Nuggets are Getting Healthy

We step back from the game log and map the most injured season of the Jokic era, finding real bench depth, a sharper identity, and a path back to title form. Player by player, we weigh roles, health, and how the rotation should harden for May.

• record check and why third seed still works
• Hunter Tyson move and roster flexibility
• KJ Simpson two-way value as a ball handler
• Duron Holmes as a shooter-first project
• Jalen Pickett’s ceiling as a third guard
• Zeke Nnaji’s defense vs contract reality
• Spencer Jones earning real playoff trust
• Jonas Valanciunas steadying the center minutes
• Bruce Brown’s return to 2023 form
• Christian Braun’s health, defense, and confidence
• Tim Hardaway’s gravity as a spacer
• Julian Strawther’s growth with starters
• Aaron Gordon’s health as the quiet key
• Peyton Watson’s breakout and future price tag
• Cam Johnson’s IQ and fourth-option fit
• Jamal Murray’s All-Star case and rest
• Jokic’s rust, reset, and dominance window
• West and East playoff outlook and matchups
• Nuggets history homework: ABA doc and Doug Moe

If you have a basketball fan in your life who you think would be interested in this episode, please tell them. That’s the best way for us to grow.

Chapters

• 0:00 Return And Season Reset
• 1:15 Record Check And Big Picture
• 2:00 Player Review Plan
• 2:57 Hunter Tyson Trade Context
• 4:00 KJ Simpson Two-Way Outlook
• 5:05 Duron Holmes Development
• 6:38 Jalen Pickett’s Ceiling
• 8:05 Zeke Nnaji’s Role Reality
• 10:10 Spencer Jones Earns A Deal
• 12:00 Big Val’s Importance And Limits
• 13:20 Bruce Brown Finds His Burst
• 15:05 Christian Braun’s Return And Fit
• 17:05 Tim Hardaway’s Green Light
• 18:40 Julian Strawther Steps Forward
• 20:30 Why Aaron Gordon Matters Most
• 22:25 Peyton Watson Breakout And Future
• 24:10 Cam Johnson’s Smart Fit
• 25:30 Jamal Murray’s All-Star Leap
• 27:20 Jokic Injury, Rust, And Reset

Transcript

Return And Season Reset

Brian 0:03

Alright everyone. Welcome back to Fandom from Afar. We have been gone for quite a long time, and I was convinced that my podcast was causing the nuggets to get injured so often that I took a long, long break to see if I could turn the curse around and see if the nuggets could get healthy. Well, in actuality, I went on vacation, I got back and I wasn't feeling well, and then life just got kind of busy. Either way, the nuggets have been incredibly injured, and it's been a really weird season, and we're going to talk about it today. We're going to shift our structure a little bit. We're not going to break down game by game. Because it's been so long, we're just going to go player by player and kind of review what has happened since we last recorded. I hope everybody's been doing well. I hope you've been watching the Nuggets. And we are in the home stretch of the season, and I'm excited. So, Phantom From Far is back. We will be finishing up this season. And let's get into it. Let's cover what we have missed in our time away. So, our overall record right now is 36 and 21. We are third in the West. And that's pretty good considering what has gone on this season. It seems, like I said, just kind of like a cursed season where the Nuggets cannot get healthy. But in a way, it's been a blessing in disguise because some of our bench guys have really stepped up and done well, giving me hope that we have some depth that uh we haven't had in seasons past for the playoffs. So good and bad, but definitely wild. So let's kind of go player by player. We'll break down how their season has gone, what we're hoping for coming up for the rest of the season, and really heading into the playoffs. So let's just start out with Hunter Tyson. Hunter, you were always a long shot. There was the hope after that summer league that you played so well in that you were gonna turn into a great depth piece shooting hustle. It just never really was there. And so we ended up trading Hunter Tyson at the deadline for basically a second round pick, and really the main reason was to save money and open up a roster spot that we will hopefully be able to sign a veteran for the playoffs. So, Hunter, good luck in your future. We will probably never talk about you again on this podcast. We did just sign KJ Simpson. Now, this did not fill Hunter Tyson's roster spot. He is our new two-way player, which means he can play for either the Denver Nuggets or the Grand Rapids Gold. And I'm excited. Obviously, he went to University of Colorado, watched him in the tournament a few times. He's a solid point guard. He was available for a reason. He's not necessarily a can't miss prospect, but I think he can provide what the Nuggets need, which is more ball handling. He can shoot a little bit, he definitely puts in effort, and he's quick. So he has a lot of things that the Nuggets need. We'll see whether he's just kind of a regular season stopgap to