Are The Nuggets Failing Nikola Jokic?
Matt and Swipa go over the Denver Nuggets loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder and why things are either just as bad (or better) as the game felt in the moment. Have the Nuggets “failed” Nikola Jokic by not placing enough star power and shooting around him? Matt and Swipa discuss, sharing their DEFCON levels after Game 1.
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31 Comments
Yup it’s over jokic gets treated horribly no help no shooters around jokic who literally gets triple teamed because they know nobody else can do anything and washed jamal Murray max contract we won 1 ring and will never do it again and jokics prime is wasted
To early to make call. Nuggets have to sacrifice a few games to integrate bench and new players. Staring five is not enough to win, end the experiment ingoing now will become clearer after a month or so.
Dario should not ever have the ball in his hands, Westbrook Jokic Jamal are all proven with the ball, everyone can’t have the ball in their hands and also Westbrook did play well defensively.
Aaron Wiggins the thunders bench player is better than our entire team besides jokic every team improves each year and we get worse and worse each year what did you expect ?
Yes
Booth thinks he can be a second warriors dynasty. Guess what, many teams have too. Jokic is in his prime and he wants to rely on young players and low to mediocre players? Booth is a menace for wasting jokics prime like this!
The Nuggets are missing experienced veteran players that still have nba talent.
Swipa half this video: "Mmm Hmm"……"Mmmmm.."…….."Yeah". Matt: Without a wink says the top 4 Nuggets players are all "great"…in what world do you have three "great" non-Jokic players who never make all-star games? 2 of whom (MPJ and Murray) have a horrible injury history and are both on max contracts. You can talk about the supporting cast and bench all you want (and it is a big problem)….but the real issue are the contracts for Murray and MPJ. Jokic has made those guys look better than they are for years and the subsequent contracts have handcuffed this team for roster construction. Does anyone seriously think if you put Porter Jr. and Murray, two max contract guys, on a cellar dwelling NBA team, that they'd actually elevate that team and at least become place-holding "main guys"? Hell no. There's your issue. Matt always wants to place more blame on Jokic and less on Murray….such a weird thing. It'd be like having 5 vehicles you used where only one is reliable and constantly cursing it while the others sit in your yard on blocks.
This is who Russ is!! He is not changing. It’s not about configuration, fit, roster. This is who he is!
This why I some what agree with people that not have ever stepped foot in a basketball court shouldn’t be able to talk it because saying Westbrook is a below average nba player is just ridiculous. Ask me to prove how, I sure can pretty easily. Just 1 season and 1 game ago Westbrook averaged 24/8/7 against the suns in the PLAYOFFS but he’s not good. There is no below average player in this league that will do that
KCP and BB are missed, CB was the most consistent last night which is good
As a lakers fan your gonna learn the hard way with Russ 😂
Total ineptitude from everyone in the organization aside from Jokic. Fire Malone and Booth.
The season is far from over, but this should be a wake up call for my Nuggets, Jokic needs to get better as a shot blocker and rebounder, immediately. Go Nuggets!!
Its funny how yall still call jokic the best player in the league like if Luka didn’t exist 😂
Braun was +8 in 29 minutes. Russ was -24 in 21 minutes. Strawther was -23 in 17 minutes. Yikes.
Nuggets are now a mediocre team at best. They clearly don’t have the talent to challenge OKC or Dallas in the West let alone the Celtics.
Hey everyone Happy Friday
Great convo! Gave me some perspective after feeling really down last night. We need swipe and gripe at LEAST twice a week. You guys have good chemistry
The bald guy:" everybody wants to praise Nikola and blame everybody else"
What a clown take
Swipa my nigga lets keep it 💯, you tryna already throw russ under the buss. Westbrook and Christian braun shoot bad asf. Wtf is braun in the lineup. Passed up shots and bricked others. Some layups off cuts aint excusing that bum braun. Westbrook comes off the bench, braun the 1 that fucked this game up
I thought braun started for defense but i saw braun get lit up and isolated for 4 straight quarters. Remove that white boy from the starters
If braun starts all season, we getting a lottery pick. Screenshot this
This team is trash, the only reason why they won a chip was Murray got incredibly hot in the playoffs and made impossible circus shots every game.
In the old west they would call the Nuggets the gang cant shoot straight their defenses was atrocious they get past Jokic Porter Gordon not much their on the bench Saric Westbrook is washed up Murray is not the same player terminate Malone and Booth
Mike Malone said the team is out of shape, and it showed. Compared to the Celtics and OKC, Nuggets got alot of work to do
of course
The Nuggets have some challenges. Braun is a role player not a starter. Murray has never been the same since his injury. Jokic bitching to the ref’s and Chet running the floor and dunking.
Swipa the difference between the loss against the jazz last year and the loss against okc is the intensity and the drive. They were aggressive, hungry and raring for the title last year. This time they looked old, checked out and unconcerned . That's a big difference.
In case people here dont know, Jokic and Westbrook share the same agent. It is very obvious why Jokic “wants” Westbrook to come to the team.
Let’s be fair here. Calvin booth has had questionable decisions on player movements, but Russ’ move is definitely Jokic (or his agent) call.
You could keep rationalising that Russ’ first regular season game is a mirage and he will come good 20 games from now because Jokic is god while Lebron Kawhi PG Harden are all not good enough to to get the best out of Russ. But you all know deep inside your heart that it ain’t happening. At the very least, he wind up leaving on very bad terms with his two former employers, barring the Russ stans who tell you that every former teammate “loves” to play with Russ.
So yes. To some extent the nuggets do fail Jokic on not bringing back KCP / BB. But Jokic and his agent does plays a big role in failing himself by bringing in a nuclear bomb with unknown detonation times.
I know Malone is fundamentally flawed but Calvin Booth somehow maxed out Murray after a summer of hell and brought in two non entities that wouldn't fit on their best day.