It's Jokmas!

What if an unofficial holiday could encapsulate the brilliance of a singular athlete? As we celebrate "Jokmas," we reflect on Nikola Jokic's transformative influence on the Denver Nuggets. It's been a turbulent ride with thrilling peaks and disheartening troughs, highlighted by the palpable tension during their clash with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Jamal Murray's visible discord with Aaron Gordon raised eyebrows, and the subsequent shocking defeat to the Washington Wizards amplified calls for change. Could leadership shifts or roster tweaks be the key to unleashing the Nuggets' full potential? This episode grapples with the team's internal dynamics and their impact on the court.

Yet, amidst the drama, hope emerges as Jamal Murray's demeanor takes a turn for the better. A pivotal moment against the Clippers offered a glimpse of rejuvenation, with Murray engaging warmly with teammates, igniting optimism for the Nuggets' playoff prospects. As we navigate this rollercoaster, our heartfelt thanks go to our loyal listeners who've stood by us, sharing in the Nuggets' journey. This festive season, we extend our gratitude and joy to our dedicated community, wishing everyone a Merry Jokmas and a Merry Christmas, celebrating the highs and lows of fandom together.

Chapters

• 0:05 Jokic and Nuggets Roller Coaster
• 11:05 Jamal Murray's Positive Turnaround
• 15:14 Appreciation for Nuggets Fans

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

All right, everyone, welcome back to Fandom From Afar and Merry Yokemas. If you're listening to this, on Sunday, december 15th, it is Yokemas and I am ready to talk some Nuggets basketball with y'all, so let's get started. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is the fake holiday that Nuggets fans celebrate From 2016, when Jokic was inserted into the starting lineup and changed the franchise history forever and truthfully changed NBA history forever. So we like to celebrate Jokemas around here and I hope you do as well. Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Speaker 1: 0:52

It has been a roller coaster ride for the Nuggets since we last recorded. I don't know. They're just so inconsistent and I know I've mentioned that that's part of the joy of following a team throughout the entire season is being able to see the ups and downs and and really appreciate the good with the bad. But, man, this team is frustrating at times and we'll go over some of the details, but uh, it's uh, this. This beginning of the season has been full of ups and downs and a nice little winning streak would be nice. Is that too much to ask for? So let's go over the game since we've last recorded and a lot has happened and it's going to be an exciting last couple weeks of 2024. So since we last recorded, we got destroyed by the Knicks. It was not even close. The Nuggets didn't look like they wanted to be there, it was a whooping. Then, of course, they beat the Jazz, then they lost to the Clippers. Up and down, up and down they beat the Warriors and then they lost to the Cavs. But I want to focus on the Cavs' loss a little bit because I think this started what could be one of the most important couple days in the Nuggets' season. The Cavs were up by quite a bit. The Nuggets made a little bit of a run in the fourth quarter and Aaron Gordon got fouled and wanted us to like huddle up with the team really quick and he was calling the guys over and Jamal Murray kind of waved him off and was not interested in being part of the team huddle.

Speaker 1: 2:39

And obviously we've talked about Jamal quite a bit on this podcast and how he just looks either checked out or disinterested or just kind of has a bad attitude, and this was maybe the most public display of that and it was obviously very disappointing. Even Aaron Gordon when it happened, kind of you could see the frustration on his face and he kind of was like whatever, whatever man and I don't know if altitude sports meant to do this, but they immediately cut to Jokic at the exact right moment when that happened and you could, you could kind of see Jokic just take a deep breath and just just you just wonder what's going through his head, like I can't believe this is happening, and you just wonder what's going through his head, like I can't believe this is happening. The same guys that were the core of a championship squad now don't even want to talk to each other during a game, and so this was obviously very worrisome. Jamal has had a rough season. I've talked about it many times on this podcast. I think he's kind of in his head. He might be dealing with injuries. It seems like anything that can go wrong for Jamal has gone wrong this year and he's struggling.

