The Denver Nuggets’ playoff rotation shines in win over the Blazers

The Denver Nuggets’ playoff rotation shines in win over the Blazers

The Denver Nuggets beat the Portland Trailblazers for the second time this weekend and this time they did it with their playoff rotation that is looking increasingly uh promising we’ll talk about that and get to your mailbag questions 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 what is up everybody and welome welcome to locked on nuggets part of the locked on podcast Network I’m your host Adam Modis flying solo today Matt dnp illness he is out um hopefully he is

Back with us on Wednesday because I want to catch up with him and kind of get his thoughts as we have a couple days off this week very unique for the nuggets as they play tonight they don’t play again till Thursday Kobe statue night in Los Angeles so it should be a very

Interesting one and also the trade deadline is on Thursday so we’re going to have weekday shows for you Monday Tuesday Wednesday this week leading you into all of that should have a lot to talk about even if there are no games on today’s show as I mentioned we’re gonna

Talk about this game we’re gonna talk about the playoff rotation and the rise of pton Watson and most recently Christian Brown and what that means for what the Nuggets need to do at the trade deadline and then you guys had some really good questions for me in the

Mailbag I was very happy to see a lot of them actually we’ll probably get to that in both sections two and three first of all uh we do appreciate you making this your first lesson each and every day we’re free and available wherever you get your podcasts so make sure to tell

Friends about it help us grow this show we all love doing it swipa myself Matt we all love doing this show um so help us grow it help us keep it going and make it even bigger Jurassic Park talk not today Josh Barnett um today we want

To get into the Denver Nuggets beating the Portland Trailblazers 112 to 103 they had that weird schedule where you play a team two times in a row it’s always a bit of a strange thing and I think people underestimate how hard it is are the Blazers good no and then

Tonight you get no Jeremy Grant no Malcolm Brockton who had a very good game in game one you know on on Friday so this one had all the makings of a letdown game because there’s a huge break coming up three days off nuggets probably not going to have like formal

Practice on Monday or Tuesday so nuggets get a nice little break uh probably for these next couple games and you’re a little fatigued it’s almost the All-Star break and then the other team is sitting they’re a bad team to begin with and they’re sitting all their guys and on

Top of that it’s the second time playing them Denver had made light work of him on Friday so this game I think the way it went is unsurprising to me and that it was something of a struggle for the Nuggets right out of the gate they looked terrible uh the defense was lazy

The execution on offense wasn’t great joic I thought was sloppy to start and the Blazers you know they’re a young team and when you take out some of the veterans like a Brogden like a Jeremy Grant when you take those guys out it’s an opportunity for guys who maybe don’t

Play a whole lot of minutes or even guys that play it’s a chance for them to get elevated minutes and I think you saw that tonight with guys that were a little extra excited to play um and and had a little bit of energy to them so

This game I know some nuggets fans I just know from the timeline were upset at certain parts why doesn’t Denver take him seriously I think this was a natural sort of letdown spot for Denver and they overcame it and they and they did some good things in it so first half Portland

Made 10 three-pointers I think they were shooting 56% from the three-point line uh in the first half in the second half they made just one they finished 11 of 31 some of that was Denver ratcheted up the defense some of that was just dumb luck I actually thought when I was

Watching the game I was at the arena tonight not at the dmvr bar watching with other people like I usually do me and wi switch switch uh swapped rolls I went and watched my kids did the halftime dance routine the junior dancer shout out to my kids great performance

Tonight um so I was at the arena and nobody was there this was a game where for whatever reason there wasn’t a lot of media at this game so I’m sitting on press r by myself and I loved it because it was a packed Arena it was you know we

We take for granted how full the the games are I remember a not too long ago in the past when the arena would on a game like this when you’re playing a lowly team on a late Sunday night nobody would be there or it be half empty

