Locked On Nuggets - Daily Podcast On The Denver Nuggets

Takeaways from Jokic & Jamal Murray's Olympic debuts

Matt Moore and Adam Mares share their thoughts on Jokic and Team Serbia's loss to Team USA in the olympics. Plus, can the Denver Nuggets shoot well enough to contend against the Celtics? Lastly, what should we make of Jamal Murray's struggles since March?

Duration:: 39m
Broadcast on:: 29 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Nahkali Okich holds his own versus Team USA, but the Americans get the win. Shooting is a problem for Serbia, and to me it shows something that we got to talk about with regards to the Nuggets. Plus, hey here's a question, what's up with Jamal Murray, all that and more on World's Finest here on Lockdown Nuggets. You are Lockdown Nuggets, your daily Denver Nuggets podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to Lockdown Nuggets, your daily Denver Nuggets podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks for joining us and making us part of your day. Appreciate you guys being with us Monday through Friday. We are going to keep four shows we're running here in the off-season as we reach the downtime. We got lots to talk about between Olympics with both Team Serbia and Team USA and Team Canada. We will talk about off-season content. We'll talk about how Russell Westbrook fits in, the bench units, lots of stuff that we're going to continue to talk about, and we're glad to have you with us for every step of the off-season here on Lockdown Nuggets. Today's show is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code LockdownNBA for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. This is World's Finest. My name is Matt Morrim, the Senior NBA Writer for the Action Network, joined by Director of Content for DNVR. He's Adam Marrez on today's show. We'll talk about Jamal Murray and what's been up with him, with a weird start for him with Team Canada. We'll talk about shooting with Team Serbia and what it kind of shows about the Nuggets and playing around the Koli Yokos, but we start at him with Serbia's 26-point loss to Team USA in the Olympic opener for both teams. Team USA gets a phenomenal performance from Kevin Durant, who is having a little... I am excited to see it feels like a turning point in Kevin Durant's arc of his career with public perception. I've been really enjoying the content from Kevin Durant the last couple of weeks in terms of social media, and obviously his play was fantastic, but, look, Nicole Yokich does what he does, and he has an absolutely phenomenal game, and his team gets crushed without him, and they wind up losing. Yokich finishes with 20 points, 5 boards, 8 assists, shooting 8-15 from the field, 1-6 from 3. Yeah, that's all the misses were 3's. Yeah, 1 of note, notably. That is a plus minus of zero. Against Team USA with LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, the names go on and on. I think this is his greatest one, like we've done these before, like he was a plus at a team game they lost by whatever. I think this might be his Mona Lisa. It is. That they were... That he played Team USA even. To draw. Yeah. He played him to a draw. In his minutes. Which, I'm always like, look, the other four guys were on the floor for it, but the minute that he stepped off, they just get absolutely Molly walked, and part of that, too, has to do with the fact that, like I will say, some of that is exaggerated, but the fact that I love Team USA's bench unit, like I enjoy it a lot more. Man, they're like as good at the starters, really. That's the whole... Yeah. I like the way that the bench unit plays together. That Bam 80 combo is just like set from hell. Well, they held him to three points in those nine minutes. He didn't play. I mean, that's... Yeah. But it really is. I think, you know, there's that part of me that's like, man, this is like the story of Yoakich's career. This is the story of what it seems like every game for him. There's that part of me that starts to go like, okay, isn't there something about this? But then I'm like, no, there can't be. Like one, this is Team USA. Like I can't expect Team Serbia to compete with Team USA without its best player on the floor. Two, like it's entirely different context when it's in Olympic play versus like regular season basketball. It is apples to oranges. So it is a funny recurrent theme, you know, swipe between the other day. He's like, just once I would like to see Nicole Yoakich play with another all time player, like everybody, all the other greats get to do and like watching these teams fall apart without him and what he's asked to carry, I think is pretty notable beyond the box score stuff. Well, first of all, I want to say every team is going to look like this against Team USA. So some of this is, because I know the Serbs are going to get really upset about this. You know, it's a good guys, it is a good team by international standards. It's just Team USA is a good team by any standard. Yeah, um, beyond the, the, the encore off court stuff, what is like the big takeaway that you had? Let's start with Team Serbia. What was your big takeaway from, from Team