It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Russell Westbrook is set to join the Nuggets. Is it a bold move, a risky gamble, or just like a low-stakes nudge for the Denver Nuggets? We'll talk about the best-case and the worst-case scenarios as Russ joins Denver. We're next 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. I appreciate you guys being with us and being in every day or hanging out with us Monday through Friday. We appreciate you guys' support so much for the show. Glad to have you with us. Today's show is brought to you by Fandall. Make every moment more with the playoffs over the Sports Stop Sports, something like we want them to with this summer. Fandall is hooking up all customers with a boost or bonus daily. That's right. There's something for everyone every day all summer long. Visit Fandall.com to get started. My name's Matt Moore. I'm the senior NBA writer for the Action Network. Join by Adam Marra as he's director of content for DMBR. This is World's Finest. Glad to be with you guys out here on a Monday, recording this on Sunday night on today's show. It's Russomanium. This is my last show for I go on vacation for a week. So Adam and I are going to go over some of the stuff that we've both been saying on various shows, both this one and over on DMBR, talking about the Russell Westbrook experience. We want to get kind of the back and forth between us. We want to talk about specifically kind of like, what do we think this is going to be? Make some predictions for the Russ move. And then in the second segment, we'll talk about what's the best case scenario. How could this work out great for Denver? And the last one, we got to be honest and we'll go over what we think is the worst case scenario for Russell Westbrook as he joins the nuggets because, you know, Adam, one, thank God for Russell Westbrook because he is getting us through some of these dog days. We just be breaking down Trey Alexander tape, but don't be wrong, Trey has been great for some of them. Not a bad thing to do. He's been great, but it's been great content to have Russ joining the joining the nuggets in order to be able to get some some good content out because he is such a big name, a big personality, such a big entity in sports, even at this point in his career, he brings with him a lot of opinions, et cetera. So it is kind of interesting. I want to, you and I haven't talked about it yet. I talked about on Thursday when the news kind of happened that night and swipe and talked about it the other night as well. I want to get into this real question. I want to give you three options. Okay. The Russell Westbrook move is going to be a bold move by the nuggets that changes everything, be a risky gamble that could wind up hurting the nuggets long term or see a lot of stakes nudge in which they got a backup point guard. Which one of those do you think is closest to what we can expect from the Russell Westbrook experience? Well, I think based on our pre show conversation, we disagree on this because I feel pretty strongly that it is a risky gamble. I would call this a risky gamble. I don't know that there is a a wide middle option to how this kind of works out. I think that there is a lot of disaster potential in it. And I think there's a fair amount of upside to it. So to me, it's a risky gamble. It's the definition of a risky gamble. I like Josh winning here. Why not all three? Well, there you go. Not bad. I'll go with low stakes nudge. So I think part of this is built on, we'll get to how it could go badly. Are you of the opinion that this one, this one thing went completely off the rails from the get go, like it did not work. The yokech minutes were either negative or like a plus three, like the nuggets were no longer winning convincingly. Those end of quarter stints with Westbrook next to yokech. And like there was tension within the tee and it just wasn't working. It was closer to the Lakers experience than the Clippers experience say. Do you feel like the nuggets would still feel convinced that they have to make it work and that they would keep him or do you think they would just move on from him if it didn't work out in the interim? I was thinking that there is a world where it could be like the Isaiah Thomas experiment, which sort of happened for 10 games, I don't know, it wasn't even 10 games, it was like six games or something and it didn't work out and the team moved on and you almost forgot that it happened. I mean, that's how quickly the Isaiah Thomas thing came and went and Michael Malone handled that well. Isaiah Thomas, another kind of big personality that a lot of people were looking up to, you know, that could have been a distraction. But I just think this one's different. I think it's different for a couple of reasons, one, the Calvin Booth factor, you know, whoever is most responsible for Westbrook moving, you know, coming here and to whatever extent Calvin has succeeded or failed, I do feel like if Westbrook is the big point guard signing and by the way, they need a backup point guard, if he is the guy that comes in and 10 15 games into the season, it's like a disaster and it's not working, I feel like he'll wear it. You know, it'll be a thing where it's like, well, that was his plan and now here we are and we're not even in December and that plan is backfired. So I just, I don't think that the Nuggets are going to be as flexible as they have been, like obviously with Isaiah Thomas. And I'm just not sure this is a thing they can give 15 