Will the Denver Nuggets Be Buyers at the Trade Deadline? What Are Jokic’s MVP Chances?

Will the Denver Nuggets Be Buyers at the Trade Deadline? What Are Jokic’s MVP Chances?

The trade deadline is here the Denver Nuggets will they do anything this trade deadline are there some pieces they could add on the outside of their main five rotation maybe six that will help them to make a push for an NBA championship this season Nicola jic he’s currently slotted in a situation where

He might be able to win his third MVP in the last four years what does he need to do to secure that and on top of that the Denver Nuggets have been very good this year but just how good have they been when they’ve had Jamal Murray in the

Lineup and why is that we’re going to talk about all that and more here lockon nuggets you are locked on nuggets your daily Denver Nuggets podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day what’s going on y’all welcome to locked on nuggets this is your host

Swiper this is your team every day so thankful that y’all are here today this has been a very very very interesting week we are officially two days away from the NBA trade deadline and this is a lot of really interesting basketball to dive into because right now the NBA

Is a little bit on stand Ste so the Denver nuts they have three days off we’re in the the second day of this three-day off stand that they get after having two home game versus the Portland trailblade before they head to Los Angeles for a four game Road Trip

Basically and then on top of that uh they’re going to be playing versus the LA Lakers on Kobe night uh they’re going to unveil a statue outside a crypto Arena uh and formerly Staples so this is going to be a really emotional week for a lot of people and I think there’s a

Lot of really good basketball to tap into so the Denver Nuggets man if you look at the roster and you look at the way things are going they’re actually in a really good position the Denver Nuggets have basically the most used fivan lineup in the NBA this season they

Have a lot of players that are contributing really high quality minutes to this team and outside of the standard five you got Jamal Murray cavius Carwell Pope Michael Porter Jr Aaron Gordon and N leic they’re rolling out Reggie Jackson Christian Brown pton Watson and then sometimes DeAndre Jordan or Zeke

Naji and then they have Justin holiday as well the biggest player that they’ve been missing this year at vaco chantar now again obviously they missed your Murray for 14 games this season we’re going to talk about that in the thir third segment because they actually have been really really really good when he’s

Played this year but right now the Denver Nuggets are in a situation where the NBA trade deadlines is is approaching in there might be some players that the Denver Nuggets could be targeting that can help them to make a push so here’s my thing if you ask me straight

Away currently as it stands where the Denver Nuggets are do I feel confident in the roster do I feel confident that they have enough to be able to make an NBA Finals push I would say yes I think Reggie Jackson has had some really good moments this year I think that he has

Been a very important piece off the bench that he’s really allowed for the starters to continue to jail when Jamal Murray goes to the bench but I think the only thing about Reggie that you don’t necessarily love is that when he’s next to Jamal Murray it actually doesn’t give

Them a lot of Versatility especially defensively Jamal Murray is obviously in the playoffs going to have one of the largest responsibilities of any guard in the NBA and because of that he’s going to be asked to do a lot on both ends and you want to make sure like last year

When Jamal Murray is with the second unit that he doesn’t have to give maximum effort on both ends of the court on every single possession and Reggie Jackson is going to take a lot of those responsibilities but some of this also is we just need to make sure that the

Guard that’s next to Jamal Murray that they’re able to play at the level they’re able to provide quality POA defense now some of this is there’s going to be a situation where Reggie Jackson kind of low of the midseason when he gets to the playoffs

Like 2020 2021 he might be able to turn it up a level he might have more energy just because he can commit to doing that more but on the other end of this is we want to make sure that the Denver Nuggets have what they need so some of

This is the Nuggets don’t feel that they have to make a move Michael Malone said he lik the guys in the rotation so then after you get out to Reggie Jackson then Christian Brown and pton Watson and pton Watson and Christian have solidified they’re one of the best young defensive

Duos in the league that are coming off the bench for any team and then pton Watson has solidified that he’s one of the best defenders in the league already and he has been a world beater defensively Christian Brown has come on a little bit more of late he’s shooting

Better from three than he did last year but again that’s a 6 foot6 very strong athletic to guard he offers a lot for this Denver Nuggets team but then after that gets a little murky because there’s no vaco now you’re in a situation where we’re having to play Payton at the four

Which he’s been able to hold up against really good competition you know Julius Randall at times Giannis on TMO Kevin Durant but they’re missing a little bit of a larger body like they have with Jeff Green and then when you get to the five man it gets real tough they signed

Before the season zek Naji to a four-year $32 million deal and they expected for zek Naji to take a real solid leap as a basketball player but unfortunately this has arguably been the worst year of his career and I think given the fact that they wanted to rely