Serbia? Well, I just want to talk about Yoakich, to be honest with you, because this game was a lot of fun. It was a really well played game. I love the way that Team Serbia played. They move the ball quick. They get out and transition. Their transition game in the first quarter of that game was unbelievable. They had a couple fast breaks, like rebounds that they got the ball across half court in one second with two passes, you know, pass pass like guys, just making quick reads. And it was fun to watch that level of, you know, just fast mind, fast thinking and fast reacting. So that was fun. But my big takeaway is this. Yoak, we've, we've, we've been talking about this a little bit, bearded yoke, bearded tan yoke seems to have a little edge to him more than what we've seen. Like he almost seems a little meaner, a little more intense, a little more angry. And in this game, I felt that just, he just played with an anger to him and kick Joelle and beads ass. That was a dominant performance. Like only one guy looked terrible on TBOSA, it was Joelle and bead and yoke went at him over and over and over again in a way where it was like, man, this is loud. And so that was great. I thought yoke was just looked on top of his game. What I thought was interesting is that MB in terms of box score stuff has had a stretch run here in NBA play of having good games against Yokech, right. And there is that part of me that's just like, is this really just an officiating difference? Like how this is just like, and like, Yokech can defend him differently because he doesn't have to worry about the, uh, yeah, the pal baiting, he just got the nonsense. Um, I was going to use stronger words than that, um, for, for what he's able to generate. And like, actually has to play because, you know, Yokech that the and one that he had on in Bead was an all time beauty probably like needs to go on an all time highlight reel for, for Yokech, just from the stakes of it, it wasn't like necessarily like insane from, you know, compared to like the Anthony Davis, uh, saw more shuffle or anything. But like, I just, I was really, and it really is impressive to me that there are so many guys that I think in international competition and you see that that like they are a little uncertain, they are a little uncomfortable. And that goes for even air players that routinely play in international competition because the stage is so big. And for Yokech to just go out there and be this guy to, to make the reads, to control the game, the fact that you can put him on any floor and that's who he is. Like, this is an incredible, I have a hot take for you though. Hit me. Hit me. We get a hot one. Yeah. They always tell the story of George Mike and most dominant big man in the NBA, this court, the paint was this narrow, right? So they had to widen it. All of a sudden he lost all of his power. It was like, it was like his game seemed to only be, uh, effective within the confines of this one rule and you change it and everything's off. I think I've, and I've long said this about him being like, this is going to be a haters ball. Of course, you know, we're talking here, but I, but I actually mean this sincerely. When people compare guys, they always will look like, look at the jumps, the jumper. Look at the handle. Look at the post up. Look at the follow way. And it's like guys, that's one thing. That's one on one scoring. He's very good at it. And he does rely on some of the foul ball drawing, but he's also just good at it in general. But basketball is as much, actually it's more about how you set things up for the other four guys on the court, how you work together. And Yokech is one of the best ever at any position at doing that. And Embiid is actually below average at doing that. And he's on a team right now where the most important skill he has is setting things up for everyone else. And he just isn't good at it. He doesn't know how to do it. He looks out of place. And meanwhile, Yoke, you could literally throw him into, you throw him into water basketball, you put a hip and then swim around, he'll adjust his game and his skill set to it. He can play any type because he has all skills and he understands the interplay of five guys on one court. I think it's great take. I think I'm thinking a lot about Katie lately. I've just been thinking a lot about Kevin Durant because last season, like I really was like, I would watch Durant nightly and be like, God, Katie's good. Like he's just so good at like the basketball stuff, like dribbling and footwork and release point. But he's like, it beat to me though. Good one. I'm getting there. Yeah. And that's the thing is that so much of NBA, this is the thing. So much of the NBA is built around those one on one skills and about guys working as a team or individually to stop those one on one players. And that's where a lot of the respect I think comes from is if you're still good at the one on one stuff, despite the NBA being built to stop the one on one stuff, then that like raises you up a level. I think within the league, I think that's how players talk about. It's one of the reasons why I think there's always a differential