Navigating Nuggets Narratives: Just Good Enough and New Year's Resolutions

Discover the heart and hustle of the Denver Nuggets as they surged through a victorious week, and how their underdog spirit could carry them into a playoff success story. I'll take you courtside to celebrate Jamal Murray's resurgence and marvel at Nikola Jokić's rebounding feat, while also pondering the impact of Aaron Gordon's unexpected injury. As the Nuggets navigate these challenges, find out what it could mean for their team dynamics and playoff dreams.

As the year wraps and new goals beckon, join me in setting intentions that resonate beyond the scoreboard. I'll share my own resolutions, from deepening our sports community through this podcast to embracing the joys of live games with loved ones. And yes, we'll even explore the peculiar "sports hate" that spices up rivalries like Jokic vs. Embiid, revealing the light-hearted side of cheering for the home team. Tune in for a blend of reflection, celebration, and that timeless thrill of competition.

Chapters

• 0:03 Nuggets' Recent Performance and Injury Concerns
• 10:54 New Year's Resolutions and Sports Reflections

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Alright, everyone, welcome back to Fandom From afar. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and Santa brought you everything that you wanted. It was a great week for the Nuggets going 4-0 since we last recorded. The theme of the week was probably good enough, where the Nuggets didn't really look dominant in any game necessarily, but they did just enough to win, which is fine. We've talked about it before. They don't need to blow out every team, remember the whole goal is to be healthy come playoff time. So if we went 4-0, looking ugly or looking dominant, I'll take 4-0 anytime. So I think good enough was a good way to describe this week. Now, three of those wins did come on the road, which is excellent.

Speaker 1: 0:57

In the NBA really, if you're a good team, you want to win the majority of your games at home and then if you just win half of your games on the road, that's pretty good. And so the Nuggets taken 3 on the road this week, improved their record to 10 and 8 on the road, which is awesome. Just with the struggles they've had on the road in the past, with Murray being hurt this year, integrating all the young guys, I'll take 10 and 8. It's great. I cannot complain about the road record. And another interesting thing is we had another back-to-back this past week. We have had six back-to-backs already the most in the NBA and we actually have another one starting on Thursday this week, so that'll be number seven. I don't know why that is and I know it will balance out. Looking at the standings, the Nuggets have played the most games in the NBA and just even compared to the teams that are close to them in the standings the Timberwolves, the Thunder the Nuggets have played three or, depending on what day, up to five games more than those teams, and so it's almost like they've jammed an extra week and a half of games for the Nuggets into the same amount of time as those other teams. So the fact that they do have such a good record and for the most part, are healthy, it's even more encouraging because, like I said, it will balance out and so those other teams will have to make up and play those games while the Nuggets are resting, and that rest will come later on in the season, which is beneficial for the Nuggets. So while it's not great for the guys now, it will be a benefit and hopefully an advantage later on down the line. So it's just interesting. It just seems like it's just never letting up for the Nuggets. They keep having these back to backs and well, as long as they keep winning, we'll take them Now.

Speaker 1: 2:58

Another big thing this week is Jamal Murray is starting to look healthy again and he I wouldn't say to go as far as he looks like playoff Jamal, but he's looking Quick and he's moving around well. He's gone multiple games without turning an ankle or pulling a hamstring, so that's always good, but he's looking like we expected him to look for the whole season. We were kind of hoping that he would be an all-star this year, perhaps all NBA, which is one of the best guards in the whole league. Now that's probably not going to happen because he's missed so much time. But if he looks like this, we're gonna win a lot of games than regular season and, like I said, main goal be healthy in the playoffs. And if we get this Jamal in the playoffs we're gonna be dangerous. So, overall, great Christmas week for the Nuggets and Hopefully this will be another one coming up as we approach New Year's.

