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
Panic time in Denver!
The Denver Nuggets are in a tailspin with four straight losses despite Nikola Jokić's historic offensive production. Championship hopes are fading as the team battles injuries, exhaustion, and disconnection with just three games left in the regular season.
• Fourth in the West but tied for eighth, with the play-in tournament becoming a real possibility
• Jamal Murray's hamstring injury now considered more than day-to-day, might miss playoffs
• Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr. playing through injuries but significantly limited
• Jokić showing visible frustration with teammates' lack of movement and effort
• Team chemistry has disappeared compared to last season's connected championship squad
• Potential for major organizational changes if playoffs end poorly
• Best case scenario: getting healthy during a week off and recapturing last year's magic
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all right, everyone welcome back to fandom from afar. Normally we talk about how the nugget season has been a roller coaster ride. Unfortunately, we cannot say that this time, because that would include good things happening. Right now it's looking pretty, pretty bad, I would say. How can we describe the nuggets right now? Exhausted, injured, disconnected, lost, frustrated, slow, how about just plain bad. It's been rough lately. Other than that, things are going great. So let's talk about them, shall we?
Speaker 1:Last night they lost to the Pacers and this was their fourth loss in a row. Jokic and Christian Brown were amazing. They played fantastic. Everyone else kind of was trash. It was a rough watch, a discouraging loss, and a big part of that is their defense was just non-existent, and that that goes for Jokic and Brown too. Like the Nuggets didn't guard anyone last night they were getting wide open three-pointers pretty much anytime they wanted. They were driving the basket anytime they wanted and the Nuggets just didn't look like they cared. It was very sad and so well, let's back out.
Speaker 1:Big picture the Nuggets are fourth in the West, but also tied for eighth. The West is just so close that there's so many teams bunched up together that really anything could happen in these last three games. There's about a week left in the season and while the Nuggets are in fourth, the way they're playing, I do not have faith that they will stay there. It is very, very possible that they're going to slide down to seventh or eighth and have to play in the play-in game this team that we had championship hopes for. It's possible that they have to play one game to even make the playoffs and if they lose that then they have to play another one and they could be out of it altogether. So this season is definitely not what I expected. This season is definitely not what I expected and it's kind of amazing how we got to this point.
Speaker 1:If you'll remember, in a recent episode I talked about how the Nuggets were being smart. They gave Jokic some time off. He took about 10 days off and he came back and so fresh and I thought that was just the first sign of hey, the nuggets learned from last year. They were exhausted last year trying to fight for a top seed. So they're doing everything they can to make sure the guys are healthy and rested going into the playoffs. And that turned so quickly because, uh, jamal got hurt. Ag has been in and out. Michael Porter Jr has been out and so Jokic had to go right back to carrying the whole team and he now looks absolutely exhausted again, before the playoffs have even started.
Speaker 1:He's putting up amazing numbers. We've talked about a million times on this podcast before, but he's literally having the best season for an offensive player in NBA history. The numbers that he's putting up are absolutely ridiculous. In the last four games I think he's averaging something like 40 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, and the Nuggets are oh and four in those games. He just has zero help right now and the frustration is starting to show. Uh, the first sign of it was against golden state a few days ago. He was sitting there on the bench talking to dario and vladko and whatever they were talking about. You could tell he was over it. He was throwing his hands up in the air, rolling his eyes, and he was visibly frustrated. In that game as well, he just started chucking up three-pointers. That's kind of something Jokic has done throughout his career. If he's frustrated with how his teammates are playing and their thought process or their effort on the court, he'll just start chucking up threes because he's like hey, if you guys don't care, I don't care either here we go, and obviously he's Jokic, so he's going to make a lot of those which he did in the Golden State game. But it's just really sad to see the season end this way and I hope things can turn around at the end of this episode. We'll go over kind of like a brightest timeline, but the big fella is frustrated and it is not looking great. This is kind of like I mentioned the worst case scenario. The Nuggets needed to be healthy and rested going into the playoffs because they're such a top heavy team. We need the starters to play so many minutes when the playoffs roll around. And right now Jokic, as I mentioned, is exhausted. Jamal Murray is hurt. We'll go over that more here in a in a bit.