between how the players will talk about certain guys and how the non the rest of the human race will talk about. We'll talk about these players because I'm with you in that I've always kind of felt I've kind of reached a point where I'm like, I think Katie is one of the best individual basketball players I've ever seen. And also I can say like he does not make his other teammates, like he does not raise them up. But what's interesting is he is his role on this team doesn't require that he's lucky. Like LeBron is the table setter. Yep. Steph Curry kind of gets to move up all he gets to ball a little bit, but Kevin Durant just gets to catch and shoot or go make quick decisions as a score and it were that that's his skill set. So he is in the perfect spot for his. And I think with him, Bead, what'll be interesting, I mean, and this is we're talking about it was less about the nuggets less about yolk itch and more about just basketball in general. But I'm going to be curious to see if indeed can make quick decisions because that's really the key to it. Don't hold the ball. Can you score without holding it and Katie can like catch in the break quick. He's just doing quick stuff. If Katie was trying to hold the ball and do his stuff, it wouldn't work either. But he clearly has adjusted at least that part of it. And we'll see if indeed can and I'll say this like I thought nurse did a really good job last year with giving and Bead options offensively with the Sixers to make things easier for him to do those things. But that's kind of the trick is like yolk itch is the one that makes it easy for the coach, right? Like that's kind of not taking away from Michael Malone, but that that's kind of the key here is that kind of kind of element to it. One of the reasons the team Serbia was not able to hang with Team USA was their three point shooting, which to me says something about what we're going to need to look at with the nuggets. And an ongoing question that Adam and I have, which is what is the role of shooting when you're playing around a totally yolk itch? How important is it? And what does that mean for next season? We'll talk about that up next here on locked on nuggets. Hi, I'm Jake from locked on. 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Adam Maras and the Matt Moore breaking down Team USA versus Serbia and the very philosophy of what basketball is on my day. This is a very world, it's a very world's finest show. It's a very world's finest show. In this game, the United States shot 18 of 32 from three point range for 56%, which I'm being told in, hold on, I'm hearing, that's good. The Team Serbia shot nine of 37, 24% from three and it's a big reason why Team Serbia didn't really have a chance in the non-Yokech minutes. So Adam, when I was watching this game and watching those misses and some of those were definitely created, it's a reason why Yokech was only a zero and not a plus, I do wind up coming back to this element, which is there's been an evolution over the last couple of years of how much the nuggets have taken threes and all these types of things and you've really influenced the way that everyone talks about Nicole because I don't think anybody understands his game better than you, but communication so complimentary, I just want to point it out, it's really, it's really nice, I got to send you on vacation more. We'll be saying a little bit, sir, that's a great food, so let's, but I think, one of the things I think about a lot is you were one of the first ones to be like, you need to put athleticism around Yokech and I was like, I don't understand that, like his game is so cerebral, why do you need the athleticism? Like you were one of the first to kind of point out the connection between him and Feree where I was like, well, Feree's not like a really cerebral player, so that's not really going to work, right? Like even though, yeah, he hits him with some lobs, but you really pointed that out. And when the nuggets started getting Aaron Gordon and MPJ even because of his size, like that's part of the athleticism component here and like various guys, you kind of point out the strength of adding athletic defenders around Yokech's game. And one of the things that's kind of transitioned is because they've gotten so good at being able to slice and dice on the interior and create high percentage two point looks. One of the things that happened last year was like they didn't take as many threes. Three point percentage wasn't bad, they weren't a bad shooting team, but versus 2023, they were one of the best, I think they were the best three, like true, EFG teams, they were only really good. And so one of the things I do kind of wonder is like with Yokech's playmaking and everything that he does, you can create these two pointers. And the efficiency can be really high, which will give you a chance. But if you want to win by margin, I think you need the efficiency of three point shooting. And that's where it really just does come down to this. And I think through all this, and then there's this part of my brain that goes. So you're saying that making the ball making the shot is better than not making it. Great