Fandom from Afar
Join me as I discuss my journey as a Colorado sports fan living in Florida and my interviews with sports fans that are forced to enjoy their favorite teams from a distance.
Fandom from Afar
How Every NBA Team Relates to the Nuggets
Are the Denver Nuggets on the brink of a new NBA dynasty, or will the Boston Celtics steal their thunder? Tune in to our season two kickoff of "Fandom From Afar" and get a courtside seat to our spirited analysis of the upcoming NBA season. We promise to unveil intriguing connections between the Nuggets and teams like the Wizards, Trailblazers, and Nets, all through playful trade wishes and bold predictions. The spotlight is firmly on the Nuggets, as we ponder their potential to dominate the league and examine their heated rivalry with the Kings, alongside entertaining takes on their recent battles with the Lakers.
Coach Michael Malone's quest for victory over his former team, the Kings, sets the stage for a deep dive into potential future rivalries. We reflect on Jamal Murray's sensational 50-point performance against the Cavs, Donovan Mitchell's surprising stint in Cleveland, and Joel Embiid's newfound focus on team achievements. Our admiration extends to the Orlando Magic's burgeoning squad, with insightful comparisons to the Nuggets' past strategies, emphasizing the impact of seasoned players like Paul Millsap and KCP in nurturing young talents. The episode is peppered with laughter and genuine fandom, offering listeners a fresh perspective on the league's evolving dynamics.
From power rankings to finals predictions, we rank the Memphis Grizzlies through to the Boston Celtics, with a special nod to the Nuggets at number three. We envision a potential Knicks vs. Nuggets showdown, with a hint of nostalgia and hope that this season will be one to remember. Inspired by a late friend's passion for the Knicks, our heartfelt anticipation crescendos in a bold prediction of the Nuggets clinching the championship in six games. Join us as we share our basketball musings and encourage you to spread the joy of the game with fellow fans.
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All right, everyone, welcome back to Fandom From Afar. We are back for season two. The NBA is back in less than a week. It's going to be a great season. I'm excited there's so many storylines and interesting angles. I think for really all the teams, we obviously will focus on the Nuggets. I think for really all the teams, we obviously will focus on the Nuggets. But, yeah, it should be a fun season.
Speaker 1:And before we get started, I do want to thank my buddy, matt. You may have noticed the new intro song for season two. Matt is a great musician and I asked him to throw together something for the podcast just because I was kind of tired of the generic song that we used in season one and I think he killed it. I love the new song. So thank you, matt. So today we are going to do a NBA season preview. The season is coming up rather soon and I just kind of wanted to touch a little bit on each team and of course, this is fandom from afar. So I am going to spin it a little bit and see how each team has a Nuggets related topic. And you may be listening and saying how can you relate every team to the Nuggets? And to that I say you must be new here. That's what I do. All right, let's get started with the preview. I'm going to go in reverse order, starting with some of the teams that may not be so good at basketball, and then we'll work our way up towards the teams that are championship contenders, and I'll finish it off with a prediction for who I think is going to win the finals, and we'll have some fun along the way. All right, let's start at the very bottom the Washington Wizards. So the Wizards a couple years ago Nuggets did a trade and sorry, you will hear me say we just like in season one. I'm a large part of the team. We say we, the Wizards. They traded us KCP and he was kind of the missing piece to our championship run. So I'm saying how can the Wizards help us this year? And Washington, I would love Corey Kispert. So if you would be interested in some of our bench guys that maybe aren't so good, maybe we can work out a trade again. So we would love one, corey Kispert, please.
Speaker 1:At number 29, the Trailblazers. So the Trailblazers are not going to be good. They have a bunch of interesting young guys, but I wanted to focus on their coach, chauncey Billups, just got inducted into the Hall of Fame. He was a great Nuggets obviously grew up in Denver and I just wanted to shout out Chauncey, who I loved watching when I was growing up, and hopefully this young team can kind of develop underneath him and he can become a good coach, but at the very least he is definitely worthy of his Hall of Fame induction. That just happened.
Speaker 1:The Brooklyn Nets Now I didn't have to try too hard with some of these teams, but the Nets are just not interesting to me. There's really I don't know. They're going to have a rough year. I think they're trying to lose, like you can tell by some of the moves they made, and so my way I related them to the Nuggets is the Nuggets have basketball Nets in ball arena Moving on the Charlotte Hornets. They have an interesting guard, vasa Micic. He played with Jokic on the Serbian team in the Olympics this past summer and they just have good chemistry. I think he'd be a great kind of third point guard, just as insurance off the bench. So, vasa Micic, if you want to be a Denver Nugget, let's make that happen.