Packed everybody into it great crowd and I had press Roa myself and I liked it because it allowed me to sort of like really absorb the game and and take in everything I actually thought after the first I don’t know eight minutes Oro which were really really bad after that

I actually thought Denver played good defense I thought Denver got into it and Portland hit some shots some balls didn’t bounce their way in the third quarter Denver stormed back but then Denver had this little let down period halfway through the third period where I felt like they got a little rattled

Aaron Gordon on a missed call where he gets punched in the nose or hit in the nose uh he gets a technical foul there were a couple just bad boneheaded plays that Denver had closed the Gap and taken a lead and then the Blazers opened up

The exact same lead that they had like eight points or so and Michael Malone in that moment made the decision because Denver has like four days off after this game to go to their playoff rotation and we’ve seen this a handful of times instead of bringing back DeAndre Jordan and putting

Him at Center they went to Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray and Reggie Jackson for a period and other part other periods it was kyp and then Christian Brown and pton Watson you shorten it and you get a look at what the Nuggets look like when they play just their top guys no backup

Centers and it was dominant the run that they went on to end the third quarter and to start the fourth quarter was uh just impressive it was a Haymaker the Blazers didn’t know what hit him and uh somebody had a funny comment there distracted me uh the Blazers

Didn’t know what hit him and it just was one of those things that reminds you that Denver’s top guys are really good and I thought the guy who stood out tonight the two guys actually that stood out tonight were the booth boys pton Watson and Christian Brown now pton

Watson’s been breaking out for the last little bit but tonight he goes five of six from the field including two of three from three uh from behind the three-point line and he had one that was a transition three a type of shot Mike Michael Porter would take where nobody

Picked him up in transition he walks into the shot and he drains it in transition it’s one of those shots where if you miss it you take a shot with 20 seconds on the shot clock as a rookie maybe it changes the complexion or whatever but it’s the right shot he was

Wide open nobody picked him up straight on right the center of the uh of the of the floor and he knocked it down and that goes to show you one pton Watson’s confidence that he doesn’t need to worry he’s not second guessing am I supposed

To do this Malone called it a no no no yes shot and I love that pton to pton it was like it’s the right Play I’m Wide Open from three in transition they’re not set why not take it stepped in and drained it but I thought Christian Brown

Was also phenomenal tonight in fact he was a game high plus 18 in his 28 minutes 28 minutes first of all is a lot of minutes it shows you how unique this game was that pton Watson gets 30 Christian Brown gets 28 Michael Porter just 24 we could talk about that in a

Second I thought he had a bad night um even though he shot the ball okay he went two of six from the three-point line he was hot early his defense in this game was not at the level that those other two were I was just a little

Bit hungrier in a game where there was a lot of young players I thought Mike you know there was a reason Malone didn’t go to him down the stretch and the main reason was because pton Watson and Christian Brown played so well but Christian has strung together now a

Handful of games where it’s not that they’ve been flashy you’re going to go through the box score you’re going to look at it and say oh Four Points three rebounds two assists one steal it’s not anything that pops out but last year Christian wasn’t a guy who filled up the

The stat sheet he was a guy that made winning plays and guarded really well and we’ve seen pton Watson sort of I think Payton Watson is a better Defender than Christian Brown and that’s crazy because Christian Brown’s probably been the best defender on his team almost

Every year of his life and you know last year maybe he wasn’t the best defender but as a rookie that’s what he’s known for for a guy like pton Watson to come in in and kind of steal the shine at the thing that you are known for defense I

Imagine that can be hard for a guy but pton Watson now has established himself as that and I thought Christian over the last handful of games and tonight embodied it more than any stepped into the we can both be defensive Stoppers and if we are and the Personnel was

Right around them then that can be a really Dynamic one-two punch I think it would be a great story if we start looking at pton Watson and Christian Brown as this defensive Duo and I actually think it they should be thought of that way because if Denver is going

