a little bit of a uh CPR or what am I saying like the the thing that charges up and and then clear uh something like God now I’m embarrassing myself um the defibrillator that’s what it is it’s a defibrillator for the entire organization in a lot of ways it kind of revives you a little bit of like oh yeah this is supposed to be fun this is supposed to be awesome and so pton Watson and guys like that Christian Brown I think to a certain extent as well help with that and players like and Julian St maybe so jayen picket Hunter Tyson those guys are more stable those guys are like options that are going to give you a little bit of stability zek Nagi was supposed to be that that’s not ultimately what has happened but then if you have enough young guys that don’t necessarily give you that jolt of positive energy then it’s kind of a drag it’s kind of a when they’re when’re thinking a little bit too much about their own minutes when they’re think a little bit about how to fit in what they’re supposed to do things like that that’s when you start slowing down and you start losing games and it doesn’t really help like the development isn’t there it’s just about like what the hell is happening that’s why you need veterans veterans bring that stability they bring the options to the table in different situations you know what they’re going to give and it’s about piecing together the right guys in order to go win in order to optimize your situation so Denver did that with guys like kcp trading for Aaron Gordon who was a young guy for a while but now has become a vet uh players like even DeAndre Jordan who was more of an off the- floor kind of option for stability really really helped but then you also have veterans like Reggie Jackson who not necessarily on the same track not necessarily on the same page and then not every veteran can really contribute all the time and so every single player that you add should be contributing something and the most important F factor that here is that you need to get great players the great players are the most important the value like awesome players are about as good as you can get players that fit no matter whe whether they’re young no matter whether they’re old anything like that Denver had a group of six veterans five that played around joic Murray and mpj this year is that enough is that enough in terms of problem solving different pieces that you can add to the puzzle I don’t think so I think that Denver was a couple veteran short personally I think that overloading on young guys which Denver did they had more young guys than they did Veterans I think that that wasn’t necessarily great and the nuggets should continue to try to even find veteran minimum options even if they’re just oneoff options like Justin holiday really helped Denver he gave them a lift in that second round when I don’t think anybody thought that Denver could bounce back they did and Justin holiday was a big piece of why so I think that all these options outside of Aaron Gordon they might go they might leave in the summer and this is something that Calvin boo said that if they do leave then you got to replace them with somebody else and that’s the thing about young guys is because they’re on young like extended rookie contracts they’re still going to be okay without like they’re still going to be around next year the veterans you might have to recycle you might have to replace so here’s who Denver should prioritize having back in order number one Aaron Gordon’s obvious viously like he’s back he’s under contract Denver should try to get an extension done they should be smart about the extension I put this in my article on Thursday but they should probably not go a full Max I wouldn’t recommend a full Max for Aaron Gordon which is like four years 140 million in terms of an extension that to me gets a little bit dangerous because I’ve looked around at some historic data for veteran power forward types especially the ones that rely on athleticism that have started as much as he has started over the course of his career he’s played a lot of minutes and the guys that play a lot of minutes Aaron Gordon’s going to get into his 12th year like this is going to be his 12th year upcoming so I would be worried about paying him into his like so this is year for year 13 that he was coming up upon actually is that true am I am I off like that doesn’t even sound right so let me let me pull this up real quick just to make sure I’m not tripping um Aaron Gordon 10th year excuse me he’s going into his 11th year okay so that’s where I was at for the next couple years it’s going to be fine like he’ll he’ll still be at the same level what I would be worried about is once you start getting into the 13th 14th 15th year when it comes to Aaron Gordon I would be a little bit worried and so Astra says AG is in the same draft as joic yes so yic obviously missed a year because he was abroad he is going into his 10th season so Aaron Gordon’s going into his 11th season the thing is that is a little bit different is joic is in a different category in terms of what he uses for athleticism what he uses for like minutes and things like that like how much those minutes really impact him versus they impact Aaron Gordon think about how hard Aaron Gordon ORD works during his time he’s either battling physically on the defensive end or he’s jumping as high as he possibly can or he is like like moving as fastly as he possibly can like he’s just playing very