stuff, Matt, dynamite, awesome, phenomenal, but I do think that this is a huge part of it is you need a really good balance of interior and perimeter scoring. And you do need efficiency, I think, in order around Yokech, there's got to be a very balanced ecosystem to make the most of what Yokech brings to the table offensively. I mean, shooting is just really important in general for a team. You have to have it. And by the way, some of this includes Yokech, like part of what makes Yokech so dynamic is his ability to stretch the big out, out high on the perimeter. I think he would break the game if he could make his threes and the fact that he is so off on this now for a postseason, a regular season, and now the Olympics, you know, through one game, it is a concern to me. But yes, it's one of the top concerns for me for the nuggets of this year going going into it is that they just don't have a lot of options at shooting. And if you have an injury to Jamal, Michael Porter, by the way, injury risk players or Julian Strouther, any of those three guys get injured and Denver's going to be the worst shooting team, no matter who they play, they'll be the worst shooting team in the league. So it's a real concern. You've got to be able to space the floor. But shooting is that thing that everybody needs, but you need to be a shooter and right? You need to be a shooter and defender, shooter and rebounder, shooter and cutter. And Denver, you know, that's hard to find. Every time a shooter adds an and to their skill set, they become more expensive, you know. So that's Denver. That's the pickle that Denver has, but it is a concern. Yeah. And so I go back and forth on this, which is I think there's oftentimes a drag, you know, there is, there is objectively a drag on efficiency when you bring up volume. It's one of the reasons why the best three point shooting teams in terms of volume are very, are almost never at the top in terms of efficiency, which sometimes that's confusing where it's like, why do they take so many threes if they're not good at it? And the answer is because they're so good at it, they take so many threes. And that's why their efficiency isn't as good because they take so many because over the course of attempts, you're just going to kind of drop a little bit. I actually kind of wonder if some of that is like related to the, the way that the nuggets have scored with a two point range. And like you've talked about this on other podcasts, you talked about this on low post of how, and like everyone's kind of agreed, the offense needs a little bit of a jolt with the nuggets in terms of creativity and these types of things where there needs a little bit more dynamicism. And I do think that over time, especially last year, it was like the nut, you can't sit there and be like, the nuggets fell off offensively. Like, no, they were one of the best teams in the, they had a top five half court offense. They were one of the best teams in the league offensively, like all of these things. The problem is that at this point, if you're going to, if you're going to set the bar as title, then it's like, well, of course, you can't win a title if you don't have an elite offense. You just, I don't think you can in 2024. I just do not believe that you can do that. And so if that's the bar, then it's like, okay, how good is good enough? And then the question is like, you need to maximize everything. You need to make the margin for error, which I always talk about so wide. This is what the Celtics did. The Celtics were, in my opinion, their resume, they have one of the greatest seasons in NBA history. This was not one of the greatest teams in NBA history. This is not one of the greatest teams among title teams that we've seen. And I'm not trying to just like diminish them out of hate. It's just like, look, man, when I analyze them, that's what I come away with. But you know what they did have, they had a massive margin for error, they had a massive margin for error every game because their offense was so good and their defense was so good. And I don't even know that like, I think that they found a way to maximize that team by balancing everything out, but you don't want that with the Nuggets. You don't want Nicole, you know, just taking a backseat. You don't want less, less Nicole, like that's not what you want. And so if you, if you don't want that, then it's like, all right, you better be hyper maximizing everything around yolk itch. And that's got to be, that's got to be cutting. That's got to be spacing. That's got to be shooting. And I, I will say that I am concerned that this Nuggets team after the loss of Contavious Caldwell Pope, like I have real concerns about how much they can maximize, maximize spacing and three point shooting. And a lot of this is like, because even if you want to be like, look, Christian Browns above the break, yada, yada, yada, hope get it. We've talked about that, right? It's like, all right. Yeah, but can, can CB become the kind of threat that KCP is as a shooter? And that is almost as important, not as, but almost as important as actually making the thing because making the thing opens up the