Speaker 1: 3:56

Now our Yoke-ism of the week I Couldn't pick just one. There was two things that I just loved that Yoke-ish did this week and I wanted to mention them both. So the first one is he actually became the franchise's all-time leader in rebounds and last year he became the franchise leader in a sis and if he plays long enough he's gonna be right up there in all the all-time categories for the Nuggets. And it's not even gonna be a discussion of who's the greatest player of all time, which I think it already isn't. I Think Yoke-ish has to go down as the all-time great already, even if you never played another minute for the Nuggets. So it's just fun to see him rack up these statistic, statistical categories and just see his name at the top of the leaderboard. He passed up Dan Issel, which was a Nuggets all-time great from, I believe, the 70s, and, and it's just fun to see, yoke-ish is really in his prime still and he's passing up these all-time greats, so he's putting together quite, quite the impressive career. The second one I had to mention last week we mentioned that out of nowhere Yoke-ish came out with hotelscom commercials and then the very next day he announced that he's going to have a signature shoe and he signed a count with a Chinese company called 361 degrees and Apparently the shoes coming out pretty soon. So a couple of things that I never thought I would see for Yoke-ish was National TV ads and signature shoes. So it's kind of fun that he's getting into the whole business side of Becoming a superstar. So that's always fun and those are our Yoke-ism of the week.

Speaker 1: 5:47

What I'm looking forward to this week I'm gonna have to say Adaptability, and the reason I say that is I'm recording. On Wednesday the news just came out that Aaron Gordon suffered injuries from a dog bite on Christmas. I don't know the details but it sounds like he's gonna be out for at least a little bit and and obviously we hope AG is okay and that it's not serious. But it will be a chance for the nuggets to test out some different lineups and really for AG to get some rest. I'm really interested to see who they put into the starting lineup in AG's absence, so Michael Porter Jr can slide up and play Power Forward and then we just insert Justin Holliday or one of the young guys Peyton Watson or Christian Brown and then we just really have a unique lineup. That's a little bit different than when AG's in there. Ag is amazing at defense rebounding. He's an all-around player. But putting in those other guys it just creates a different dynamic as far as what their skill sets are. So it'll be interesting to see and I always like MPJ at the Power Forward spot, just because he's so unique that if you're trying to put a big guy on him, he's just gonna take him out to the three-point line and Either drive right around him or shoot over him, and if you put a small guy on him Then he's just gonna shoot over him from anywhere. So it's always fun to see MPJ kind of expand his role a little bit and it obviously comes on an unfortunate situation. But it'll be interesting to see how MP MPJ can can handle the situation. The adaptability will also come in.

Speaker 1: 7:32

Harrison wind of DNVR mentioned that Reggie Jackson looks like he's hurt. There's been a lot of, I guess, responsibility put on Reggie this year with Jamal being hurt so often and Reggie's handle it great. But it looks like it may have Kind of caught up to him. He was limping around in the last game and they just they need him to be healthy for the playoffs. I know I keep saying that, but it's it's the only goal of the season and so I don't think it would be a bad thing to give him some time off and let the young guys play. Coach Malone has been trying out some non point guard lineups where Christian Brown is kind of the pseudo point guard out there and they're just running with Christian Brown and Peyton Watson and Strother and just kind of like a line up with no traditional point guard, and it hasn't been great. But maybe with a few more games and Just the idea of it can come together or they can play Jalen pick it or Colin Gillespie and give those guys a shot as well. They they've both done quite well in the G League and maybe now that they're settled in a little bit they can handle it up in the the big club as well.

Speaker 1: 8:45

Now I will say I'm looking forward to us having three home games this week. As I mentioned, we've had so many road games and just so many games in general and even with AG's injury I'm hoping to see us kind of take care of business Against these teams. At home we do play Memphis, which just got John Morant back and they have been playing extremely well since he came back. So that'll be a tough game. But then the other game against the Thunder. I don't think the Nuggets will take that one lightly, since the Thunder beat them Just a few weeks ago. And then we get the Hornets, who are one of the worst teams in the league, so ideally we go 3-0 in those games, even without AG and At home. It's a great place for those young guys to kind of gain their confidence back and just kind of go flying around and create plays, and then of course the crowd goes crazy for him, so that'll be fun.

Speaker 1: 9:38

Now my recommendation for this week is going to be MPJ's podcast called curious Mike. He did the unthinkable and he got Yokic to sit down for an interview with him. Now again, this goes back to the National TV commercial, the signature shoe line, and now all of a sudden Yokic is doing an interview. I'll be. It's with one of his teammates, so I'm sure there's not going to be any hard-hitting questions or anything like that, but it'll just be fun to see Yokic actually just sit down and tell some stories and just, you know, get to know him a little bit more with his personality and off the court. So if it's just with MPJ that he does these, I hope it's not just this one time. I hope that he has fun doing it and that maybe they'll sit down every couple of weeks or every couple of months, and Yolkich can share some stories, so that episode should be coming out either later this week or next week. So make sure you check out MPJ's podcast, curious Mike. Now our last section is usually oh, there's other teams where I make myself talk about other teams in the league besides the nuggets. This week I'm gonna go a little different and we have New Year's Day.