games and get out of. I think it's a thing that they're committed to and it would really take months for it to be terrible for them to have to be like, okay, we have to make a plan. This is untenable. And if that's the case, you're talking about a whole season now being in question. Yeah. And then you're, if you're, if your whole season is now in question and you're having to make like desperation moves to try and acquire a backup point guard, I mean, that the situation would have to be so dire, like so incredibly dire that it would have to be completely off of the rails, you know, as like a bold move. If it does work out, and we'll talk about how it can work out in the second segment, if it does work out, I want to ask you, who do you think benefits the most from that? Is it yokage because the second minutes, second unit minutes are easier and better? So maybe he can sit a little bit more and doesn't have to play as much. Is it Malone because he'll get credit for like, ah, he was able to figure this out and make it work with her or is it Calvin for being like, for adding Russell Westbrook and bringing him in and putting together a team that works so well. It's the nuggets as a whole. Like I, the politics of this, I almost am not too concerned with. I mean, I just mentioned that about Cal and why I think that he has kind of stuck with this move for now. And by the way, there's no backup option. So I think there's the whole, you know, there's that whole other piece of how do you even pivot out of this? But to me, it's just Denver has to figure out a bench identity. They haven't had one for years. For years, they have not had an identity up the bench that you can hang your hat on. You have to hope that he's a guy that comes in and provides that they needed a secondary ball handler that you need to hope that he has enough in the tank. And then you're betting on your culture to be good enough to say like, Hey, Westbrook has some traits to him even at this stage of his career that are extremely positive. But he also has some that are extremely negative that he said, even in the absolute height of his powers and his MVP seasons. So you have to hope that, okay, he's going to come into our culture and we're going to get more of the best of him than any team has gotten and less of the bad of him of any team that has ever gotten, and it's going to give that bench unit an identity. And if those things do hit, then the team succeeds off of that, Jamal Murray succeeds off that yoga, succeeds off of that Malone, Calvin, everybody thrives off of that. How do you think that the initial crowd reaction is going to be for us? Like that first time, that first night when he checks in in the first home game, what do you think that sounds like? I think it's one of the things that might actually be difficult about the season for Michael Malone is Denver is a town that likes the superstars, you know, like with Westbrook is going to be a top three most popular nugget on day one, you know, like they cheered for him when he played for Oklahoma City when he eliminated Denver six years ago at ball Arena, I think he is going to be wildly loved and received extremely well on day one. What do you think? I think he'll be beloved. I think everyone's because this town loves a name. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Denver is a town that will apps and like, I don't know that this town, maybe it's maybe it's everywhere, right? Maybe it's most places. Maybe some of the bucks, it would be like a huge rock of salvation, but I do think that it's going to be, I think that Denver likes it when the games feel like a big deal, right? And Russ kind of increases the level that being a big deal now, they do have the three time MVP. So, yeah. Well, I mean, he's obviously more popular and more famous, but, but I think Westbrook is going to be beloved and I think people are going to be hopeful for it. But here, just to get back to the risky gamble parks, I think it's such an interesting question. One other reason that it's a risky gamble, Matt, is that the vibes aren't great right now with the nuggets. I don't think they're terrible. I think you can overstate it. But I do think that last year ended on this note of like, it was confusing for the team. I think the team felt weird about it. Michael Malone has talked about trying to get away from guys. Everybody has to get away. So you already have this sense of like something's missing from the group and you're insetting serving Westbrook. Now, maybe he fills that void and it's positive, but you are adding volatility to a volatile situation already. And so that's why I think that it's more of a risky gamble is maybe a year ago, oh man, an experiment failed. Yeah, we're coming off a championship. We're confident we all love each other so that now I just feel like there's a little bit more of a, what direction are we going? Who are we? I have struggled several times this offseason with just trying to reconcile how things felt not even a year ago, like after game one of the Lakers, the Lakers opening night game. And how do we get to go that far back? I know, but it's like just how confident and like, oh, yeah, everything's right back. The chemistry is right there. Everything's great. And then to be here now where it's, I don't think it's bad. I just think it's everybody's kind of like, why does it feel so uncertain? Like this is weird. Like, yeah, I agree with you. Up next though, we'll put on the optimism hat and we will get into optimism