physical basketball with a lot of athleticism so I think he’s going to wear down a little bit faster than Joker so I just keep that in the back of your mind in terms of they’ll probably agree to an extension with him if it’s a 4year 140 million dollar extension which I think is the max he can get that might be a little bit concerning i’ I’d be I’d be a little bit concerned about that um next is kcp as I mentioned among all these veterans so you’ve got Aaron Gordon then kcp then Justin holiday then blacko chanar then Reggie Jackson then DeAndre Jordan that’s who I would prioritize in terms of like what actually you should try to keep and I guess you could flip Reggie and DeAndre but Reggie played over 1,800 minutes this year Aaron is obviously locked in he’s very important to what the Nuggets do kcp very important to what the Nuggets do I’m not sure if he’s as essential certainly is Aaron Gordon who’s like part of Denver’s identity on both ends of the floor Justin holiday I think that if Denver brought him back for another year he’d be able to give you exactly what he gave you this year and that was pretty good vaco chanar he’s under a team option just pick up the team option if you can Reggie and DJ are the two that I would consider probably moving on from freeing up a couple of roster spots that way and allowing yourself to add in different veterans that could play a little bit more or play differently in the case of Reggie I think that Denver should probably try to up trade that group if possible because these are the guys that you need as your problem solvers and maybe they could even trade one of their young guys and turn them into another veteran as well but you need these players to solve different problems around what Denver’s formula is and their formula is obviously joic and Murray joic uh post game Murray Twan game Michael Porter as a third option that’s who they have that’s who they’re building around that’s who the money is around Denver Canon should think about it that way nuggets fans should think about it that way so your other guys are your problem solvers Denver needs more options they need more optionality on their roster so maybe that can come from the young guys maybe one of those guys develops into a starting caliber player that really helps maybe it allows you to replace a player like kcp without as much of an issue maybe it’s just about the those guys becoming so good that they’re Sixth Man seventh man like and then Denver’s roster is just really talented and really good that would be great as well but I think in general that Denver can really be Val like they can value that is just having options and so if Denver just brought back the same group Aaron kcp Justin holiday vaco chancha Reggie DeAndre Jordan let’s say they did that let’s say they drafted at the 28th overall pick and they basically just ran it back I don’t think that’s good enough I think that Denver needs to constantly be trying to get better and while internal development with the young guys is great that can’t be the only thing that the Nuggets rely upon because clearly they didn’t play those young guys enough and there was a reason for that they probably weren’t ready so I think that Denver with these veterans they need a little bit more time tent in general in order to win another championship and that’s fine that’s an okay admission I think that Denver knew Calvin Booth knew that this could have been a problem and that this was going to be a bridge year as I mentioned in the first segment and because it was a bridge year Denver got caught now it’s about having as strong of a veteran Corp as possible your young guys got a year of development let’s see what they can do with this Denver should be trying to put together the best possible roster they can in my opinion I know that you don’t need everybody to play but you need a lot of guys to be able to play it’s just my opinion so upgrade upon Reggie Jackson and DeAndre Jordan go get a backup point guard go get a backup center I think that seems reasonable to me that is going to do it for this episode of pickax and roll brought to you by our good friends over at B online and number 38 thank you so much for tuning into the show everyone happy Friday night apologies for being kind of at a weird time I I’ll play around with this I I like going live in the evenings but going live on a Friday night is a little bit different like just because everybody wants to go do their thing so we will see what happens with the Pod but next podcast will be Tuesday nights it will not be Monday nights it will be Tuesday nights I’ve got some things happening on Monday so going to get together with some folks let me know what you’re interested in what you want to hear about next I think Next Episode by the way trade roulette which involves you sending me trades and me telling you why they suck so drop some trades in the chat in the comments thank you so much for tuning in hit that like button on the way out we’ll talk to you guys next week

In the latest episode of Pickaxe and Roll, Ryan Blackburn goes through the veterans on the roster in his final Season-In-Review episode for the week. Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were exactly what the Nuggets needed, but what about the other veterans? Reggie Jackson? Justin Holiday? DeAndre Jordan? Did the Nuggets have enough veteran talent to win a championship? Ryan goes over the details.

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