other stuff. To me, what I like, I don't have hope for that. I just don't think that's a realistic expectation for, for CB. I think he might make his threes, but we'll have the same stretch, you know, ability to stretch the floor. And then if you go a step further, like, can Denver match this season, this upcoming season, would no matter what they do, are they going to be able to match the three-point effectiveness of the top three-point shooting teams like a Boston? And I just think the answer is no. There are things that they can do to make themselves better, in my opinion, which includes injecting some new wrinkles into their offense, getting more movement, you know, for guys like Michael Porter and Julian Strathor and, you know, I think I love, that's one of the things I really like about Serbia is they really move a lot more in the half-court setting than the nuggets do, but here's the question, but here's the question that is more interesting to me. Assuming Denver can't make up the gap, the talent gap, the three-point talent gap that they have in the roster, assuming they can't make that up, can't, is it important or is there another way? And I don't know the answer to that. It is interesting to think about, can Denver zig on this, where you have the Celtics who are going to take 43s a night, and Denver who's not, it was going to take maybe 28, 29 threes, like 10, a meaningful amount fewer, but they're going to kill you on the glass, they're going to kill you in the paint, and they're going to own another piece of real estate, and now you just battle to see which one wins. That's the question, and I think the math people will tell you know that the game has been solved to a degree to where you can no longer do those things, but Yokoch is such a unique player that if there is a guy out there that can anchor a team that wins up of offensive rebound and floater shots and paint points, it's him and the team built around him. So we'll see. With the caveat that neither of one of us are ever going to tell Nicole Yokoch how to play basketball, because that would be probably a bad idea. Is there going to be a point where you're just going to want Nicole Yokoch to stop taking so many threes? Like is there going to be a point where you're just going to be like, I would rather he just kind of like diminish that part of his game? No, because he still makes them and teams will try to jam it up by by sinking into the paint. So like you kind of have to, you know, he's going to have to take them and he's just going to have to be better at making them. I mean, it's the one part of his game that I think you can talk about improving. By the way, Nicole, Yokoch is going to be a nugget for his entire career, just I never say things like that. That's going to happen. I'm just getting some comments in the. Well, actually, so I see Bosco out here. The Serbs in my experience are usually tough. Bosco's kind of soft, man. This guy over here is complaining that I'm too hard probably the number one Yokoch guy in the entire universe that I am putting too much on hard. It's too hard for him. He should go like him beat. He should have joined Team USA. You know how good he would have looked if he was on Team USA? He would have looked unbelievable. Is y'all how good he played now? That's what we should do. That's what we should do is we should say it. Don't even ban Bosco. I want to hear. I want to watch him kind of flail on this. Honestly, the softest serve I've ever, I'm assuming serve the softest serve I've ever met in my life. We should. I'm going to start advocating. I love you, Bosco. You're free to have your opinion, but that was weak. I'm going to, I'm going to start advocating for Yokoch to get US citizenship and join Team USA so you can finally play with the level of star that folks can do. I mean, and then here's the thing like in a certain sense, he's not wrong in that yoke is being asked to do more to win than most players who have had to win, right? That's the thing. The question is, but we still have to talk about the team within the context of what's available to them. And Denver does not have a great shooting roster. Therefore, Yokoch's three point shooting becomes more important. Is it fair? No, life's not fair. Part of what makes yoke great is he overcomes a lot of things that aren't fair. I believe the Serbs call that E-not, but I, Bosco, I don't know if he's familiar with that word. Up next, one of Yokoch's co-stars is not having a great run in international basketball, even though it's early. Jamal Murray comes off the bench and doesn't really do much. What's going on with Jamal Murray? We'll talk about that up next here on Lockdown Nuggets. Hey, every dayers, for your second listen, enjoy the Lockdown NBA podcast. There's no offseason in the NBA and Lockdown NBA provides daily basketball analysis from national and local experts in 30 minutes or less. No one keeps you as informed and entertained as Lockdown NBA, available on YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. Here at the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. Back here on Lockdown Nuggets, thanks for joining us and making this