Monday. And we'll talk a little bit about what's the best case scenario for Russell Westbrook with the Denver Nuggets. We'll talk about that next here on locked on nuggets, lots of stuff stuff, lots of stuff to bet during the summer here at FanDuel want to let you know about all the great stuff. You could bet NFL futures. Great trying to get in on that. I've been shopping those. I'm trying to decide. I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to take Packers minus 170 to make the playoffs and use that as a hedge to bet heavier on the Detroit Lions to win the division who are also who the favorite in that. I really like the Lions, but I'm a little bit concerned about the about the Packers. So I'm going to build that position that way because I do think there's a strong possibility that both hit. The Packers make the playoffs as a wild card, but the Lions win the division. I'm going to be on that excited to get into all of those kind of things. 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It is, I'm going to flash you forward to January 1st. And you and I are doing a show about how much of a wild success the Russell Westbrook edition has been. What does that look like to you? I think first and foremost, it is the energy that he brings to the team. And I just think the nuggets, we're not so far removed, Matt, from when we talked about this being the quietest locker room in the NBA, Richard Jefferson talking about that, wondering where leadership is, wondering just the night tonight, they're up and down, they could beat the best team, then they lose to the worst team, like, what is this team? I think one of the things I'm most excited about Russ is he just plays with energy. He lives with energy. He practices with energy. He works out with energy. He pushes people. Everyone seems to love them. So he has this ability to push people without pissing them off. It seems so far, knock on wood. So I think number one is that he injects some life into the team in a way that's like fresh. I mean, whenever you add veteran players, we remember Yoka chapter, they won the title. One of the things he said was, what really felt good was winning this for Jeff and for Ish and for those guys. There could be a similar thing where Westbrook ties the team together in a way that I think they kind of need and that there's this rallying around him of like, hey, we know we're good enough to do this. He's pushing us, but also we want to reward him and let him experience what we experienced two years ago. That would be to me the number one line I would talk about. He brought a vibe to the team that is special like it was two years ago. Yeah. I mean, we're talking about Russ is in like, is this going to be a disaster? Can this can Russ help like stabilize what seems to be like a sinking ship and all these types of things? But there is like the other side of this, which is like, God, can you imagine if Russell Westbrook wins a title with a Denver Nuggets and what that does? It would be a great story. Like that light, the shift for his legacy would be absolutely incredible even as a bench player. Like it would be not dissimilar to like Gary Payton back in '06 with the heat. I got to like update all my references. But even more so because there are guys that it's like, oh, we all knew you could win a title at the end of your career doing this because you're such a great player. But he is a guy specifically that I think people think can't win a championship as the sixth. He can't win with him. So if he actually did it as a bench player in some ways, it would actually be very special, I think. Yeah, I think the idea of him igniting the team and being that guy that is the loud one, which they've kind of like, we've talked about this for I feels like forever about how much they've needed somebody to be like, this is a quiet group. How many times have we talked about that on these shows to have somebody who gets in Jamal's face and pushes him and Jamal's like, I really benefited from how Russ pushed me. You know, Russ made me better and how like yogurt's being like, there was nobody on the team. I love playing with more than him this year and like, just like, I loved being the energy that he brought every single game. Guys really crediting him. That kind of stuff. And maybe pushing yoke too. Like it's not just a Murray equation. There is something to like maybe it's a teammate yoke's never had before of that elk, you know, somebody really in his. I remember Will Barton used to say this, he's like, I have to tell him all the time, you're better than him. Man, go out. I'm like, this is way back in the day, but you can imagine Westbrook with a similar energy now, even at another level, like, Hey, man, those guys, I was on Anthony Davis's team. I know you beat him, but he still thinks he's better, like, you know, hyping him up, pushing him to be even better and even tougher and even more intense. Yeah. And I think Malone is a really interesting case here because like, I do think that there's a lot of risk there that we'll talk about in the last segment, but Malone is a psychopathic competitor and Russ is a psychopathic competitor. And if they're able to get on the same frequency, that can be really awesome. Like that can be like a really good combo of like trust and, you know, defense and like with Malone sticking up for him and earning his trust and those kinds of things. Like I think they can really work. And I think that if Russ is, look, I don't know how likely this is and I think