fill in when Jalen Pickett's hurt or Jamal Murray needs a night off. But I think you you could do worse with a with a two-way point guard. So I'm excited about KJ Simpson. We'll see what happens. Another project the Nuggets have on their hands is Duron Holmes. We obviously had high, high hopes for Duron coming into the season, but he was a rookie coming off a torn Achilles. So I probably should have been a little bit more cautious in my hope for him. He has looked like a rookie coming off of a torn Achilles. And it's not really Duron's fault. He's a young player coming off of injury, and he only gets a few minutes here or there to kind of show what he can do. Now, one thing I think he has shown both in practice and in games is that he is a shooter. And so while we have more of a need for rebounding and toughness, he can shoot. And so if he has a legit NBA skill that he can bring to the team, that's that's a good thing. That's all we can ask for for a young guy. And he did have a few opportunities once all the injuries came, but it was pretty obvious that he just seemed kind of small out there, couldn't really rebound, and is still a project. So not much to say about Duran. I don't think he's going to get any playoff minutes. Hopefully he can just stay healthy, continue to get stronger, get used to the NBA physicality, and just if he's a sharpshooter off the bench, we can we can use that. Jalen Pickett. Jalen again had opportunities because of injuries, and he had one magical night in Philly where he looked unstoppable. I think he scored almost 30 points and had some highlights where he was dribbling around in beat or did a nice step back three. And it was it was a great night. Like that was fun to see Jalen have that special of a night in the NBA. But he he's kind of shown he is what he is. He's he's probably a solid third string point guard who just isn't quite athletic enough, kind of slow. He is a good shooter, but he struggles when the other team tries to pressure him bringing the ball up the floor, and he kind of has to do his little back to the basket dribble just to get them from not stealing the ball, and so this way he can't really see the floor. So it is a little bit of a struggle for Jalen. He has nights where he looks solid, but I think he he pretty much is a third-string point guard. So still a project, we'll see. Our forever project, Zeke Najee. He again has had opportunities. The injuries have provided these end-of-bench guys with an opportunity to show what they can do. And Zeke actually was able to play with the starters a little bit, and while he was with the starters, he did pretty well. I was hoping that he did well enough that maybe another team would take a chance on him during the pr or before the trade deadline. But unfortunately, I think his contract was still just a little bit too scary for other teams, and just the fact that he's five years in now and has shown glimpses, but just not worth the contract. And so he is still on our team. He plays some good defense. I will give him that. His shot still isn't great, he doesn't really rebound that great, and so yeah, he's just gonna be an end-of-the-bench guy, I think, until we either give up an asset to get him off of our books, or the contract just expires, and it just seems like that contract is going on forever and ever and ever. Now, a contract that's not going on forever is Spencer Jones. Now, Spencer was a two-way player, just like I mentioned KJ Simpson earlier, but Spencer has proven himself to be so much more than that talent-wise, and he's become such an interesting, important part of our team because he does bring the physicality, he plays great defense, he can actually shoot. It looks weird as can be, but he gets the ball to go in. And Spencer had a situation come up where because he was a two-way player, he was only allowed to play for the Nuggets in a specific number of games, and he hit that mark. And unfortunately, we had to sit him out a few games because the Nuggets were trying to negotiate a new contract for him. Now, if the Nuggets would have offered him a full contract earlier in the season, they probably could have got him at the veteran minimum for three or four years, just because two-way guys usually are not going to fight a guaranteed contract that hard. But Spencer has played so well that he had some leverage. He knew his value and knew that he was important to the team. And so what ended up happening was the Nuggets were only able to sign him to a deal for the rest of the season, and he will become a free agent after this year. And in one way, you are so glad that Spencer has kind of played well above his two-way deal and that he got some money for the season. And in another way, you just wish the Nuggets could have foreseen this coming a little bit and signed him to that long-term deal because he actually has been so important. And