The Denver Nuggets are a mess around Nikola Jokic, with Jamal Murry and Michael Porter Jr. struggling and a bad supporting cast… are they even still contenders in the West?
#nuggets #denvernuggets #nba
44 comments
just a reminder MPJ is on a max contract and they just overpaid murray after he averaged 6 points in the olympics
You are right based on what they have shown in first 4 games but… 1. MPJ is shooting 3p 0% (last 3 years he was 40%+) 2. Unless Jamal forgot how to play basketball, he is also at 10%-15% of his capabilities 3. Christian Braun so far is replacing well KCP
So, I would wait for ~20 games to make this type of conclussions
Nuggets need Bogdan Bogdanovic
Adding Westbrook as of late has been the clear sign of desperation that has failed every team, other than I guess the Wizards, who had their best season since 2017. The Rockets, Lakers and Clippers all tried their best with him, but he just shoots you out of crunch time or makes a boneheaded defensive mistake, and there's no reason to think that he's gonna figure out in Denver. He is bad off ball and hasn't had a jump shot since 2017. Denver GM should be fired if they miss the playoffs outright or get bounced in the play in.
If I'm Jokic I'm not going to work tomorrow, he already earned like 1 week holiday with those 4 games..
unfortunately, youre right. nuggets roster is lacking a lot and I see no way to fix it with assets that nuggets have. more, I see no effort/attempt to fix it, not even understanding/acknowledgment of the problem by the fo/gm. they're just doing a wrong thing after a wrong thing… they do very little, and even that little that they do is wrong and flawed.
basically – fo/gm/owners – don't look like they have a goal or high expectations re nuggets competing. so they do the bare minimum (picking up low drafts, signing / extending what's already there, and picking up players that no one wants and are sitting out there without contracts/interest).
It's hard to imagine WORSE management/leadership… They seem to be perfectly fine with leaching off of Jokic and running him into the ground. Same goes for couple of "stars" on the roster that you mentioned.
Just a sad, depressing environment. I would love to see Jokic playing with a DECENT roster… One more star, capable shooters, a decent backup C (basically – 8-9 PO capable players… and nuggets have about 6 now)… But that's not happening in nuggets…
I mostly agree, except with the statement that they are not contenders. We are probably seeing the worst that the Nuggets will be this season. They are already improving and in a few weeks they are likely going to start resembling their old selves. Also, can we stop whining about KCP already? Judging by these four games, Christian Braun is a SOLID upgrade. The Nuggets' main issue right now is not that the KCP is gone or that the bench is terrible, it is that Murray and MPJ are not playing well. That's the first priority.
No. Denver will be just fine. Stop it!!! So many team invested millions in player without any results. Denver is a strong contender five years in a row, with one ring and one conference finals. They are not weaker at all, they are just tired and bored. Last season was bad because of Malone, he overplayed starters and they are pretty tired even now. With Strawther, Saric, Watson and Russ they have bigger rotation. It's just about time, but it will work. MPJ at this moment is in a shooting slump, but he looks like a veteran on the floor. His playmaking is better, rebounding, defence, everything is better every year. With better shooting he will be great, and it's just a matter of time.
Things are looking bad now, but the Nuggets will click, and players will adapt and become better, just wait.
As a nuggets fan. You’re absolutely correct about saying Malone would play someone over Porter and that’s been the problem. He’s using him incorrectly, he needs to let him iso more when he has mismatches on him. No reason Conley should have been able to “guard” him for an entire series. He always sits MPJ in defensive situations late game despite the fact that teams literally will attack Murray as opposed to MPJ because he’s actually a decent help defender just due to his length. His defensive struggles really only come when he’s guarding much quicker players. Which is usually the case because teams cross match due to putting their better taller defenders on Murray.
