Shooting Guard Battle? Plus Denver’s Low Point

Shooting Guard Battle? Plus Denver’s Low Point

Julian strawther might be too good for summer league Christian Brown says the two guard spot is far from being his Jamal still hasn’t signed the extension Jaylen picket struggles again and I’ve got thoughts on how it’s probably not bad that this is the low point for the Nuggets talk about all that more on locked on nuggets you are locked on nuggets your daily Denver nuggets podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome to locked on nuggets your daily de nuggets podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day thanks for joining us being with us we appreciate you guys being in every day or hanging out with us Monday through Friday and making this part of your day appreciate you guys giving us a like And subscribe over at youtube.com locked on nuggets make sure to give us a f star review on the podcast version as well if you’re listening hope your week is off to a great start on today’s show we’ll talk about summer league game two the highs the lows talk about Julian strawther talk about Jaylen picket we’ll also get into some of Christian Brown’s comments as he says the two guard spot is not guaranteed for him and he’s not treating it as such we’ll talk about Jamal Murray and why the extension hasn’t been affirmed and all is well uh I’ll get into a little bit of why it is that this is probably Denver’s low point and that’s a reason for optimism we’ll talk about that and more on today’s show appreciate everybody hanging out with us in the comments over at youtube.com lockon nuggets tomy’s in here with us hurricane Lewis uh fiveish is hanging out today appreciate him being back Blair is in Disney World what’s up Blair enjoy the the rides there stay out of the heat all right and nania also hanging out with us as well let’s start here Julian strawther was phenomenal in the Nugget second summer league game they lose to the Raptors late after Hunter Tyson fouls on a key possession late and that wind up being the difference in the game but strawther was absolutely phenomenal in this game uh this was theame game that you really wanted to see he had 32 points on 10 of 21 shooting six of 12 from three-point range so he was four of nine from inside The Arc in this one but he showed that finishing ability in the first game five dimes for stur including a lot of like apal opportunities to kind of bend the floor he had five turnovers but some of them I don’t think were his fault and some of these honestly couple of the the shots that he had to take were pretty much heaves uh didn’t love the endgame stuff just because it’s herob Ball but it’s summer league I don’t mind that uh too much strawther looks like a guy that can play in the rotation and you know Michael Malone’s kind of mentioned it that in in practice like hey the two guard spot’s not guaranteed it’s open and we’ll see like how it plays out looking forward to a competitive battle like the idea is that there’s actually gonna be like a battle for the starting two guard spot and that Julian struther could potentially be in line for it over Christian Brown now I hesitate to kind of get too carried away with Summer Leake I’ve just been around and done this enough to see so many guys come in and have like really great summer leagues and then you get in training camp and it’s like oh no no once you’re once you’re either in the flow of this team or you’re facing actual NBA players things changed dramatically but the biggest thing for a guy that you drafted that you want to see at Summer League especially in his second year is you want to see him be so good you don’t need him to play anymore and stur quite honestly put on that kind of performance in game two game one was kind of think getting his feet wet now was the playmaking and floor General stuff as good as you may have wanted it with him being on ball no and that may be a reality is like no like Julian strw is not going to be a backup point guard like I just don’t see that happening if it does I think it’s gonna be pretty rough because I don’t think that he sees the floor and is able to really look for those kind of opportunities as much he’s a scorer like that’s who Julian is he’s a shooter and he’s a scorer he actually had some really Great Cuts in this game and some really good off ball movement found some good opportunities off of off of offensive rebounds and things like that one of a few good Jaylen picket plays was actually an offensive rebound the picket got and kicked out the strawther where he found a perfect space on the floor the defense C unaware for another catch and shoot three but strawther at least shows definable NBA qualities there are things that Julian can do on the floor that will help the Nuggets he has a role like he has a space he has the ability to be on the court and not only that but I will say like he is slithery and he has shown some real maneuverability and ability to read the lane and figure out how to beat the defense and that to me is I think just as important as anything here in summer league and so stur I think really he’s obviously the big Gainer and this is what you wanted to see was the first round pick from last year looked like a guy who’s too good to play in summer league and that I think is a win for the Nuggets that yes it was on high volume yes the reads were not great but you’re if you’re expecting a 32-point no turnover triple double in summer league you’re never going to get it because that’s not how summer league is played um and it’s just never going to be kind of the way that it’s it’s going to be uh it’s going to kind of look out um Tre Alexander another good game um had a really efficient game didn’t shoot as much in this one that to me was pretty good to see uh Trey Alexander finishes six of 10 for 18 points in this game he had five dimes and three and only three turnovers uh thought he made some really good plays and sequences to kind of read the floor Trey Alexander