Thankful for the Nuggets

We recap a 13-4 start that swings from a statement win in Houston to puzzling losses against the Bulls and Kings, then pull real lessons from injuries, depth minutes, and Cam Johnson’s heating up. Predictions, corrections, and a reading rec keep us honest and curious.

• key wins over Timberwolves and Rockets
• costly injuries to Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun
• Peyton Watson’s leap in minutes and impact
• Spencer Jones and Zeke Nnaji evaluation window
• Cam Johnson’s shooting return and spacing effect
• NBA Cup path with a must-win vs Spurs
• honest review of missed predictions
• book recommendation: Why So Serious by Mike Singer

Transcript

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Setting The Agenda

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Alright everyone, welcome back to Fandom from Afar. It's been an interesting couple weeks for the Nuggets, and uh we're gonna go over all that today. Kind of do a quick review of the games, uh look at some trends from the past couple weeks, and then of course go over some uh some new predictions and go over some things that I got wrong. So should be a good time. Let's jump right into it.

Game-By-Game Recap

SPEAKER_00 0:27

The first game after the last episode was a big game against the T-Wolves. They had all their players healthy, and the Nuggets have kind of turned the tables. They are two and over Minnesota now, and both games coming in Minnesota, so that could be an advantage for later on in the season. Next up, the Chicago Bulls. We called it. We knew the Nuggets were gonna lose one of these games to a team that they had no business losing to. And in this case, Javon Carter was on fire, and the Nugg took the loss. Next up was the Pelicans, Zion was back. It didn't matter. Jokic had a triple-double, Nuggets won somewhat easily. The biggest game of the year so far. The Nuggets took on the Rockets in Houston, and Nuggets got the win. It didn't come without a cost. AG got hurt, he is out for six weeks, and that is going to be painful. But for that one night, Nuggets are good, gotta win. And then losing to the Bulls wasn't enough. The Nuggets had a frustrating loss to the Kings. The Nuggets had no energy. Russell Westbrook was playing amazing, and Nuggets took the loss, so not ideal. And then most recently, we had not an easy win against the Grizzlies, but a win is a win. And Jokic gave us two great highlights with his third quarter buzzer beater from half court, and then one of the best passes of his career with a spinning bounce, no look pass to Peyton Watson. So fun game overall. 13-4 is our overall record. You really can't complain about that. As I mentioned last episode, the Nuggets have had some close calls in these games that they've lost. They really could have an even better record, but I'll take 13-4 all day.

Record Check And Trends

SPEAKER_00 2:31

So let's look at some trends from the past two weeks. And Thursday was Thanksgiving. So I thought we'd spin these into what I'm thankful for.

Thankful For Early Injuries

SPEAKER_00 2:42

So the first thing I'm thankful for for the Nuggets is injuries. Like I told you, I'm trying to spin this positive. So the positive aspects of the injuries so far, and if you haven't seen the injuries, are for Christian Brown and Aaron Gordon. Both players are out for six weeks, so we are down two starters. And the positive is it is early in the season, so they have plenty of time to come back. Once they come back, there'll be plenty of time to get back in shape, integrate with the team again, build that chemistry. So it is early, and that's good. Now, one other bright spot is it gives an opportunity for Peyton Watson to step in. He really could step in for either player, but right now he's stepping in for Christian Brown, and he's been playing amazing. He's scoring more than he's ever scored before. He looks very comfortable shooting the three-point shot right now, and he's rebounding. I like the way P Watts playing. Now, if you remember in our preseason episodes, he did not get signed to a contract extension, so he is probably extra motivated to take advantage of this opportunity, and he is showing what he can do. Now, whether

Next-Man-Up: Watson And Depth

SPEAKER_00 4:02

that leads to a big contract from another team this offseason, we'll have to wait and see. The Nuggets will have the right to match whatever contract he signs, but obviously, with how expensive their roster is already, I don't know if they'll be able to afford to do that. So Peewat has really stepped up in this opportunity. Another person that's had a chance to play a little bit more with the AG injury is Spencer Jones. Spencer's an interesting player. He is extremely physical. And in the last episode, I mentioned that Bruce Brown is setting that tone for physicality so that the referees won't call it every time. Well, Spencer does not have that respect yet. He sets the tone for physicality, and it seems like he gets two fouls almost instantly every game, but he is a solid defender. He's got a funky looking shot, but it goes in, and I like him. For a two-way player, you really can't ask for more. So Spencer's getting an opportunity, and then even Zeke is getting an opportunity to play a little bit more. So hopefully he can have some positive minutes and maybe rebuild his trade value a little bit. Because what have we been saying for the past two years? We would love to trade Zeke Najee. He is far underplayed the value of how much we're paying him. And I think we could get someone so much better for that amount of money. So if Zeke can somehow have a hot couple weeks and we can trick someone into trading for him, that would be wonderful. And last, Cam Johnson's getting an opportunity down two starters. It's really up to him to step up a little bit. And we'll go over this a little bit more later, but he really has stepped up. And so Cam Johnson, even though it's not necessarily more playing time for him, his role has increased, and so far he has really filled that role tremendously. Well, let's just go right into Cam. Cam can shoot. Now we've talked in our last few episodes that he's been doing everything right except making shots. Well, lately, he's been making shots. He sat out one game with like a strain in his arm, and it was really only the one game he missed. He came back and now all of a sudden is just on fire. He's still doing all the intangibles that he was doing earlier, but now he's making the open shots, and he's been having some great games recently, and I just love it. This is the Cam Johnson that we were expecting, and so if this continues and the other guys come back healthy, then again, the Nuggets will be a force.

