5 Early Surprises from the Nuggets Season So Far

Discover the surprising twists and turns of the Denver Nuggets' season as we unpack how they've managed to rise above early challenges. What makes Nikola Jokic's performance so exceptional this year, and how has he elevated the team despite injuries to key players like Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon? You’ll learn about the unexpected adversities the team has faced, including Dario Saric's struggle to fit in and how Russell Westbrook's leadership has injected new energy into the squad. This episode promises a deep dive into the Nuggets' resilience and the thrilling anticipation as they prepare to face off against the Mavericks.

Christian Brown's remarkable impact is another highlight you won't want to miss. We'll explore moments that have defined his season, such as his highlight dunk on Rudy Gobert and how his confidence has grown amidst strategic challenges from opponents. Peyton Watson and Michael Porter Jr.'s contributions have been equally vital, revitalizing the team's momentum alongside Brown's emergent prowess. As we examine the dynamic interplay of these players, it becomes clear that the Nuggets are crafting an exhilarating narrative for the season, overcoming early skepticism and setting the stage for what promises to be a season full of excitement and surprises.

Chapters

• 0:04 Nuggets Season Surprises and Adjustments
• 13:33 Christian Brown's Surprising Impact

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

All right, everyone, welcome back to Fandom From Afar. We are a couple weeks into the basketball season and there's been so much happening already. I thought I'd do a quick episode today just to share some of my Nuggets thoughts. Around the league already there's been a ton of injuries, which I never like. It's always more fun when the teams can play each other at full strength. The Nuggets have not been immune to the injury bug Jamal Murray, aaron Gordon already missing some time with some big injuries. But there's other teams that are dealing with it too. There's other teams that are dealing with it too. Just this weekend, kevin Durant, john Morant, zion Williamson all went out, just big injuries all over the place. So it is going to be an interesting season just to see who can kind of survive, who can be healthy at the right time and come out on top. So I like the way the Nuggets are playing, even with the injuries. And so for today I want to go into my top surprises of the season. I say surprises because I know you guys look at me as someone who knows everything and is never wrong about anything when it comes to basketball. So I'll just say surprises because it's not that I was wrong. It's just different than I expected. So we'll go from least surprising to most surprising and I think we'll be able to talk about almost all the players on the Nuggets throughout these five surprises.

Speaker 1: 1:45

So, starting out with the least surprising aspect of the season so far, jokic is really good. He may have gotten even better since the last couple years when he won three out of four MVPs. He's just dominating in every aspect. This year he was already considered by many the best player in the world and now he's somehow better. He's come out this year and found his three-point shot again. He's killing it from the three-point line. He's not shooting a ton of them, but he did have one game where he hit seven and many other games where he's hit multiple three-pointers and in typical Jokic fashion he just kind of makes it look so easy, like he'll like stand out there and be like oh, you're not going to cover me out here, okay, and then he'll just drain it and it's just so fun. But the way he's kind of conducting the offense we'll go into it more later with some of the new players, some of the young players he's averaging a triple-double. In the games that he doesn't get a triple-double, he's scoring 40 points. He's just dominating in any way you can think of.

Speaker 1: 3:00

And it was such doom and gloom around Nuggets fans or even in the basketball media after Nuggets started out 0-2. And even in those games they said Jokic is playing great. He just doesn't have the team around him. But it almost seems like the team kind of adjusted very quickly and now Jokic is just in complete control of the game. He's doing everything and the players around him have kind of started to play a little bit differently and it's really working. So, like I said after that 0-2 start, the Nuggets are 6-1 in their most recent games. I'm recording this on a Sunday, so we have a big game against the Mavericks tonight in games. I'm recording this on a Sunday, so we have a big game against the Mavericks tonight. But Jokic is just in complete control. And it's funny listening to podcasts because I think even Nuggets fans agreed like there's no way that he can win another MVP. He's won three out of the last four. Just the way it works.

