[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] What is up everybody? Thank you all for joining me on the latest broadcast. Part of the CSU network. I'm of course your host Jeff Morton, a complicated CSU today. I'm going to be talking about Jamal Murray and his issues and how that has manifested itself in this team during the playoffs. And in the second half, I'm going to kind of try to give us an upside shot, upshot here. We're going to be talking about how the Nuggets can get back into this series. But this whole journey is something that needs an in-depth talk. And I'm going to be doing that. I'm going to be devoting sometimes specifically to Jamal like I have the last episode before this. And we'll kind of go into things and issues that have faced Jamal and how maybe the Nuggets can correct these things. But before I get to that, I want to talk to you about our brand new sponsor on the more cast. 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We haven't seen it for a long time with a, where the Nuggets team will completely come on glued. And that part of it was jarring and shocking to absolutely everyone who watched the game on Monday. It was, it was surreal to watch. And a lot of that had to do with Jamal Murray and his struggles, not only these playoffs, but this season. And it probably, and I would say in my view, goes back to a decision that Jamal Murray made in the off season of this last off season, which was the Nuggets offered him an extension, which was declined by Jamal Murray, which was his, his right. And he wanted to quote unquote bet on himself going into the season now betting on yourself in this context means some very specific things. It means making an all star team. It means making an all NBA team, you know, things like that, which are more important than just personal accolades. Those sorts of things can be used as escalators for your subsequent either extension or contract offer. And Jamal Murray has made none of these through his career. He's never made an all NBA team nor has he made an all star. And this is keeping in the streak of Jamal of Nicole Yokech not playing with a quote all star, even though Jamal Murray has generally been a great playoff offer. And this has been something that obviously was calculated by Jamal his agency and a much, much of that is to, to really bet on himself this year. And I'll be frank with you guys. This has not worked to Jamal's advantage. In fact, worked against him. I created addition and I've talked about this before with Jamal's created additional stresses that maybe he wouldn't have otherwise if he had entered the year with that contract extension. What Tim Connolly did before he left was he signed Michael Porter Jr. to this contract, which was, you know, like the calculation was not only his Josh Cronkey played a very big part in this. But part of this was to say we need to get everyone locked up and if no one's battling for for dollars, everyone will have the same same kind of motivations, which is team based motivations you lock people up in contracts. So they don't have the extra, I need to do this in order to achieve that. And the escalators part of the contract contracts are very important. Now Michael Porter Jr's contract became fully guaranteed it. Well, I think it was, it was what four years, five years, 172 million, something like that when he signed in 2021. And one of the clauses on there that would guarantee the last year of his deal was that the nuggets win the finals. And he hit a game mark. And he has done both. And these are things like that that will be baked into usually just a year of a contract, you know, that sort of thing. But that's incentives. If you have an escalator, if you make an all star team prior to signing a new deal, what happens is you have a baseline escalator in your deal that bumps you up to super max contract areas. And Jamal Murray was clearly banking on himself. This was something that was said, if you listen to anything that was said around the time Jamal declined the extension. This was betting on himself going into this. What the problem is Jamal's issues have always been Jamal's issues, which is he's cannot stay healthy for more than, you know, what, you know, he hasn't played more than 60 something games. And since his second year in the league. And this is something that is going to be plaguing Jamal for as long as he is a pro. And the last podcast I did talk about the nuggets needing to manage Jamal's injury situation. They needed to, to be able to do that. Now, to be honest with you, I'm not implying anything other than the fact that this is just a part of the thinking and the equation going into this year. Well, this obviously lent itself to a stressful year for Jamal, stressful in many different ways because it wasn't wasn't that long into the season where Jamal got injured. And in total, he only played 59 games this year. So he missed 23 and missing 23 games in a season where the nuggets when 57 games make that calculation yourself. What do the nuggets look like if Jamal Murray is able to play 70 games if he's able to play even 65 games. There's more than just the incentive, the personal incentive calculation that goes into Jamal and his history with injuries. And these sorts of things are are baked into the Jamal Murray experience. And this is something that I don't