EMERGENCY PODCAST: Nuggets sign Dario Saric to two-year, $10.6 million deal | DNVR Nuggets

EMERGENCY PODCAST: Nuggets sign Dario Saric to two-year, $10.6 million deal | DNVR Nuggets

I am in my car in Wyoming D’s in his office on a Saturday what’s going on it’s an emergency po Dario sarch is a nugget let’s do this [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh my goodness look at this you know what what is up everybody welcome to this emergency podcast edition of the dnbr Nuggets podcast literally from the Toyota Lounge dline I’m in my Toyota Highlander literally inside of it incredible the brand Fusion is incredible I’m also right next to a place called The Bunk House Motel I don’t know if you could see this a little ridiculous um real quick we have a presenting sponsor just to make sure that we’re going to make this work and I have audio for this dline can you tell us who this is presented by this emergency pod this emergency pod segment is brought to you by indeed listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your more visibility at indeed. all city that’s indeed doall City terms and condition why need to H you need indeed somehow I’m in Wyoming and in my car and my internet is better than D who’s at the dnvr office in studio I’m not sure how this is possible I might just try to riff here kale you could help me out in a uh if it’s me to no one’s getting anything huh this is as good as the nuggets’ off season has been so stunted I was thinking about this where two years ago Calvin Boo’s first uh free agency at the helm he signed uh DeAndre Jordan in the first minute of free free agency and everybody freaked out because it was like that’s your first move free agency just began and and that’s your first order of business here we are now two years later Calvin has learned we’re not doing any we’re waiting eight days we’re gonna wait till everyone’s on vacation and is this better kale how are we doing kind of dline I can’t so can’t really hear you oh no everything still sounding good for me though kale yeah you sound great okay all right so I’ll just riff until dline figures out uh how to fix the our office internet here but yeah so it’s funny you know we’re two for three so far on predicting the off seon for the right back check out and check back this is the world’s longest delay it’s 45 second delay it’s unbelievable here what if I increase my gain can we hear me better there’s your mouth moves 30 seconds before we hear the audio uh anyway I’ll just try to rip here for a second while he works that out so so yeah you know dmvr we’re two for three so far I’m calling it you know Don homes I don’t not like we called it the entire world called that one you got Dario sarich who um you know who’s now on board Russell Westbrook would be the last piece and the reason I bring that up is I know there’s a lot of consternation a lot of um uh frustration and nervousness I would say anxiety from the fan base about how long this free agency is taking Denver and to be honest with you I don’t have a great answer for why things are are going the way that they are all along the way with the various sources both within the nuggets and around the league just asking you know hey what’s going on is this a concern you know everything kind of seems to be like no this is the plan some things there’s just some stuff red tape behind the scenes to hold these things up Dario sarich though is a Denver Nugget he signed a two-year deal the second year has a player option and this was part of the plan going into free agency for the Denver Nuggets this was you know and I’m sure some of this is because of who was available but this was somebody that before day one or at least on day one you know I had heard Denver was interested in bringing him in and his skill set allows for Denver to play a similar style he can facilitate from the center position he’s a threat to attack mismatches he can pass obviously he can shoot the three at a decent level I believe a 36% career uh three-point shooter so he brings in some talents that I think Denver believ are going to help them to have some continuity off that bench if you do add a Russell Westbrook to it it’s very interesting because it would give you two facilitators which is something different whether it works or not I mean I think this offseason again if you add the Westbrook piece it’s so interesting because I it it’s not a guarantee that it’s gonna work you can see the vision but you could also see a world where there’s downside to this and I think with Denver adding sarich and potentially Westbrook that would be two creators that you bring Off the Bench which is better than what Denver had last year in my opinion from a just from a purely creation standpoint point you know you look at the deal two years with the player option in the second year that was one of the pieces that you wanted to wait and see how it played out it reminds me a little bit of when Reggie Jackson signed his deal and you saw the number and you go oh wow that’s that’s surprising I thought it was going to be a minimum or or what have you you know for this one I thought it was going to be um the taxpayer mid-level exception so I I kind of assumed it was going to be that but the second year with the player option you know you don’t love that just because it if a player outperforms the contract he comes here has a great year you probably have to renegotiate the deal and and and resign them or potentially lose them and then you’re back in this Carousel again next year but you know that maybe that’s a thing that players of his ilk a guy