Where The Rubber Meets The Road…

April 15, 2023April 15, 2023 Filler

By The Fillerbuster

The Cast

15 April 2023

It has been a minute, I know. I blocked off a little time on a Saturday to ramble on today’s subject. Off the cuff, no prep, no editing, and just plain spitting…

This is the year for the Nuggets. Well, it HAS to be, in my opinion. Otherwise, change must occur. Here are my reasons why they need to do it, in no particular or planned order:

JOKIC:

He is in his prime, folks. He almost looks bored averaging a triple double against the best players in the world, feeding his finally healthy cast, and earning the #1 seed in the Western Conference. It is so unique in methodology that it looks almost unfair. It looks like he shouldn’t be able to do it, but he does. He is 27, and we are in “those” years that MUST be taken advantage of. Sure, given the position he plays and the fact that speed is not an attribute of his, we don’t have to worry about him losing a step nor skills. That being said, we have to talk title…now.

PATH:

The West is a mess, and has been most of the year. Seeds 3 through 8 were up in the air until the very end. Everything is Top Gun, and in my world, that means it is “inverted.” The HOF’ers are the lower seeds looking UP. LeBron is older with no supporting cast (that stay healthy), and Steph & Co. are a six seed and have no home court (where they excel) advantage. Paul George and Kawhi Leonard are great when healthy, but they drew the Suns in the first round, so one future problem will be eliminated right out of the gate. Plus, the Clippers…are still…the Clippers, right? Hopefully. The Suns have the talent after the trade deadline, but KD and cast have not played together enough for me to be sold. Plus, I don’t buy Ayton’s allegiance nor passion to the team. The rest? The Timberwolves fight amongst themselves luckily, and still believe that a Twin Tower system will work. Memphis and Sacramento are young, making them both very dangerous but also very beatable. Sacramento doesn’t really believe in playing defense though, and defense wins championships in the NBA when the game slows down in the playoffs. Memphis has the talent, but, again…beatable. Let’s worry about the East when we cross that bridge. The Sixers, Celtics, and Bucks will be big obstacles, but you have to earn it, right? The West is winnable though. In order, I consider the top three worries to be the Warriors, the Suns, and the Grizzlies.

LEBRON:

This is easy. As I mentioned, he is older with a lesser supporting cast. But, my point is this. Unlike Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, and others without a title, we don’t have a MJ problem. There is no unbeatable star with an unbeatable supporting cast. We will be catching him at the right time in his career.

LINEUP:

The Nuggets sort of have a big four, all sort of in their prime. Murray, Porter, and Gordon can have their night and take over on their own at any given time. Jokic will ALWAYS produce. That is a powerful thing to have on your side. I worry about the bench, but the starting lineup is, as Westley from The Princess Bride would say, no one to be trifled with. We can match ANY starting five in the league.

HOME:

The Nuggets have the Mile High advantage. It is one thing to get some games at your crib during the playoffs. The fact that a team has to beat the Nuggets IN Denver four times out of seven in a series is a huge hill…for the other team. The Nuggets earned the #1 seed, and the road will be tough for away teams. Less oxygen means good things for our team.

MPJ:

I knew when they drafted him that they got a steal. Sure, he is a slight headcase who is injured a lot and can’t really defend (or hasn’t shown interest in it), but he can SHOOT. He is a ridiculous matchup because of his size, and we hope this is his official coming out party. Murray’s coming out party was in the bubble, and now MPJ’s production is key for the later rounds.

DESTINATION:

If the Nuggets win this year, suddenly free agents won’t consider it going out on a limb taking a look at Denver. They will call US. And, as the people like myself who live in Denver, it is a FANTASTIC destination. Star players make enough money to fly to the beach, the city’s only flaw.

And now my concerns:

BENCH:

I already noted this. No significant moves were made at the trade deadline. Bryant hasn’t really panned out very well, Reggie Jackson apparently forgot who he was in a past life, and Bones apparently had some internal strife that got him jettisoned. Anyway, true that the rotation is shorter in the playoffs, but sometimes I don’t event think Malone knows his pattern for that night.

MPJ:

See above, if the negative result happens.

MALONE:

He has proven he can coach the team to winning records, but hasn’t gotten over the hump. He has all of his chess pieces, the cupboard is full, and now needs to show us the next level. I firmly believe if a team doesn’t hit expectations, then you don’t change EVERYTHING, but just one or two items. Therefore, if they don’t make the Conference Finals, I say the first move is to have him exit stage left. Sorry, Mike. Just do what I think you will, and we can disregard this bullet point. You also need some lessons in handling the media and what you say about your players TO the media. Just saying…

INACTION:

You can argue that if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it, but their trade deadline activity was minimal. We will now see if the big moves of other teams trumps what Denver already had in place.

Sure, there are more points to be made. Sure, I could have thrown some numbers and stats out there to support my case. But, this is not my full-time job, so this is what I spitballed today. This took me 25 minutes to write, door to door. Hope you enjoyed.

This should be a special run, folks. Enjoy the heck out of it. And if Denver doesn’t hoist the trophy this year, the ending BETTER have been in the NBA Finals, and not earlier. The rubber is meeting the road in Denver…

Or, maybe the hooves are meeting the road, but whatever.