Locked On Nuggets - Daily Podcast On The Denver Nuggets
How Important Is Russell Westbrook to the Nuggets Title Chances?
The Denver Nuggets have signed Russell Westbrook and Dario Saric as their key free agency signings and this has given the Denver Nuggets bench a brand new identity. How good could they be?
Westbrook and Jokic bother offer unique traits as players but how will the work together? Can they lift up the Nuggets when the starters are mostly out of the game?
The Nuggets are going to be dependent on their bench more than every with KCP's departure...but could they sneakily be better? Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
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- Duration:
- 31m
- Broadcast on:
- 23 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I don't know about y'all, I am personally very excited to see the Russell Westbrook era start in Denver, Colorado. If you know me, I've been advocating for Russell Westbrook to be on this team since Bruce Brown left to go to the Indiana Pacers, but there's a reason why I think he actually fits really well with this team and this could be the move for the Denver Nuggets. We're going to talk about all that more here on Lockdown Nuggets. You are Lockdown Nuggets, your daily Denver Nuggets podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on y'all? Welcome to Lockdown Nuggets, this is your host Swiper, this is your team every day. So glad that you are here. So great to see y'all. Haven't seen y'all in a few days since the last time I saw y'all, a little bit of a birthday took place and your boy had a lot of fun, man, did a lot of great things, a lot of great activities. Hope you had a great weekend y'all, but y'all, I haven't seen you. We haven't been able to talk since Russell Westbrook was going to be a Denver Nuggets. I, for one, was excited. I, for one, have looked forward to this moment and there are some real basketball reasons why I think Russell Westbrook is a really good fit for this team. And let me say this, let me qualify this 1000%. There are things about Russell Westbrook's game that can be perilous. There are things that he does of the basketball player that might not work out super well. Even though his decision making, definitely it's not what you want to see sometime as a shooter, as a passer, he can overshoot, he can overpass, throw the ball over his head, hit the side of the backboard, all of those things are true. But again, you're going to hear a lot of people talk about the negative things that he does. And that's going to be very consistent. Now the other part of this is there's a lot of negative things a lot of players do. But Russell Westbrook, when he walks into a building, when he steps on a team because his name carries so much weight, people are always ready to talk about the things he doesn't do well and the things he does do well. And if you ask me for this Denver Nuggets team, I think Russ has a really special opportunity in front of him. And the thing that Russ is going to be able to give the Denver Nuggets is a consistent player at getting pressure on the rim, at creating opportunities for other people and he's going to be an excellent secondary ball handler. Now here's the thing. You know, if you look at the Boston Celtics last year, they had Drew Holiday, Derek White, Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown, Peyton Prichard, they had a bunch of ball handlers. And if they needed to get somebody in the game to get a bucket, they had about five dudes they could trust and say, hey, we need you to be able to get us into a spot, get your own shot or create a shot for somebody else. Now they all do it at varying levels, JT at the top, maybe Derek White, then Jalen Brown and then you get Drew Holiday and then you get Peyton Prichard. But the thing that gave them the ability to do is to be very flexible with their lineup construction. That is what the Nuggets had when Bruce Brown was on the roster. Bruce Brown, Jamal Murray, KCP, Christian Brown, Aaron Gordon, Nico Leyokits. And varying degrees of ball handling. Well, when you have that many players that you can give the ball to and say, at least get us into the proper spot, into the proper play, that stuff is very helpful. And here goes Russell Westbrook. Russell Westbrook is a great facsimile to what Bruce Brown was because he can get to the rim. He can pass, he's a good defender when he locks in, especially on ball. Russ is a very good athlete, even if Russ is in 2012 athletic, 2015 athletic. Russ is still already the second most, the second best athlete of the guard position on the Nugget behind Christian Brown. So there are a lot of things that Russ does really well. He's going to help this team and I think that a lot of people kind of have to come to terms with the fact that when you're bringing six men in there to veteran, you're always going to lose something when Jamal goes out of the game. Not going to have the shooting or not going to have the floor space that you're not going to have that ability to get to a big, big, big, hedgy, hedgy, hedgy, crossover shot. You're not even going to have like the ability to hit a step back three side, step three or floor space, Jamal Murray running off ball. The thing that Russ is going to add to this roster is that he's going to give you a player who knows exactly what his role is supposed to be. And again, containing Russ to that role, that's a separate conversation. Can Russ fill in that