Jamal and MPJ are extremely overvalued and overpaid players, they both got lucky to play alongside Jokic otherwise they'd be irrelevant. Jamal got two good playoffs, the one in bubble and in 2023 but that's pretty much all he did for the Nuggets since he's drafted. He has never carried the team during the regular season, he missed two playoffs in Jokic's MVP seasons, never really been close to all star level outside of those two playoffs. But incompetent front office treat him as an absolute superstar and they gave him 208 mil/4 years contract. This makes his contract absolutely untradeable and I think it closed championship window for Jokic in Nuggets
The narrative that Jokic asked the front office to bring Westbrook is not true. Nuggets just consulted Jokic like any other team talk to their superstars about trades. And the choice for the Nuggets was very simple, they could keep Reggie Jackson who was pretty bad last season or bring Westbrook for the half of the Reggie's salary. There were no other options for Denver since they would hit 2nd apron with any other more expensive player
it was impossible to bring back Bruce Brown, btw. (unless he took way less money)
Bigges mistake giving max contracts to Murrey , Gordon and MPJ they should of traded for some of those guys
Idk y but that Murray air all 3 was funny asf. But this team show flashes of championship level dense and offense it just look like there rotations need to be better and need to communicate better because the amount of defensive lapses is inexcusable for a championship level team
You sound so stupid saying the nuggets are not contenders…
the starting 5 is still some of the highest plus minutes. Mpj and jamal can shoot and cb has been shooting close to kcp percentage. It's like you know nothing about the nuggets and you are just rehashing false talking points.
Pretty pathetic video…
Wrong on pretty much everything except the obvious…
The issue is not the young players but Jamal Murray and MPJ performances and their efficiency, if Murray still a threat the young guys will have less responsibilities and they can execute what was they asked for
NBA keeps paying damaged payers as if they are still perfect. Jamal Murray will not return. Kawhi Leonard will not return.
Without Jokic they wouldn’t even be a play-in team
Tucker I know you're a Nets fan so you understand that they're not supposed to be good this season, but as a Raptors fan, I know they're not a bad team. Both the Raptors and Nets should've won these games(I imagine the refs bailed out the Nuggets again last night), but the Raptors are heavily injured. They are not a bad team by any means, they're just not at the level of these major contenders, but going into the season, I knew the Nuggets weren't going to be good. it was a for sure thing that Porter Jr can't play defence, their bench has no offence and overall they're not a good defensive team(and can't shoot). That was evident, and now that it's actually being shown to people, everyone is surprised(which i really don't get tbh).
All last year, I kept saying that the Nuggets without Joker were not even a playoff team. And the organization did not make a move at the trade deadline, instead thinking they could rely on Jamal Murray (who always has some type of injury or excuse why he is not an all-star). Joker has to do literally everything, even help bring up the ball because they don't have good ball handlers to do even that, so their offense is slow to get going and they run out of time on the shot clock. Joker needs help now, so that by the end of the season, he won't be worn out and risk injury.
MPJ and someone else for Lauri and this team would be broken.
It's just not physical talent, I think it is more mental and basketball IQ that most players lack. The other Nuggets besides Joker, are great athletes, but not great basketball players. Also, they are not really skilled in basketball skills like dribbling, setting effective screens, etc. They are just strong, run fast or can jump.
Sky is falling!
Jokic has a average sixers team now embiid and jokic are even rn
Now they are gonna move the goalposts again to try and give Jokic another mvp 🙄
Still early in the season the law of averages will come around. Mpj wont be shooting this bad for the rest of the season nor will murray however denver has much to discuss when it comes to keeping murray with his injury
Lets wait about 20 games then will see,it is to early
MPJ, Gordon and Murray are still sleeping. Hopefully they wake up soon.
Afraid u r right but I'm still hoping!
Agree. They ruined it by giving max contracts to Murray and MPJ and thus not being able to bring beneficial player with an exception of AG. Worst part is they're not using Jokers prime time.
This is a over reaction, Nuggets finishing a top 4 seed in the West… Watch!
They have been playing jokic different this season alot more post ups reminds me of tim duncan
If this goes on, Jokic will also have to coach, clean the floor, bring the towels… drive the bus to the airport, check in everyone´s bag, be the steward on board… you name it. Otherwise, the Nuggets are done.
