Are Nikola Jokic & Nuggets still West favorites after DISAPPOINTING offseason? | Hoops Tonight

Are Nikola Jokic & Nuggets still West favorites after DISAPPOINTING offseason? | Hoops Tonight

what’s up everybody thanks as always for supporting the show it would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel and then follow me on social media on Tik Tok Instagram and Twitter so you guys don’t miss any of our content over the course of this season all right let’s talk some basketball you always said you’d be skeptical of the Nuggets if they lost any of their starting five so with kcp gone do you see a path of their starting lineup being just as good next year with Christian Brown although it will be different stylistically also does us to Denver move you so here’s the thing to put it very simply the nuggets are worse than they were last year and last year they weren’t good enough now I think they were better than they looked last year I think kcp and Jamal Murray were both a little banged up by the time they even got into the Minnesota series and that ended up being where one of their main areas of of underperforming in that series but despite all that they were up 20 in the in the second half of game seven so like I’m of the opinion that like yeah losing kcp makes them worse yeah them being banged up played a role last year yeah they’re a little bit vulnerable to specific matchups but like I still think gun to my head if I had to pick one team to be that my favorite in the Western Conference next year even with Christian Brown sliding into that starting two spot I think I still lean Denver I just I think joic is the best player in the world I think they’re going to come into next season angry and motivated their margin for error is smaller if they win the title next year year it’ll be much harder than when they won in 2023 but I think writing them off is foolish and they have some time they have some time to figure some things out like my guess is that in the long run this ends with them trying to flip Michael Porter Jr into two quality starters at some point in the future but that Aaron Gordon Jamaal Murray nicolea yic core is still one of the best three-man cores in the league and I think it’d be foolish to write them off does Russ to Denver move you I I here’s the thing I’ve gotten in a lot of trouble with Russell Westbrook fans as a basketball fan I loved watching Russell Westbrook when he was in his prime but as he declined out of his prime he became in my opinion one of the most unlikable players in the NBA the amount of stupid stuff that he does and the mistakes that he makes like all I’m going to say is that somebody who covered him closely with the Lakers and now the Clippers don’t want him either like Denver do not make this mistake like this is it’d be really interesting too because LeBron made the same mistake yic is about to make apparently all the Intel is joic is kind of pushing for that behind the scenes like there’s some elements that you like right like he gives you an athletic guard to put on the floor he’s a guy that brings dribble penetration which is something that as we all know Denver lacked last year but just there’s got to be a better option than than Russell Westbrook Russell Westbrook it’s just trust me guys for every good play he makes he’ll make at least one bad play and in the aggregate it is going to be something that has a negative impact on the win on the team how big are you on the Grizzlies going into next season what moves do you think they need to look at at in the offseason cheers from India thanks for supporting the show um I’m really high on the Grizzlies it’s hard to say where they match up with the top teams in the league because it’s just been so long since we’ve seen them all put together and playing that like I want to see a larger sample size before we start like ranking them but here’s the thing GG Jackson and Zach Edy add a bunch of athleticism on the wing and size on the front line they’re gonna have big looks they’re gonna have small looks John marant played like just a few games last year and looked like one of the best players in the world so like I I I I think they’re going to be right there in the top of the conference next year in the top four seeds we’ll see what they amount to as a playoff team but I’m a huge believer in Memphis and I would be stunned if they didn’t have a dominant regular season this year and if they didn’t it would probably be related to health I think Oklahoma City could have two to three championships in the next six years they’re a well organized franchise and they are for me the top three best team in the league right now behind Denver and the Celtics do you agree I do I I don’t quite have them up on Denver’s level yet but I think they’re clearly the second best team in the west and right now I’d take them over any Eastern Conference team not named Boston I originally I thought it was Denver Boston and then a gap I think a couple teams are going to enter into that tier this year but Oklahoma City is definitely one of them and right now before we see all this shake out because I want to see who Philly ends up rounding out their roster with like I want to see if the Lakers end up making some sort of trade like there’s a bunch of stuff that I want to see but for right now without having seen the rest of the move the player movement Oklahoma City to me is the third best team in the league hey Jason love the Pod how big of a deal is Denver losing kcp with ok OKC adding hartenstein are they now the clear favorites in the west as I talked about earlier I still think I lean slightly towards Denver um but that said Oklahoma City adding heart and side gives them more resiliency against Denver I would have given Oklahoma City a 0% chance to beat Denver in a playoff series last year this year I give them a substantial chance even though I’d picked Denver so that to me is a substant like a significant move in that direction if Tatum were to become a good to great halfcourt shot Creator would he be in the conversation for best player in the world that’s