role? That's a different conversation. And if you're asking me if Russ can step into a primary at times, but a secondary ball handler that allowed for Jamal Murray to play off ball or if Jamal Murray needs to take a rest or if Jamal Murray misses a game, Russ gives them a real point guard and there's just stuff. There's just stuff that you cannot replicate with having a real point guard in a lineup. Now Reggie Jackson, again, Colorado kid, NBA champion himself, you know, he did the very best job he could. He played the entire season last year. Russ is, he played 68 games last year. He did miss a few games because of injury, hand injury in particular. So hopefully he does get about 70 games out of him this year because the nuggets you're going to need, especially if Jamal's not going to be there at times. But the thing about Russ is I think his ability to be able to tap into like a wealth of information is so important, especially when we talk about it here in a little bit, we're going to talk about this fit next to Nikhaleo Kitch and bear just things that he is going to be able to do next to Joker next to Aaron Gordon at times next to Christian Brown next to Michael Porter Jr. Now they're going to have to work out a lot of that spacing like a lot of people that have talked to about this can Aaron Gordon and Christian Brown and Russell Westbrook play together. You don't want that lineup a lot, that three man lineup, there's not a single great shooter. Now Christian, you know, brother break 42% from three, Aaron Gordon in playoffs, you know, in the second round shot, 50% from three. But you know, you don't, that's not stuff you're consistently relying on. Christian needs to be a better shooter. But if you're putting Russell Westbrook in lineups where you allow for that staggered to happen and he's allowed to operate as a primary playmaker man, there is just some things the nugget can tap into now that they couldn't and I've also mentioned this many times that if you're going to have a guard next to Jamal Murray, that guard has to be able to be a primary defender on the other team best guard when the starters on all out there. Has to happen. And I think Russ, he is going to be able to because of minutes he's going to play because of the role they're going to ask him to play and again, hopefully because this is going to be a real chance for him to win a championship. I think he's going to be able to commit so much more energy to the defensive end, so much more energy to rebounding, so much more energy to getting the ball where it needs to be that that is going to accentuate his value all that much more seriously all that much more. And I think that this is going to be a really good opportunity for Jamal Murray to pick his brain, learn from an MVP player, learn some, you know, multiple time all NBA player. One of the greatest players ever. And Russ, it's going to be a crowd favorite. That's the thing about Colorado, man. You come to Colorado, you come to Denver and you play hard. You give hard. The fans are going to love you. The fans are going to love you. If you play hard and you don't quit on plays and even if you make a mistake, you're trying to make up for it and you're communicating with your teammates. And then again, you're coming into the media and your talk. I mean, the nuggets fans, I think they're going to welcome Russell Westbrook because he is going to be such a significant change of pace as a guard and especially the fact that you have that much speed now coming off the bench. So the question of the video is does Russell Westbrook being on the roster, does it impact the Denver Nuggets title chances? And I absolutely think it does. But not because of Russ and his play per se, but because of Russ's existence on the roster, and then having another ball handler that you can just rely on to be able to score at times, play make, rebound, huge things, scoring, play making and rebounding. So I'm excited for it because Russ again, it's not a KCP replacement. I have seen that on the timeline. I can't tell you how many times television, very smart people. Why would the nuggets want to replace KCP, Russell Westbrook? That's not what happened. The KCP got priced out largely due to technology contract more than likely, and then the fact that they want to pay over it to go to second apron, but Russ coming back into Denver, it gives them an opportunity to be able to stagger with no Jamal Murray next to Yokech and be able to have a true engine offensively off the bench that can take advantage of the line that they're going to have out there. But when we come back on the other side, we're going to talk about all that, man, because there's a lot of stuff to get into with this. By the way, y'all, today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel, make every moment more as playoffs wind down, the sports top sporty like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up all customers with the boost or bonus daily. That's right. There's something for everyone. Every day, all summer long, visit FanDuel.com to get started and y'all, when we come back on the other side, man, we're going to talk about Yokech, Russ, Russ, Sarge, Russ, the rest of the bench players. I just think there's some things they're going to be able to do that are going to be really special this next year. We're going to talk about all that and more here, the lockdown nuggets. Hey, every day is for your second listen, enjoy the locked on NBA podcast. There's no offseason in the NBA and locked on NBA provides daily basketball analysis from national and local experts in 30 minutes or less. No one keeps you as informed and entertained as locked on NBA. Go on YouTube or wherever you get podcasts, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Ashen, drive and patience. The formula for winning championships is also what keeps your rider dialogue. E-MAY Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. 