it's the biggest question. If Russ is actually able to mold his game a little bit around, especially in the Yokech minutes, because he makes it easier for everybody, you know, and non-Yokech minutes, it's hard to adapt your game because you're just trying to fill in gaps. But if he's able to adapt his game in those minutes where he's on the floor with Nicola, it's going to show a side of him that most people don't recognize and don't believe that he has. And that would be like an incredible story. It's an opportunity for Westbrook to prove like, look, I set things on my terms and did it my way when it was the best thing for us to try and win and compete. But that's not where this team is. And that's not who I am on this team. And I'm willing to do whatever it takes to win. Like he gets, I've said this about MPJ and Aaron and Jamal and all of those guys on the title team, which is like, you got to prove it. You got to say like, Hey, I'm willing to sacrifice if it means winning a title. Those guys all proved they were willing to sacrifice to win a title. And now like Russ gets to do that, which honestly, and you can say like, well, Russ has been on good teams. Yes, he has. But since Oklahoma City, he has not been on a team like this, like that Lakers team was such a disaster trying to figure itself out. It was a mess. That Clippers team was so much your turn, my turn to the structure to the offense, right? And then even the Houston team is like a bit of a unique situation. Like even that one, even though you wouldn't say it was a bad one, they were a very good team. It's a weird style of play, the very unique style of play where he was even in a bit of a box. So I think there's plenty of reason. If you think about just strictly basketball, I keep saying this, but Denver hasn't had a play or really since bones that had the ability to get to the paint and put pressure on the rim the way he does. He doesn't make great decisions out of there. There's this is why we'll get to that in the next spot. He's a bad decision maker. He's a bad shot taker. He does a lot of that, but the ability to break down the defense in the way that he does is different than Jamal, different than anybody else. And there's a chance that it's like, hey, Denver has another punch now that it's hard. It's hard as a defense to scheme for everything. So you scheme for, okay, Denver's very good in the pick and roll and they got the spacing and what have you. But when you have another punch of like, yeah, but they also have this downhill guy that just is like super fast, that gives a whole different thing. You have to calculate as a defense. And again, best case scenario is that it works in harmony. I looked at the numbers on this and I think that they're interesting and plus minus is a messy metric and it's okay to take it with a grain of salt and understand it in context. But I thought this one was really interesting since he left the thunder. There have been teams where the his team has lost his minutes with him on the floor. And there's been teams where they've been better with him on the bench. What you haven't seen is both. It hasn't been like either a negative when he's on the floor. And they're better when he's when he's and there are plus when he's on the bench. That hasn't happened. And most of the of the teams actually, and this is going to surprise, I think a lot of folks, they've been better with him on the floor than they have been with him on the bench. That to me does show a level of impact there that is still present with what he brings to the table. It's just that his bad games are so bad and so loud and the gaps in his game are so big that it can be, I think, really disruptive. Well, and one other thing, like, would it be a success map if Westbrook was phenomenal for the nuggets? Or actually, I shouldn't say phenomenal was very good for the nuggets and that their bench was the best they've had in four or five years, maybe in the Yokochira. But in the playoffs, he was unplayable because of how easy he is to scheme for in a playoff setting. And you just have to guard him. Would that be a success? He helps you get to the one or two seed. He makes helps you get rested and you're ready for the playoffs. But come playoffs, you get through round one and it's like, man, this guy is an anchor. Yes, because the whole idea is the starters are good enough to win if they hadn't had to push so hard in the regular season. You just needed innings, eaters. You just needed somebody to be able to lift the team up when Jamal has to miss time and to give them a little bit more cushion. So the Nicole is not playing Nicole and Aaron and MPJ and Jamal, honestly, are playing as many minutes as they had to last season. You just don't want them to have to play the most minutes of any starting unit and play all these games. You just want him to raise the floor a little bit so they can be in better position to be the best starting five in basketball, whoever starts at two in the playoffs. And this is why how you view this entire offseason really comes down to how you view this season. And my view is, I mean, I don't know what the Celtics, because they played such great basketball that I don't want to take anything away from them, even with a hypothetical. But in my opinion, the Nuggets were the best team in the West this year. If they were rested, I think we would have won it and I think it would have been pretty comfortable that they would have made it to the finals. But they weren't healthy. They