looks like a guy that at least is going to get a shot to compete for a roster spot and that’s good to see as well um then there’s Jaylen picket okay so once again picket does not look like he does anything and look some of this I’m not trying to make excuses for the guy I just don’t want to go overboard I don’t want to overreact to Summer League I just don’t think it helps really because you will overreact in the moment and you’ll feel very confident of something and then training camp and preseason comes and things look a lot different and with Julian handling the ball as much as he is and these things being very straight line up and down vertical kind of play plays with Julian creating trying to find three-point opportunities and them not really running the ball at all like Jaden picket is kind of showing that he can’t be a secondary playmaker that to me I think is like the real concern here is like he’s not good enough or quick enough to create his own shot so he can’t be the primary and he doesn’t really do anything on the off ball side because there’s not really an opportunity for him to and if you kind of project this into the regular season let’s say Jaylen was the starting was the not starting the backup point guard and the first guard Off the Bench right for the Nuggets if Christian Brown were to start and he played alongside Jamal in those kind of minutes in the Stagger minutes jaylen’s not if Jaylen can’t make Julian stth or Trey Alexander look better in summer league he’s not gonna be able to make it make Jamal look better in those minutes you go like well what if he just took over Jamal’s when Jamal wasn’t on the floor and he played with yic okay but now you’re you’re concerned because J J’s shot looks uh concern now look again he can come into camp and be in a totally refresh state of mind maybe better shape Etc and maybe it’s a lot better but like pick it picket shot looks like a guy that doesn’t have confidence and that’s concerning and if you can’t if you’re not ready to shoot and be confident and efficient I don’t know that you can get the Nia minutes you have to be a guy that at least is able to capitalize on all the things that Nia does so it’s not good it’s not good at all again there’s more games to play Maybe Jaylen has a better one but um it has not been the start that anybody in in nuggets World wanted for Jaylen picket to start the summer league it was it was rough and there’s really no way around that up next I’ll talk a little bit about Hunter Tyson as well and then I want to talk about Christian Brown’s comments that nothing is certain and what that means if the two guard spot actually is up in the air talk about that and more up next here on locked on nuggets this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily that’s right there’s something for everyone every day all summer long you know NBA win totals are starting to trickle out they’re actually being uh in the market now nuggets up there at 52 and a half lot of confidence still in the Nuggets to be a team that wins 50 games which I think is well earned and you will not find me saying they’re going to win less than 50 this year um so as much Doom and Gloom it’s not like there’s a projecting a huge drop off for the Denver Nuggets are still one of the better teams in the Western Conference you can bet that plus you can get into WNBA I’ve got a bunch of overs on Tuesday’s games that I’m I’ve uh logged in the Action Network app been a really fun WNBA season looking forward to the rest of this month before they go to the Olympics this summer like I said FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily hell over to fanduel.com and start making the most out of your summer FanDuel officials sports betting partner of Major League Baseball we’ll be right back on lock on nuggets back here on lock down nugget thanks for joining us and making this part of your day appreciate you guys being with us and joining us like folks in the comments like mg who’s complaining about strawther strawther has a low IQ tied up with 5050 seconds left and he decides to take a fadeaway three shot for no reason um at the play before he dbed the the shot clock out and caus a low I turnover look man this is Summer League you get to lower lower the standard you’re not going to be able to leverage the defense and get a good quality shot with guys that have played four days together and most of them are not NBA caliber players like please don’t like it that is not a reflection of Julian’s basketball IQ that is hey we want you to work on this kind of situation for you to work on your clutch shot mechanics like work on being ready in that kind of situation it is not a matter of jayen pickets IQ they’re not trying to Leverage for the best shot possible there come on now let’s let’s be reasonable um I about Hunter Tyson man there’s just like a really tough thing happening where teams are literally targeting him over and over and over and over and over again like it is crazy the amount of shots that the Raptors were able to generate just by basically initiating action and then fighting Hunter’s man because Hunter is like some of this is just simple stuff that he honestly I’m a little bit surprised that he’s still struggling with where it’s like he’s camping in the paint off the corner shooter way early with like just daring a guy in the open corner to to to shoot now maybe that’s that that is a scheme maybe it’s just like hey look this is Summer League we’ll dare those guys to make shots but they’re getting really high quality looks out of these engagements constantly and when he does kind of rotate out then he’s getting beat back door the Closeouts were bad like Hunter’s defense was really bad he did have a good charge I like what I saw from there um he tried to finish inside a couple of times and got blocked with like four Raptors around him and some of that’s just summer league stuff but um Hunter does not look nearly as aggressive and in control as he did last summer league