To win a championship we’ll get into this in the next segment those two guys are going to make a huge impact in that way so tonight Christian Brown and I think for the last few games really stepped up and it has to feel good for him and I imagine the fan base is

Excited that he was a game high plus 18 tonight is 28 minutes because it felt like that it was the Difference Maker the Nuggets threw a Haymaker in the in the third quarter start of the fourth quarter and what was a close game where Denver was trailing for most of it they

Take over and they St storm pass Port they go from like down eight to up 10 in the matter of seconds it felt like and they did it with defense um they did it with some great play and then of course you closed the game joic and Murray in the two-man

Game Portland’s not good they ran out of gas but in the fourth quarter they were getting layups right at The Rim through the two-man game so a very encouraging game I thought for Denver because they didn’t have it early they had to face some adversity but they found a lineup

That uh was able to give them exactly what they needed and I thought it was a good win let’s take a break on the other side I think this win actually tells us something important about the nuggets and how they should approach this week or at least how they should think about

Their team and that is do they have I’m kind of answering my own question do they have a playoff rotation already and is that playoff rotation pretty good we’re GNA talk about that on the other side first I want to tell you about LinkedIn jobs when you’re hiring for a

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Right back with more locked on segment two of the locked on nuggets podcast want to tell you real quick that lockon has launched the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel on YouTube locked on sports today is here for you 247 covering the top sports stories of the day with local Experts of

Locked on plus our national shows covering every league go to locked on sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247 streaming channel so the playoff rotation as you get into the trade deadline this week and the Nuggets don’t play again before the trade deadline you

Start to look around and think what does Denver need I think that there are two problems that every team has to has to answer one problem is how do you win in the regular season and the other problem is how do you win in the playoffs one of

The things about the modern NBA with the rules the way they are and with I think how smart quote unquote smart teams have gotten about the importance of just being healthy and the different ways to try to ensure that your team or give you the best chance to be healthy I think teams

Are a little too smart to think that those two things are the same I don’t think this was true in the past I think in the past you knew there was a little bit of a difference but most teams you know your strategy was the same for both

It’s different in the regular season I don’t think the nuggets have the perfect regular season lineup and I don’t know if they ever will in this era because you spent so much money on your starting lineup you spent so much money with your stars that it’s going to be hard to have

All the right depth pieces when Calvin boo went out and brought in uh you know drafted three rookies one of the ideas was that if he can hit on a couple of them it buys you overtime it’ll buy you some years of having those like very

Cheap end of bench guys so you can have a full regular season rotation but the playoff rotation only needs to be seven and a half guys maybe eight guys and you need to cover you know all the bases I think that when you look at it Denver

Has a playoff rotation that I really love first of all their starting lineup there’s so many metrics that point towards the Nugget starting lineup being every bit the starting lineup that it was last year that dominated the playoffs talented versatile um great chemistry the ability to problem solve their bench

To me over this last month has looked like a bench that I think there are three guys that all serve a very important role in the playoffs and that can probably match up against just about every team you’re looking first and foremost at pton Watson I think he has

Grown to be the six most important Nuggets player the only question you have about Payton Watson is whether or not he can make shots when it matters because his defense to me is so consistantly great and impactful that I think he is going to make a huge impact

In the playoffs and there’s going to be some Series where he is going to have not just like little assignments I mean last year Christian Brown had some big assignments but for the most part it was little spot here there sometimes times he wouldn’t be on the best guy maybe

That was going to someone else I think PT Watson’s goingon to spend like real minutes this year on Paul George or um uh you know maybe it’s Luca donic like big- Time Players not little reserves help out here and there he’s gonna have major assignments I think Christian

Brown his season to me seems pretty clearly like a guy who came into this year hoping and maybe expecting that he needed to change who he was explore his game so to speech uh so to speak and try to figure out if there was something

More he could kind of he could become um I think that he is getting back to the guy that he needs to be and I think he is going to be pleasantly surprised with the results of that because we know he can guard at a high level and if you