weren't rested. They were out of guess. So now it looks at it. If you think last year's team, like I do, was good enough to do that, they just needed to be rested, then yes, Westbrook just getting them, they're rested would be doing his job. Now that does put everybody in a tough spot to say like, okay, you helped us get here. We got to a game or two of the playoffs and it's not working out. Now you're out the rotation. That presents its own difficulty for a coach. But nonetheless, I think it's one of the likelier scenarios is that Westbrook is a good solid help to them in the regular season. And in the playoffs creates a whole set of questions that they've hadn't had to face before. All right, we've given a lot of optimism how this could work out, how great of a story would be. But the criticisms of the Russell Westbrook are real and they're valid and they're concerning. So we'll talk about what the worst case scenario for adding that Russell Westbrook to the nuggets could be up next here on lock on nuggets. Passion drive and patience. 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I like that take, by the way, that it's not a KCP replacement and it's not a Reggie Jackson replacement. It's a Bruce replacement. Yeah, it's a Brown replacement. And that to me is like a pretty good comp there. But look, there are going to be a lot of nights where we're going to do post-game shows or game shows the next morning and folks are going to be really frustrated because Russ is going to take three threes and a quarter and they're all going to be terrible and they're all going to miss badly. And you're going to look at opportunities where if people don't like that there are times when Yolka doesn't get the ball now and those minutes where Russ is on the floor in the end of the third, end of the second or end of the first quarter, you can run into a lot of the same kind of issues where Russ is going to try and do Russ things and be Westbrook and he's not able to do it anymore and there's going to be a lot of questions about why Yolka isn't getting the ball. There are just simply a lot of things that come with his game and that's before we get into some of the more complicated questions about his personality but I'll start with the game. What is your biggest concern about how this could go badly with Westbrook on the court? It's easily his shot selection which is among the worst in the league in my opinion and I actually like Russ, I'm a guy that's, I'm surprised at how many nuggets fans hate Westbrook because I never felt that way. I felt that way with like other guys like a harden for example and you know, even an embede but with Westbrook, I love the passion, I love the energy but he does take bad shots and he plays with a confidence of a guy that gets to take as many shots as he wants Denver prides themselves on only taking good shots and that's why so much of this hinges on how much does Russ getting here with the Eagle is superstar and Yolka and how much everybody, even Aaron Gordon sacrifices shots, how much does he buy in because if he doesn't, everybody knows the one guy on the team that's not pulling in the same direction that's doing taking all the bad shots and that's horrible so if it's Westbrook to me that's easily the number one thing as he comes in his shot selection is a D minus shot selection turnovers can be a problem because he does push too hard, layups can be frustrating because finishing at the rim would be another one. Yeah. They're Westbrook has a specific miss that with other players, I call the Westbrook, which is Jason Tatum had in the finals a ton of what I call Westbrook misses, which is you're going so hard to try and beat your defender with speed that you can't have touch at the rim and you wind up bricking it off of the front of the rim like those you're going too fast and you just try and lay it up there and the speed with what you're moving means you don't have any touch on it and it's not able to slide off the glass and it bounces off the front rim. Russ is really rough at that and that can have a lot of sequences where it gets pretty bad and that's one of the reasons why in the restricted area, he took less last season than Lee average, which is kind of a change, but he's also just not great at it where he only shot 59% in the restricted area, you need to be above 60, 63% in order to be pretty good at that. His mid range shot isn't good either shot 33% from mid range last season. His mid range is horrible like you would hope he can cut that out of his game honestly, I mean that's how bad it is that I would hope he just doesn't take him. So often it's transition shots too, where it's like a pull up jumper, it's a poo jit, it's a pull up jumper in transition that really kills you. Defensively he's so much better than he was two seasons ago, Russ's arc, I always find it fascinating that the same career arcs, it's one of the reasons why I asked star players about balancing offensive and defensive effort because you start out and you have all this energy because your usage isn't that high and you haven't been doing it for that long. So you can go both ends. Russ was like a menace 2012 era, like he was like he was a ball hawk where he would be so physical with you and his athleticism and his speed, he would just turn these possessions into these breakaway dunks. And then like starting in about 2014, it just got to be like didn't have the energy for it. And from like 14 through 21, he was a real liability defensively because he was trying