and that’s rough after you know he basically fell out immediately the rotation once I got into training camp so I mean again these are players that the nuggets have invested in and that to me is like one of the things that really kind of gets into this is the CBA opened the possibility for these guaranteed contracts for second rounders uh Fernando asked what’s the options to get rid of picket it’s insane to me to have the plan be the starters need rest but we’re going to have four roster spots who are unplayable um and so I will say this that like yeah like he’s on a guaranteed contract like this is tough like I was kind of curious about going that far in and it felt very much like a well look what we did with the first time that we got guys and look what we’ll do now like look what we with CB and Payton and we know those guys are good so it’s GNA be great now too and we’ll just like we know we can draft basically locks that to me is like a little confusing and concerning um like pickets on the deal on his deal for two more years now they can just eat that three million if they want to but that’s going to hurt against your cap but it’s going to limit your kind of options for for who you’re able to add but there’s not like a lot of options here um unless they just find a team that’s willing to dump them for nothing without taking on any second rounders because they’ve sent out so many in the Charlotte deal for Reggie so it’s really tough that I I don’t know there’s a lot of ways that that Jaylen pickets not on the roster you got to rehab some of this value and this is one of the struggles is like look when you’re in a spot of like having a rehab that kind of value you can’t do it because you can’t play the guys because you’re trying to win it’s easy to weab a guy if you’re like look we got long-term plans we’re okay if we’re 500 30 wins whatever this is not that team and so trying to like figure out how to um how how to figure all this stuff out I think is is really difficult meanwhile want to talk about this Christian Brown said the right thing which is like hey nothing’s earned nothing’s assured like I’m not going into the season like I’m guaranteed the two guard spot I think it’ll be very interesting to see how this plays out I think that the front office and I’ll say this too I think ownership would like Christian Brown to be the starting two guard but ultimately that is going to be the coaching staff’s prerogative that Christian hasn’t gotten paid and Christian is not that level of player and so I’m going to be very curious to see what happens when Christian is kind of put in this situation where hey you’re the incumbent but you do have to earn it you have to fight off the rest of the guys and if you have guys like Jillian strawther or if they add Russell Westbrook and Russ comes into camp and it’s just like hey he’s been a better Guard we’re g to play him and Jamal together which I don’t love the idea of as a starting unit and it also takes away from the value of signing Russ to play backup point but if that’s like the way that this goes it can get pretty awkward um now I think the most likely scenario is just that Christian earns it that Christian looks like the kind of defensive Menace that he always is that his offense is good enough in practice for him to earn those minutes the question is going to for me is always going to be what does that look like in games because I do think the teams are going to DARE Christian Brown now if they started Julian strawther is that going to be the same yes they would still they would dare Julian strawther and be like hey kid Pro prove us to us that you can actually punish us for this but I have a lot more confidence in Julian strawther shooting than I do in Christian Browns and the data says that Christian Brown is now a good shooter I’m just still a little skeptical of it so I’m I I think a little concerned here for how that could potentially play out and I don’t think that I don’t think there’s any benefit from a sport like the the basic the gener the genuinely important things about Sport and teams of you have to earn your place which doesn’t happen enough in the NBA in my opinion I think it’s good to just have it be like no like Christian needs to come into Camp hungry Christian needs to come into camp and be like they believe in me enough to give me this opportunity but I have to earn it and like that’s I think what you really want to see that that opportunity is is how you want to see him approach it what I do think is kind of interesting though is not that I love okay NBA veterans like Nicole yic and Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray don’t want to see a fluctuation in starting units they want to see the same Five Guys that they always play with everybody in the NBA in the regular season it’s all about routine you want the same flights and the same rest and the same naps and the same Meal Time and the same training you want it to be as routine as possible and you just like focus on those things so you’re not trying to figure anything out that said I like some of the teams around the league that tend to flex their starters a little bit when they have situations like this if you’re facing a team where it’s like hey we could probably win this game with shooting if we just like overwhelm them I don’t mind giving Julian strawther a night where he starts at two guard is that gonna stunt Christian Brown’s confidence or development shouldn’t is Christian so good that he should just automatically be the lock no matter what I’m not sure about that and yes I’m I’m more of a Christian Brown skeptic again I want to stress this this season at this moment like I think Christian’s going to be a vet in this league for 12 years I think Christian’s going to play 12 to 15 years in the NBA and be a guy that helps his teams win Christian is so balanced and steady and when you talk to him you get a real sense for his professionality and confidence without a sense of arrogance and