part of your day. I appreciate you guys being with us here on Monday, World's Finest with you. Tomorrow, we'll have Swipe with us on Tuesday and then on Wednesday, Adam and I are back on World's Finest. Swipe and gripe, we'll move to Thursday as we're doing four shows a week for the offseason. Okay. Let's talk about Jamal Murray. So Canada gets the win in their opener to Olympic play. They get the win beating Greece, 86, 79. By the way, talk about a team that does not have a lot around their superstar. Like I'm watching Janis and just being like, God, this guy is Sisyphus with this current grease team. It's rough what Janis has around him. But Jamal Murray in the win over over Greece on Saturday, he comes off the bench, he checks in late in the first quarter, he finishes with eight points on two of six shooting in 18 minutes. He had three assists, but he also had three turnovers. He did hit two clutch free throws late. We've seen Jamal miss time, like sit out and then come back. I am of the concern level at this point that Jamal is either still dealing with an injury related to what ended the season or has suffered a new injury at some point in Olympic training and that because of the narrative around him and because of how much I think this team Canada doesn't run does mean to him. This is a special year for team Canada with the guys that they have available. I think he's trying to push through that and they're going to get done in late August and training camp is going to start the last week of September. It's not far away, man. We were doing it the math the other day. I think it's 10 weeks and now less than 10 weeks. This is what I hate about international basketball and Olympic basketball in relation to the NBA regular season. It's not that international basketball is just like, it's really inconvenient when it's like guys that need three months off, get a month. It's a huge differential. When we saw this honestly back in 2021, I just want to reiterate this. The last time that we had this kind of gap of a month and like Jamal did have all of May, all of June, some of July, but the last time that we had this was after the pandemic, the bubble run, they had a month for those that ended the season that late and then they started the 2021 season. It was not an ultimately great year for Jamal for a number of really horrible reasons and I'm not going to sit here and say like, oh, he's going to suffer another injury because one, I don't ever want to put that out into the universe, right? But too, it's also just like that's not how bodies work. I am reaching a point though where this is concerning that Jamal was injury plagued last year was good. I want to stress that he wasn't bad last year. It's not like Jamal average 15 points on 30% shooting, like he was good last year. He didn't make the leap anyone expected from him. And then the playoff run and now we're here, like, I don't know how to look at this and not have a level of concern. I always do the DEF CON rating where five is like everything's fine and one is imminent nuclear warfare. Like I'm at three heading towards two here with Jamal on a DEF CON status based on my concern level for what this is going to look like for the short to intermediate term for him in his career, which is over the next, I don't know, 18 months, I'm a little concerned at this point. I mean, I'm very concerned, you know, what I'd say to is Jamal is he doesn't look happy, you know, when you watch him play, he looks like he has a weight on his soul. He looks slow. He looks injured. He doesn't. There's guys that just are playing with this pride and joy and excitement and he just doesn't seem to be having those things. So I'm, I'm definitely worried that it's been this long stretch. There's been a lot of conversation. Look, Jamal is, I think Jamal is a very self conscious guy, probably a very sensitive guy, but a very self conscious guy that sometimes the loudest talkers are often the most like in, you know, self conscious. And I think that this is probably again, I don't know, this is just me speculating, but I have to imagine this has been a tough off season for him. He got clowned on the court. Everybody kind of blamed him as far as players go blame him for what happened in the playoffs. And now you go through this whole part to team Canada and all of a sudden you're looking around and like there's conversations on the internet about whether he should be playing ahead of Andrew Nemhard. Two years ago, we were saying he was better than Devin Booker. Now we're down here to, I think he's better than Andrew Nemhard, but I don't know, like might not be the better option. I think I have to imagine he is feeling a lot of stress, but there's a way out of it because he's so talented. And the thing is, is I really do think that this is going to be a turning point summer for Jamal Murray. And I don't know if he's going to look great in Canada, just because he looks so far away from being great in that game. He had some good plays by the way. Let's not make it sound like he was terrible. He had some really nice, like one really nice drive finish in the lane, that baseline fall away. That's one