Speaker 1:Detroit Pistons are up next. I put them down for the Jeremy Grant curse, so a few years ago Jeremy Grant had one great year with the Nuggets and he kind of surprised the Nuggets by leaving and going to the Pistons. He cited that he wanted a bigger role, and that's totally understandable. They offered a ton of money and ever since then both the Pistons and Jeremy himself have not had much success. And it worked out quite well for the Nuggets. We ended up getting Aaron Gordon to replace Jeremy and obviously won a championship. So it worked out well on the Nuggets side Unfortunately, not so much for the Pistons Ended up getting Aaron Gordon to replace Jeremy and obviously won a championship. It worked out well on the Nuggets side. Unfortunately, not so much for the Pistons. Again, they have a bunch of young guys that can develop into something in the future, but I'm not expecting much from them this year.
Speaker 1:Next is the Utah Jazz. Now, the Jazz actually have some talent, but it just seems like their plan is to wait one more year before they start really trying to um to win games, and so really the way they're they're tying into the nuggets is both the jazz and the nuggets have the biggest home court advantage because of the altitude. Uh, the jazz always have a really good home record, because teams flying in there have have a little bit of trouble with the altitude, just like in Denver, and, uh, I think the jazz are about a year away Now. Up next I have the Raptors. Uh, massage Ujiri. It was our general manager, um, way back when, and he's obviously gone on to help the Raptors win the championship and Nuggets have one championship, so I just put it's tied one to one. Who's going to come out on top with that? We have Jokic, so I like our chances.
Speaker 1:Up next I have the Atlanta Hawks. Atlanta Hawks always seem like they should be so much better than they actually are and I think they're going to go. They're going to have to choose this year. Are they going to stick with kind of the guys that they've had for a few years now, or are they going to blow it up and maybe try and get a high draft pick? So that has nothing to do with the Nuggets, but they're always an interesting team and you know me, I love trades, and so the Hawks have a lot of interesting guys.
Speaker 1:We would love to get Bogdanovic from the Serbian team again to pair up with Jokic. He loves his fellow Serbians and that would just be so fun if we could somehow get him but he's a good player We'd have to give up something of value. I do not think they'd be interested in Zeke Nagy or Jalen Pickett or anybody. I do not think they'd be interested in Zeke Najee or Jalen Pickett or anybody. But one thing I did want to mention that does relate to the Nuggets is Dikembe.
Speaker 1:Mutombo passed away. He has his number retired by both the Nuggets and the Hawks. He had great success winning a bunch of defensive player of the years with the Hawks and just wanted to shout out Mutombo. He was one of my first favorite players. Really one of my first memories that I can think of from when I was younger was when he and Lafonso Ellis and Brian Stith and everybody they upset the Sonics for the first ever eight seed, beating a one seed, and then that image of him on the ground just hugging the basketball with just pure joy. That was really special, and so Mutombo sounds like he was a great man off the court as well. But he recently passed away. So shout out to Mount Mutombo, and then I have the Bulls.
Speaker 1:Arturnus Kornisovas, I believe, is how you say it. He was a member of our front office and took the GM job with the Bulls. They have had tough injury, luck, but also just making some questionable moves. I know the Magic. They got a great deal out of the Bulls to get Wendell Carter and Franz Wagner. I don't know. The Bulls have been struggling, but Karnasovas still has his job and maybe he wants to throw the Nuggets a bone before he gets fired, because the Bulls have a lot of interesting guards that we would love to have on the Nuggets. So, whether it's Lonzo Ball, kobe White, I don't think we can afford Zach Levine, io DeSumo. They just have a bunch of guys that maybe we can take off their hands. So you can tell. I am forever optimistic of hoping some team will just take our junk to give us a good player. But the Wizards did it in KCP, so I have to have hope.
