Latest / The Appetizer Hour with Brett Kane / 10-22-26 - Nuggets are back TONIGHT/Bo still working through ankle injury/Jonathon Cooper returns
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: This is the Appetizer Hour with Brett Cain on demand.
- 0:06Speaker 1: Check out Brett weekday mornings at 6 on Altitude Sports
- 0:10Speaker 1: Radio 92.5 and on the Altitude Sports Radio app.
- 0:19Speaker 2: Happy opening day for anyone who is looking forward to
- 0:26Speaker 2: seeing and as curious as I am of what exactly
- 0:32Speaker 2: this Nuggets team is going to be this year.
- 0:34Speaker 3: Let's go!
- 0:36Speaker 2: They have graduated years ago to a point in which
- 0:42Speaker 2: championships are the prime standard. You have a roster of players,
- 0:49Speaker 2: including an all-timer, that tell you no matter what happens,
- 0:54Speaker 2: you should expect to be in.
- 0:58Speaker 3: Championship contention at the end of each year. And if not,
- 1:02Speaker 3: it's a wild disappointment.
- 1:03Speaker 2: Doesn't mean it's going to happen every season, but you
- 1:05Speaker 2: need to be able to say, I'm confident in that.
- 1:08Speaker 2: And I will tell you this, for the first time
- 1:10Speaker 2: in years, this offseason, I don't know if I had them.
- 1:20Speaker 2: I just, I saw a lot of you getting worse
- 1:26Speaker 2: in many categories and not better. And that's been a
- 1:29Speaker 2: slow sort of like Leaky faucet drip over.
- 1:34Speaker 3: The last few years. Championship windows! Yeah, yeah, sure.
- 1:41Speaker 2: It's just been a leaky faucet drip of, all right,
- 1:45Speaker 2: you had KCP, now KCP's gone. Who's going to replace him? Well,
- 1:49Speaker 2: Christian Brown does that in the starting lineup. Who replaces
- 1:52Speaker 2: Christian Brown off the bench? Subsequent years after that, it's,
- 1:58Speaker 2: you know, especially last season, Tim Hardaway Jr. was like
- 2:02Speaker 2: second all-time in single season threes for the Nuggets. He
- 2:05Speaker 2: leaves in free agency. Who takes over that? Okay, DeMar DeRozan?
- 2:09Speaker 2: I guess that fits. Different kind of player, but who
- 2:12Speaker 2: now replaces Peyton Watson? All these different questions that you have,
- 2:18Speaker 2: that I have certainly, and I.
- 2:20Speaker 3: Just want to see how this is going to go.
- 2:23Speaker 2: There's one thing I think I can say with certainty
- 2:26Speaker 2: in the NBA is And I saw it at the
- 2:28Speaker 2: end of last season. The best three teams left standing
- 2:34Speaker 2: all had one thing in common. And it continues into
- 2:37Speaker 2: this year when you look at the best teams across
- 2:39Speaker 2: the league. The best teams in the league can and
- 2:45Speaker 2: will go 10 deep off their bench.
- 2:51Speaker 3: They'll do it.
- 2:53Speaker 2: And they will do it without hesitation. They will do
- 2:54Speaker 2: it in a playoff game. They will do it in
- 2:56Speaker 2: the NBA finals. They will do it in a game
- 2:57Speaker 2: seven of the NBA finals. That's my concern with where
- 3:05Speaker 2: the Nuggets are. I will tell you, as the summer
- 3:10Speaker 2: league preseason training camp, whatever, that portion of the schedule continued,
- 3:16Speaker 2: I felt better about them as it went along. I
- 3:20Speaker 2: became a lot more curious about in Alpha Diallo or
- 3:27Speaker 2: a Cam Whitmore or guys like that got my attention
- 3:37Speaker 2: more and more as the offseason went along.
- 3:41Speaker 3: You know, Trevin Brazil is certainly another one of those guys.
- 3:44Speaker 2: But I don't know. And that's kind of my issue.
- 3:50Speaker 2: I just don't know. Here's what I can tell you
- 3:55Speaker 2: with certainty about the Nuggets. If the Nuggets starting five
- 3:59Speaker 2: stays healthy, and we know when they have to stay healthy,
- 4:04Speaker 2: it's in April, in May, in June. You have as
- 4:10Speaker 2: good a starting five as anybody in the NBA, still
- 4:12Speaker 2: to this day.