Speaker 1: 4:00

People get tired of voting for the same players. They like the new storyline, they want to find the next guy. And it's not that they're tearing down Jokic. They agree he is the best player, but they're always looking for the next story. But Jokic is just making it so hard to ignore what he's doing and the numbers he's putting up. It's going to be really interesting to see how long can people not consider him for MVP just because of what he's doing and just acknowledge that, hey, this is just truly special and we'll find the next guy next year because Jokic is by far the most valuable player.

Speaker 1: 4:54

The next surprising aspect of the season is a bit of a bummer. I was excited about Dario Saric and what he was going to bring to the team, and that's not to say that he can't still turn it around and be a valuable part of the bench. But it has been rough to start the season. He looks so much slower than he did when he was. Obviously when he was with Philadelphia. He was a young guy back then, but when he was with Phoenix or even kind of when he was first with Golden State, he looked so much more athletic back then and I know he's been battling injuries kind of later in his career. But he looks so slow right now and kind of lost, just not really knowing how to fit in with our bench. Now I will say. Part of that is the Nuggets have adjusted since those first couple of games and one of the adjustments was not playing Sarich anymore, and so it'll be interesting to see, as he's watched from the bench, if he can kind of figure out what can his role be and how can he add to what the bench is doing. But I will say he just he doesn't look good right now. But it's a long season. Hopefully he'll have his time. But that has definitely been a surprise. He was one of our big free agent signings and he has been a huge negative so far. But, like I said, there's still plenty of time.

Speaker 1: 6:22

The next surprise is Mr Russell Westbrook. You know I was excited about him. I was hoping that he would do exactly what he has been doing. He's brought his passion, his energy, leadership and it's been rubbing off on all the guys. Almost in every interview one of the players brings up Russell Westbrook and just how much he's meant to the team Westbrook and just how much he's meant to the team. And I think it's just really obvious that all the players kind of knew what was missing from the team last year and whether it was just complacency after winning the championship and and uh guys just didn't have that same fire as the year before or just kind of the personnel that was in the locker room.

Speaker 1: 7:09

Russell Westbrook has really turned that around, and just the fact that every player keeps bringing it up I think it's had a huge impact. And so I know that he's old he's in his 17th season but just watching him has been so fun. He literally is running as hard as he can at all times and sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes it's a bad thing. He has a hard time slowing himself down, enough to hit some layups, but that's okay, I think just the young guys that he plays with on the bench, even some of the veterans. Jamal Murray came back from his injury in the last game against the Heat and I really think that he's been watching Westbrook and how the guys have responded to him, and Murray was playing hard for the first time in a long time. Like Jamal looked like he had a little bit more pep in his step and whether it's that he's threatened by Westbrook or that kind of takes what Westbrook is doing and adds it to his game, because when Murray's trying and playing hard, he is absolutely amazing and we just didn't see that last year. So Russell Westbrook already paying dividends and, within him, being a surprise.

Speaker 1: 8:46

I think the biggest thing that has been a surprise about him is his defense. A surprise. I think the biggest thing that has been a surprise about him is his defense. He's been a lockdown defender and just being such an athlete and he's, he's a big guy. I think he's like six, four, six, five. He is shutting some of these guards down. He's rebounding, it's just. It's a pleasant surprise. But, man, if he can keep this up, it's a huge addition to the bench. Just because you throw Westbrook out there playing defense like that with Peyton Watson or even Christian Brown playing with the defense, uh, the the bench, um, aaron Gordon plays with the bench quite a bit and then all of a sudden we got just super athletes that are running up and down the court and shutting you down. That's a huge advantage for the second unit wall, yoka Tress, and so it's been awesome. I'm sure there's been other fan bases that have seen flashes of this and have talked themselves into it. So I hope it keeps going. But overall, what Westbrook has provided so far has just been above and beyond what we could have expected.