On him they wanted to give him the ball they wanted to make him more of a primary role player off of the bench and they wanted to even see if he can play a little bit of four next to Joker at times if need be he just has not been

Able to live up to the bilding and he’s not played in a whole lot of basketball ball games over the last month or so just because Michael Malone he just doesn’t seem to be able to trust him yet it doesn’t mean that this is the end of

The Rope for Zeke Nai it doesn’t mean that he cannot get better from this point but what it does mean right now is that the nuggets are in a situation where they need a very reliable five but it’s a trade lead line a way to get it

Done so there’s a couple players for me and please in the chat feel free to write players that you think based on the different nuggets contract situation have a movable salary about $4 million with Zeke $5 million salary with Reggie and then outside of that um they really

Don’t have a lot they have a trade exception that’s for about $2 million and they have some second round picks they can play with so not a lot so looking at where they are players that kind of fit the mold for what the Nuggets need I think Delan right I think players

Like Royce O’Neal players like Dennis Smith Jr both of those players play for the Nets Deon sharp also plays for the Nets Nets and then some people have proposed the idea of bismack bomo it’s just at this point in time I’m not too confident that he’s a sharp upgrade over

DJ but I think that for me the most important position they can at would be a backup point guard or a backup power forward that has sides on them that can offer some versatility defensively and I think another player like that would have to be a bio Market who be someone

Like thus young thus young is not a highle role player anymore he doesn’t have the same skill set that he used to but the thing about Thaddius is Thaddius is a veteran he knows how to play the game the right way and he is a player

That could be in a situation where he’s moved now he’s on about a twoyear $16 million deal right now uh the Raptors are in a situation where they’re trying to go very young and because they’re trying to go young they got a 35-year-old player on their roster could that be a player

They tried to get on a buyout Market um in order to get the Denver Nuggets in a situation where they’re getting another power forward that’s a player I’d be looking at or even possibly if you’re swapping the zit Nai deal uh for thaddus young you gotta add something in there

Possibly to make the money work uh but I think for me more realistically Dennis Smith Jr Royce O’Neal and then having a player like Delon rri now there’s been some smoke out there that the nuggets have looked at Monte Morris I think Monte obviously is a really good player

I think the issue is is Monte also would be another player that def defensively it’s just not the traditional type of guard you would want to play next to Jamal Murray and because of that there could be some things that offer some more problem but Monte obviously is a

Really good playmaker as a role player he’s a good pull-up shooter he obviously knows the Denver Nuggets really well the Nuggets love him so he will be a welcome addition back um but again like I said at this point Reggie Jackson has done a lot of interesting things so far this

Year so when I look at a player like Dennis Smith Jr so the thing about Dennis Smith Jr he’s currently on a one-year $2.5 million deal he’s been one of the best POA defenders in the league he’s extremely athletic as everybody knows he’s a good cutter and especially in the

Different nugget system dho opportunities backside help opportunities as a just using his long arms and using athleticism his face and then being a secondary option as a Defender next to Jamal Murray I think would be another good get for them I think that I’ve said this multiple time

Uh and some of y’all might have heard me say it last year but Chris Dunn is also another player that fits that Chris Dunn is on a two-year $3.3 million deal right now and Chris Dunn is another one of these players he’s on the last year of

This deal making about 2.5 right now and again he’s 29 years old Chris Dunn is a larger player in that like he’s a very long very strong very powerful player as a guard and that would be another one that I would like like to see the Nuggets look out for Jamal Murray so

Again the names that I think that would be viable Dennis Smith Jr Chris Dunn Delon Wright and then again you know Dron sharp probably a little bit outside their price range but that’d be something to look into as well and the different nuggets have been linked to

Donon right they also been linked to Monte Morris so that’s it man what do y’all think who do y’all think could be some players that the den nuggets could be looking at two days from now as the tread trade deadline gets closer and closer and closer and y’all segment too

I actually wanted to have a little bit of an MVP conversation we’re we’re a little bit past obviously the midseason right now we’re getting ready to head into All-Star break but I do think man that it needs to be talked about just how good Joker’s been and what he would

Have to do to secure this award we’ll be right back here segment two locked on nuggets so y’all happy Super Bowl to all to celebrate from FanDuel America’s number one sports Brook if you’re like me Super Bowl Sunday it’s all about scoring the best seat on the couch grabbing your favorite football snacks

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Swiper thank y’all so much for being here today this has been a really really really good week so far hope you’re having a spectacular week and things are going well with you right now so le’ let’s tap in let’s have some MVP conversation so if you look currently on basketball