Speaker 1:Um, aaron Gordon, he's been injured most of the season and he keeps trying to fight back and he's technically playing but he looks. He looks about half speed of what Aaron Gordon should be and was last year. The calf injury is obviously bothering him. He just doesn't have his explosiveness. Um, on offense, it seemed like he was getting a couple of dunks every game last year. The famous play that the Nuggets would kind of run would be Jokic would kind of curl into the paint and the defenders wouldn't know what to do because Jokic is so good at that little short floater shot. And then Jokic would pretend to shoot it and Aaron Gordon would come up along the baseline and just dunk it and it would be such a beautiful exclamation point on on a Nuggets victory. And not only are we not seeing that anymore, but it just seems like Gordon just doesn't have the explosiveness to dunk or play defense or anything Like I.
Speaker 1:I think I can't imagine what he feels like and I appreciate him wanting to be out there Cause he knows that the Nuggets really don't have any other options, but he is very, very limited right now. And then MPJ he had the hamstring and back issues here a few weeks ago and he's tried to come back, but again he looks stiff. He is getting blown by pretty much every single play if the other team wants to. And then he just looks so unsure of himself on the offensive end. Every time he shoots it looks like he's hoping the ball goes in, whereas the first half of the season he was a sniper, he was hitting everything in it and he just looks so confident. And now he's out there just like AG. He's out there. He's trying, but the Nuggets just they don't have it.
Speaker 1:And so it all comes down to can those guys get healthy? But even if they do, it was announced last night that Jamal Murray has been out for like the last five games with a hamstring issue. Jamal Murray has been out for like the last five games with a hamstring issue and coach Malone announced that he is no longer day to day. They hope that he can come back for the playoffs, but that's not even a guarantee. Somehow they didn't say the injury had a setback or anything like that. They just called it a a weird injury, they said for what they originally thought it was, his rehab and what they've been working on should have produced a recovery by now. But he is still hurt and cannot go and they don't even know if he will be back for the playoffs. So this is obviously devastating news for the Nuggets. We've seen what they look like the last four games without Jamal, with a hobbled Aaron Gordon, a hobbled MPJ and our disaster of a bench. There's really no sugarcoating it. This Jamal news could be the end of the season.
Speaker 1:Russell Westbrook started out the season so well but again, because of how limited our other guys have been. I think we kind of burnt him out and played him way too many minutes and so he's not looking good lately just because he's 36, 37 years old and and, uh, we can't expect that many minutes out of him. He he was playing so well at the beginning and if the Nuggets would have had a more balanced team and not had as many injuries, I think he could still be playing that way for us. But we had to play him more and we burnt him out. Jalen Pickett's been putting in some good minutes, but either of those guys is nowhere near what playoff Jamal is for this team and what he means for this team. And it is just devastating to think that we're going into another year where Jamal Murray is hurt, either for the entirety of the playoffs or going into the playoffs. This makes four out of the last five years that Jamal has been hurt going into the playoffs and I know I'm beating a dead horse because I talk about all the time but at a certain point and it is not his fault, like it's not like Jamal is asking to get hurt, but at a certain point we are wasting the career of one of the greatest basketball players ever because we cannot surround him with talent the most important talent being the second best player on your team and he is now hurt for the fourth year out of the last five years last five years.
Speaker 1:It's rough Right now. I would not pick the Nuggets, whether it's a playoff game or a playoff, definitely not a playoff series. If we're in the playing game against one team, we have Jokic, we can win one game. I always will have faith in that. But if we get matched up right now, really against any of those top Western teams, it's going to be a huge upset. If the Nuggets can win a series without Jamal and with the shape that the other guys are in, it's just so disappointing.
Speaker 1:When they're at their best. This Nuggets team has talent and has the chance at winning a championship. But for as connected as the team was two years ago, that was one of their greatest strengths. It looked like they were playing with joy, they were playing for each other, they were just so connected. They always knew where the other person was going to be on defense. They communicated so well, they were playing hard. And this year is the exact opposite. They just they seem like they're kind of out there and just hoping that Jokic can outscore the other team On offense.
Speaker 1:The most common thing they do right now all the players is throw the ball into Jokic and then just stand there and watch. And the beauty of Jokic is that when you're cutting, when you're setting picks for each other, when you're getting open, he will find you. But right now the guys look so checked out. They just pass it and stand there and then Jokic will stand there waiting for someone to cut or do anything and nobody does a thing. They just stand there and so Jokic starts kind of backing his way down and then he'll throw up a shot and because he's Jokic, he'll make a lot of them. He's been scoring so many points lately but that's because his other teammates aren't doing anything and, as I mentioned, christian Brown has been a bright spot. Last night he had 30 points and he looked great. But and overall the team just seems like it's like they don't know what to do unless it's pass the ball to Jokic, and it's kind of just shocking. These guys are NBA players. They're the best players in the world.