Speaker 1:Now. The Bulls are the last team in the category that I kind of put, the Cooper Flag category. Cooper Flag is a freshman at Duke this year. He's projected to be the number one pick and from all accounts he seems to be pretty amazing. So from everyone I've mentioned so far, I think if one little thing goes wrong, then that team is fully focusing on losing games and trying to get the number one pick so they can get Cooper Flagg. There's some other great guys. I think Rutgers has a couple guys that should be top five picks. There's a good draft this year but I think everyone I've mentioned so far I do not think they would mind losing as many games as possible and getting one of those top prospects would mind losing as many games as possible and getting one of those top prospects.
Speaker 1:Next up is the Clippers. I probably should have had them lower, but they do have talent. It's just that I don't think their talent really fits together. And Kawhi Leonard just doesn't play. He is amazing when he does, but he's already come out and announced that he won't be available for opening night and he's kind of out indefinitely, so who knows when he will play? Um, they're opening up a new stadium, which should be really cool, but for them I put they're suffering from the Paul Millsop curse. You may remember, in the bubble the nuggets came back uh, back from down 3-1 against the Clippers and what started the turnaround is one of the Morris brothers tried to get into Paul Millsap's face and kind of bully him a little bit and Paul pushed back and the Nuggets came back and won that game and won the series, and really, from that point on the Nuggets have been trending upwards and the Clippers have done nothing. And so I I say the clippers are suffering from the paul milsap curse.
Speaker 1:Next up is the san antonio spurs. The spurs are tough. They could go either way, just because when benyama is that good, he could lead them to a lot of wins. But they also have so many young guys. You could see them being a talented team that just happens to lose a lot of games. So I kind of put the Spurs in this spot and I put for this one.
Speaker 1:I just put that the best big man baton has not been passed yet. Everybody wants Wembyn Yama to be the next great big man, but I think Jokic is going to hold that title for a few more years. It'll be interesting to see their battles this year and for maybe the next couple of years, because Jokic, with these young guys, sometimes he tries to teach them a lesson. I remember when DeAndre Ayton came into the league, jokic had a perfect triple-double against him and just kind of showed him like hey, you're talented, but this is a whole other level, and so I feel like he'll do the same with Wembyn Yama this year. I had a chance to fly out to Denver to see Wembyn Yama play the Nuggets last year and that was just so fun. Both big guys had a great game. But, yeah, I just don't think the baton has passed yet.
Speaker 1:Yokich, yokich is the main. The rockets are up next. The rockets are loaded with young, talented guys. Like they're almost like a fantasy team of uh draft picks from last couple years, and sometimes that's good, sometimes they're. Sometimes you can have too many guys. All these young guys want to prove themselves and show that they belong in the NBA or that they can be a top guy on a team, and so, while the Rockets have a ton of talent, it'll be interesting to see how it meshes, or if they have to maybe consolidate a couple of those young guys and trade for one superstar or something like that. But, like, the Rockets are really, really interesting. I love a couple of their guys. One of their rookies this year is Reed Shepard, who should be so fun to watch. But, um, they, they have, they have, they have a really a couple of great guys. As far as Jalen Green Sangoon. Um, cam Whitmore is really fun. So I'm excited to watch them. I don't know how many games they're going to win and the way they're related nuggets is they still have Uncle Jeff on the team, jeff Green teaching those young guys how to play. He was obviously a big part of our championship team and we will always love Uncle Jeff.
Speaker 1:Next up is the Pelicans. From all reports, zion's in shape. Stop me if you've heard that one before, but we'll see if he can stay healthy. They have a lot of guys that should be good. They have one missing piece, though. They don't have a center. So that's the way they relate to the Nuggets is. They may beat a lot of teams this year on pure talent alone, but when you are playing either 6'6 Zion or 6'7 Herb Jones as your center and he's trying to guard Jokic, I don't think that's going to turn out well for you. So good luck, pelicans.
Speaker 1:Up next, warriors. The Warriors had such a good run. I think it's not controversial at all to say that we've been in kind of the Warriors era for the last what? 10 years, 12 years, and so my question for these guys is not really to do with them, but can the Nuggets or the Celtics make this run their era, so can they be the next warriors. Um, I think the nuggets and the celtics have been the best teams the last couple years. They've each won a championship. So which which team can kind of step up and make it to where, 10 years from now, someone will look back and be like, oh yeah, that that was the the nuggets era or that was the celtics era. So it'll be interesting to see if they can have prolonged success like the Warriors did.
