Have the Denver Nuggets peaked? | Good Word with Goodwill
Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Vincent Goodwill and Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn look at the Nuggets’ playoff exit and how they can get back on top, if at all. Hear the full conversation on “Good Word with Goodwill” - part of the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video transcript
Gary, you know that wall that the Nuggets conduct their press conferences at the wall behind that is the visitor's locker room.
So you hear the celebration.
Yeah, that's a tough thing to swallow.
And everybody wants to dunk on Michael Malone because everything you said about the Lakers and you know, if, if, if you ever say anything about lebron James all of a sudden that makes you a target, but I like the fact that he gave the Nuggets some character.
He challenged them.
They didn't come through, but he's gonna challenge them again this summer.
He's probably gonna challenge Calvin Booth some too to try to make sure that, hey, the West is getting better and deeper.
We can't fall behind.
You have to ask yourself what happened to their depth.
I mean, bra was supposed to take a, uh a real major step forward this year.
I don't think that happened.
And you know, they, they've got to figure out their bench, they gotta figure out their depth.
Is it too much, too much responsibility for yoking?
Like, are you just putting too much on his, on his shoulder to be ball handler facilitator scorer?
And rebounder and decent defender.
That's a lot.
Um even for the MV real time MVP and I said I do like Mike Malone, he's brought some fire and some swag to an organization that's never really had it.
The Nuggets were um uh like the Timberwolves, a team kind of an abyss like with all this, you know, the Carmelo years with all this talent and King and Martin and George Karl and they kind of, I think they made the conference finals once but a team that had been in abyss before he got there.
Just kind of a one of those, you know, teams.
And I think that honestly very the the success of the Warriors because obviously, you remember the rules before Steph got there.
They were a, a joke, a laughingstock if you would have went to an average NBA fan or a casual one and said there's a team in San Francisco.
What, what's that team where that at?
Where are they at?
Golden State?
What's Golden State?
Their evolution into a power is given teams like Denver and Minnesota because as much as San Francisco is a big market, there was never a vogue place to play.
I mean, for free agents that it is obviously, but now Denver to Minnesota in Oklahoma City and now here comes Dallas, finally, Dallas after 12 years comes up.
Um and, and now they're like a power again.
So I think Mike Malone brings that respect that regard to Denver.
They just got to make some adjustments, like you said, with Calvin Booth and figure out how to become a deeper team because I just think we share their lack of depth show.