really the difference he does everything else so well he just has to get a like I don’t think playmaking is the weakness for him it’s his shot making ability he just has to become a guy who can be a 60% true shooting 30 point per game guy consistently in the playoffs in order to uh to justify being in that conversation there’s just been too much inconsistency on that end of the floor again like to put it simply like is Tatum as good a half court surgeon as Shay gild Alexander no not pro not really close uh is Shay GIS Alexander as good a halfcourt shot Creator as like the Luca joic tier no not really close so like I almost look at Tatum as like a third tier halfcourt shot Creator and so like from that standpoint like I still think he’s got a ways to go to enter into those best player in the world conversations what do you see the power rankings in the East being and do you see the redistribution of talent has made it a strong enough conference that Boston would now be equally or less likely than Philly or the Knicks to make it to the finals still think Boston’s a clear favorite I think they’re clearly number one I think they’re clearly better than the next group Nicks Sixers bucks it all depends on what Milwaukee and Philly accomplish over the next couple of months but for right now it’s all up in the air for me I’d probably go nicks 2 Philly 3 Milwaukee 4 um just because of some of the health questions surrounding Philly but Boston’s a clear number one and we’ll settle that out when we get into the end of the summer and we do our Contender rankings what do you think will be the next unexpected star to get traded because his team decides to throw in the towel to go into full rebuilding mode the four guys I wrote down were James Harden Brandon Ingram Jimmy Butler and Trey young those are the guys that I think in the next 12 months could become available for trade Harden’s on a discounted deal now like an affordable deal 35 million it’s a lot of money but it’s not an AB absurd amount of money and it’s only a two-year contract and if kawhai gets hurt again I just think if you’re the Clippers you turn you trade hard in as part of a rebuild uh Brandon Ingram is the odd man out the weird fit in New Orleans so I could see him getting moved Jimmy Butler kind of feels like the end of the window we’re going to talk about him in just a minute and then Trey young you know like if Atlanta just decides that they want to move into a full rebuild that’s the guy that’s obviously going to go thoughts on the Miami Heat consistently de deciding to run it back year after year instead of improving at what point do we need to call out Pat riy I’ve called up Pat riy every summer for the same problem and the main issue here is now it doesn’t even make sense to go all in last summer was the last summer where it made any sense or last deadline was the last time it made any sense they didn’t get it done now at this point it feels like Jimmy’s starting to kind of tail off a little bit bam doesn’t seem like there’s much more of a ceiling there than what we’ve seen so like at this point it doesn’t even make sense and I think the window might be closed and so it is what it is there was an opportunity to be aggressive there Pat riy never jumped on it and I feel bad for Miami Heat fans Jason what do you make of the CBA are there any things you wish to see improved and what do you make of the cap aprons my only issue with it is like I think that those restrictions need to be reconfigured to player movement rather than the draft so for instance like I don’t think you should have to pay the price for drafting a bunch of good players and having to pay them all but yeah if you want to go out into the open market and trade for players or sign players in free agency there should be punishments for just overspending right just to try to level the playing field but like it’s stupid to me that a team could just trade could just draft extremely well and end up uh and end up uh getting squeezed out of retaining Talent now there’s caveats there what about traded draft picks right like Oklahoma City has a million for round draft pick so of course they have a bunch of really good players right well there’s an easy fix there you just make it for your own draft picks like if you draft a pick with your original team’s actual pick that belonged to you originally then that player should not count towards those sorts of sorts of cap exceptions essentially like imagine it as like a spending budget outside of your own draft picks that that would be the way that I would look at it but right now it just it seems like it was really heavily geared towards the teams that were Big Spenders but those teams weren’t even the best teams in the league really they just had giant payrolls and like I mean the teams that had to get out of it the Clippers and the Warriors how much of a threat were they this season they won two playoff games combined between the two of them right so like it’s it’s one of those things where like I think it was kind of like a reactionary thing to some large payrolls but it doesn’t really serve the purpose of creating fairness around the league [Music]

Jason Timpf discusses whether Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and the Denver Nuggets are still his favorites in the Western Conference after losing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope? How close are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and the Oklahoma City Thunder after acquiring Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso? Should the Nuggets consider bringing in Russell Westbrook?

Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/kaaaa7CdU-A

Timeline:
00:00 – Are Nuggets still the favorite?
01:52 – Russell Westbrook to Denver?
02:54 – How good will Grizzlies be?
03:41 – Where OKC ranks in West
04:25 – OKC vs. Denver
04:53 – How close is Tatum to best player in world?
05:47 – Power Rankings in East
06:23 – Which star will be traded next?
07:08 – What are Heat doing?
07:42 – Does Jason like CBA?

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