I really like you and your videos, but a lot of what you said is either not true, or just lazy takes. First of all, i agree with your takes on Jamal and MPJ, they have been pretty awful so far and if they don't turn it around, we might be in big trouble, but when it comes to the rest of the roster there are a few things i would like to point out:
-Please stop acting like Jeff Green was a key piece and irreplaceable. He had some good possessions and highlights, but overall he was a liability even in the championship season, going so far a lot of us would have not even given him minutes in the playoffs, so not resigning him was not a mistake
-second of all WE COULD NOT pay Bruce Brown because we did not have the bird rights, so the max that we would have been allowed to pay was around 8 million, this was not being stingy or anything, we were legally not allowed to pay him more
-when it comes to KCP, people will see how much he just profited of Jokics play, he is insanely overpayed by Orlando and it would have not made sense to pay him, i believe he will have the same faith as many players who thrive beside Jokic and just fall off after (Bruce Brown, Monte Morris just to name a few)
-and then we have the replacements, Christian Braun has been better so far than KCP was last season, he should slot right in and if he can gain confidence with his shot, he will be fine
-Strawther seems like a good shooter on the bench, but we will see how that pans out, i have hopes he can play a good role this season
-Watson is one of the issues, so far it looks like he has rather regressed than improved in the offseason, if thats the case, he will be unplayable
-Westbrook is basically Roulette at this point, but as you can see against the Nets he had a huge impact on winning the game, i am aware that this is more a one off, but lets see what happens, he is on a min contract, so that should not be an issue
-Saric straight up sucks so far, nothing else to say
My point is, the biggest issues this team has are MPJ and Jamal Murray. If they get it together, we will be a contender, if not, we are fucked, but Jokic will still be good enough to get us to the 6th seed or something.
This looks like the Olympics where Jokic kept Serbia in the game against the US, but they get destroyed when he's off the court.
They went from a complete team. With everyone on the same page. To looking like the lakers the last couple of years. They 3-4 guys deep now no bench just Westbrook.
People r overreacting they have new players that have to get chemistry also the nuggets along with jamal tend to start slow n pick it up along the season i think theyll b fine they will b a top 4 seed and once the playoffs start there is no one id rather have over jokic
Looks like Nuggets are aware of this and are gonna grind this 9 man rotation till they figure it out. Might take 15 some games for this team to jell if it's possible. Having both Murray & MPJ both streaky shooters is brutal on the team. They simply need to find consistency in their shooting every night.. 💀
Subpar management overpaying players and provides no depth
I see why this channel isn’t growing.
Bro, chill out. It's literally only game 4 😂😂
All there doing is playing lazy right now trust me, they'll get it together 💯
Clown video. Clown comments. 4 games in. Team won two games back-to-back early in the season. Got into New York at 3am.
I love it when people hate on the Nuggets. It fuels them.
44 comments
just a reminder MPJ is on a max contract and they just overpaid murray after he averaged 6 points in the olympics
You are right based on what they have shown in first 4 games but…
1. MPJ is shooting 3p 0% (last 3 years he was 40%+)
2. Unless Jamal forgot how to play basketball, he is also at 10%-15% of his capabilities
3. Christian Braun so far is replacing well KCP
So, I would wait for ~20 games to make this type of conclussions
Nuggets need Bogdan Bogdanovic
Adding Westbrook as of late has been the clear sign of desperation that has failed every team, other than I guess the Wizards, who had their best season since 2017. The Rockets, Lakers and Clippers all tried their best with him, but he just shoots you out of crunch time or makes a boneheaded defensive mistake, and there's no reason to think that he's gonna figure out in Denver. He is bad off ball and hasn't had a jump shot since 2017. Denver GM should be fired if they miss the playoffs outright or get bounced in the play in.
If I'm Jokic I'm not going to work tomorrow, he already earned like 1 week holiday with those 4 games..
unfortunately, youre right. nuggets roster is lacking a lot and I see no way to fix it with assets that nuggets have.
more, I see no effort/attempt to fix it, not even understanding/acknowledgment of the problem by the fo/gm.
they're just doing a wrong thing after a wrong thing… they do very little, and even that little that they do is wrong and flawed.
basically – fo/gm/owners – don't look like they have a goal or high expectations re nuggets competing. so they do the bare minimum (picking up low drafts, signing / extending what's already there, and picking up players that no one wants and are sitting out there without contracts/interest).
It's hard to imagine WORSE management/leadership… They seem to be perfectly fine with leaching off of Jokic and running him into the ground. Same goes for couple of "stars" on the roster that you mentioned.
Just a sad, depressing environment.