Speaker 1:Up next is the Kings. The Kings was an easy one. Michael Malone was fired by the Kings when he was a young coach. He still hates the Kings. From what I hear, he doesn't wear purple because of the Kings, so he wants to win every single game badly against the Kings. Unfortunately, the team I think almost like as an inside joke doesn't play very well or doesn't try very hard against the Kings and I think that makes Malone furious, which they probably think is hilarious. So hopefully we can do a little bit better against the Kings this year. Hopefully we can do a little bit better against the Kings this year.
Speaker 1:15, right in the middle is the Lakers the Lakers. We had a beautiful streak of beating the Lakers. I think it was 13 games in a row before they won one in the playoffs and the Lakers are hilarious. We swept them in the playoffs two years ago and they called it the closest sweep in NBA history, and then we beat them in five this past year and the Lakers say that it was the most dominant five-game loss in NBA history. They always spin it to show how good they were, even though they got whooped, and I think it was just a showcase of the Nuggets played absolutely terrible, yet still beat them. Jamal Murray hit a couple shots that won the game, but every single game they came back. The Nuggets came back from a big deficit just because they knew they could. They knew they were better, and I do not see anything that is going to change this year. So, lakers, good luck.
Speaker 1:The heater up next. Uh, I put on here that the heater famous for heat culture, but could the heat culture ever turn russell westbrook into a champion? Because the nuggets are about to. Let's see. Pacers are up next. So Pacers are the other NBA team besides the Jazz that my friends down here in Florida who aren't really big basketball fans. They confuse the Pacers, the Jazz and the Nuggets all the time, so if I try and talk basketball with them, they may get those teams confused, but that's okay, they're trying the Cavs.
Speaker 1:So, just like the Brooklyn Nets, it was hard to find the relation between the Nuggets and the Cavs, so it's a bit of a stretch. But here we go. A couple years ago Jamal Murray had a 50-point game against the Cavs where he didn't shoot a single free throw. It was historic. It was awesome. Jamal Murray also had some 50-point battles with Donovan Mitchell when he was with the Jazz, and Donovan Mitchell is now on the Cavs. And I just think the Donovan Mitchell storyline is kind of interesting, because it was obvious that Donovan Mitchell wanted to go to either New York or Brooklyn and get a big contract. But both those situations changed dramatically, either because the Nets decided that they wanted to lose games, or the Knicks decided that if you didn't go to Villanova you weren't allowed on the team. And so Mitchell is now oh, I've wanted to be with the Cavs all along and says he's super happy there. So we'll see how long that lasts.
Speaker 1:I have the 76ers up next, just outside the top 10. And if you've ever listened to an episode of this show, you know I will talk about the relationship between Joel Embiid and Jokic, about the relationship between Joel Embiid and Jokic Embiid man, he tries so hard to be the guy and now he's coming out and saying that he's never going to play in back-to-backs again, that he only cares about team accomplishments and he's just so focused on the playoffs this year. But he's kind of thrown himself under the bus, kind of admitting that he was all about himself and individual accomplishments last couple of years, which everybody could see and to the detriment of his own team. He was getting hurt and injured by playing every single game in the regular season. So he could put up big stats against the bad teams to try and win MVP and he did get one, undeservedly, but he got one and so it'll be interesting to see how his year goes. I think people are kind of turning on him a little bit and Paul George already has an injury. I love Tyrese Maxey, but Embiid's running out of time and he's trying to say the right things but in classic Embiid fashion I don't think it's working quite well. All right, we're in the top 10 now.
Speaker 1:The Orlando Magic number 10. I love the Magic team, just like the Rockets. They have a lot of great young guys. Like the Rockets, they have a lot of great young guys. I talked last year about how the Magic are kind of. They remind me of the Nuggets from a few years ago and in another similarity, when the Nuggets were able to sign Paul Millsap, he was like the perfect veteran to come onto the team and really help the young guys take the next step and just not only learn how to play professional basketball but provide the defense and the intangibles. I really think he helped out Jokic Murray MPJ. I think Paul Millsap was the perfect free agent for the Nuggets at the time that they signed him, and I view the Magic signing KCP in the same way.
Speaker 1:Obviously, I hate to lose KCP from the Nuggets, but I think he's a perfect fit for the Magic. I think he's going to. His stats will never be huge, but I think his fit is going to be enormous and so I congratulate all my magic fans down here. I think they're going to love him. It's kind of funny. The uh national media acts as if the nuggets losing KCP was the same as if we lost Jamal Murray or Jokic uh, because they are no longer considering the nuggets a real basketball team. Um, I think we'll talk about that more later, but I do think adding KCP is a fantastic addition to the magic and I really think they're going to be one of the top teams in the East this year. Paolo and Franz great combination. I think KCP is going to provide everything they need.