Speaker 1: 3:58

This Cavs loss and then what happened next really was a low moment for Jamal, and so what I mean by that is Jamal after the Cavs game was then ruled out for the Wizards game, and so he wasn't even on the bench for that game, and the Nuggets had one of their lowest moments of the Jokic era. The Wizards were on a 16-game losing streak and during that 16-game losing streak they had lost by an average of 19 points. So not only had they lost 16 games in a row, but they were getting blown out by teams and on top of that, they were missing some of their better players against the Nuggets. So the Nuggets should have won by 40. If you already know, you know where I'm going. The Nuggets lost.

Speaker 1: 4:55

Not only did they lose, but Jokic had one of the best games in his career. It was a career high in points, but probably one of the best games in NBA history. But he was the only Nugget that came to play. Jokic finished with 56 points, 16 rebounds and 8 assists, but really none of the other Nuggets looked like they wanted to be there again. They have a bad habit of just thinking that Jokic will do everything and he can, but this game just showed that even against a terrible, terrible team, jokic can have an amazing game, but if his teammates are just standing around and missing shots and not playing any defense at all, they're going to lose to the worst team in the NBA. So this was a disaster, really. Just like I said, it could not get any worse. At this point. Jokic was visibly frustrated. Even after the game. He had a quote of saying like back in my home country, if a team plays like this, they will get fined or lose their starting position. And Jokic never calls teammates out like that, and he may have been referring to himself as well, like he probably thought that he could do more because he knows there's no reason why they should have lost to the wizards.

Speaker 1: 6:24

But Jokic, it was panic time pretty much for the fans, for the Nuggets media, really for the national media as well, and I don't know. Something was wrong. The connectivity of the team. They look like they don't enjoy playing basketball together, they don't enjoy being around each other, and that's obviously an issue, and so something had to change. So, um, the media, the fans on social media, were saying how the nuggets cannot waste yokich's career with teammates that don't even want to be out there. So do they fire him alone? Has he kind of lost his touch with with the team? Do they fire Calvin Booth, who put the team together, or both? Do they trade everyone except for Jokic and try and start over?

Speaker 1: 7:19

All possibilities were on the table and I think, luckily, the Nuggets had a game within 24 hours. They had a back-to-back in Atlanta and so it was good that this panic wasn't able to extend for a day or two longer. Just because I would include myself, nuggets fans and media we were kind of freaking out because that Wizards loss was that bad. So they did have the game in Atlanta and it was really going into the game. We knew it was going to be a turning point. If the Nuggets responded great, if they played like they did in Washington, then major changes were going to happen, like I I I told my wife, if the Nuggets lose this game, I would not be surprised if Coach Malone gets fired on the way home. I bet there would be major trades. It could have been anything.

Speaker 1: 8:22

Luckily, the Nuggets did respond. They played a great team game. Jokic had 48, 14 rebounds and eight assists, so back-to-back games within 24 hours. He just had two absolutely amazing games. But it was the fact that his teammates actually came to play. Jamal Murray was out again and I don't know. Michael Porter Jr stepped up. Really, a lot of the bench guys stepped up. It was a sign that something is in there with this team and they can do it, because the Hawks were actually one of the hottest teams in the NBA. They had won six in a row.

Speaker 1: 9:01

It was in Atlanta, where the Hawks always play really well, and it just showed that when the Nuggets put their mind to it, they can play really well together, which is so frustrating all these other losses that they've had this season because it's clearly showing that they're just not focused or they're not putting in the effort. But in Atlanta they did, and so obviously nobody got fired, nobody got traded. But the bad part is they had the next five days off and you just wonder was this a one-time thing? They just wanted to show okay, hey, we can do this, and they proved it in Atlanta. But now, with five days off, are they going to lose that momentum? Are they going to fall back into those bad habits? The Nuggets have had a couple stretches this season already where they've had extended time off with a couple days in between games, and they've lost every single game coming out of that rest. I think they're a rhythm team. They like to play every other day or so and have that rhythm together. But they came out against the Clippers and played really well. So that is an official two-game winning streak. So that's exciting, but they played well.