I would love to see Jokic playing with a DECENT roster… One more star, capable shooters, a decent backup C (basically – 8-9 PO capable players… and nuggets have about 6 now)… But that's not happening in nuggets…
I mostly agree, except with the statement that they are not contenders. We are probably seeing the worst that the Nuggets will be this season. They are already improving and in a few weeks they are likely going to start resembling their old selves. Also, can we stop whining about KCP already? Judging by these four games, Christian Braun is a SOLID upgrade. The Nuggets' main issue right now is not that the KCP is gone or that the bench is terrible, it is that Murray and MPJ are not playing well. That's the first priority.
No. Denver will be just fine. Stop it!!! So many team invested millions in player without any results. Denver is a strong contender five years in a row, with one ring and one conference finals. They are not weaker at all, they are just tired and bored. Last season was bad because of Malone, he overplayed starters and they are pretty tired even now. With Strawther, Saric, Watson and Russ they have bigger rotation. It's just about time, but it will work. MPJ at this moment is in a shooting slump, but he looks like a veteran on the floor. His playmaking is better, rebounding, defence, everything is better every year. With better shooting he will be great, and it's just a matter of time.
Things are looking bad now, but the Nuggets will click, and players will adapt and become better, just wait.
As a nuggets fan. You’re absolutely correct about saying Malone would play someone over Porter and that’s been the problem. He’s using him incorrectly, he needs to let him iso more when he has mismatches on him. No reason Conley should have been able to “guard” him for an entire series. He always sits MPJ in defensive situations late game despite the fact that teams literally will attack Murray as opposed to MPJ because he’s actually a decent help defender just due to his length. His defensive struggles really only come when he’s guarding much quicker players. Which is usually the case because teams cross match due to putting their better taller defenders on Murray.
Jamal and MPJ are extremely overvalued and overpaid players, they both got lucky to play alongside Jokic otherwise they'd be irrelevant. Jamal got two good playoffs, the one in bubble and in 2023 but that's pretty much all he did for the Nuggets since he's drafted. He has never carried the team during the regular season, he missed two playoffs in Jokic's MVP seasons, never really been close to all star level outside of those two playoffs. But incompetent front office treat him as an absolute superstar and they gave him 208 mil/4 years contract. This makes his contract absolutely untradeable and I think it closed championship window for Jokic in Nuggets
The narrative that Jokic asked the front office to bring Westbrook is not true. Nuggets just consulted Jokic like any other team talk to their superstars about trades. And the choice for the Nuggets was very simple, they could keep Reggie Jackson who was pretty bad last season or bring Westbrook for the half of the Reggie's salary. There were no other options for Denver since they would hit 2nd apron with any other more expensive player
it was impossible to bring back Bruce Brown, btw. (unless he took way less money)
Bigges mistake giving max contracts to Murrey , Gordon and MPJ they should of traded for some of those guys
Idk y but that Murray air all 3 was funny asf. But this team show flashes of championship level dense and offense it just look like there rotations need to be better and need to communicate better because the amount of defensive lapses is inexcusable for a championship level team
You sound so stupid saying the nuggets are not contenders…
the starting 5 is still some of the highest plus minutes. Mpj and jamal can shoot and cb has been shooting close to kcp percentage. It's like you know nothing about the nuggets and you are just rehashing false talking points.
Pretty pathetic video…
Wrong on pretty much everything except the obvious…
The issue is not the young players but Jamal Murray and MPJ performances and their efficiency, if Murray still a threat the young guys will have less responsibilities and they can execute what was they asked for
NBA keeps paying damaged payers as if they are still perfect. Jamal Murray will not return. Kawhi Leonard will not return.
Without Jokic they wouldn’t even be a play-in team
Tucker I know you're a Nets fan so you understand that they're not supposed to be good this season, but as a Raptors fan, I know they're not a bad team. Both the Raptors and Nets should've won these games(I imagine the refs bailed out the Nuggets again last night), but the Raptors are heavily injured. They are not a bad team by any means, they're just not at the level of these major contenders, but going into the season, I knew the Nuggets weren't going to be good. it was a for sure thing that Porter Jr can't play defence, their bench has no offence and overall they're not a good defensive team(and can't shoot). That was evident, and now that it's actually being shown to people, everyone is surprised(which i really don't get tbh).
All last year, I kept saying that the Nuggets without Joker were not even a playoff team. And the organization did not make a move at the trade deadline, instead thinking they could rely on Jamal Murray (who always has some type of injury or excuse why he is not an all-star). Joker has to do literally everything, even help bring up the ball because they don't have good ball handlers to do even that, so their offense is slow to get going and they run out of time on the shot clock. Joker needs help now, so that by the end of the season, he won't be worn out and risk injury.