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Y'all, if you're on the YouTube side, make sure you like, share and subscribe, continue in the grow, the YouTube side of this thing, head it to hopefully. By the end of the next year, in the next season, 10,000 subscribers. If you're on the Apple iTunes side, make sure you give us a five star review that you can listen to some of the great content we're doing here at locked on nuggets and y'all. Jokely yokech, Russell Westbrook, think about it y'all, close your eyes, if you can, if you're watching this live, if you're watching this after, close your eyes, if you can. Think about Russell Westbrook, bringing the ball to court, passes the ball to nuclear yokech at the nail, right above the nail, toward the free throw line, yokech gets the ball, Russ fakes to the right, does a cut, goes left, and then next thing you know, there's a wide open rim, because now both players are trying not to twist that on the D.H.O., and Russ is able to drive by the wing defender on the corner comes out, Russ throws at the Julian Strathor, who then kicks it out to Michael Porter Jr., bang, bang, bang, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, there are going to be opportunities for Russ and Nikolea yokech are going to have really great opportunities to play really good basketball together, and I think Russ and yokech in particular because of their IQs, because of their passing abilities, that could be a special unit right there. And also too, Russ is such a good athlete and again, a non-force bacer, that he can have opportunities to work on the baseline. He works on the baseline as a vertical spacer, yokech gets the ball, got a little patented, little area right there where he gets the ball for the floater, and now maybe it's the four that's playing this pick and roll with yokech, so Aaron Gordon or MPJ or Blocko, they throw it into him, now he has a choice, turns around, it's either going to be just floater at 65%, or we're going to make sure we get the ball to Russ and give him the ball to vertical spacer so he can finish over the top. Like Russ is just going to have so many different kinds of way he can do this, or Russ is playing off ball, yokech has the ball at the nail, yokech is just looking, looking, looking, looking, Russ, thanks like he's going to go with the handoff, step up, slide under, back door, Russ, boom, or he can pass it out to somebody. So with all of that being said, I think that this team has a very interesting ceiling because of all the bench pieces they have been able to acquire, again, it's just Russ and it's large, so it's not as if when you look at this team, they spent enormous amounts of money rebuilding their bench, but I think now with Christian Brown, ostensibly, moving into the starting lineup, having Julian Strathor come off a summer league where he shot super well, looked super confident, stepping into the back of shooting guard, now it's Russell Westbrook, Julian Strathor, Peyton Watson, your two Peyton Watson, or your three Peyton Watson, your two playing time, and then Blanco Chanchar and then Dario Sarge. There is just going to be, I think, a better opportunity for the bench to really play, to really play, and I mean play as in play with each other, play for each other, play next to each other, because Russ, because he's not a floor spacer, it's really important that you have, I would say, two other shooters on the court that can take advantage of the fact that he's going to be able to get to the rim, basically at will, and then the defense is going to have to respond to him at some point in time. So I do think that that Sarge, Russ, Blanco, Julian line up with like Peyton Watson, look, man, I'm telling y'all, dude, like, again, we probably won't see it a lot, but that team has a lot of defenders on it, lot of defenders, lot of shooters, and I think in this instance, when you put Dario Sarge and Blanco and Julian with Russ, I think this gives him some optimized spacing that way, he can make some really good decisions with the basketball. So this is a really good question, Derp, will Blanco really play? So here's my positioning on that. Two years ago, Blanco was a very good athlete at the four. He was a bigger body than what they had this last year, Peyton Watson at the four. So good shooter, good athlete, and a willing defender. That is tough, and also like a savvy veteran. That's tough to not put on the court when you're going to need players to be able to kind of move around Russ in a way that's intelligent. Now Zeke Nodji can also do it, but Zeke's shot has to come back. It has to come back. Again, Zeke can make an $8 million a year for the next four years. It has to come back. But in order for Zeke to be able to step into this bot to be the backup for, his defense can have to be really good, and then on the other end, he's going to have to hit shots. But if you're asking me which between Blanco and Zeke can do that early on more consistently, then it's really not going