Reference Nikola yic is the probable favorite to win the MVP award he has a 51% point1 probability to win the MVP award second is Shay gilgas Alexander with a 21% third is jannis H DMO with 12% fourth is Luca donic with 5.3% and then fifth is Jason Tatum with 2.5% so as currently

Slotted Joel embiid obviously is going to be out for the foreseeable future apparently uh instead of getting the meniscus fully repaired sounds like he got the injured part shaved down and so hopefully he’s able to come back fully healthy I hope he takes as much time as

Possible to make sure his body is Right could the miniscus injury is nothing to sneeze at but because of this and again embiid had already missed a lot of games he’s only played I believe 34 games so far this year the MVP P race was very very much between joic and between

Embiid and some of this is is that joic has been solidified in this position since the start of the Year remember start of the year off yic was going crazy averaging 29 Points a game his deficiency was really high like 67 68 and over the course of time it went down

A little bit and so people once EMB started playing better people were just like yeah this is going to be embiid’s re to win but if you look at the season so far you know joic has played in 49 games he’s only missed two games this year

Joic is averaging 22.3 12.2 nine assists he’s has a 65.7 true shooting on a year averaging 1.2 steals shooting 36% from three 59% from the field and 82% from the line tied for the lead league and triple doubles with 15 and then on the other

Side of this he has 42 triple doubles on the season catch all metric jic is leading as well um G is somebody is’s bringing up he is leading uh in the EPM is one of the best stats that we all utilize as well um all the the winshare

Data basically the per 48 the wind share on the season is is cut between these two so some of this is SGA is having a very good year SGA is solidifying himself that he is going to be one of the consensus top 10 best players in the

World for the foreseeable future this is going to be his second straight first team All In NBA season this year and he’s averaging 31.1 5.7 6.6 and 65.1 on the season so far again just a phenomenal season Yannis TMO averaging 31.3 11.4 6.4 on 65 true shooting now

Obviously the thing about Giannis is he’s obviously getting most of his points from the rim but he’s one of the best interior scorers especially at the wing position that we’ve ever seen and his Rim pressure is truly like Hall of Fame worthy just a wonderful player so I

Think for this joic is currently leading his team to having a 56 win pace so far on the year SGA similarly is also leading his team to be at about a 56 57 win pace so far on the season and they both have played the same amount of

Games the Western Conference though is going to be a dog fight because currently the OKC Thunder are sitting at the number one seed in the Western Conference the nuggets are a half half game back at him and if you look at the standings right now there is a five and

A half game difference between the first seed and between the fifth seed and the fifth seed Sacramento Kings they’re a full five games behind five games behind the Denver Nuggets and we’re over a halfway point through the year and yet there’s four teams four that are inside of the Western Conference that don’t

Have 20 losses yet and then there also five teams in the Eastern Conference that don’t have five losses yet but obviously the 76ers are falling out right now because of the no Joel andb for yish to win this award The Narrative is going to have to

Continue to be on his side I think a lot of people felt last year after the season was over when they went into the playoffs and yish went crazy yish should have won the MVP award last year and all the numbers as somebody mentioned the EPM numbers the all the catchall stats

The ra data all of it said that joic was the best player in the world but obviously there’s a lot of reason why he didn’t win namely because of three straight MVPs not having made the finals all that stuff but Joker is kind of in a situation now where as good as Shay

Gilgas Alexander is he’s not in the same class as Joker’s an overall player and I think also yanis s Tumo who’s also been really good he’s also having a difficult season uh just because he’s played 48 games but y’all the the the Bucks have just not been a good basketball team they’re

Sitting at the three seed but they’re one and three since they got Doc Rivers they’re five and five in their last 10 games they’re nine- seven in their division they’re 24- 12 on they’re 24 and 12 in the conference they are 12 and 12 on the road as well and Giannis again

Has played really good really spectacularly but they’re not winning enough games and the defense is falling off a cliff so I think yic if SGA and joic are buying for that number one seed for the rest of the season and SGA as well as he will play continues to play

At a high level I think those are going to be your top two MVP finishers just because Luca y’all having a great year but Luca’s the a seed and I think a lot of people are bringing up well why is it that Luca can’t win as the a seed if

Joic and Westbrook won his six seeds well again Westbrook won averaging a 30-point triple double that year we didn’t think we would see it he led the league in PR and then on and Durant had just left that roster so he had the narrative as well uh joic would he won

In 2022 joic did that without Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr but then even the second place Runner upup and beid was a fourth place in the Eastern Conference with just 51 wins as opposed to 48 wins for the nuggets and then on top of that joker had played more games