MPJ and someone else for Lauri and this team would be broken.
It's just not physical talent, I think it is more mental and basketball IQ that most players lack. The other Nuggets besides Joker, are great athletes, but not great basketball players. Also, they are not really skilled in basketball skills like dribbling, setting effective screens, etc. They are just strong, run fast or can jump.
Sky is falling!
Jokic has a average sixers team now embiid and jokic are even rn
Now they are gonna move the goalposts again to try and give Jokic another mvp 🙄
Still early in the season the law of averages will come around. Mpj wont be shooting this bad for the rest of the season nor will murray however denver has much to discuss when it comes to keeping murray with his injury
Lets wait about 20 games then will see,it is to early
MPJ, Gordon and Murray are still sleeping. Hopefully they wake up soon.
Afraid u r right but I'm still hoping!
Agree. They ruined it by giving max contracts to Murray and MPJ and thus not being able to bring beneficial player with an exception of AG. Worst part is they're not using Jokers prime time.
This is a over reaction, Nuggets finishing a top 4 seed in the West… Watch!
They have been playing jokic different this season alot more post ups reminds me of tim duncan
If this goes on, Jokic will also have to coach, clean the floor, bring the towels… drive the bus to the airport, check in everyone´s bag, be the steward on board… you name it. Otherwise, the Nuggets are done.
I really like you and your videos, but a lot of what you said is either not true, or just lazy takes. First of all, i agree with your takes on Jamal and MPJ, they have been pretty awful so far and if they don't turn it around, we might be in big trouble, but when it comes to the rest of the roster there are a few things i would like to point out:
-Please stop acting like Jeff Green was a key piece and irreplaceable. He had some good possessions and highlights, but overall he was a liability even in the championship season, going so far a lot of us would have not even given him minutes in the playoffs, so not resigning him was not a mistake
-second of all WE COULD NOT pay Bruce Brown because we did not have the bird rights, so the max that we would have been allowed to pay was around 8 million, this was not being stingy or anything, we were legally not allowed to pay him more
-when it comes to KCP, people will see how much he just profited of Jokics play, he is insanely overpayed by Orlando and it would have not made sense to pay him, i believe he will have the same faith as many players who thrive beside Jokic and just fall off after (Bruce Brown, Monte Morris just to name a few)
-and then we have the replacements, Christian Braun has been better so far than KCP was last season, he should slot right in and if he can gain confidence with his shot, he will be fine
-Strawther seems like a good shooter on the bench, but we will see how that pans out, i have hopes he can play a good role this season
-Watson is one of the issues, so far it looks like he has rather regressed than improved in the offseason, if thats the case, he will be unplayable
-Westbrook is basically Roulette at this point, but as you can see against the Nets he had a huge impact on winning the game, i am aware that this is more a one off, but lets see what happens, he is on a min contract, so that should not be an issue
-Saric straight up sucks so far, nothing else to say
My point is, the biggest issues this team has are MPJ and Jamal Murray. If they get it together, we will be a contender, if not, we are fucked, but Jokic will still be good enough to get us to the 6th seed or something.
This looks like the Olympics where Jokic kept Serbia in the game against the US, but they get destroyed when he's off the court.
They went from a complete team. With everyone on the same page.
To looking like the lakers the last couple of years. They 3-4 guys deep now no bench just Westbrook.
People r overreacting they have new players that have to get chemistry also the nuggets along with jamal tend to start slow n pick it up along the season i think theyll b fine they will b a top 4 seed and once the playoffs start there is no one id rather have over jokic
Looks like Nuggets are aware of this and are gonna grind this 9 man rotation till they figure it out. Might take 15 some games for this team to jell if it's possible. Having both Murray & MPJ both streaky shooters is brutal on the team. They simply need to find consistency in their shooting every night.. 💀
Subpar management overpaying players and provides no depth
I see why this channel isn’t growing.
Bro, chill out. It's literally only game 4 😂😂
All there doing is playing lazy right now trust me, they'll get it together 💯
Clown video. Clown comments. 4 games in. Team won two games back-to-back early in the season. Got into New York at 3am.
I love it when people hate on the Nuggets. It fuels them.