coming back from an ACL injury is something that he’s just looking to do do we have you dline let’s find out do we have me I think you do it’s only like a one second delay which I think I can work with here so sick so I was just going over to start this emergency pod I was just going over how the timing is the part that I think is the most frustrating for nuggets fans and I think there’s a lot of like almost conspiracy theory going into it but if you just stand back we’ve been talking about Dario sarich as a a key Target if we just step back now he’s a nugget he’s on this two-year deal although the second one’s a player option how do you feel what’s your first thought when you we see that he’s on the Nuggets now I feel great this is a I think this is a great addition to the nuggets and you’re right uh a lot of the consternation that we were sensing was just I think was in response to perceived inactivity that it didn’t seem like the front office was necessarily concerned or they weren’t acting with uh the requisite um I don’t know uh urgency urgency that the that douget Twitter wanted them to but the fact of the matter is like we knew that this was their target the entire time it’s just been a matter of you know he’s in Europe Calvin went to Europe to Scout and to make sure that still was the the case that they still wanted to sign him obviously he he’s had a really good showing um so far and it’s just you know I it’s it’s been difficult to sit back and watch people get so upset about something especially for us we just knew that this was coming and it’s just like guys just wait I promise it’s this is going to be a good move it’s going to fill a hole it’s going to be the type of player that they really needed um and all in all this is uh you know this this should hopefully you know calm the the frazzled nerves I would hope of of Denver Nuggets Twitter just knowing that the front office is in fact in motion I think that it it’s already has based on my mentions you know I put a tweet out earlier just saying what do people think of this and it was pretty positive I would say overall I think people were mostly pretty excited about the move you know he’s a high IQ player here I any time there’s a good player brought to Denver I’m gonna compare him to Boris di I’m gonna compare him to Boris di in that he is a guy that I think on a good team is going to look really good and on a bad team is not going to look very good at all and you’re gonna think is this bum wash does he have anything you come to Denver where guys already know how to pass and cut there’s a system in place and I think he’s a guy that’s gonna pop in that way and then on top of that two creators you know if you do get a Russell Westbrook which I still expect that that’ll be the third move of the offseason if you do get him that gives you Russell Westbrook and Dario sarich as Playmakers Off the Bench which is nice that’s that’s more than what Denver has been working with in recent years absolutely and like I people have been asking me about this a lot over the last couple days and you know you can look at this as sort of the Denver Nuggets are looking to some of the success that the Boston Celtics had with just such a deep bench with so many um players they felt comt able going to in the playoffs and their depth ended up being one of their biggest strengths and the Denver didn’t have any depth they didn’t trust their bench at all it really caused their ultimate collapse because Malone didn’t feel comfortable going to them in that game that they were up 20 points that they couldn’t hold and the starters ran out of gas and you you’re talking about adding Westbrook and sarage like these are two very solid NBA players they’re not spectacular but we’re talking about filling in the back here um and sort of stabilizing the the starting unit with ch Brown and then strengthening that bench like that’s a very I in my mind that’s a very viable uh strategy right what do you think about the contract two years with the second one being a player option I always hate those because you can get into like all right it’s Reggie Jackson scenario where he’s not good so he picks up the player option and you’re stuck with him a second year or if he is good he Ops out of the player option and then he’s gone the next year so what do you make of that piece of this and I just I’ll tell you my thing I never I’m waiting for the day when I feel like damn Denver got a steal I just I don’t know if I’ve ever thought that about the Denver Nuggets I kind of think it’s my feeling that at this stage of free agency where it’s really only like max players and minimum players and there’s literally no one in between I feel like there’s a lot of competition for low-end players or low salary players and there’s going to be a lot of needing to promise longer contract terms to be able to get people to agree when there is such a shallow pool for because everybody’s looking for these types of guys um now that the the second apron is always looming you can’t like just add guys willy-nilly like you used to and so um I’m not surprised like I I really think any contract you sign like I’m sure that Reggie Jackson had other suitors and Denver Nuggets had to sweeten the deal by saying you know we’ll give you a second year we’ll sign you and they had to make sure that to get that job done although the difference obviously is that Reggie Jackson was cut and we picked him up off the buyout market and like Dario sarch is just like a free agent he’s still like very much a viable player nobody’s cutting him um right so I just think