Speaker 1: 9:57

My second most surprising aspect of the season is Coach Malone. Now, like I said, we started out 0-2 in those games. Actually, in the first game Coach Malone was trying to do his same rotation that he did last year, where he is just convinced that Jamal Murray can lead the bench and can hold it down while Jokic is resting. And in the first game it proved to not work again and, surprisingly, in a wonderful way Coach Malone adjusted the rotation right away in that second game and since then he's kind of found a really fun rotation. Now some of it has been kind of forced upon him by the injury to Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon, and so he's been playing Peyton Watson at power forward, peyton Watson a lot with the bench or with the starters Julian Strother, hunter Tyson All these guys are kind of getting an extra shot and doing well with it, and Malone is finding just the right rhythm with all these guys, even though they haven't really played much before. He's been flexible, he's been noticing what's working and then sticking with it. Even to the point in my last surprise I was saying Russell Westbrook has played amazing, but Coach Moen has had the right feel for the game and he closes with the young guys. Westbrook will come in, maybe for a defensive possession in the last couple minutes, but otherwise Strother's been out there, or Peyton Watson with the huge block to end the game against Oklahoma City the other night. He just kind of has the right feel right now of which guys are playing and how they fit together and it's really working out well. And I just have to give it up to coach Malone because he has been willing to be flexible this year and not just try and force, uh, some bad rotations that just don't work. So coach Malone has definitely been a pleasant surprise.

Speaker 1: 12:08

And my number one surprise for this season in such an amazing way is Christian Brown. Everyone was so sad to see Casey P go. He will always be an all-time nugget for helping us bring the first championship to Denver and it was kind of worrisome that we lost him in his shooting and his defense. But Christian Brown has stepped up and, dare I say, been an upgrade. Like he has been so amazing. All of a sudden Christian Brown can shoot threes Like it's no problem at all and his defense has been just amazing. That's always been there. But his cutting has just been such a weapon as well, and that kind of goes for a lot of the players Peyton Watson, russell Westbrook, even Michael Porter Jr They've really taken to cutting hard off ball when Jokic has the ball and that's why Jokic is getting so many assists this year, because these guys are cutting hard and it's kind of just creating a really cool offense for the Nuggets where teams don't know what to do because they want to double and triple team Jokic. But the other guys on the team have become so good at cutting at the exact right time that the Nuggets are getting so many easy baskets just from being aware of what's happening to Jokic and cutting.

Speaker 1: 13:33

And, like I said, christian Brown, he's making the open shots this year. Peyton Watson he's struggling his first few games back but he is starting to really turn it on now. I think it took him a little bit of time because he missed the whole preseason with an injury, but now Peyton's really looking good and Michael Porter Jr is starting to really hit shots too. And so the fact that defenses don't know what to do with Jokic and Jokic is just finding the open guy at all times and Christian Brown's been a huge part of that.

Speaker 1: 14:07

It seems like most teams game plan coming into the season was just to double team off of Christian Brown because he can't hit a shot, but this year he's hitting them on the regular and he is hitting them even with a guy in his face. He just has supreme confidence this year and it's been so fun and obviously the highlight so far of the season was him dunking on Gobert and just screaming in his face and it was just the best. I loved it in so many ways. But Christian Brown has been such an amazing surprise and the fact that the plan was to let KCP go because the team had faith in Christian Brown and he's rewarding him right now with this level of play. And again, I think the guys seem to really feed off of each other this year and part of that is Christian Brown's uh energy and attitude and I think him and Peyton Watson are great combo, and then you add Russell Westbrook into it it's like three guys that will just run through a wall, I think into it, it's like three guys that will just run through a wall, I think kind of energize the rest of the team. And so five big surprises, uh, so far this season, only one of them being bad.

Speaker 1: 15:23

Um nuggets, after a horrendous start, are looking pretty, pretty good, and so it's just a good reminder that the basketball season is really long and so, as bad as it seemed that first week the Nuggets were one of the top stories on all the basketball podcasts I listened to, they were just. Everyone was kind of predicting their downfall already and saying that time had passed them by and that they committed to the wrong guys. And just like any giant sweeping statement you could think of in a bad way, people were saying it about the Nuggets and how quickly things turn around. It's just a good reminder that, as a basketball fan, that's why it's fun to watch, not just to watch during the playoffs, but to watch the whole season. You really get to see the ups and downs and kind of get to enjoy the ride and so far it's, it's been fun and the nuggets are back.