Speaker 1:When our bench is in and Jokic is not in, it's been ugly for years, but this year has kind of taken it to a new level. They just they give up every lead so quickly, they turn the ball over, they, they commit a huge number of fouls. So it makes it harder for the starters when they get back in, because if they fouled and the other team shooting free throws, it's just one thing after another is leading to negative results and the rest of the team just looks like it's like oh, jokic, will, he'll, he'll, he'll solve it, he'll take care of everything. And when you're putting up 40 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists and you cannot get a single victory, that's saying something about the teammates surrounding you. So, oh, I hate to say it, but this really could be the end of this Nuggets era, to say it, but this really could be the end of this Nuggets era If things keep going this way and they get eliminated, whether it's the play-in game or the first round and I'm only saying that, assuming that Jamal Murray cannot be himself if they do get eliminated quickly, I think all options are on the table.
Speaker 1:Everyone except for Jokic is in danger of not being on this team next year, and I don't think that's a bad thing. I think it might be time for a change on all levels general manager, coach, players, assistant coaches, everything. So we'll have plenty of time to go into that during the off season. If that happens, the next three games are against the Kings, the Grizzlies and the Rockets and, like I said, there's so many teams so closely bunched together that really the only way the Nuggets can ensure themselves that they make the playoffs is if they win all three. But I saw an article today that said even if the nuggets win all three, there is a chance, because of tiebreakers and all this, that they could still end up in seventh. So that's if they win all three. If they lose one, two or even three of those games, it's it's almost likely that we're going to finish 7th or 8th and have to play in the play-in.
Speaker 1:It's shaping up to be a very interesting week and we will have to see how the week goes. I don't want to predict that the worst will happen, but I would say the way they're playing right now, it is much more likely that they're going to lose all three than they would win all three. A lot of this is going to come down to tiebreakers and unfortunately that just goes back to earlier in the season when the Nuggets either did not have the players available or took the games too lightly and we lost games that we should have easily won against some of these teams. But now they have the tiebreaker over us and it could cost us. So this has obviously been a extremely negative episode, and you can tell that I am feeling pretty devastated about how things have turned out this season.
Speaker 1:But I wanted to end the podcast with a little bit of positivity. What is the best case scenario from this point on? That could possibly happen. I'm not saying it's likely, but we're going for positivity here, right? So what's the best case scenario of what could happen? Now, this may be complete fiction and not a chance in the world. It could happen, but I can dream right. So let's go, we win all three of the next or the last three games of the regular season. We get the sixth seed. So the tiebreakers work out our way, but we get the sixth seed and I like that. We settle in there.
Speaker 1:Now, obviously we don't get home court advantage or anything like that, but let's say we get the sixth seed and that gives us the week off before the actual playoffs start, when those other teams are playing in the play-in, and the guys get healthy, jokic gets rest Somehow, jamal comes back, ag MPJ they start feeling good. Russell Westbrook finds the fountain of youth. This week off is magical. We're going to say that all our guys are fully healthy. So with the six seed, we get to take on the Los Angeles Lakers as the three seed. Now we know how the Lakers and Nuggets series have gone the last couple of years and in our best case scenario, here it happens again. All the hype is with Luka and LeBron and we defeat the Lakers. Jamal Murray makes last second shots again. Jokic just goes crazy because he doesn't even have to deal with Anthony Davis anymore. And although the whole country still can't believe that the Lakers were gifted Luka, the Nuggets prevail and they move on. Not only do they move on, but we're still full of energy and we're completely healthy.
Speaker 1:So we take on the Houston Rockets in the second round. The Rockets are a young team full of super athletes, but our aging veterans with our championship pedigree takes them down too. Oh man, we beat the Rockets. We're into the Western Conference Finals. What a glorious scenario. And the Thunder are waiting for us. I can't do it, even in my dream scenario. I can't pretend that we could beat the Thunder. So it was fun to get to the Western Conference Finals. Though in that dream, right, we can always dream All right, y'all, it's going to be a great week. We are going to cheer on the Nuggets, no matter how sad we are about them. We are going to cheer them on these last three games and we'll do another podcast once we know what the playoff scenarios are looking like and hopefully make some predictions, not only for the Nuggets but hopefully for the rest of the league, and see if we can find out what's happening here. Well, thank you all for listening today in my little sad sack pity party, but it's still a dream.