Speaker 1:So I've entered a new tier here in my list, and I think the rest of the teams that I mentioned. They're expecting to win the championship or at least be right in contention, and if they don't, I think the season will be somewhat of a disappointment. So to start that tier, I'm going to start with the Milwaukee Bucks Now Milwaukee, I have them right on the edge of this tier just because Giannis is so amazing. I think their team is so old that I think they're walking a very thin line between being a great team and being a team that has a ton of injuries and the young guys are having to play and it ends up being a rough year. But I yannis is that good that he could carry a team throughout the season that has those issues. Um, yannis and yokich has always been an argument for who can be the best player in the league, and it's. It's going to be fun, like I think. If everything goes right, the bucks could be great. If, if not, then maybe yannis is uh to get upset and maybe start looking around elsewhere. But I think it's going to be a fun year for the Bucs.
Speaker 1:Number eight. I have the Grizzlies. So the Grizzlies two years ago they were such a fun young team and they've obviously had some injuries and some off-the-court issues. But I like their team. They seem to all fit together well. They enjoy playing with each other. The addition of Zach Eadie, I think, is going to be really interesting. Anyone who's watched March Madness for the last couple of years sees how dominant Eadie can be but also how he can be kind of taken out of the game. He's massive so he has limitations, but it's going to be interesting to see how they use him and how effective he can be.
Speaker 1:So the way I tied them into the Nuggets is my prediction is when the Grizzlies come to town, ja Morant will not go to Shotgun Willies this year T-Wolves are up next. Obviously, t-wolves beat us in game seven. We collapsed. We had a 20 point lead. It was terrible. But the T-wolves also traded away Carl Anthony towns which they were built to beat the nuggets. Their, their little uh Nuggets, their little triplet of centers with Gobert Cat and Nas Reed was really effective against Jokic. I will say that I think Jokic was worn down by that point. I think a healthy, fresh Jokic could handle those three guys. But they traded away Cat to get Julius Randle, but they also got dante di vincenzo. So it'll be interesting to see how that trade works out. I absolutely hope that it's a revenge year for the nuggets and hopefully, uh, if we do run them in the playoffs again, we will beat them up.
Speaker 1:Next is the suns at number six. So the suns, I think, are going to be really good. I hate to say it, but I think they're going to be really good. They were able to get some kind of veteran minimum signings. It just made me laugh that half of their roster is former Nuggets. They're kind of just taking all our leftovers. But I think they're taking the right guys and I think those guys will fit. But it's just funny to think about. They have Monte Morris, mason Plumlee, yusuf Nurkic, bull Bull and Colin Gillespie all on their team as former Nuggets, and so it'd be funny and sad if all those former Nuggets came back to haunt us in the playoffs.
Speaker 1:Top five now Dallas Mavericks. Uh, top five now dallas mavericks. They went to the finals last year. Luca is amazing. They made some changes. They added clay thompson. Um, they got a good year out of kyrie irvin last year. Which can he put two years together where he doesn't make the team implode? That'll be interesting. Doesn't make the team implode? That'll be interesting. Clay, is he gonna show the warriors that they made a mistake and that he's still clay thompson and can wreak havoc from three-point line? Or is he old? And luca the way I related it to the nuggets is yokich and luca are like a big brother, little brother, best friend, bff relationship. It would be so fun not anytime soon, probably, but at some point in their career if they could play together. I think that would just be pure entertainment and I hope it happens in Denver, if not soon then in the future.
Speaker 1:Now the New York Knicks number four. I just love what they're doing. They've turned their team around from something a couple years ago that was not interesting and had no chance of winning a championship to I think they are a legit contender now. I think the cat trade is going to be interesting, but I think it's going to work for them just because of who they have around him and I think he fits perfectly. It's going to be interesting to see if he can handle the New York media. I've heard a lot of people say that they're concerned about that just because he tries so hard to be someone that he's not, or tries to be the cool guy, and if he says something wrong with all the New York media, they might really take it and run. So, basketball-wise, I'm excited about this team. Jalen Brunson is so fun to watch.