to put so much effort on the offensive end, he didn't give anything. Now later in his career, much like a lot of guys do, he's given great effort on the defensive end again. Now he's not like a lockdown guy, he's not like a DPOY candidate, he's not like an all defense guy, but he is good enough for you to be able to trust him to take on certain assignments. One of the keys though is that he does get in trouble with sometimes he will try too hard to go one on one and not call for the appropriate help. Like he'll he'll call out switches, he doesn't need to call for and managing some of that stuff, I think is going to be important as well on the defensive side. I'm curious to see what his defense looks like. I'm curious, there's little things with him like, for example, yeah, his defense, how well does he execute a game plan? Denver right now, if you look at the second lineup, actually, if you look at their shooting guard situation in general, Strathor and Murray are offensive options, but not defensive options. Christian Brown's a defensive option, not an offensive one. So who do you put with Westbrook? Like what does he look like? Is he playing alongside Murray alongside Strathor alongside Christian Brown? I think that's a tough one. So defensively, he has to be a positive player there. And then I think off ball, just how engaged is he? Because he is a guy that like James Harden, when he was a weak side floor spacer, he has a tendency to not be on the three point line, not to be engaged, just to kind of be sitting out, not paying attention. You can't do that. Yokech uses weak side players. He hits them more than anybody in the NBA, maybe outside of Luca. He has to be engaged, he has to be a willing cutter, has to be locked in because there'll be opportunities in those moments. We're doing more disasters. Do you want to know the disaster one? I mean, one of them here is, we keep talking about him pushing the team and pushing, you know, guys, it's possible he rubs guys the wrong way to, you know, because he kind of needs to come in here with a chip on his shoulder and with that like Denver needs a leader in that way. But they also have leaders in Jamal and Nicola who take on certain aspects of leadership that he can't necessarily overstep. But at the same time, he has to find the areas that they're not great at and step into those roles. So if he misreads that or rubs somebody the wrong way or there becomes tension with him and Murray, that could be very explosive. I want to be very clear with this comparison. Okay, Jamal Murray won a championship. Jamal Murray averaged 30 points on 50 40 90 versus the Lakers in the Western Conference finals. Okay, he had a 30 point triple double in the NBA finals. Jamal is certified. Okay. And all of the criticism that we've logged is because we believe that he has more to give, right? If it was just like, Jamal is who he is, you can't really blame a guy for that. He can be overpaid like to buy as Harris, but we don't think Jamal Murray is to buy as Harris. Also, he shouldn't be overpaid. Like he's worth that money, like his best is by far. Exactly. What I will say though, early in his career, a lot of nuggets fans weren't even around them. Jamal was like battling for multiple years and multiple months with Jamir Nelson trying to get the starting job and couldn't ever beat Jamir enough because he was a young point guard and didn't know what he was doing. And he's not that guy anymore, right? But the front office was like, we got to play Jamal. We have to play Jamal. So they literally moved Jamir Nelson to not give Michael Malone the option nor to put the impediment in front of Jamal of a level of point guard that he could not get past. It was just like here, this is yours. You can do this. This is this belongs to you now. And so like, I don't know whether that's a Malone question or a Jamal question, but this is going to be the first time that Jamal's been challenged like this. But there's been a guy that on the first day of of training camp, like Russ is going to come at him 100 miles an hour. This isn't Monte Morris, who was always like, happy to be a backup my entire career would be great. Like, this isn't that this isn't Reggie Jackson. Like this is only there's only been Bones Island, who's somebody like talent wise, you could see that and they didn't necessarily get along very well. So I mean, I think there's a real now here's the thing is we're given we're saying this about Westbrook, his teammates have all loved him. And I've heard that a lot now doesn't necessarily mean all staff has always loved him coaches have always loved him all those different things. But players, I am told really love the guy like he's a true real person to them cares about their family, you know, gets to know them pushes them but is has their back everybody knows he take a bullet from him. So we're speculating on a thing that Westbrook has not necessarily struggled with. It is I think coaches may have struggled with him, but I think staffers from everyone I've ever I've talked to in multiple spots in Houston in Oklahoma City and what I've heard from the Clippers to is that the stat like various people like the people that he sees every day around the team feels like he sees them and appreciates them. And like there's a real like he takes time to get to know people like that he is universally beloved in that manner. We will never see any of that because he hates us. He might not care about how my kids are doing. Yeah. And once the thing is