Cam Johnson Heats Up

SPEAKER_00 6:45

And

Denver Sports Momentum

SPEAKER_00 6:46

the third thing I am thankful for is just being a Denver sports fan. I can't remember a time when the Nuggets, the Broncos, and the Avalanche were all this good at the same time. The Nuggets, obviously, second in the West, definitely one of the title favorites. The Broncos are leading the AFC West with one of the best records in the AFC. And with their defense, they are definitely a Super Bowl contender. And then there's the Avalanche. They've only lost once all year. They are running away with the best record in the NHL, and they look like they're unstoppable. So let's appreciate it while we have it now because who knows what's going to happen the rest of the season for all three teams. But right now it is certainly fun.

Predictions And NBA Cup

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Well, let's get into some predictions for the next two weeks. These predictions, as always, are guaranteed to be right or wrong. We'll see. But they're guaranteed to be something. And my prediction is the Nuggets will win their game Friday night. And what does that mean? That means that they win their group for the NBA Cup. Now, the Nuggets, the first two years of the Cup, have not advanced to the knockout rounds. Obviously, the Nuggets, a veteran team, doesn't really care that much about it. But this year, they've been winning the right games, and with a win against the Spurs on Friday, they will be in the knockout round. I believe it's in Vegas, and we'll see what happens. You never know. Like the Bucks and Lakers have won it the past couple years, so it didn't really mean playoff success, but hey, if there's something to win, you might as well win it. So my prediction is the Nuggets will beat the Spurs and they will get to go play in the knockout round for the NBA Cup. One more prediction. I think the Nuggets will have another game

Owning The Misses

SPEAKER_00 8:47

just like they did against the Bulls and the Kings, where they will lose to a terrible team that they have no business losing to. So upcoming, we are playing both the Pacers and the Hornets. You would think that we would blow both those teams out, but I just have a feeling there's there's going to be a tough night in there somewhere. Alright. Everybody's favorite section. What did I get wrong last episode? Well, there's a few things. I predicted that the Nuggets would go four and two. Oh, I'm sorry, I predicted they would go five and one, and they went four and two. So I was close, but that does not count. That was definitely wrong. I did, however, predict that they would lose to either the Kings or the Bulls, and the Nuggets doubled down and lost to both of them. Now I was wrong as well. I was not too worried about the injuries to both Christian Brown and Cam Johnson. And obviously, Christian is out for six weeks. That is a big loss. But like I said, Cam has kind of reset himself from his injury and is back and playing well. Unfortunately, AG replaced him on my worry scale, and AG is out for six weeks as well. So we will see. We will see if if those guys we spoke about earlier can step up and really hopefully it's a valuable experience for some of these young guys. Alright, ways to be a better fan.

Be A Better Fan

SPEAKER_00 10:10

As always, I always want to have a recommendation for anyone that listens to this to become a better basketball fan. And I just finished the Nikola Jokic book by Mike Singer called Why So Serious. It took me forever. I just, it was my own fault. I really enjoyed the book throughout. It was just a matter of me sitting down to actually read it. And I really enjoyed it. Like a lot of the stories I had heard before, but Mike found some interesting angles or just interviews with some of the players to get a little bit more detail in there from some of those stories. It's it's it covers Jokic's whole career up to this point. So I really enjoyed some of the stuff from when he was a boy to a young man to a teenager to really growing up in Serbia. I thought that part was just really interesting. And then some of the behind-the-scenes stuff from when he has been a Denver Nugget, I just thought it was incredible. He he he got quite a few people to talk to him for this book, and I I really enjoyed it. So if you are a Nuggets or a Jokic fan at all and have not read Why So Serious, I strongly recommend it.

Closing And Holiday Vibes

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Well, I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and you are still eating leftovers. There's so much good sports to watch this weekend, and I hope you're doing that and spending some good quality time with the family. We have another interesting couple weeks for the Nuggets coming up, and I will be right back here to review it and go nuts.