Tell me that you can throw pton Watson and Christian Brown two guys that can make an enormous impact defensively in a series if you have them on your team that might be better than Christian and Bruce last year just in just strictly speaking defensively and Jeff Green if

You want to throw him out out there Reggie Jackson to me his defense has not been great this year and his offense is erratic even tonight he had he went three of 11 um from the field I think you’re going to get that Reggie in the playoffs although it should be noted

Reggie Jackson has always been a good playoff performer he’s always a guy that seems to bring his best in the postseason we’ll see if that happens in the playoffs because one thing about Reggie as a microwave scorer guys like to play 30 40 you know 35 minutes in a

Playoffs and when he’s been successful it’s been that can he be just as impactful in 18 minutes in a playoffs in 15 minutes because I think there’s going to be games when he’s only called upon that much that’s a real question but that’s a question for everybody’s like

Seventh and eighth guy so it’s not unique to Denver there’s only a handful of teams who maybe feel really confident that they’re going to get consistent output from their microwave scorers Off the Bench but I think Denver has an eight-man rotation that can guard and I really love what the Nuggets look like

When they play Aaron Gordon at Center I think it would be a waste for the Nuggets to go and look for a center at the trade deadline I just don’t it might get you through the regular season you know with an extra win or two but I don’t think that it’s worth spending

Resources when you talk about how few resources the nuggets have to trade anyway I don’t think it makes a lot of sense for the Nuggets to um to waste resources on that so when you look at well what else could they need if you believe in that eight-man rotation what

Else could you use the only thing I think of is shooting off the bench and in particular from the guard spots I don’t want and I don’t think it would be smart to bring in people that are going to play over Christian Brown and pton Watson because remember Denver’s

Brightest timeline is that this is the worst remaining year of Payton Watson and Christian Brown every year they get better for the next seever I mean for the next 10 years basically they should be continue to get better I guess maybe seven years they could continue to get

Better so you your hope is that they’re good enough now to win a title and then next year you bring them back and they only grow from here so you don’t want to bring in somebody that’s going to stunt that or play over those guys you look at

Reggie Jackson and say okay is there somebody you would bring in that would maybe go over Reggie or would you trade Reggie for another guy maybe maybe there’s a player out there you know that that you could look at and say would it be better if they were running the bench

Unit instead of Reggie there could be some names out there maybe even a Monte Morris I know some people have thrown that one out there there’s weird ways you can make the money work there I don’t know that Denver’s looking to do that because it disrupts you so much

Like Jackson has become a part of the fabric of this team and while there might be a better basketball fit out there it needs to be meaningfully better not by a lot but it needs to it needs to be one that you’re not like yeah I think

That would work because you don’t want to rip up the team uh unnecessarily so is there somebody you could bring in that just becomes like a ninth or tenth guy that fits into this I think that there might be you look at a Reggie Jackson Christian playing the three pton

Maybe at the four could you fit in another guy who could be a shooter there or maybe even a point guard a move Reggie to more of a scoring guard could you do something like that I think there’s reason to believe that that’s at least possible so if Denver were to make

A move at this trade deadline um and and it cost them future second round pick maybe it cost them Hunter Tyson or Jaylen picket maybe they find a landing spot for Zeke Naji and some Perfect Storm of a trade where that poison pill contract can be traded and

They bring in a a two or a one Off the Bench I think you could do that and even in a playoffs maybe there’s a role or a specific match up where it’s hey this isn’t quite a Reggie matchup it’s more of a soand so matchup and we’re going to

Play that I think that’s the only thing you can see but those are small moves so I say that to say I don’t think that you should expect something crazy to happen um I see this what’s Devon Harris up to it honestly is kind of a Devon harrises

Player that they might be looking towards you know somebody that can score play a little bit of not quite point but secondary ball handler I could see something like that but it’s going to be a small move I don’t think it’s going to be one that