like, I honestly say this, I have a level of respect for him for the fact that he is this person behind closed doors and he doesn't try and feed that to me. Like he doesn't try and feed it. He doesn't try and sell himself as the best person in the world to the right. He doesn't care. He does the thing without wanting the credit for it. The problem with that is like you want who actually was actually a lot like that was Demarcus cousins. Right. So trying to say I will say the last thing about Russell that could be tough is and we alluded at it in the earlier segment. But if a guy's bad and doesn't work out, he's not a minimum. You cut him or you just put him at the end of bench, try maybe try to bring somebody else in. I just think Westbrook is too hard for that. I don't think Westbrook, you can do that with like he's he's a big piece. He's not a guy and we saw this a little bit with the Lakers when he was falling out of the rotation and this or that it became a giant distraction. It could be a giant distraction if that happens to him here. Sorry, I want to go back to this real quick. I did make the Demarcus cousins comparison because he was great in the community. I do want to note that Demarcus also was accused one time of threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend. So I don't want to be like ignoring that. That's obviously not something that Russ has ever been accused of, but I didn't want to mention that. So look, honestly, one of my things here too, Adam, is I'm very curious. Like look, the Malone thing is going to be fascinating because again, they might click as super competitors who have like with Malone having the appropriate respect for a veteran and a guy that has had the career that he's had. Westbrook may also go off on him and this is a season in which I am very going to be very sensitive to how the team responds to Malone in your, what are we looking at? 10? 10? 10? Came over in 2015 season. That's between 25 season. So I'm very, I'm just going to be very curious to see like I'm keeping an eye on that this season because there were people that have had questions there about how long is this going to be copacetic. Now I've spoken all the good things about Michael Malone consistently. Again, they tied to franchise record and wins last season. They won a championship, all these things and he deserves all that credit. But Russ is a big personality and sometimes that can be a great fit and sometimes it can be a tough one. And so Malone's going to have to manage all of that as well on top of everything else going on with the team and and trying to mentor the young guys. So I'm just very curious to see what the dynamic is going to be like between Russ and Malone this season. I mean, Malone has a tough job this year, man. He really does and maybe even a little bit of pressure. Before you get out of here, can I hit you with some really questions? Sure. Okay. Should Trey Alexander be in contention for the backup to guard spot? I'll say yes, but mostly just because I mean, Julian Strother doesn't have that much more, you know, like Julian Strother should have the inside track, but both of those guys are largely unproven. I will say, I don't know that I'm as high on Trey Alexander's like immediate ability to make an impact as some people are, but I really like him. I like his game and I think that he's worth investing in down the line. Did Summer league, you said this before, you didn't really know him. Did Summer league really convince you when you kind of started is like, I don't know, like, did he really, did he really hand you over? He has skills that I think are really important, like that I think really help you succeed, like his ability to score to create his own shot, score off the dribble, his catch and shoot shooting looks really promising. So he has these traits that I think are very interesting. And here's the other part about it, Matt, the nuggets need shooting this year. Another worst worry about Russ is the nuggets don't have a lot of shooting. And when you start to try to put together a rotation and like imagine what one looks like, it's hard to give Westbrook enough shooters without sucking them all out of the starting lineup. So if Trey Alexander was good enough to be a regular season player, that gives them an extra shooter that they desperately need. So I just, he should be in the mix, but he definitely has the hard road. Final one, should the Denver nuggets just pay the cost and waive Jalen Pickett and or 100 Tyson? I think that is something that they should do before the end of the year. I think that that is the thing that they should do with the trade deadline or, you know, late in the year when it's like, okay, but they have between now and then to try to recoup some of that value or try to just exchange with somebody to make something work. All right, that's going to do it. Thanks for joining us here on locked on nuggets. Appreciate you guys being with us. We'll be with you tomorrow with Swipef for a Tuesday. Adam Lee with you on Wednesday solo and then swipe again and then swipe again. And then I'll, Adam, I'll be back next Sunday. I'll be back on Serbia USA, by the way, on Sunday night. We will go after that game then or Sunday morning and we'll, we'll break that down. We'll cover all the things going on with the national teams as well as everything else. We'll keep you right here on locked on nuggets. A Prime Members. You can listen to this locked on podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.