I love Spencer. I think he's been great. I hope he sticks around and we're able to sign him after this season. But it's fun to see guys kind of come out of nowhere and prove their worth and establish themselves as an NBA player. So I could not ask for anything more from Spencer. I'm so glad that we did sign him because we will absolutely need his defense in the playoffs. Let's go with Big Val. Big Val was such an important signing. We have never had a backup big man to kind of rest Jokic. And as it turns out, Jokic got hurt for the first time. And so we were excited that we had Big Val because okay, this is what we signed him for. This is gonna be a nice stopgap to take up those big man minutes while Jokic is hurt. Unfortunately, Jonas got hurt the next game after Jokic got hurt, and so we were out both of our centers for quite a long time. He's back now, he's solid. Really can't ask for him to be Jokic, like nobody is Jokic, but he's solid. He brings some physicality, he he's a backup center. Like, really, he's solid. I I love Big Val. I think this is probably gonna be his only year with the Nuggets. He he really does seem like he's kind of ready to retire and go back home to Europe, but I really hope we can win him a championship before he goes. Bruce Brown, Brucey B got off to a rough start this season. The first couple months, he looked like he had lost his athleticism. He looked like he was unsure of his shot. It was just an extremely slow start. But the last couple weeks or even months, he has looked like the Brucey B from 2023 again. He brings that energy every single night. His shot is looking nice. He plays some really good defense, and it's just he kind of brings that attitude. Like he he knows that he's maybe a little undersized, or he knows that he's not quite as talented as some of the other guys, but the way he plays, you would think that he thinks that he's the best player on earth. And the Nuggets need that. They have a lot of guys that are kind of a little too cool for school and don't show that attitude, and I think the Nuggets really feed off of his energy and his attitude, and so it's been so nice to see him back. I think the way he's playing now, he will be an important part of the playoff rotation, and we needed him while Jokic was out. So Brucey B, welcome back, sir. Christian Brown, he was out for the majority of the season, and before he got hurt, he wasn't playing well. So it was looking like a little bit of a disaster that we signed him to that huge contract this offseason. Put that on top of the way that Peyton Watson was playing, and we were wondering, did we sign the wrong player? And Christian Brown, he came back from injury for one game and then was out again for a long period of time. And so this injury has really kind of swallowed up his entire season. But he is back now and has been playing really well. He's never going to be the one-on-one scorer or anything like that that a lot of shooting guards are, but he's been solid. He's been getting back out on the fast break. When he originally came back, he was trying to lay balls in that normally he would dunk easily. So he just kind of had to get his legs back underneath him. And that is he's showing signs of progress with that. I've seen some nice dunks last couple of games, and his shot seems to be coming back, his confidence seems to be coming back. We just need that defense to come back as well, so that he can kind of be that fifth option on offense, but lock down the top scorer on the other team. So Christian Brown is slowly coming back. It's nice to see him healthy and really getting back into shape. Tim Hardaway has been everything we wanted and more. He is just unconscious some nights. Like he takes the toughest shots. He doesn't care if he's double-teamed, he's gonna jack up that three-pointer, and most of the time it just perfectly goes through. So the fact that he is just one of those veteran guys that we got on a minimum contract, he has been amazing. He had a little bit of a cold streak there while Jokic was out, but overall he's been exactly what we need. Shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting. If we would have had him even last year, just him, I think it could have made such a big difference in the playoffs because teams like Minnesota or teams like Oklahoma City, they just swarm Jokic and Jamal, and there was no weapons to make them pay before this year. And now with Tim shooting, I think it's gonna maybe ease up the pressure on Jamal and Jokic a little bit. Speaking of, Julian Strather has come out of nowhere. Maybe the last 10 games or so, he's been playing with the starters with again, with all the injuries, it provides these opportunities. And Julian, he's had opportunities in the past and he shows flashes like in the playoff game last year. He won that game for us with his his shooting. So Julian has talent, and