You really feel moves the needle and I think Denver and by the way Michael Malone said as much today that Calvin Booth this time of year you field calls everybody calls and you got a lot of great players you know on your roster you owe it to your team to listen but

Michael Malone if you go and watch his presser and we have it up on our the dmvr YouTube channel if you watch his presser he was pretty emphatic that he likes his team he doesn’t feel the team needs to make some kind of deal and that

Hasn’t been the case by the way in years past in years past Malone has insinuated that the team was deficient in something that tells you that Malone likes where his team is at right now and I have to agree with him because I think if they just make it through this last two

Months their playoff rotation to me reminds me an awful lot of the group that won a title and went not just won a title but went 16 and four uh last year so let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree with Michael Malone um

But I happen to agree with him I think that the team is doing well all right let’s take our last break on the other side you guys sent me some really good questions I want to answer them in the mailbag on the other side But first you

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Locked on nuggets I asked you to send me some of your mailbag questions on this day and you guys sent me some good ones this one comes from jonovan jingle jangle and he says do we think mpj is just in a shooting slump or are we seeing the cumulative effects of the

Injuries and this might be who he is going forward shooting wise still very good shooter but not top five in the league this is a weird year for Michael Porter the the disease of more has not affected the Nuggets a whole lot but when we think about I really do think

That part of Christian’s struggles this year have been he had such a good year last year Michael Malone said that had the interesting line I always think about over the summer he’s carrying himself like a guy who won a championship that means he carries himself with confidence well with that

Confidence you have to imagine there was a little like okay not only did I did this but now what’s next and the truth for Christian in my opinion might be that what’s next for him is more of the same not necessarily something different and so the disease of more sometimes can

Be yeah but I want to be more I think Christian Brown can have a 12 13 14year NBA career make aund million or more in this league if he just commits to being the best version of what he was last year even more of that not necessarily different things I think with Michael

Porter it’s probably a tougher pill to swallow because he has been the guy who has sacrificed the most in large part because of the injuries and and what’s happened to him but I have to imagine that there is something about hey I’m always doing the same things I’m

Basically a get out of the way guy and then if the defense collapses you kick to me and I have to imagine that’s a little tough um also you know he’s a guy that works so hard and brings it every night and I have to imagine he looks at

That and says you know I deserve it and he’s not wrong so I think that some of his recent slump has probably been some frustration and by the way today he looked pretty frustrated he hits Two Shots right off the bat and you know the the the game doesn’t always come to him

The way I think he wants so I think there’s a lot to do with that um I think there’s probably a little bit of fatigue but I imagine there’s more mental fatigue for him right now this All-Star break will be good for everybody but I think it’s going to be especially good

For him to kind of just take a deep breath reset and see how he approaches the return here as things starts to get ramped up so one I this guy’s not I mean he’s a he’s one of the best Shooters I’ve ever watched I think that he’s in a

Little bit of a tough spot right now and that’s probably why he’s uh why he’s slumping tonight by the way a lot about the defense and the other hard part about Mike is not only has he sacrificed all this stuff but he sacrificed to now

Be in a role that other guys can do besides him like the best feeling in the world is when you do something at a high level and you’re the only person that can do it and it’s like you know what we need this guy because he’s the one that

Does it right now we see that sometimes Payton plays that spot and has a better impact because his skill set is different than Mike’s he’s more defensive minded not nearly the shooter but you know because of that or Christian or last year it was Bruce and

I think that’s a tough spot to be in for for him and I’m sure he probably feels that to some extent so I think Mike needs a little mental set I imagine again this is just me this is just me observing I think he could probably use

The break um and and I hope and expect that he’ll probably shoot the ball really well by the way he’s also shooting 40% um but it would be nice to see him have like a month where he’s shooting 45 46% because we know he has

It in him Justin G asks have you heard if the any all the current rookies are available as trade deadline approaches I think how I how I would think about it is the are going to field phone calls on anybody but I don’t think they’re making