to be much of a question for me. I think that's Blanco right now. This doesn't mean that Zeke can't get there. But again, Blanco is going to have to turn back the clock a little bit. So this is going to be really interesting to see how they make all this work, but that's why I'm saying that. And here's the other thing. Pee-wot and Russ, I don't like to fit. Now again, it's just like Russ and AG. I get it, but think about it, AG vertical spacer, working the baseline with Russ, Derek Jones Jr. similar, Luca. All right, well, then on the other end of this, you're going to have an opportunity where Peyton Watson, another vertical spacer, also very young in his career, where he's finally in a situation now where he's getting consistent time and he's able to learn the offensive game. He's able to watch Tate from last game and figure out like, all right, what are we going to do here? And I just think that this is going to be a really interesting opportunity for Peyton because if Peyton jumpshot, let me ask you all this, Peyton comes back next year, Peyton Watson on the year shooting 38% from three, how surprised would you all be? Peyton Watson comes back next year, 38% from three, one and a half attempt again, 38 from three. So Peyton Watson has to take steps offensively. Christian Brown has to take steps offensively. Russell Westbrook has to buy into his role. Dario Sarge, buy into your role. So that stuff is going to be like, okay, the nuance, you know, how are we able to figure out how to play all these guys together? But that comes down to the player, that comes down to coaching, that comes down to Malone. Malone is going to have a time on his hand. Malone is going to have a time on his hand. And I think Malone is going to have to get into a situation here where he's able to see the flexibility, the flexibility that he has able to, available to him with Julian, with Peyton, with Russ, with Christian, with Yokech, with Murray, with Gordon, with Porter. Because putting them together in lineups that work, that's going to be important. And y'all, guess what? I'm going to talk about that on the other side of why I think there are some Russ lineups that can end up being pretty good. We're going to talk about all that more here at lockdown nights. You know, we love talking stats here at lockdown, and here's one that's super simple to remember. Discover automatically doubles the cashback you've earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with cashback match. That means with Discover, you could turn $150 cashback to $300. That's right, you could put it towards some memorabilia, you've had your eye on, or treat yourself to a premium sports network. If you earn and discover doubles, see terms at discover.com/creditcard. I love sports. I love sports. I love them so much, I never want them to stop. But as the playoffs wind down, we get fewer games. And the sports aren't sports like I want them to. But Fandal, let's me keep sports going whenever I want. All I have to do is open me up and dream up, bet anytime I'm in the mood. And this summer, Fandal is hooking up all customers with a boost or bonus daily. That's right, there's something for everyone, every day, all summer long. So head over to Fandal.com and start making the most of your summer Fandal official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball. We'll be right back for more here on Locked On Nuggets. We are back here for Locked On Nuggets. This is your host, Swiper. This is your team, every day, shout out to y'all. So glad that you all are here. Now here's the thing. What Russell Westbrook lineups can the Denver Nuggets deploy to make work? The first one that I came up with, Russell Westbrook, Julian Strathor, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon, he could make a Leococh. Okay, that's the first one. That's like a nice little stagger lineup where Murray and CB are out, they're going to stagger a little bit. Now you got Russ and Julian in to be able to take up some of these roles. Now on the other end of this, when I think of the lineup of Russell Westbrook, Julian Strathor, Michael Porter Jr., Block Off Chantar, Dario Sarge, people say defensively, that doesn't sound great. Well the thing is, I'm trying to outscore you. I'm trying to outscore you in that situation. So if you're telling me the Nuggets can get that many shooters around Russ, that many shooters who are able to move off of the ball as well. And then you have an opportunity with Julian Strathor, catching shoot off the bounce, put it up. Michael Porter Jr., catching shoot off the bounce, put it up. And then on the other end, you have players like Block Off Chantar who are good vertical spacer, good athletes, but also shooters. There aren't just going to be ways for them to say, okay Russ, you might not have a lot of spacing gravity, but there are ways we can use your playmaking gravity to our advantage. Now getting around the first man is going to be his job. But then y'all, the way these, the way these defenses are going to be having to work, I think they're just going to be a lot of opportunity for Russ to take advantage of an open paint. But again, even to pick and roll, working to pick and roll with Dario, be able to get downhill on certain players. You can bring him out, get Dario on a nail on a switch, give him the ball, let him go to work and figure that stuff out, shoot over people. So there are just going to be different things they can do with that. And again, Russell