of his signature shots. It looked phenomenal. That might have been the end of the list to be honest, but at least he had those. But this is a turning point where I think he's going to have to look in the mirror and say I am good enough. I am good enough as all of my fans say, but I haven't been as good. I have been as bad or underperformed perhaps because of injury, but maybe those injuries are things I can also help mitigate. And that's the question with Jamal right now. I think Nugget's fans have a healthy concern about what they've seen and how long it's been since we've been reminded of how great Jamal Murray really is. I look at everything this off season and there's a very interesting mix here. I try and get a sense for these teams that it's hard when you're not in all these markets and talking to people, but especially it's hard to talk to anybody right now. Everybody's on vacation and gone, but it's like I try and get a sense for where all these teams are at on a vibe scale. Like I didn't think that momentum and these type of things are important. Like I think there's a lot of really good vibes with OKC. Like I think OKC is not only like a really great team, but I think there's like a look up we accomplished in just like the first year real run, like that's like there is like a feeling of that's just the start. Maybe at least over confidence Denver, you've got personal tragedy with Aaron, which like my thoughts have been with Aaron Gordon just about every like every time I thought about basketball. I thought about like what Aaron Gordon's going through. You've got Yokich who clearly, I think you kind of identify like you have identified this that his comments about like, look at what they have. What do you want me to do? Like this is the first time I think that Yokich has ever really reached a level of being a little bit tired of, you know, I mentioned Janice and Sisyphus. This is the first time I've ever felt like Yokich has kind of looked over while carrying a boulder and been like, get a little sick of this guys. Right. Right. And a hundred percent. But here's the thing that's so great about sports map. Players and people do have the opportunity to learn along the way and people could come into your life who show you something you've never been showed before or articulate something people have been trying to show you, but articulate it or demonstrate it in a way that it makes it click for you. This has happened in my own personal life with, you know, with many things where it's like I'm begging my head against the wall over something for years and all of a sudden someone articulates it away and we're like, Oh, that's the problem. Like, okay, here's how I find the solution. This is the way around it. And my hope is that West Russell Westbrook for all of his flaws and he has a lot and he's going to be a headache for Michael Malone. But my hope is he will be a success if he does one thing. He is terrible at everything else, but he gets or demonstrates something to Jamal that makes him realize that's what's needed. This level of intensity approach taking care of my body, work ethic, leadership, all those things. If he has a positive impact on Jamal, but is terrible as a player himself, it will have been a win of assigning because Jamal is way more important to this team than Russell Westbrook is. And he's way more important to this team than any of the other variables we're going to be talking about, including depth and shooting and everything else. Also, also, I saw Hurricane you replying to him here as like, is there anybody that's on the side? Guys, the internet's not real. It's a very self-selecting cross section. So you are right that the internet has been, you know, Twitter, Reddit, whatever, has been very hard on Jamal Murray, the comments section of YouTube videos. But I also talk to regular, you've been pings, you know, people that are just out in the real world. Much different conversation. And Murray, he's taking a lot of heat to the people who are online because the people who are online are the ones that obsess about the stuff the most. Most nuggets fans go. He had a bad series. Also, I think everybody wants to have a strong take. Yeah. On the internet in particular. It's not fun to just be like, yeah, I mean, he's, you know, good player could be better. Right. Not fun. You know, I think you mentioned kind of the rough stuff. I did the other thing here is what I was kind of trying to get to is there's been so much like negative stuff. But I, there's that part of me that's like, this is like a real opportunity for this team to like come together and overcome adversity. Like they're either going to get going to come together and find the best way to help one another and really come back with a determination on revenge tour, I think is a, is a lot. But it would be viewed there as like internally as a revenge tour to remind people of where they were two years ago and they could overcome all that and it'll be a really satisfying story or they're going to split her apart. You know, like I look at Michael Malone and there are a number of things that I'm really concerned with about this upcoming