know if people are fully cognizant of. And additionally, what it does is, is kind of limits what Jamal is able to do, and, and able to put his footprint on this team. And you notice a big difference between my quarter junior who played 81 games this year and Jamal Murray who played 59. It's one person came into the playoffs, basically tried and tested and was able to ruin good to go. Jamal Murray on the flip side of that was not. Jamal Murray was very much not in playoff shape when he came into the playoffs because of another raft of injuries prior to the playoff run, which, which kind of didn't let itself to the same thing that you've been seeing this now what these things have done is hurt Jamal as far as that goes and it's also you can tell this is just me thinking about this from perspective a team perspective that this is added an extra stress level to Jamal Murray and they really do think everything manifested itself in the complete meltdown of the Denver Nuggets in game two against the wolves, which they didn't react well to the physical play of the wolves. And part of that was Jamal being really uncomfortable with the physical play. And that of course led to Jamal throwing the heating pad onto the court, which led to a fine of $100,000 yesterday that he was asked about it today. And he said it is what it is he gave a pat answer and moved on. Jamal Murray and his issues have hurt the Nuggets this year. And I think we need to be honest with ourselves and understand that this is something that is baked into the Jamal Murray experience. And it's something that the Nuggets have really struggled with overcoming at certain times. Last year, when the very fortunate thing was Jamal Murray was even though he didn't play a full 82 last year. The Nuggets largely took the month of March are off. And they were able to get completely healthy before the playoffs. That is not true this year. KCP was injured coming into the playoffs. And so was Jamal Murray. But emotionally speaking, I think that Jamal has been not his best. You could see it in the Lakers series where he just not only was he slow because of the calf injury and all this stuff. But coming into the playoffs, he just wasn't able to overcome other things. He wasn't in shape. And you can see the frustration manifesting itself in those in those quotes that Michael Malone had prior to after games in the Lakers series. It was very clear that Jamal Murray was struggling. And he was struggling in a way that pointed towards emotional trouble, emotional trouble with his injuries, and I wouldn't say emotional trouble, but, but mental trouble with his injuries, mental mental issues with what has been going on. And that frustration kept building and building and building and it exploded in the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. This wasn't all on Jamal. Nicole Oakich didn't acquit himself in the best way in game two either. But there was a level of frustration that Jamal hit that he just, he couldn't, he couldn't get around and it manifested in the pad throwing, which he's very lucky he wasn't suspended. And to be quite honest with you, he probably should have been suspended. If it was anyone else, including, you know, anyone else on that nuggets bench, they would have been suspended too. And it was probably maybe hopefully a, you're, you're lucky this time kind of, kind of lesson for Jamal who came completely unglued and the nuggets embarrassed themselves on national TV and a game two playoff game in the second round. And I think it resulted in everyone here, everyone who here here who is a nuggets fan struggling with what has been going on and looking at this team and understanding that this team is not the same as it was last year. This team is not the same as it was without Bruce Brown, without Jeff Green, without the emotional and veteran leadership that they've had. This team has been remarkably less mentally tough because of the youth on the roster, because of the different factors that they don't have this year and they're really heavily relying on Nicole Oakich to be that person. And he's rapidly heading towards burnout territory. You could see it in this game and hopefully the nuggets have learned less and hopefully there are things that the nuggets have done that can mitigate this because they have once again have a very long break. They got Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday off of this series. Again, another long break. They had a big long break before and run after. So health is no longer an issue here. The nuggets got to get their shit together and it starts with Jamal Murray and it starts with him brushing off the fact that he wasn't able to get what he wanted and his bet on himself didn't pay off. He needs to turn the page and help this nuggets team. All right, before I get to the second half of the podcast and talk about how the nuggets can get back in the series, I want to talk to you about Blanchard Family Wines, located between 18th and 19th at Blake and Muzzy. Beautiful Lower Downtown Denver, Colorado, just a couple blocks away from course field right in the military block. They're always online at bfwcolorado.com. They're on Facebook and Instagram under Blanchard Family Wines. You know, my favorite place to go in Denver. It's a great place to go if you're like, if there's a restaurant you're