Westbrook, Julian Strathor, okay, having the shooters sitting there in place, Michael Porter Jr., Block Off Chantar, Dario Sarge, having Russ with as many shooters as possible. Again, not a great defensive lineup so far. But then on the other end of this, I think Russell Westbrook, Jamal Murray, Peyton Watson, and I think giving them some athletes and putting Blocko in that game, putting A.G. in that game. So A.G., Blocko, and Peyton are all positive athletes in that lineup, plus Russ, again, floor spacing, again, alley-oops, again, opportunities to create different kinds of plays and look at the rim. And this is also another thing. This is also another thing, is Joker and Russ are really great fit, because Joker's progressed a lot of shooting the three ball. Now that might be true, hopefully it doesn't last much longer, because he kind of oscillates at the three-point shooter year on end. But if you're asking me if Joker is a good fit with Russ, well, Bruce Brown was. And Bruce Brown wasn't great with the Nuggets in the regular season. Now he just had some really good moments, where I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe Bruce Brown's on this roster. But Bruce also had some plays where he wasn't great, some games offensively, he wasn't great. Defensively, he would get beat at times, but there's things that he does that allowed the Nuggets to put themselves over the top, because they're just connected things to defense and the communication, all that stuff. Now for Russ, in this instance, Russ's defense, his communication is IQ, those are the things that are going to be able to help him. But I think that Russ and Yokich maximizing their time together is going to be one of the more important matchups in the Nuggets organization. Because Yokich, he knows what he's supposed to do. Russ knows what he's supposed to do, but they need to have a symbiotic relationship. That way when they're both in the game, there's just not like a lot of misstep. And again, it might be like that for the first few games or so. But Russell being able to do this while Jamal Murray is in the game or out, it's huge, huge. And I'm really excited to see how those lineups work with them. But also the other side of this, the question that I asked is, if this team currently has constructed, currently has constructed, is this the better all around team than last year, hmm, that's a good question. That is a good question. And my honest answer is, I think so. I think it can be. I think it can be. Now it's not that like, again, KCP gone CBN, that seems like a very clear loss. If you look at the numbers, the impact metrics, it actually does say that they were comparable players last year. And now we're going, but we got to go by test, KCP is obviously better than CB. But CB steps into that role for KCP. Now the bench, instead of last year, y'all, the bench was Reggie Jackson, Christian Brown, Peyton Watson at the four Justin holiday at the three and DeAndre Jordan for the most part. So now it's Russell Westbrook, Julian's author, okay. And then now it's Peyton Watson at the three, where he really belongs three into two, black old chant char, and then Dario Sarge, that feels, feels on paper when you look at it, data information says, this should be a better five man unit than anything they had last year with a non yoke is non Murray, non Gordon, non Porter, non KCP minutes. That should be it. That should be it. This should be the opportunity for the nuggets to say we don't have to weigh so heavily on our starters because we have a bench unit now of real adults who are locked in and ready to play hoops and ready to do this the right way and ready to play connected team basketball. That's the kind of stuff that I'm excited for. I'm excited for them to be able to implement some of the things you're seeing at the Olympic level with the passing, with the spacing, with the play making. They're just going to be opportunities for them that I don't think that the other team could have taken advantage of for the nuggets, like Yokojis isn't in the game. Okay. Well, you know, what are we going to do back up center? DeAndre Jordan. Okay. What is he going to do? Room run. Can you get there? No. First up, charging at that little nail shot, taking the three point shot. Now it doesn't mean a lot, but what it does mean is that you have opportunities to expand your offense into something else instead of just Reggie pull up shots. But now Sarge, Blocko, Peyton, Julian, you have three elite shooters with this version that you're seeing from Rosa Westbrook. And again, all that stuff, not elite, but good to elite, clear. All that stuff will lend itself to helping Russ with this team. Jamal Murray and Yokich, great combo, Russ and Yokich, I think it would be a good combo. Jamal Murray and Russ will be an interesting combo. We'll have to see how it works out for sure. But all this stuff put together, I'm just saying that I think this is just adding to the nuggets really saying that, man, we're going to have a very good team this year and Russell Westbrook is going to be a real big part of that. But y'all, that's going to do it for today here on lockdown nuggets. Make sure y'all like, share, subscribe on YouTube, make sure you give us a five-star review and Apple iTunes. Y'all know what time it is. I will see y'all on the other side. Hey Prime members, you can listen to this lock-down podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. [MUSIC PLAYING]