he's been showing it the last couple of games where it's like, oh, this could actually be another piece that we could use in the playoffs just because he can actually handle the ball a little bit. He has a nice little floater game, and if you don't close out on him fast enough, he's he's an awesome shooter. And so it's really fun to see him step up and just give us hope for another player because let's face it, unfortunately, this season has shown that everyone can get hurt, and we might need these bench guys to step up. But I really like the way Julian's looking lately, and if this is another piece that we have, just as far as the rotation goes in the playoffs, that is very exciting. All right, let's talk about Aaron Gordon. Aaron Gordon is so important to the Nuggets. Just he ties everything together, whether it's his toughness, his rebounding, his shooting, his defense. He does a little bit of everything for the Nuggets. He opens up the floor and knows how to play exactly the right way off of Jamal and Jokic, and he he has size. And and obviously Cameron Johnson and Peyton Watson play great in the in the power forward role, but during the playoffs, I think we are going to need size and defense and rebounding, and we need Aaron Gordon to be healthy. For some reason, his calves and hamstrings are just kind of they just won't go away. Last season and this season, he just cannot shake these soft tissue injuries, and it really impacts his game. And so I hope the Nuggets are being extremely cautious with it. But the way it's been going, no matter how much time off they give him, it just kind of pops up again. And so the number one goal for the rest of the season is health. And maybe one of the most important players we need healthy is Aaron Gordon. And so we will see how they handle these last couple weeks, but it is kind of getting scary that AG cannot stay healthy because of how important he is. Now with Aaron Gordon going out, one of the players that stepped up the most that I have to say I was shocked about how well he played was Peyton Watson. Peyton had a chance to play with the starters because Christian Brown and Aaron Gordon were out. And so Peyton kind of fills in whether you need him to play shooting guard, small forward, or power forward. And he took advantage of the opportunity and he won player of the week for the whole NBA one week. And it was incredible what he was doing. He's showing that he has the ability to score one-on-one. He's showing his shooting ability. He's really been working on that. He obviously plays amazing defense. And man, this is another situation again where it's like, man, I wish the Nuggets would have signed him in the offseason because I think I've heard that he would have signed probably a three-year,$30 million deal. And now with the way he played, he might get offered$30 million a year from some other team in free agency this year. And so he has stepped up. Obviously, he has never done this before, so the Nuggets would have had no way to know that he had that in him. But man, Peyton playing amazing. Of course, he got hurt because he plays for the Denver Nuggets. And so he's been out a while, so hopefully he can come back healthy and kind of pick up right where he left off. Cam Johnson, stop me if you heard this one, but he got hurt and he was out for quite a while. But he is so solid, and I'm excited to see if he can stay healthy and play with this team for a long period of time. I think he's going to be exactly what we thought he could be, which was that awesome fourth option on offense, but with a high IQ to unlock and like help elevate some of the other guys. He he knows what's going on on the floor at all times. He has a great ability to cut and he's a good shooter. So I'm excited to see what he can do. Obviously, he has been out the majority of the year, but he has been extremely solid once he's in. And I'm just excited to see kind of the last couple weeks and going into the playoffs what he can do. Alright, we got two players left. The big boys. We did it. Jamal Star happened. Jamal Murray made an all-star team. We can no longer say that Jokic has never played with an NBA All-Star. Jamal Murray did it. And truthfully, he is on pace to not only be an all-star this year, but all NBA is for both conferences where they just named the 15 best players of the season. And Jamal Murray has a case to be an all-NBA player this year. I, of course, have doubted him all throughout his career because he has given me reason to doubt. This year, he has put it all together. He has played hard. He has stayed somewhat healthy. I'm worried that he took on the load while Jokic, A.G., Brown, Cam Johnson were all out. It was him and all the bench guys, and they did surprisingly well, but I'm worried that that extra effort that he had to put in during that time is going to wear on him for the last couple weeks