season with Michael Malone. But I also look at the fact that he was at every single summer league practice and is involved as he was as like a real sign of where Malone's head is. And that I think a lot about last year, I, you know, again, this is professional sports. You go out there and you compete and you get judged on it. But I do look at last year, a lot is like, to me there was, and I said this a lot during the season and we didn't talk about it because I don't, I'm not going to do those kind of thing. Malone was dealing with, with a lot of personal grief last year of loss of his father, like that last year, such a weird year for the Nuggets as a whole. I think it's part of honestly why, when we talk about it was mentally and physically taxing. It really is when you go down the line, a lot of people, including Yogic, by the way, who had his own like things with his brother, obviously the news has come out now that, you know, that fight in the stands now is going to, you know, becomes a legal thing. So I just think that last year was a heavy one for a lot of people. And by the way, including Jamal Murray also has some stuff, you know, he's dealing with. So I think it was a heavy year, but again, athletes, a lot of people have it and, you know, how you respond is really the story. And that's what makes up sport so great. That's what makes this whole thing so interesting. And, you know, I will remind you, Jamal Murray didn't just play poorly. He also threw something on the court out of frustration. Yeah. Like to me, a lot of that to me was the tipping point for how people feel about Jamal. I think if they would have had bad, I do think there would have been a little bit more of a, he had a bad series, he gets injured a lot, but is it his fault, whatever conversation. But that to me was indicative of something else in him of like, all right, is he not looking in the mirror, like to do something that childish and that irrational is part of the conversation here. And he's going to have to unfortunately wear it. And I hope he looks internally and comes back with a vengeance and grows from it. I've just, it's, it's doing this as long as we have. I have seen the, all the, these crazy arcs and it's amazing to think about the high point of Jamal, you know, 30 points, 50, 40, 90 in the conference finals. Unbelievable. That's 30 point triple double in the NBA finals, like these things, and like how on top of the world he was, so good he was too consistently good. And then like the moment where he throws that towel on the floor is like a professional low moment for him. Right. Now there's part of me that's also like, I'm, there is that, there's that part of me that is like, okay, so do we think that he's like growing or learning from it? And then you have like how you responded to Vinny's comments of Vinny's questions about his contract. And I'm like, nope, same Jamal, which hey, he could deal with the media however he wants. And that's got nothing to do with his growth. Also this question. Why don't you give MPJ the same stuff? I mean, part of this is a guy's contract is what the team gave them. You know, that's, that's like everybody would take the contract. Thank you. Marie is the number two. MPJ is like the number three or four. So, you know, if MPJ was the number two, yes, he's making that kind of money and he needs to play, you know, for the nuggets to win, he needs to play better than he did in the playoffs. But he's not the number two. I've also suggested that if it were possible that the nuggets should probably look to trade MPJ for multiple role players. Like I've suggested. Yeah. I don't think it's possible. Maybe. Okay. I don't think it's possible. But I think that that's something that like should be explored. Also, also the team is set up to Jamal's strength. Like the team is not set up to Michael Porter's strength. And also you can't really say that constantly like I was on here during the low point when Jamal was like at the peak, everyone was like piling on and I was like, look, like trying to be balanced because like that's where I'm always at is I'm always trying to be like, hey, that's probably too far. Listen, you know, I guess that when it's up here, trying to, I've said this on Twitter, like when you're at the top, trying to bring you back down to street level, when you're in the sewer, trying to bring you up out of the muck and like, that's where I'm always kind of trying to be. Okay. Good sport to Bosco, by the way, shout them out because that was hard on him. But you know, all out of love. Yeah. No, good for Bosco for hanging in and still taking the comments here on youtube.com/lockedonnuggets. If you want to come in and talk expolive and then get dunked on, you too can join us at youtube.com/lockedonnuggets. Thanks for joining us. I appreciate you guys being with us. So I will be with you tomorrow. World's finest on Wednesday. We'll talk more about Team USA, Team Serbia. We'll go through all that as well as whatever comes up in the off season. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you guys again next time on Locked On Nuggets. 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