Any call I don’t think there’s ever a call that’s like hey um you know Brooklyn we we really like Mel Bridges and we have I don’t know if you’ve been watching pton Watson I don’t think they make calls like that I think it’s foolish to one because so few trades

Happen that you never want to like there there really is the position of power and the position of weakness and if you make the call oftentimes that signals weakness right like hey are they sh man those guys are shopping so and so Christian Brown Julian Str but I think

That you listen to those guys again Denver the best place you can be is a position of strength and Michael Malone saying we like our team and we don’t need to make a move there’s something about we will go to war this playoffs with our guys but if you have something

That really surprises us we’ll listen to it because maybe that does put us in better position that’s more or less how I think they got it uh where they’re at right now Justin also ask has it gotten to the point with Zeke that the Nuggets would pay to dump him similar to Bones

Last year in order to go after a buyout guy I don’t think you pay to dump Zeke in large part because it’s harder to trade him right now than it will be um at you know this summer when you know it’s not the poison pill um so I don’t

Think that they’re going to do that just as a straight dump I think that Denver could probably open up a roster spot in other ways if they needed to um you know you still have Hunter Ty like as much as you love a guy like Hunter Tyson or

Jaylen picket I think that and again they’re Calvin’s guys I think you look at those guys as hey you take all these fly you don’t know who’s going to hit and really break out you take all these flyers and as much as he might still

Believe in them and and see a path to them being important if you end up having to move those guys to open it up to allow yourself to get somebody off the buyout Market that can help you you know you’ll probably do that so I don’t

Think it’s Zeke I think that there is vatco there’s the two uh second rounders from this last year that you can go to uh Ray Martinelli says no questions just appreciate you guys Adam Ray I appreciate you man Ray has been around since the Denver stiffs day he’s

Actually been around longer than me um since before I hav do ever done this and he’s always been so supportive and I’m telling you guys you don’t know how much you appreciate like somebody on Reddit the other day added me to tell me how much they don’t like the show and will

Stop listening and I’m just like what an what an to just like write people feel they have to say hey Adam just so you know I no longer enjoy listening to you so I appreciate when the people pop out of the woodwork to say hey man uh always enjoy the the

Staying up till midnight on a Sunday night to give a show I always appreciate that chalis says how do we feel about the CB pwt kyp Jamal Yol lineup for playoff minutes I’m telling you one of the most encouraging things about where the nuggets are right now is that pyton

Watson Christian Brown those guys fit in with both bench lineups and the starting lineups they especially fit in with like playoff starting lineups Murray and yoke we know the two-man game to give them that caliber of Defense kcp Christian Brown pton Watson that’s incredible and Aaron Gordon fit him into the equation

Somehow that so much defense around an Unstoppable two-man game and they all have a level of unselfishness and basketball IQ to them in some former fashion like I think pton Watson’s a very smart player Christian Brown’s a champion at all levels kcp a two-time champion Aron Aaron Gordon we know how

He’s grown so to me when you talk about the best fits of the yic era Christian Brown pton Watson to me slot in as guys that potentially can be become like in the top tier the upper tiers uh of that discussion Matthew camiro says if you had a bet on which scenario happens

First what would you pick Jamal becomes an All-Star or any other nugget player that comes through that’s not yic becomes an All-Star man that’s a fun question so Murray or somebody else I will say Jamal Murray because I think if Murray so this last year we

Said Murray won the title you know it was up to him to get the all like he’ll probably get it well he got hurt for 14 games and I honestly think that made this a non discussion but even if he did didn’t get hurt and had just played at

The level he’s played at this year would he have gotten it I don’t know it would have been close but I’ll tell you that a lot of people call him the number one snub in the west which I find very interesting but if you win two championships I think he could have the