going in that Lower Downtown. It's a great place to stop beforehand, grab yourself a drink, and then walk over because it's centrally located and there's a bunch of restaurants in that area. That's a really good restaurant too. So if you're with some friends, stop there Blanchard Family Wines, get yourself a red, a white, some pinos. They got a great, they got a great Cabernet. They have got some great selection of whites and reaslings and partnerships with Western Slope Gallop and wineries. Their pearl is really good petite pearl. If you've never had it, I suggest trying that one out. But they got all other locations. They got a location in Fort Collins. If you don't want to come down to Denver, they've got one in Sonoma. They're original locations in Sonoma County and of course, they're tasting room in Golden, Colorado. Once again, they're located between 18th and 19th at Blake and Muzzy in beautiful Lower Downtown Denver, Colorado, just a couple blocks away from course field right in the military block. They're always online at bfwcolorado.com. They're in Facebook and Instagram under Blanchard Family Wines. When you go in or you talk to them, tell them Jeff Morton from CSG podcast sent you. What the nuggets need to do to get back in this series? They're down 0-2. They lost two games at home. Very unusual for a nuggets team to be like that. Nuggets are really largely known as unbeatable at home. In the game one, the nuggets probably should have won that game. They let slip the rope at the end of game one. They let Nas Reed go nuclear. He was hitting some lucky shots, extremely lucky shots, I would say. One of them was included a banked in three-point shot. But other than that, the nuggets really acquitted themselves well in the first playoff game. I mean, did it in a way that you wouldn't think that would have happened in game two? The game two issue was something that surprised everyone. Everyone, I think, who covers the nuggets was not expecting what they saw. No one was expecting what they saw. That sort of thing, manifesting itself in the way it did, shocked all the casual observers of the Denver Nuggets. And what really, I think, shocked everyone was that the nuggets weren't able to just overcome the physical way they were playing. This team played the Miami Heat, who were extremely physical in the finals last year. And for whatever reason, and I do think the lack of Bruce Brown is a huge part of this, that people don't really want to acknowledge. But this was something that was manifesting itself through the year where the physical play was getting to the nuggets. And in fact, it kind of manifested itself big time in the loss to the Spurs in the second-to-last game of the season. So the nuggets, what they need to do is something that they haven't been able to do since last year. And that is be just as physical as the Bulls. And really beat them up. Specifically, they need to attack Carl Anthony Townes, and they need to attack Anthony Edwards. And do it in a very physical way. And what the problem has been is that Yokech himself has been what I would describe as less than aggressive. And I think, and I think I know what he's been doing. You know, I actually had to sleep on it yesterday, and I put out some tweets that people didn't respond very well to. But one of the things that Yokech has struggled with is adapting to the way the Wolves are this year rather than last year. One of the things the nuggets did last year is they had Yokech camp out on the perimeter a lot. Because the issue largely with the Wolves is they don't respect Aaron Gordon, so therefore they leave them open on the perimeter, which is what every team should do with Gordon. You know, if you let him hang out on the donker spot, that's exactly, he's going to kill you. So they say, "Okay, you just shoot trees." And this is something that the Wolves are doing, and they don't. They clearly are like, "You go ahead, you go ahead and do this." And it's completely thrown off the nugget spacing. And what they did last year to accommodate with that choice was to have Yokech also hang out on the perimeter to generate more spacing for Jamal Murray, which hasn't necessarily manifested itself this year. And another one of the issues that the Wolves have exploited is Nicole Yokech's inherent lack of consistent aggression. Nicole Yokech is not someone who is going to be that guy who is going to go into takeover mode that often he doesn't want to. And some of this is Yokech is very physical, and I do think there's some burnout going on with Yokech. I think he's had to carry a tremendous load again this year, and I do think that that is wearing on him coming after the finals run last year. I do think that he is not as mentally there as he was last year, even though he had an MVP year. This nugget's team benefits from this particular round from Nicole Yokech setting the tone of aggression. And if you notice in Game 2, he was nowhere to be found, and it wasn't even about a lack of him being there and being present. It was more that he didn't set the tone. He didn't bother to set the tone. You know who set the tone, particularly in Game 2, was the Wolves. And the Wolves took advantage of Yokech not setting the tone. And this is something that Yokech is going to need to change. I think he's cognizant of it, but I can't tell. Yokech's postgame