- 4:13Speaker 3: You have it.
- 4:17Speaker 2: I think the Nuggets top seven in their rotation is
- 4:21Speaker 2: one I can ride or die with.
- 4:24Speaker 3: You give me that starting.
- 4:25Speaker 2: Five plus DeMar DeRozan and Spencer Jones coming off the bench,
- 4:29Speaker 2: those are two guys that I would trust. And I
- 4:35Speaker 2: would roll with them against most teams in the NBA,
- 4:38Speaker 2: if not all. The big question for the Nuggets is
- 4:43Speaker 2: very simple. How many other guys can be a thing?
- 4:51Speaker 2: And I mean that very specifically. I need like three
- 5:00Speaker 2: to four, but I'll take three. Three other of these
- 5:03Speaker 2: guys to be a thing this year. And I categorize
- 5:08Speaker 2: a thing as someone you can trust to give you.
- 5:10Speaker 3: Minutes without hesitation.
- 5:15Speaker 2: Not a guy who's sometimes good and sometimes bad or
- 5:19Speaker 2: he's got a lot of potential. Maybe two years down.
- 5:22Speaker 2: I don't want to wait two years. I need things now.
- 5:29Speaker 2: You were on the brink, and I mean this. This
- 5:32Speaker 2: year feels like a serious Nuggets blueprint year. And the
- 5:41Speaker 2: blueprint is this. Vic gave you a number. Do you
- 5:43Speaker 2: remember what it was, Nellie? Was it only 28 players
- 5:47Speaker 2: from the 2020 and 2021 season still remain with their teams?
- 5:54Speaker 2: And the Nuggets have four of them at the moment?
- 5:58Speaker 2: It's Jokic, Murray, and Gordon in Zeke Nagy. If you
- 6:05Speaker 2: have a first-round exit this year, if you have a
- 6:08Speaker 2: second-round exit this year, there is a really decent chance
- 6:12Speaker 2: that Jokic is like the last man standing. Like, maybe
- 6:19Speaker 2: you break up Jokic and Jamal. Maybe you finally pull
- 6:23Speaker 2: the trigger on Aaron Gordon and look for something new.
- 6:27Speaker 3: Like, I don't know. But you can feel it. Michael
- 6:32Speaker 3: Porter Jr.
- 6:32Speaker 2: Has been on a podcast saying, I felt it. When
- 6:36Speaker 2: we lost in the playoffs and I couldn't lift my
- 6:38Speaker 2: arm above my shoulder and A.G. had the hamstring and
- 6:41Speaker 2: all that and we took OKC to seven games, we
- 6:45Speaker 2: felt somebody was going to have to pay the piper
- 6:50Speaker 2: for it. And he goes, I knew it was me.
- 6:55Speaker 2: To me, this feels like another season where that.
- 6:58Speaker 1: Is.
- 6:59Speaker 2: Not only possible, I think it's likely, unless you make
- 7:03Speaker 2: a deep run in the playoffs. And then you run
- 7:06Speaker 2: into some bigger trouble, which is you don't want to
- 7:12Speaker 2: get Milwaukee'd. And I don't mean Milwaukee'd in a sense
- 7:17Speaker 2: that your superstar leaves and goes somewhere else, because Jokic
- 7:20Speaker 2: would not do that.
- 7:21Speaker 3: He's already said it.
- 7:24Speaker 2: I mean, before the season started, he got to the
- 7:26Speaker 2: mic and he says, I will sign the contract extension
- 7:29Speaker 2: this upcoming offseason, assuming they want me. And I'm pretty
- 7:34Speaker 2: sure the Nuggets do. But you aren't in trouble of
- 7:38Speaker 2: your superstar leaving. You're in trouble of your entire blueprint
- 7:42Speaker 2: being broken up and then hoping and praying and crossing
- 7:47Speaker 2: your fingers that you can find that magic again. which,
- 7:51Speaker 2: look around the league, eight different champions, eight different years.
- 7:55Speaker 2: Not very likely at the moment. But can you get
- 8:01Speaker 2: a Trevin Brazil to be a thing? Can you get
- 8:04Speaker 2: a Diallo to be a thing? Can you get a
- 8:08Speaker 2: Whitmore to be a thing? Once he gets healthy, Julian Strother,
- 8:12Speaker 2: can he be a thing? Marvin Bagley, Dron Holmes, somebody.