like this shows that right like I’m going to go out there and earn it but he’s not like I’m the best dude on the planet I need the ball that with be crazy on this team he knows his role which is really valuable I just would like I I’m just going to be open to the idea that maybe it’s not going to work maybe it does but I’m open to the idea that it doesn’t I do like the idea of it being a little bit more complicated and being open to the idea of the Nuggets searching for an answer throughout the regular season for who their two guard is because I think we’re just very locked into the idea of like the nuggets are what they are and that’s all they’re going to be now if you’re like Matt they don’t have a lot of options for how to improve absolutely true but there are always levers and buttons that you can push and there are always things that you can find throughout the course of an NBA season I’m just open to those kind of possibilities especially when it comes to who that fifth starter is is that ideal for a team tryer to win a championship no but is it better than just being like this is this better work that’s what I always get nervous about is you should never go into a season with something that you don’t know works and be like this better work that to me is where you get in trouble on the other side Jamal Murray hasn’t signed his extension Calvin Booth joined the summer Le broadcast and talked about it there’s not a lot of concern over it why not is this a thing or is it not plus I’ll get into why this is probably Denver’s low point and you should probably have we should not you we should all kind of recognize that this is probably the worst it’s going to be for Denver at least until next spring we’ll talk about that up next here on locked on nuggets passion drive and patience the formula for winning a Championship is also what keeps your ride or die alive eBay Motors is 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came on the broadc and talked about how there are still stuff to hammer out after the Olympics um Jamal was predictably very predictably chish when asked about the contract situation after the friendly versus Team USA players are always going to get very prickly about contract negotiations it’s just part of that kind of dynamic I don’t I honestly think that probably what happened was both sides agreed we’re going to do this and then Shams just ran with that versus this has already been agreed upon uh I don’t think that there’s a debate over how much money Jamal’s gonna make I think there’s debates over how how if and when whatever restrictions or conditions the contract comes with that can get uncomfortable but I don’t know that I get a sense from Calvin Boo’s comments from talking to people I don’t get a sense that there’s like a huge appetite for Denver to play hard ball here I I I just don’t know that this is there are often times cases around the league where a front office will kind of forecast a hey we’re not exactly like like there are some things we want to and then it comes into negotiation and they walk out and the player just got whatever they wanted because they’re that good and Jamal’s honestly that good for all the problems for all the disappointment this year’s playoffs Jamal’s that good that’s why they won a championship not the only reason it’s one reason um it’s not the biggest reason it’s one reason so uh I do worry always whenever it’s like well it’s not done yet but part of me also is just kind of of the opinion that I don’t know as much credit as Jamal deserves for the 2023 season your contract is supposed to be built on expectation going forward and Jamal has not showcased hey I’m gonna be an All-Star player every year right if he had done that talk about going forward if he had at least proven hey no matter what I’m gonna be an All-Star okay then that changes the equation if he had once again shown up and just been explosive in the playoffs and and dominated these games and he had two huge shots versus the Lakers that counts but the overall games were bad if he had dominated during the playoffs okay you’ve proven that the problem is like Jamal now has both questions he’s like well you haven’t you haven’t been an All-Star and you haven’t done that so do you deserve the max outright no restrictions no questions asked the answer is probably yes like saying it’s not even about deserve it’s about like what he gonna get is he probably going to get it yes because he still is that good and there’d be a lot of teams around the league that would be very willing to offer Jamal Murray that much money like let’s be clear on this like it’s not like Jamal would have a the rest of the league would not have the same questions about Jamal Murray they would be willing to take that chances on him um like Orlando would be like yep yep absolute come on down got the money for you there’s a lot of teams that would be in that position to want to make him their centerpiece of the team and you go like well he hasn’t even been an All-Star no he hasn’t been an All-Star next to Nicole yic with two years miss an injury and I still think that that matters but it’s part of the conversation I think we have to have here is you having him is way better than other teams having him and that’s I think part of the equation as well um things are also not as bad I think with Jamal as I think that’re they’re sometimes made out to be I think it’s people have run away with narratives pretty consistently um I think like there’s comments about is he spoiling the Nuggets culture no that’s not true that’s not a thing it’s like that tweet Charlie Brown did not have ho have hoes that’s not true um Jamal again has helped the Nuggets win a ton of games through the years and that’s a big reason why they’re still committed to him and they will probably figure this out do I think it would be in the Nugget’s best interest to put some conditions on the full Max contract yes do I think Jamal deserves the opportunity to earn a full Max contract