of the season. So I'm really hoping that he will be willing to sit some games out, find some rest, and be ready to go. Because I know the All-Star was very important to him. I love that he got it. I just hope that he didn't put everything into getting that to where he doesn't have anything left for the playoffs. But this is a new year. Jamal doubters. We are believing in Jamal. He is playing the best basketball of his life. And now that everybody's healthy again, I hope he can just elevate what he has been doing to an even higher level. And if we get this Jamal in the playoffs, there is a legitimate shot for a championship. Our big Serbian basketball MVP, he was out for the first time ever. When he went down in Miami and he was holding his knee, I think every Nuggets fan kind of saw the season flash before their eyes. Jokic just does not get hurt. He we don't see him on the ground in pain like that. It just the way he plays, it just kind of serves a way to kind of keep him healthy a little bit. And so when his knee got hyperextended and he ended up having a bone bruise, it was scary, but it turned out to be somewhat good news that he didn't tear anything. And so he was out for almost six weeks. The Nuggets, like I said, held it together. The bench guys all stepped up and they actually had a winning record while he was out. I didn't think they were going to win hardly any games, but they they did okay. And so he has come back. Now we've never seen Jokic come back from injury because he's never been hurt, and it has been frustrating. Frustrating is a good way to put it. He has been sloppy, he's been rusty. You can tell that he has just gone full into foul baiting, which I don't like. We always were so proud of Jokic for being a superstar that played in a legitimate way, and that he didn't kind of get sucked into all the little games that some of the other superstars play. He would always play the right way. But the last couple weeks, he has definitely gone into foul baiting. He is trying so hard to prove some sort of point to the referees. It's not fun to watch. He I hope he snaps out of it. I hope he starts playing like Jokic again. And if the game in Portland the other night was any indication, hopefully that kind of shows that okay, he's rounded a corner. He just dominated that game. He scored, I think, nineteen points in the first quarter. He was running. Running up and down the court. Like he really didn't seem focused on the referees. He just seemed focused on basketball again. Now that was only one game, but I'm really hoping that is something that we will see moving forward. Maybe he's finally starting to feel healthy. But all that to say, Jokic has not had like his Jokic season because of the injuries, because of the sloppiness, because of him just kind of being out of shape from the injury. And yet he's still leading the league in assists and rebounds and scoring almost 30 points a game. It is one of the best seasons the NBA has ever seen. Now, he may not win MVP or even be all NBA because there is the 65-game rule. So that means because of the injury, Jokic can only miss one more game to be eligible for those awards. And so most likely it will not happen. I would love it if it did. But chances are Shea Gilders Alexander will win another MVP. But Jokic has had one of the best seasons in NBA history. It just was unfortunate that it got interrupted by that injury. And like I said, if he can play like we just saw in Portland, where the Nuggets won by 54 points, then I think the rest of the league should be scared. And we'll go over that in some of our predictions here in just a second. But it's so great to see Jokic back, even if it has been a rusty, kind of grumpy version of him. But just the fact that he did not tear anything in his knee and is now back to playing basketball, we have to appreciate that. So he just has 31st birthday, so time is flying. He is already in his 30s, and we need to hopefully take advantage of this situation this year because I really do think we have the deepest team in the Jokic era. So let's let's go over some of the predictions like I talked about. I say that the Nuggets finally get healthy. Now it still may not be for a few more weeks with the AG and Peyton coming back, but the players that are back, I think the Nuggets are going to be extra cautious, they're going to get healthy, and they're going to look scary. I think they're going to look unstoppable at times, but I think we've dug we, the Nuggets, have dug ourselves into a hole that we are probably going to finish third in the Western Conference. Now, that's not the worst thing. I'll go over some of the predictions for who I think is going to finish above and below us, but I think third would be a good spot to land as long as we're healthy. And if we are healthy, I think we will be the trendy quote unquote underdog pick to win the