that I think that’s going to be a lot of the the way it goes now I feel like you’re G to have to make assurances to players if you start to look at the bench now the front court so Dario sarich is a forward but you know he can play the center spot he’s big enough to be the center spot and I imagine that’s where he’s going to play and that does check a huge box for Denver you now hope that you don’t have to play joic there my hope is that every game Dario sarich is healthy you never have that crap yoke I know that was only two minutes of rest get back on the court because we were suffering and you don’t have to play the Aaron Gordon get back in there and play center to to spell us for these moments I think he is for sure good enough to be that guy which is big but then you start to think about okay who could he play alongside with in the front court and I think right now you look at it vaco chanar who’s not on the roster quite yet I anticipate he will be but we’ll talk about that in a second donon Holmes Zeke Naji I actually think all three of those guys fit with Dario sarch and that’s one of the things that works is it’s a little bit of a different look they’re kind of similar to be honest all those different options but they’re a little different and they all should be able to work and I think that’s another thing that this you know another box that this moves checks yeah that’s kind of what we were talking about the other day is that there there is a like now there’s a slew of sort of positionist players that just sort of represent like a generic front court and it’s you can sort of decide if you want a a Don Holmes in there if I mean if it’s a weird night you want a Zeke Naj you want a DeAndre Jordan you want and you know whether or not vatco is part of that stable like that is it’s actually like you could say that there’s redundancy there but I think that that’s actually kind of a good thing it just allows for more of that that switchability and that more of that position lless thing because all those guys are stretch fours all all those guys can shoot and so that’s pretty valuable especially with the guy like Westbrook to get everybody out of the paint so he can drive like to me it actually makes a lot of sense that pairing so what do you think just the your initial thought about Dario sarch who would who would you want to play with them who do you think is g to end up winning that spot should they sign blacko chanar well my initial thought was always that it was going to be vlat go but I mean if we want to get into it like vlatos looks terrible like VL like I don’t know if they can Reign vco like I I don’t know if they really that bad I I don’t know I mean like listen they’re down there with him the the film that I saw was like inept like he was looked like he lost a lot off of what he had before and I don’t know if that’s just rust I don’t know if that’s his he’s not trusting his body if he’s not ready yet but like I don’t know man it spooked me a little bit it made me feel like because I was sure that that would be the guy so like that would be my preference that it would be sarich and vatco like vatco now being a vet um and you know you know you can’t necessarily count on rookie big men but you know perhaps it’s Holmes I don’t know like what do you think so I thought it was interesting and and by the way I don’t know on this part I’m just speaking as myself here I don’t really know what direction Denver goes but I know a lot of people when free agency hit were why is Calvin in Europe what could he possibly be doing oh you’re over there looking at vacco I think the vacco thing is a real question look Denver wants to bring him back because I think it’s important for he’s institutional knowledge of the team friends and culturally um familiarity with joic I think that’s not no small thing I think those things are really important but we are talking about roster spots on a team that already features a lot of unknowns Hunter Tyson um jayen picket like those guys already occupy roster spot so do you want to give another one and I imagine part of why Cal was out there I think part of it was to get the sarch deal done but I think part of this probably was to be around blacko and just say hey is this guy ready is he gonna be ready does he look like it’s gonna be half a year or the whole year before he’s ready and I agree with you I I L looked at every shot vacco chanar took in his three exhibition games or or I’m sorry not exhibition um qualifying games that he just played in and he does look like we wondered if Jamal would come back off of his ACL injury and we’re like could he be back by Christmas or whatever now we know what he would have looked like if he would have come back that early 11 months totally looks like he needs another six months and the thing is six months you could probably handle if he’s not there at the start of the Season or if he’s there but you’re working him back into it it’s like okay you could donon Holmes plays Zeke Naji gets another chance like there’s something you could do but if he looks like a guy that you’re like I don’t know man that leg looks like it’s gonna take all year for him just to get up to Snuff I’m with you I don’t know if you can afford another wasted roster spot yeah to me it’s like it it falls in line with Zeke and it becomes two unplayable pieces on the bench which like why would you do that I yeah I hate to say it but like I I they can’t sign him they really can’t like he looked that bad like they I I mean man I don’t know like he was getting bullied it wasn’t just like Miss shots it