Speaker 1:I don't really have a Nuggets tie to this one. I just wanted to acknowledge my buddy, colin, was a huge Knicks fan and unfortunately he passed away a few weeks ago. Colin was a great friend, a great boss. He encouraged me really with every step of life and even so he won my Yokemas giveaway last year for the podcast. So he was a huge Knicks fan and he will definitely be missed.
Speaker 1:Number three I do have the Nuggets, I know. See, aren't you proud of me? I didn't have them at number one this year, but we'll talk about them more. I'll do a little Nuggets preview after we go over the final two teams. But Nuggets at number three.
Speaker 1:I have the Thunder at number two. They are everyone's off-season darling and I don't blame people. The Thunder are just absolutely loaded. I love almost all their players and they are everyone's pick to have the most wins this year, just because they're so deep, they're so talented and, yeah, I don't have a bad thing to say about them except for the fact that they are somewhat young and so they may be a great regular season team, but I think there's something to be said for playoff experience and they still may be too small, even with with Hartenstein, to take on Jokic.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, I do have the defending champs, boston Celtics. Their team is just loaded. I know Porzingis is hurt, but I'm not really worried about them. Whatever they do in the regular season, as long as Porzingis and their, their starters are healthy for the playoffs, they're going to be extremely dangerous. I guess my only question for them is kind of what the Nuggets went through last year is is is the grind of that extended season going all the way through the finals going to be? Is it going to catch up to them, like, are they going to be worn out for the following year, or are they going to the? It's called the disease of more, where some of the guys that were happy to take on a certain role last year to win the championship? Do they want more this year? And it kind of messes with the chemistry a little bit. So those are all what ifs. I think on paper the Celtics look amazing again and I expect them to be absolutely amazing come playoff time as well. So that's my rankings. I loved taking on the challenge of spinning it in a Nuggets universe for every single team and it's going to be such a fun season and it's going to be such a fun season.
Speaker 1:I did do an off-season kind of preview episode about the Nuggets, so I won't go into too much detail here, but I just want to give some final thoughts as we head into this season opener here against the Thunder. So as the off-season began, coach Malone and Calvin Booth were saying all the right things. I think they both acknowledged that there was a little bit of a disconnect between them last year, whereas Booth really wanted to develop some of these young guys to provide depth for the future, where Malone wanted to win games now and these young guys were not ready. And so they're saying all the right things now and I think even Calvin Booth maybe recognizes that some of the young guys, like Jalen Pickett and maybe even Hunter Tyson, are not ready to give quality minutes and so he's not going to push so hard to have them play over veterans. It's going to be interesting to see how they actually do when it comes time to play the games. Coach Malone loves playing as veterans and he's a super competitive guy that when it comes down to it he will leave who he thinks can give him the best chance of winning in the game. And so he may say he's going to play some of the young guys now. But we'll have to see what happens when the Nuggets either start losing a couple of games in a row or even just in the middle of an intense game. And for Booth he may have to force Malone's hand by trading certain guys, or he may admit that he was wrong and trade some of the young guys for more veterans. So it'll be interesting to see how that dynamic kind of plays out once the season starts For the Nuggets bench. It's going to be completely different than last year, and I think in a good way. It's going to be completely different than last year and I think in a good way.
Speaker 1:I talked a lot about Westbrook and what he can add to the team, and I think he's kind of proven that over training camp and the preseason. He's pure energy, sometimes chaotic, but it seems like he really has just lifted everyone, not only with spirits and energy but also challenging them. And I think he even admitted that he is there to push Jamal Murray and to make Jamal better, and I love that he's publicly saying that and that what everybody thought he was brought into is the case, and I can't wait to see it happen. Dario Saric I think he's going to be just a solid addition. We've never, not never for the past couple years we have not had a good backup big man, and I think he's going to be such an upgrade over what we've had. I love the way he plays. He has high IQ, he can shoot a little bit, he can pass. I really like that.
Speaker 1:Flack goes back from injury. Same thing Zeke Najee has even kind of shown a little bit in the preseason. So I think everyone knows my feelings on Zeke. I my dream would be that if he plays well at the beginning of the season, we can trade him before he goes back to being the old Zeke. And then the highlight of the preseason so far is it looks like Julian Strother has taken a leap. He has looked fantastic, like scoring, just getting to the line. He's big enough where he can play a little bit of defense and I just love how he's looked so far. And while Christian Brown has not looked good, I think what Strother does for the bench is much more important than if he was with the starters.