That year so even in those two seasons there was a narrative especially for Russ but then basketball-wise jic was like in a class of his own because he had to be to get the Nuggets to 48 wins in that year he won 46 of those by

Himself That season so I think SGA and joic are going to end up being the Three Man Ray I think Brunson actually is going to be another player that gets higher in this race as well just because right now the New York Knicks is very clear Jaylen Brunson is the the energy

And the engine behind that team he’s averaging 27 points 3.9 rebounds 6.5 assists now 59.6 true shooting is not great he’s still shooting 48% from the field 41% from three and 83.5% from the line honestly in many ways if Jamal Murray had more volume on this roster because Brunson uh he’s currently

Taking uh a good few more shots a game than he is and then on top of that I believe he’s also getting to the free thr free throw line a little bit more than Jamal so I think the thing is is that Brunson can continue because he’s

Gonna have the narrative he’s in New York and then on top of that they might get his highest second seed for the rest of the year so I would say that it’s going to come out jish SGA Giannis Brunson and probably Tatum but I think

The two is GNA be joic nfda and I do think that if joic just continues to do what he’s doing now and I’ll talk about this in the third segment I think it’s going to be his to lose but y’all we’re gonna talk about the Denver Nuggets and

Why they’ve been so good so far this year and even especially with Jamal Murray and Al we’re going to talk about all that more in segment three here locked on nuggets this show and episode is is sponsored by betterhelp and betterhelp man is a it’s a truly truly important thing for all of

Us and I think better help is really a big deal because I think all of us need therapy and I’ll be honest with y’all um many of y’all know I play college football and I actually thought about this before I came on the show I found

Out today that one of my roommates in college uh one of my former teammates in college somebody that was I played linebacker he played linebacker he was four years older than me uh he actually passed away the other day and you don’t know exactly what happened but he was

Truly like a very nice person uh he was a good dude he was very welcoming uh he was just very encouraging and like when I came into the college program you know I was being hail as his next big thing and he was the All-American linebacker

And he never resented it at all he always had my back always supported me and uh he was a good friend and you know he was obviously you know fairly young you know he’s still in his 30s um so sometimes like we all need to get stuff

Off our chest like big or small there are things in life that are obviously very heavy that can get to us um and I think for all of us therapy is a can be different for all of us most of us have bigger problems than our favorite sports

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Get a 10 percentage off of your first month that’s betterhelp hp.com lockon NBAA we’ll be right back for Segment three locked on nuggets so y’all we are back for Segment three here at lockon nuggets y’all and y’all I don’t know if y’all noticed don’t know if y’all notice

But I had to do some digging the other day because y’all know I like my stats and info so currently this year the Denver nuggers are sitting at 35 and 16 that’s excellent 35 and 16 so they did this they’re doing this while also missing Jamal Murray for 14 games this year

Which also is obviously a lot of basketball games so the 35 and 16 on the year the nuggets are 21 and four at home so far this season they’re 14- 12 on the road and the Nuggets they’ve been winning a lot of games this year and so

Nuggets see the Denver Nuggets last 30 games make sure I have this number correct the nuggets are 21-9 in their last 30 games that’s a lot of wins that’s a lot of wins that’s over 67% of their games that they played recently that they’ve won and that’s one

Of the reasons why they’re holding on where they are they’re 14- six in their last 20 that’s a 70% win percentage as well and again y’all it ain’t like they’ve just like been coasting through folks they beaten Boston Golden State Indie Milwaukee Philly Indie and then on

Top of that they beaten a few other people people they beat Memphis 142 105 they got some really impressive victories in there but did y’all know that this season when Jamal Murray plays the Denver Nuggets are on a 60 win Pace they’re 27- 10 which extrapolated over

An 82 game sample size they would be on Pace to win 60 games this year with Jamal Murray and at that’s important because that’s even better than it was last season when they won 53 game and y’all got to remember eventually they got to a point where

They were I want to say they were 35 and 14 after the Memphis Grizzly win on March 3rd maybe it was a little bit higher than that it actually might have been maybe 37 uh and 15 or something like that if I remember correctly I can’t remember but

Some of this is is that the nuggets have just been able to kind of hide in the radar a little bit last year when people watched the Nuggets they were like oh we just don’t think they’re that good of a team you know they’re a first seed but

They have joic but Murray is not a great second option Yas can’t play defense mpj Gordon kcp Bruce like is that good enough and so I think a lot of this is is that we’re in a situation where the nuggets have like kind of been under the

Radar because your net rating is only a plus 4.7 per dunks and threes which is one of my favorite sites to go to and that net rating is currently rated at six it’s behind the Knicks the Clippers the Timberwolves OKC and Boston the difference is is that the Nuggets when