pressers this series have been weird. They've been really disconnected. They've been really kind of blasé, and not really meeting the emotional moment of what is going on. There has been a kind of lack of ability for Yokech to connect verbally with what everyone else is seeing. And sometimes this is Yokech's just his manner. And some of it is also the fact that I think he doesn't necessarily think this Wolves team is having a hard time processing this Wolves team being different. And what they need to do is meet the moment. I do have some people I know who cover the Wolves, and they have said that it's been remarkable how blasé the Nuggets have been, which manifested itself in that meltdown in Game 2. The Nuggets haven't exactly been a team that has been, let's say, intense. The Wolves are always intense because they're young and they don't have a leader named Nicole Yokech who is just a steady pulse, which benefits you 99.9% of the time. Look at the series against the Lakers. The Nuggets had, definitely half-assed that entire series. It was so clear what the Nuggets were doing. They were half-assing the series. And what was the constant was Mike and Yokech basically being the two guys who are going to be the most consistent. You can't half-ass a team that is always going to be on 100. And the Wolves are always on 100, which is eventually going to catch up with them when something happens that they can't control, which hopefully manifests itself in the next two games in Minnesota. But the Nuggets don't seem to be very motivated by the Wolves. They seem to be motivated by themselves, and that is entirely due to Nicole Yokech. The way they are able to get back in this series is understand they are the champions and play with, you can't necessarily match the urgency of the Wolves, but you are going to be able to match the urgency of you and you at your peak. And the Nuggets have not been their peak. In fact, the Nuggets have been what I would describe as almost comatose at times. This team has just struggled to meet the moment in these playoffs. Now some of this is roster construction. When you got guys coming off the bench like Peyton Watson and Christian Brown, who are offensively challenged, it's going to be hard to meet the moment offensively. And make no mistake, the Nuggets issue has been offensive, not necessarily defense. They just have struggled to get into their actions because the Wolves are cutting off the actions before they start. All right, this has nothing about execution. It's the Wolves pressure and Jamal doing all of that stuff before the Nuggets are able to get into their offense. And I'm sure that's a Chris Finch thing, something that he identified. And where the Nuggets need to adapt is understanding that they need to go quicker, which is sometimes something that Yokech struggles with. And they need to be just as physical with the Wolves as the Wolves are with them. They need to set a tone of physicality that they haven't done. And some of this is dictating to the Wolves rather than having the Wolves dictate to them. It's something that the Nuggets have just 100% struggled with this first two games of the series, not meeting the moment. And yes, I've talked about this online. There is a wet fart of a quote that is hanging over this Nuggets team in the form of Calvin Booth's. You know, we aren't necessarily concerned about winning a title this year that you had with that the end of the Ringer article that Kevin O'Connor did with him, which is something that I don't believe set the wrong tone for this year. And I don't think Calvin looks at it that way. I think he just doesn't think of things that way, but that was a terrible quote. That was a terrible quote that set the wrong tone for this year. And you can see various aspects of that quote and the lack of urgency that it entailed really manifesting itself through this Nuggets team. There isn't a sense of urgency in this team. There's no urgency in this team. This team has struggled to be urgent. And that lack of urgency is hurting them. It is crippling the Nuggets. They can't be a team that sleep walks through its series based on the fact that they won last year. And it's something that is really perplexing and confusing. And I don't know why they are like this. This Nuggets team is a lot better than that. And they should be better than just doing what they've done. If the Nuggets act like the Nuggets, they will win. But there's no guarantee that that happens. The only way the Nuggets get back in this series is if they take it to the Wolves and don't let them take it to them. And I'm relatively certain that if they do that, you will see things change in a way that makes sense for the Denver Nuggets. All right. Thank you all for joining me on the latest more cast. I'm going to be back after, well, I think after Game 3, which is Friday. So I'll try to get a podcast out Saturday. And we'll go from there. So thank you all for joining me on the latest more cast. I'll be back with another episode soon. Goodbye. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
Back in the last offseason Jamal Murray mad a 'bet on himself' in that he rejected the Nuggets extension offer because he was hoping to get all star or all NBA. It did not happen and Murray missed 23 games due to various injuries. This added stress to this Nuggets season.