was like and again but but it’s 11 months though and here’s the here’s the other part of this and I was rooting for Slovenia to win I I want to root for all my guys and I know how important these national teams are but they’re bounced and for vaco I think it’s a great thing you can imagine if vaco if they qualified and he had to play another six seven games it would we’d be even more worried about it but you know they’re out he should have the rest of the summer to rehab we know that he’s a monster in the gym he’s this is a guy that transformed his body once inside the bubble just in the bubble he he became enormous so part of me listens to that and goes you know what he still was moving he was able to play a professional basketball game even though he looked terrible another four months I just I don’t know I feel like to me I I I do think there’s a question I think it’s worth asking but at the end of the day I think that he’s going to be a back to what Denver needs him to be in about four or five months yeah I mean listen I I love the idea of L go but I also feel like it’s you know you have to like I’m just questioning myself like am I doing that thing where I just fall in love with my guys like the guys that are um yeah and after seeing that I’m like oh my God like they should they try and figure out if they could pick up bball Paul should they find out if they could pick up Mario honia like are there other guys that they could look to sign um until I mean because they could they could still make roster moves as the year goes on but to me man they got they need to make that bench like really solid and getting a guy back that’s still gonna be a crapshoot coming back from like I I just don’t think they can afford to do it yeah all right well let’s get back to Dario arge here can we check the resume real quick do we have a Graphic for this yeah let’s check the resume presented by indeed of course played with the Warriors this last season prior to that so he tears his ACL the same year as Jamal Murray tears his ACL comes back and plays for three different teams mostly for Oklahoma City and Phoenix um a little bit there and then of course last year with golden state he’s not a great defensive player and even Golden State with all their ball movement as good as they are I don’t know that he was a perfect fit there so I think there is when you look at this and say okay four teams in two years Eric and then prior to that a whole year off with the ACL injury you know that’s part of the story here I think there’s an upside play he’s only going to be in his age 30 season there’s an upside play of hey he was really good three years ago before the injury we know it takes a season and a half to kind of get back there’s an upside play that hey this is the right spot for him and he is fully healthy and better than he was but there’s also a downside play of well maybe he’s not and there’s a reason he was on the you know he’s still available which way do you lean I tend to think just because we saw him in action in international play he looked great he recorded triple doubles like he was passing he was playmaking like he looked good in the same setting that vatco looks terrible um so I tend to think he’s just specifically for the Denver Nuggets like the right kind of player like I don’t know if he’s the right kind of player with the Golden State Warriors I don’t know if he would look right with the Suns or the Sixers again but it really is another type of Center that you know he’s obviously not yic in any way shape or form except for that like he can play at the top of the key they can like have a little bit of this this concept of a yic light so at least the Paradigm of their offense can be somewhat consistent whether or not yic is on or off the floor like with less you know Focus but at least like the structure so I think it’s to I mean I’m really really hopeful for this to me it makes like so much sense and you could also go five out with uh with a guy like it’s like to me it’s a really smart play I I’m I’m I’m super excited about it so are you back like where is your optimism you know now that kcp is is gone Dario sarich in like are you back to overall the emotional roller coaster of everything else and you’re like you know what this team it’s a new team a new a new year it’s getting interesting it’s exactly right man like everything all of these like little moves it’s just if you if we just started the season we didn’t have all this in between time it’s like when there’s a new season of TV and you’re just like left to think about what’s gonna happen and then when it finally happens you’re like oh why was I thinking about that so much if the season just started you were like well we lost kyp Christian Brown’s gonna step up and take his spot in the starting unit we added sarich and hopefully we added Westbrook that sounds great like that sounds like a a team that actually has improved even though it lost one of its like most uh important players so yeah man I mean like I I feel good like I I this is kind of like when the ABS were really good when we were you know years and years ago it’s like they were always right there always competing right they’re like the nuggets are definitely going to be in the mix for sure uh they just have that top end talent and it’s it’s going to be these little pieces these little moves that make the the change to get them over the top but like we’re gonna be right there and I to me this is like as good of a chance with this uh lineup as possible and you know who knows like when we get when it gets down to it because