Speaker 1: 10:15

The most important thing is Jamal. He was back and he played great. Jokic was actually just okay during the game. He did not put up big stats, he was just kind of there and I don't think it was necessarily an accident. I think Jokic wanted to see if the other guys could step up and they did. Like I said, jamal was great, aaron Gordon was back and he played really well and Russell Westbrook just was pure energy. He was flying around, some of that good, some of that bad. He had some turnovers, but I think that energy is what we were hoping that he would bring and I think it rubs off on other guys because Christian Brown and Peyton Watson fed off of that and they all three had the crowd just so pumped up and I think the crowd was so excited to see Jamal actually hitting shots.

Speaker 1: 11:05

And it was a good team win and shows that the Nuggets do not need Jokic to score 50 points every game. They don't need him to have 20 rebounds. They don't need him to have 10 assists every game. The other guys can fill in those gaps and I'm sure Jokic absolutely loved it and it was just great to see the Nuggets win as a team. It's really been impossible to predict what the Nuggets are going to do, but but it's great to see that they have this in them and that there is still hope that this team can do some damage when it comes to the playoffs. But it is just so frustrating that the inconsistency is always there. You just never know which Nuggets team is going to show up from night to night. So if I had one wish this yoke miss, it would be that jamal murray just finds some joy in basketball again, and by that I just mean that it just seems like the weight of the world has been on jamal and obviously he's brought that upon himself by his performance and the way he performed in the playoffs last year.

Speaker 1: 12:21

But there was a small moment in the Clippers game that has given me hope, and it's not that Jamal played really well, it's not that Jamal looked somewhat quick again, and it's amazing how fast it comes and goes with Jamal, because in that Cleveland game he looked like he was wearing concrete shoes, like he could not move. Uh, there was a particular play where uh Jamal got switched out and he had uh George's Yang guarding him, who's one of the slowest players in the NBA, and Jamal was trying all his crossovers and glitch shots and everything like that and he could not get around him. The old Jamal should have been able to get around him with absolutely ease and Jamal just could not get around him. And I just remember thinking, oh no, that is bad. But in the Clippers game he was quick again. He had a nice acrobatic layup. I know I've been commenting on Jamal's arms quite a bit, but he looks like he's been working out. He's looking thin. I think I even saw a little bit of a tricep muscle which I don't remember ever seeing on Jamal Murray. So I think he's been putting in the work and getting in shape and that's exciting.

Speaker 1: 13:39

But that small moment that I was talking about for the Clippers game it was during the timeout. The Nuggets were up by a good amount so I think they kind of felt confident in the game. But Altitude Sports was showing the Nuggets huddle and Ryan Saunders, one of the assistant coaches for the Nuggets, was drawing up a play and just talking about defense and Jamal Murray, deandre Jordan and Russell Westbrook were sitting directly in front of him and I'm not sure what Coach Saunders said, but almost immediately all three guys threw their towels at the coach and were just kind of having a good time and they were just cracking up, laughing and everything. And this was big to me. Well, it's kind of ironic that I loved the fact that Jamal Murray threw a towel, considering I gave him such a hard time for throwing that ice pack in the playoffs last season. But I loved this moment, this moment.

Speaker 1: 14:36

I haven't seen Jamal smile in such a long time. It was so nice to see him cracking up with his teammates, having a positive interaction with his assistant coach and just it looked like the old Jamal again and I think I know that's a small moment, but I think maybe he's kind of come over the hump and he's kind of finding that old Jamal again. And really this season it all comes down to Jamal. We can't trade him. He is our point guard for this year and I really hope that the Jamal that we saw in the Clippers game is going to be the Jamal that we have the rest of the year.

Speaker 1: 15:14

Before I go, I did just want to thank all the listeners. If you've taken time to listen to any or all of my episodes, I really appreciate it. I got the report from my podcast host and saw that my podcast has grown this year and I really appreciate if you listen and if you've told any of your family or friends about this, if they're a Nuggets fan. That is the best way for me to continue growing and I love doing this and I appreciate you listening right now and I wish you a Merry Yokemas and a Merry Christmas.