championship this year just because of the talent surrounding Jamal and Jokic. For the rest of the West, I actually think the Thunder and the Spurs are going to be in a little bit of a battle for the top two seeds. The Spurs are they're similar to the Grizzlies a few years ago, where they were young and upcoming and just they played hard. And so they kind of don't know that they shouldn't be up there quite yet. They're ahead of schedule. Obviously, Wemby is an amazing talent, but they just keep playing well and keep winning games. And the Thunder are battling a little bit of injuries now as well. So again, that could be a blessing in disguise that the Nuggets had to deal with all their injuries early in the season. And the Thunder are now dealing with injuries to both Jalen Williams and Shea Gills Alexander. And so whether they're serious or not, I can't say, but uh they have been out for at least a week now, and I think they're both out for at least a week or two more. So I think the Spurs and Thunder will finish one and two with the Nuggets in third. And then behind us, I think the T-Wolves will finish in fourth, the Rockets in fifth, and the Lakers in sixth. I just don't believe that the Lakers are good. I think they've been kind of beating up on some of the worst teams. Now, there's a lot of terrible teams out there because everyone's tanking so hard to try and get these amazing college players, but I think the Lakers have just been kind of soft, and if the Nuggets play them in the playoffs, I will easily take that. I think the playoffs are going to be amazing. Like I said, the the top five teams, I think, are all legitimate championship contenders. I think even the bottom teams, like the Clippers, are playing well, the Suns have been playing extremely well, and so I think the West is going to be just extremely tough, which is not great for the Nuggets because every round will be tough, but it also means that the Thunder, the Spurs, the T-Wolves, they're also playing tough teams as well. And so I think it is going to be a battle, and it will be really interesting to see if the team that comes out of the West has any energy left to take on whoever comes out of the East. Speaking of the East, just real quick predictions. I don't think there's any great teams in the East. I think the Pistons are good. The Celtics are good, plus they might get Tatum back. The Knicks are good, but they're extremely inconsistent. The Cavs are good, but they have James Harden, so can you really trust them? And then the Hornets are extremely fun. They can just keep winning games. So, like I said, a lot of good teams, nobody great. I wouldn't be necessarily scared of any of those teams if the Nuggets happen to make it to the finals, but we will have to deal with that once we get there. I think the the West is going to be such such a battle. You know, I always like to do a section of what was I wrong about last episode. Well, the last episode was so long ago, who can remember, right? Let's let's just pretend I was right about everything in that episode. And last, ways to be a better fan. Two things. Both kind of related. If if you just want to learn a little bit of history about the the Nuggets, two two things are happening right now. One is there's a documentary on Prime Video called Soul Power about the ABA. If you didn't know, the Nugg were part of the ABA and they merged with the NBA, and the Nuggets were one of the teams that were lucky enough to get to go into the NBA. And so there is a series on Prime Video that everyone I've heard that has seen it says they really enjoy it, and you learn a lot about the ABA. So I recommend that. And then last, Doug Moe just passed away, and he was for a while there the all-time leader in Nugg wins by or for a coach. And Michael Malone passed him. We always love Coach Malone. But Doug Moe was kind of the original superstar coach for the Nuggets. He was a character. I've heard some stories from my dad just as far as uh his antics during the games, and he always had a unique style. But my favorite quote that I saw, because of course everyone shared stories once he passed, and it seems like he was pretty beloved within the Norget Nuggets organization and just the community. But my favorite quote I saw about Doug Mo said, Doug Moe was bilingual. He spoke English and profanity. So I guess he was a little bit of a a words, a wordsmith on the sideline with his profanity, and I think a lot of it seemed to be directed at Bill Hanslick. And so I think it'd be interesting to do some research if Bill had some interesting stories about Doug Moe. So a legend. Alright. Well, that is it for today. A little bit longer episode than normal. I really appreciate y'all listening. If you have a basketball fan in your life who you think would be interested in this episode, please tell them. That's the best way for us to grow. Thanks everyone.