Speaker 1: 10:54

Approaching 2023 is almost over and I wanna kinda do some resolutions with everybody. I guess making them public like this can help hold myself accountable, but I just wanted to share my resolutions for y'all as we head into the new year. So the first resolution is I wanna keep podcasting. I've been loving doing this the last couple of months of 2023. I really appreciate if you've listened to one episode or if you've listened to all of them. I appreciate it. It's been really fun. I've enjoyed the feedback that y'all have given me. I feel like I'm getting better each episode as far as being more comfortable with the microphone, and I just love doing these solo episodes, but I also love doing the episodes where I interview other fans and kinda get to know their stories. I really appreciate everyone that's come on and took the time to record with me and I've loved every story. It's fun hearing the origin stories. It's fun hearing about players that they loved growing up or that they love now and just getting to know them better as sports fans. It's been really fun for me and I hope y'all have enjoyed the stories as well. But I have some more people lined up for the new year and spring time and I just can't wait to share those with y'all and hopefully we'll just keep this going in 2024.

Speaker 1: 12:17

The second resolution is as a sports fan, I wanna keep the bigger picture in mind. Now I know I've said this before and winning the championship definitely helped. Last year. I would live and die with every win and I'd get frustrated with the nuggets not taking some of the game seriously and just kinda going through the motions. And it's been nice to keep the bigger picture in mind as far as, like, it doesn't matter, they're gonna be there, come, play off time, it'll be okay. So in the sports bubble I'm keeping the bigger picture in mind. Like, obviously it's just sports, but having fun with it and trying to win every game and just cheering on the team, it's always fun and it's a community that does it together and I just have so much fun watching the nuggets play. So I will keep the bigger picture in mind. I won't freak out with every missed shot and every loss, and I think I can do that.

Speaker 1: 13:13

The third resolution is I'm gonna try and love the Rockies again. So I consider myself a loyal fan for all four Colorado teams the Nuggets, broncos, avalanche and Rockies. But the Rockies make it so hard to love them mainly because their owner doesn't care about winning baseball games, he just wants to make money. So it's just been tough and I will say that I've faded away in the last couple of years. But we just took a trip with my family and, talking to my sister, it just seems like they have a lot of young players that are easy to cheer for and there's some hope for next year, and so I really want to try and love the Rockies again and hopefully they will allow me to do so.

Speaker 1: 14:00

Resolution number four I'm going to try to go to more live sporting events. I took my son to a Jaguar game this year and it was really fun. Just for him to feel the excitement of the crowd with any good play happening and just the whole atmosphere of game day. So I'd love for the kids and my wife and just anyone to feel that excitement again. We're going to take a trip out to Colorado, so hopefully we get to go to a game when we go out there and there's just the Jags as far as pro franchises here in town. But there's a lot of options around here where I'm going to hopefully take the kids and just kind of enjoy some sporting events.

Speaker 1: 14:42

And my last resolution I'm going to try not to be such a sports hater, meaning I know I'm loyal to my teams and my players and I don't need to hope for the downfall of the players that they're constantly compared to, the biggest example being the Yocach vs Embiid debate social media. Obviously the fans always want to protect their guys and they get ugly doing it, but I have to remember that is not the actual player that's trying to tear down Yocach or the nuggets or anything like that. In fact, I think Embiid and Yocach actually get along quite well. So I have to remember that those are just fans and not the players. So I don't need to sports hate Embiid.

Speaker 1: 15:35

I won't even mention the fact that he flops all the time just trying to get calls. I won't even mention that he gets like 20 free throws a game from those flopping. I surely I won't bring up the fact that he pads his stats against terrible, terrible teams and then avoids the good teams because he just happens to have an injury or needs a day off on the days where he plays against the great teams. And I surely will not bring up the fact that he chokes in the playoffs and those stats go away and he's never made it past the second round. I well you know what. Scratch that. Let's keep those other four resolutions. Four out of five is not bad. Happy New Year everyone.