They have all their guys in a playoff setting they were basically I think like a plus nine last season when they had everybody in the lineup which is incredible so the nuggets are in a really interesting situation because I think that a lot of people are going to

Be very surprised once they turn up that they’re just going to be in a little bit different place in half court offense they’re they’re top 10 in half court offense and half court defense so far in the year and their effective field goals has gone down and I talked to Ryan

Blackburn about this a little bit if you look for dunks 3 at their offensive shooting their effective field goal percentage has dropped to 10th on the year 10th they were number one for a large part of the season now some of this is their offense has taken a step

Back over the last month and their defense is kind of held firm but a lot of the stuff that’s happened is that the nuggets have kind of it’s not that they’re coasting because they’re winning but unless the situation calls for them to be great for three quarters or great

For two and a half quarters something like that or even for four quarters they just haven’t put that together but every time they face a quality team even in the 76ers game where they’re playing in in Philly they were in a good position to win the game but they had different

Things that did not go their way so the Nuggets man I think a lot of people are just again they’re like a sleeping giant um the nuggets are getting to the rim a lot they’re fourth in the NBA in attempts at The Rim the nuggets are really efficient from from the mid-range

Area uh they’re currently slotted at or three in the NBA in terms of Effectiveness from the mid-range area and three-point percentage the nuggets are shooting 37% on the year again that’s also Dro as well but the Nuggets aren’t shooting a lot they’re only shooting 35% of their shot distribution

From three which is 29th in the NBA but I think I want people to pay attention to this the teams that lead the NBA in three-point attempts listen to this Boston they take 47% of their shots from three you have Dallas takes 45% shots from three Memphis 44 Sacramento 4 44 Golden

State 43 Milwaukee 42 Brooklyn is 41.9 and then you got Cleveland Utah and then you got Atlanta but the difference is is that it’s not that the Nuggets can’t make the three-pointer now they’ve been missing him a little bit lately but the difference is that the Denver Nuggets

Don’t rely on it near as much they’re actually attempting more shots at The Rim which in the and basically within a four to foot area to the rim they’re just not converting in the same way that they normally would but I actually think a lot of this is going to be stuff that

They carry over to the playoff that’s like we don’t need to rely on a three we can actually rely on twos when they beat the Bucks they beat them because they beat them from the field they didn’t they SC they got outs scored by 36 points from three when they beat the

Celtics the Celtics made more three-pointers but again they got more twos a lot of the stuff for the Nuggets is what is most replicable is they’re going to get wide open three-point attempts KTP Murray and and uh joic and mpj are all going to be elite three-point Shooters and then you got

Aaron Gordon who’s kind of floating but Aaron Gordon not Elite three-point shooter Payton Watson not a elite three-point shooter Reggie Jackson not a elite three-point shooter and then obviously Christian Brown not an elite three-point shooter so some of this is just the way that the rosters are conted

That they’re just not always going to be able to make a lot of Threes but the difference is is that when it comes to winning time they’re just going to be able to activate so many different things that they’re able to do on a consistent basis just because that’s how

They play basketball and also if you look at the lineup data for the den nuggets this is probably the thing that also continues to tell the story and why when we talked about the trade deadline stuff they’re going to be looking at players that can help them do what they

Want to do currently among fiveman units the Denver Nuggets have played 647 minutes with their starting five their starting five has a plus 13.5 net rating they have a 11 12.3 defensive rating on the year and they have a 25.8 offensive rating so basically they’ve been spectacular they’ve been spectacular

Throughout this season and especially when it comes to the clutch man they’re the best clutch team in the league they got the best defense in the clutch by a pretty wide margin this season so Jamal Murray’s healthy they are on a 60 win Pace they have one of the best fiveman

Net ratings in the league they got one of the best defensive rotation of wings in ag kcp Payton and Christian in the NBA the best player in the NBA and then I think from a cohesion standpoint from coaching on down to the culture they’re really just locked in and so 35 and 16

On the year and they’re pacing to win 56 games and out through last year’s performance so it’s going to be really exciting to see how the rest of the year goes y’all but y’all make sure when you go to Apple and you go make sure you you

Like share and subscribe this on YouTube leave us a fivestar review on Apple that stuff really means a big deal helps more people to be able to listen to lock do nuggets we’ll have more content coming to you tomorrow NBA tread deadline is Thursday y’all I will see y’all on the other side

The Denver Nuggets will have some opportunities to improve their team at the margins by Thursday. Will they?

Nikola Jokic continues to put together a 4th straight top 2 MVP season. How can he secure his 3rd?

The Denver Nuggets have been dominant this season. Just how good?
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