Exact year he’s having right now including the Miss games and make the All-Star game next year because I think it makes that much of a difference um let’s see uh Zamora asks is Payton Watson ever going to slow down knock on wood I hope not and I don’t

Think so I honestly think pton Watson is a stud I think he the only thing about pton Watson that I don’t know and I have no reason to doubt it the only thing I don’t know is what’s his work ethic like what’s his level of focus life there’s so many distractions

That come for you when you’re an NBA player and right now he hasn’t hit much of that at all you know he was a red shirt guy he hadn’t done anything in this league even now he still hasn’t done anything but you go through a

Playoffs and you have a a a you saw what happened to Bruce Brown’s stock when he went to the playoffs last year and perform if pton Watson does that distractions are coming for him and you know I think that he has a really good head on his shoulders I think he’s a smart

Guy I think he’s you know you don’t know these guy I don’t want to go too far because you don’t know these guys well enough to say but I think he’s a good guy and I think he has good people around him so I am optimistic that he’s

Going to be one of those guys that doesn’t slow down because of work ethic or because of those types of things and because of that his his talent level is off the charts he’s only going to be limited in my opinion by um how hungry he stays and I’m kind of curious myself

To see what that looks like um we saw the kcp hamstring uh scare just now even Casey Casp is saying he’s fine do you think we could rest him till after the All-Star break no risk of any lingering effects I mean here’s the thing about injuries you never know man like he said

After the game that it was more of a cramp than an injury if that’s the case then it’s not it’s not an injury so why would you rest him I don’t think you rest guys for no reason I actually think and a lot of coaches think this no not

Putting any science behind this I’m just telling you what I hear people talk about that maybe it’s harder to rest when you don’t need to than it is to just play consistently your body stays sort of in Rhythm it stays in tune sometimes resting and then you sit on

The shelf for a couple weeks and you come back that’s when you hurt yourself so if he’s fine I think he should play and then what do you think the correct bench will lineup during the playoffs for you would it feature reg Reggie staggering with Jamal or would

They be playing separately I would probably prefer them to be separate I love the lineups that feature Murray and Gordon Brown Casey Brown and and Payton and then kyp I just think it gives you an extra amount of shooting and also a little bit more clarity it’s Jamal’s

Unit to run which I think is needed um and I don’t mind how Reggie runs with with joic so um so that’s what I would do Malone has been playing them like two minutes in each half together so it’s not a whole lot um and I think that’s

Probably what they’ll continue to do lastly I want to mention something that John G told me a theory today he slid into the DMS and he had a theory if you remember last game jic took a jab step one dribble left three-pointer very unusual never seen him do that tonight

He had the shot fake on the tiptoes that got eight and the bite and then he goes to the rim he thinks that yoke might be starting to release some moves he has in his you know in his bag that he hasn’t release yet I think it’s a good theory I

Think it’s a good theory yok is always adding to his game he had a great quote the other day that I found so interesting he said that it was after the last game he said that he’s improving his feel for the game on the defensive end that’s where he’s seen the

Most Improvement as he’s starting to read the court better we think of joic as a guy that reads the court perfectly like he’s like the best ever at reading the court but we always think of that as an offensive skill to hear him talk about how he’s becoming a smarter

Defender that his defensive IQ is on the rise and that there’s more room ahead I thought was so interesting so I thought that note was really really neat and it just shows you that yoke has things in his bag and he chooses when to sort of

Unleash him and that could be one of them his three-point Punk fake his sidestep three I would not mind seeing new yic 3’s in his bag everybody it’s hard to do this show uh with all alone I’m not going to lie but I appreciate you guys hanging out with me Swip will

Be here tomorrow Matt Moore will be after that back with me on Wednesday thanks for hanging we’ll see you guys all next time

Adam Mares shares his notes from the 2nd win of the weekend over the Blazers. Plus, thoughts about whether or not the Nuggets need a trade, why their playoff rotation is a diamond hiding in plain sight, and more.

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