the did not go into that uh Second apron they might find themselves in a situation where there is a player they want to add down the line and they’re able to do it and maybe that’s the way this goes you know maybe maybe that’s how this whole thing plays out we’ll have to wait and see I will say one note on the Westbrook front I saw some people talking today you know the kcp trade got finalized was Denver is that make it less likely I think Westbrook is more almost certainly and I could be wrong on this piece of it but I don’t think so almost certainly a bu out I I I believe that’s how this will play out is that the Clippers will end up buying him out and and then he’ll arrive in deor I don’t know that to be the case but I that’s my expectation and kind of my anticipation well any other thoughts here D I can’t see the chat so you could probably see it is there questions people have or there thoughts you have that you want to kind of close this with uh people just generally saying that I’m an idiot I don’t know what I’m talking about things like that yeah actually that’s not true I just uh I’m reading into that myself um let’s see here let me look at the chat so does it look like I’ve s it does look like you’ve been on a boat um the only thing you’re missing is some boating Shades but you know I’m sure that our friends at Shady Rays maybe hook you up there no I think that generally speaking people sound pretty positive about this I I I think you you have to really just be committed to the bit if you’re still pissed off um because this is a this is a good like regardless of your what you’re feeling like this is a good move this is an absolutely good move so um you know we’re back baby I like what are we like everyone chill out we’re gonna get Westbrook it’s gonna be awesome let’s go what what was worst timing DeAndre Jordan one second into free agency two years ago or Dario sarich eight days into free agency this time I still go with DeAndre Jordan because I felt like what are we doing like this seems like insane and now this the nice thing is that you know I mean like I nobody talks to me obviously but like people talk to Adam people talk to Harrison like we have some sense generally of like kind of what what’s going on so we kind of knew that this was coming obviously nothing’s confirmed it’s not like we know everything that and there’s no promises but I just knew that this was coming and so it was annoying to just have everyone just losing their minds knowing full well that the front office is being methodical they’re getting the exact players that they’re targeting they’re not just being reactionary just like trying to get anybody on the phone anybody to answer their call trying to find like we were joking about Gary Trent Jr somewhere so yeah man it’s good like a good plan a a a reasonable thought out plan is something I always like to see in my management it’s funny because one of the things about this is it almost makes it less fun for me and it makes me wonder like what WJ or or windhorse or these guys who know where all the bodies are buried across these entire league there’s almost no mystery to it and I almost am envious of some of the people that will do the speculative free agency what about this this or this and you’re like well I know that guy’s going there and I know this guy’s already committed to here but that’s how it works in 2024 man um the deals are are usually kind of known well in advance and this was one that we kind of knew was coming but I’m excited for it um as you mentioned he looked fantastic against Slovenia the other day he looked like an absolute like there is an upside play I will say this for all of Denver’s moves and this goes back to Payton Watson this goes back maybe even to donon Holmes and it’s true of sorich there’s an upside play to it where you’re like it’s possible he’s just awesome and he’s been injured and that’s the only reason he’s down and he gets here and we’re like holy [ __ ] this guy is a really good player and I think that’s the part that you should be excited about um and you know it’s an it I will say this Dario sarich in a weird way makes this feel like a completely new nuggets team in a good way like it’s going to have a new personality off that bench and and I’m I’m excited to see if that personality works or not yeah yeah that’s why we watch sports baby and you don’t we it on paper and you generally don’t win it in the offseason like this either so um you know we’re we’re load back up and we’re getting more and more pieces on that bench unit and you know it’s gonna we’re it’s gonna pay dividends Eric I’m going back to my boat everybody else enjoy Dario reasonable I hope I don’t have to do one of these tomorrow if Westbrook news drops or something like that I will never forgive the nuggets for this I’ll personally call and complain to Cal tell him it doesn’t fit my schedule but that does it everybody uh hope you appreciated our the jankiest uh live emergency pod in dmvr gets history [Music] [Applause] we all sitting like the May

EMERGENCY PODCAST: Dario Saric has agreed on a deal with the Denver Nuggets. It’s a two- year $10.6 million dollar deal with the second year being a player option. How does he fit behind Nikola Jokic and with the rest of the Nuggets? What do the fellas think of the signing? Adam is calling in from his car in Wyoming. Eric is at the office on a Saturday. It’s an Emergency Pod on this edition of the DNVR Nuggets Podcast!

Start – 0:00
Dario Saric to the Nuggets – 2:00
Vlatko still coming back? – 15:00

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