Speaker 1:The starters have plenty of scoring and all that stuff, so to give the bench someone like him that can just shoot it from anywhere, can drive like it. We have not had that in years either. Our bench was so bad last year that straw their Westbrook charge. Hopefully Peyton Watson can take a leap as well. Like I really think if our bench can just not be terrible, it will be such a huge advantage for us. So I'm excited. I do think there'll be an in-season trade coming. It just seems like the Nuggets have too many guys on their team that are not going to help us win a championship either this year or down the line, and so I think they'll open up a roster spot by either cutting Jalen Pickett or trading him or doing something and adding another veteran along the way For the starters.
Speaker 1:Really, I just put how quickly people forget. I know we lost KCP, kcp. But we have Jokic Murray, aaron Gordon, mpj, and now Christian Brand can do a lot of things similar to KCP. The shooting is a big drop-off. But those other four guys are special. They have chemistry, they have talent and then Jokic just makes everyone better. So I don't know. It almost seems doom and gloom for a lot of the national media now that we lost KCP and in the Orlando Magic section I talked about how important KCP can be. But they're talking about us being the sixth or the seventh seed now and it's like how quickly people forget For the starters.
Speaker 1:There's so much riding on Jamal Murray. It's got to be a ton of pressure on him. Jamal doesn't even pretend that he doesn't see everything that's written in the media or talked about in media. He knows exactly what's being said about him and it seems like sometimes he takes it and uses it as motivation. But sometimes he takes it and puts the weight of the world on his back and he just looks down. So it's going to be such an interesting year for Jamal Murray and see what he can do with that pressure.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I hope Westbrook kind of pushes him to another level, can do with that pressure. Like I said, I hope Westbrook kind of pushes him to another level. You know he has chemistry with Jokic. If he can just stay healthy I think he's going to have a great year. But man, it's crazy how so much rides on Jamal Murray and whether he can stay healthy for this team. And then of course, there's the big guy, three out of the past four years winning the mvp, winning our hearts good old nicole yokich. So I kind of went into last year thinking there's no way they're going to give him another mvp. And now that they did give him his third mvp, I'm even more on that train of saying there's no way the NBA would give him another MVP. But he's just so good, and especially now with the low expectations, if he leads them to a great record, if he just puts up his normal Jokic stats, I could see him at least being in the conversation Now. Whether people want to give it to him or not, I don't know, but I'm never going to say never. I think Jokic is going to have one of his best years. He seems more serious this year. I think he kind of knows what his role is and what he needs to do, and I think his awesome beard kind of signifies that, which I love. So I think it's going to be a great Jokic year, and if he happens to win a fourth MVP, that's great too.
Speaker 1:So let's get some predictions out of the way real quick, let's just. Let's just go with the conference finals. I'm going to say Denver Nuggets over the Phoenix Suns. Like I said, I think the Suns are good. I don't think they're going to be able to play any defense at all, but I think they're just so offensively talented that they're going to make it to the Western Conference Finals but not be able to handle Jokic, and the Nuggets will beat them in five Over in the East.
Speaker 1:I do think the New York Knicks are going to beat the Celtics. This is a pure guess. I think the Knicks are just going to have one of those magical years where they kind of channel the magic of Jeremy Lin and Spike Lee and New York just goes crazy for eight months and they just have one of those storybook years where everything kind of comes together. The Celtics they're the most talented team in the league. I'm just after seeing what happened to the Nuggets last year, I'm thinking that they're going to eventually wear down. I would not be surprised if the Celtics are in the finals.
Speaker 1:I've even said that I kind of hope that they are, because the fact that the Nuggets and the Celtics have been the best teams over the last couple of years but haven't had a chance to meet in the finals, it would just be a great story for the NBA, I think, if they could finally meet. That'd be fun. But my prediction is Knicks over Celtics and we'll say that one is going to be seven games, so Knicks and Nuggets in the finals, and you know I'm going to take the Nuggets. I would say it would be a battle. I would say Nuggets in six and everything will be right again with the world, with the Nuggets as the NBA champions. I'm excited for this season. Everyone, I appreciate you listening. If you can tell a friend, if you know someone that likes basketball and just wants to listen to my silly ramblings, I would appreciate it. Thanks everyone.
