Brian Windhorst makes the case for the Nuggets to be West favorites next season 👀 | First Take

Brian Windhorst makes the case for the Nuggets to be West favorites next season 👀 | First Take

I find the West really interesting it didn’t go exactly as how we expected it to play out several teams look to be contenders again this season Wendy I’m going to come back to you on this who do you feel like should be the favorites in the west next season Molly you are so right this next month is going to be so fascinating for some of these Western teams that have big things going on in this off season and because everybody is so tightly packed individual moves that happen uh in the next few weeks could very well determine the title next year I mean it was right about this week last year where the Chris ABS porzingis trade started getting going and arguably that was one of the biggest moves that happened in the whole NBA last year so My pick on this question is the Nuggets I think the nuggets are still very formidable I think if the Nuggets had reached the finals against the Celtics I think we’d still be working the the NBA Finals right now I think that series is a seven game series but I also want to point out that the nuggets have some stress sitting on their PL every team has some stress but the nuggets have some stress sitting on their plate over the next couple weeks and the first thing I’m going to talk about is kavus cwell pop he has a player option for $15 million that he can pick up for next year by the end of the month he is widely expected to turn that down and become an unrestricted free agent the nuggets are under a significant amount of pressure to keep him and that’s because that after they lost Bruce Brown and Jeff Green into in free agency last summer they did not have any of their young players really step up over the development process this year and present themselves as an alternative starter now if kavus cwell Pope walks and I’m going to tell you right now I can think of eight to 10 teams that would instantaneously want him all of them contenders not all of them can pay him more money than the Nuggets would be able to but certainly several will make him significant offers you could say the Christian Brown could step up into that role but then that creates a hole behind him the nuggets have got to get his tavier calwell Pope locked down and it’s probably going to cost them a lot of money especially in the luxury tax and I don’t think they have much of a choice other than to pay it and so that’s it’s not a a headline in the NBA free agency of the next couple of weeks but if you’re asking me about Denver they’re a contender if they get bring if they bring back that starting five which for most of the season was the best starting five in the league the other thing I’m going to say is they’ve got to get a Jamal Murray extension done Murray has one year left on his contract he’s not a free agent he elected not to extend last summer they need to get that done and you know because they need to make sure they have Murray and joic into the future they need to get Jamal Murray in a place where he believes he’s comfortable I would assume that’s with a four-year Max offer um he could wait another year he doesn’t have to sign it now but he’s going into to play for the Olympics for Canada uh the Canadians are strong candidates to medal if he is on that team I I would suspect he may want to get that settled before he goes over to France and plays so the nuggets are my answer but let’s see where they are in July 15th Minnesota timber WV was for me yeah Minnesota timber wolves and Ant-Man I’m looking at those guys and I’m looking at Ant-Man who we say is the closest thing to MJ on and off the basketball court if you look at what the Boston Celtics were talking about when they got the championship this year the pain the pain of the loss the pain of the disappointment the last couple years Minnesota has felt that pain they have felt the pain of the loss they have felt the pain of the disappointment if Ant-Man is truly truly the heir to Michael Jordan if he is truly that type of guy that pain will drive him that P think that narrative changed though cuz we were leading up to it but then once they finally lost do you feel like that narrative still continues that he could be the next Michael Jordan I do yes definitely he’s still young too and he still has time I still think he has time to grow but what what will they get from cat that is the answer will cat be the cat that they need him to be because if cat was the cat they needed him to be then we could be having a completely different conversation about who wins that series against Dallas so my question is if cat is the cat they need to be then I like Minnesota to be in the finals next year because they will be driven and they will be up at night Sleepless because of that pain of losing that’s what drives you m M golly those are two great choices for the sake of the discussion I want to toss in a third but I actually believe that it’s going to be the Nuggets that should be favored I look I think the nuggets are now experiencing sort of the same thing we did to Dallas yes this year was a difficult run but I think it reiterates how challenging it is to become a dynasty or to run it back right like they had a monster Target on their back the t- were playing fantastic they don’t get it done this year but essentially if they can protect their core I’m old enough to remember last actually the way we talked about this team like in terms of their window being open and so I just think that there’s an experience there that you kind of just can’t get until you get it um but I’m with you in terms of the Wolves being right there I think OKC might be one of these teams that surprises us and does it before they hit Prime of your career age since they are such a young group uh to me Shay gilders Alexander and Jaylen Williams are the closest duo we have when you talk about pairs to compare a guy to what we’ve seen from Tatum and brown but for me for this question I’m going back to the Nuggets because I still think Nicholas yage is that dominant in the league [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Brian Windhorst makes the case for the Nuggets to be West favorites next season 👀 | First Take
On First Take, Brian Windhorst, Udonis Haslem and Monica McNutt debate which team should be the favorites in the Western Conference next season.
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