yes I think both those things can be true the difference though is like this is business and Jamal is going to want everything upfront guaranteed because that’s how the NBA works you want that and he’s seen how quickly an injury can just derail things so he’s going to want those that those assurances from the franchise that he’s helped win the title for and I think that’s reasonable I think it’s reasonable for the Nuggets to be like well you know like some things would be nice I just don’t know if they’re going to get there and actually be able to get them we’ll see how that deal turns out but I don’t foresee any situation in which this turns into a contract hold out it’s lame duck year Jamal gets traded I don’t don’t see that happening that’s not the vibe that the uh front office has given that okay uh final thing here before we get out of here you know I think the dumer ism is what it’s referred to on nuggets Reddit and I think I get how frustrated everyone is and how bad it seems I think it seems worse because you’re in free agency and you’re watching the Mavericks get Klay Thompson and the Sixers get Paul George and um The Warriors get DeAnthony Melton even like that’s like such a that’s a lower deal but that would be such a good deal for Denver right if they gotten Melton or Delon Wright who went to Milwaukee everybody not everybody a lot of teams in the west got better Denver got worse for the second year in in a row and that’s you know hurricane says it’s an accurate trail of events and I don’t disagree that like things are are way worse and that’s frustrating but the question is just like what’s the floor here is this do you really I got crushed last year for saying the Nuggets were going to win less than 50 games they won 57 I was wrong super wrong and everybody was really mad at me for it and they were right and then later on I said they were going to finish third and everybody got super M at me and made fun of me and then they finished second and they would have finished third uh had Carl Anthony towns not gotten hurt so balances out I think this is probably the low point for Denver it’s going to come to opening night and you’re GNA Watch Nico yic put up 30 points and probably a triple double and you’re going to feel a lot better about life and you’re going to see them beat the Jazz by 15 and you’re going to see them beat probably the Rockets they struggle with last year but let’s say they beat the Rockets they should beat the rockets by like 10 and you’re going to feel better they’re going to be like they’re going to be 17 and 10 and it’s like oh yeah the nuggets are really good the nuggets are still really good they still have a really good team with a really good coach and the best player in the world and so this low point with these concerns like there’s a lot of stress about the bench unit which the depth matters I’m not denying it does doesn’t talked about how it does also they were up 20 in the fourth quarter of game seven for the Western chance to the Western Conference Finals like you can’t get around that no matter how much you’re like yeah but yeah but no like they close out game seven they beat Dallas and then it’s Boston and maybe they don’t have enough but maybe they do and I like it everyone loved that match up for them everyone in Denver felt confident including me felt very confident about Denver’s ability to beat Boston who was the best team in the league last year that’s how good Denver is and Denver was not that good because of kcp as much as I love kcp and what he brought to the table and who he was in the locker room as much as I like being the guy that says hey there are other good nuggets because I get really frustrated the idea that it’s just NOA because it’s not and I can’t in the same breath be like hey it’s not just NOA and then be like well it doesn’t matter that they lost this veteran who shot 40% from three almost every year and was basically like deserved to be second Team all defense last year I can’t say that but also they’re still going to be really good and they will find answers in fine ways and so much about the playoffs is just finding a way they’re not so bad that they’re going to drop off and not have an opportunity to be a top four seed so they’re going to be in the conversation to win the title and then from there it’s about can you figure out ways to win Minnesota was a way better team than Dallas I’m sorry they were they were a way better team than Dallas I love Dallas because they I knew that they would have ways to hurt Minnesota that Minnesota wouldn’t be able to solve that’s all you need is the right sequence of events and those answers and problems and questions are not going to be decided by Jaylen picket or the backup point guard or the backup center or any of those things it’s going be decided by how good the starting five can be and they could still be really good so this is probably the low point and I think that’s worth considering let’s go to do it for lock on nuggets on Monday appreciate you guys being with us swpe it’ll be with you tomorrow Adam should be around for Wednesday’s show he’s going to make up missing uh world’s finest on Sunday with a show later in the week hope you guys give us a like And subscribe on youtube.com lockon nuggets share with a friend uh also listen to the podcast download our podcast our downloads have been are we we’ve lost steam there send send the podcast to a friend and be like you’d really like this show when Adam’s on or whatever uh make sure to have yourselves a great week we’ll talk to you guys again after the next Nuggets game I’ll talk to you again guys again later in the week we’ll see you again soon on locked on nuggets

Julian Strawther pops in Summer League play, does it mean anything? Jalen Picket… ruh-roh. Christian Braun is taking nothing for granted, and why are the Jamal talks stalled? Plus, Matt Moore breaks down why this is probably the low point for Denver.

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