- 8:19Speaker 2: Can you find three of those dudes that you're comfortable
- 8:23Speaker 2: putting in a rotation and being like, this is cool
- 8:25Speaker 2: with me? Because here's what you got. You have a
- 8:34Speaker 2: conference and more specifically, a division that is full of
- 8:41Speaker 2: a whole bunch of ass kickers. Like, you got the Thunder.
- 8:47Speaker 4: And.
- 8:48Speaker 2: the T-Wolves and the Spurs and all these different teams.
- 8:53Speaker 3: That you know are going to be good at the
- 8:55Speaker 3: end of the year. You just know it.
- 9:01Speaker 2: You need to find a way to play with them
- 9:06Speaker 2: in the style of depth mattering, depth contributing, and depth
- 9:15Speaker 2: being able to step up in absence of injury. Like,
- 9:18Speaker 2: Here would be my standard for this discussion on what
- 9:22Speaker 2: the Nuggets need coming off their bench. You need to
- 9:26Speaker 2: have players on your bench that are good enough that
- 9:34Speaker 2: if Christian Brown is so hindered by an ankle injury
- 9:38Speaker 2: in the playoffs that he can barely lift enough to dunk,
- 9:41Speaker 2: you feel comfortable saying, Christian, we can't play you because
- 9:45Speaker 2: we're going to play this guy instead.
- 9:48Speaker 3: That's where it's got to be.
- 9:51Speaker 2: Last year, they admitted by what we witnessed on who
- 9:56Speaker 2: was on the floor and who wasn't, we don't have that. Well,
- 10:01Speaker 2: hopefully they can find it this year. There are guys
- 10:07Speaker 2: I am hopeful about. There are guys in this roster
- 10:10Speaker 2: that I think have the potential to be something. But
- 10:16Speaker 2: potential gets you beat. And potential takes a long time
- 10:21Speaker 2: to hone. So it all gets started tonight. And of course,
- 10:28Speaker 2: not only do the Nuggets play the last game, or
- 10:33Speaker 2: they are the last team to play their first game
- 10:36Speaker 2: of the season, they do it with like the last
- 10:39Speaker 2: game of the night, as this thing's going to tip
- 10:41Speaker 2: off around, what, 745-ish, I would assume, on ESPN.
- 10:47Speaker 3: So, it is.
- 10:52Speaker 2: I think a very exciting, curious, and terrifying season for
- 10:58Speaker 2: the Nuggets all at the same time. I really feel
- 11:07Speaker 2: like this can push or pull you in about 100
- 11:11Speaker 2: different directions depending on where your expectations are starting.
- 11:17Speaker 3: And maybe that's where we can start this morning. Let's
- 11:19Speaker 3: do one of these. Straw pull.
- 11:26Speaker 2: Where are your expectations today? Where do you think the
- 11:30Speaker 2: Nuggets go? Where does their season end today?
- 11:34Speaker 3: Is it championship? Is it missing the playoffs entirely?
- 11:39Speaker 2: Is it a first round, second round, third round exit?
- 11:41Speaker 2: If you had to guess right now, where do you
- 11:43Speaker 2: think their season ends? Because I'm kind of at the
- 11:51Speaker 2: second round portion of this now. And look, all of
- 11:54Speaker 2: this is subject to change once we see this team
- 11:56Speaker 2: actually come together and play. Maybe some of these guys
- 11:59Speaker 2: look way better than we thought. And you can radically
- 12:02Speaker 2: change those expectations. But it feels sort of like second
- 12:06Speaker 2: round to me this year.
- 12:08Speaker 3: As of right now.
- 12:09Speaker 2: Last year, I thought it was championship. Like, I thought
- 12:11Speaker 2: they had their best roster ever. And it just turned
- 12:14Speaker 2: out through health and a few other things... Some guy's
- 12:18Speaker 2: not panning out.
- 12:18Speaker 3: That's not the case.
- 12:21Speaker 2: But 303-504-0925, tell me where you think, as of today,
- 12:27Speaker 2: when is the last Nuggets game played? Also today, it
- 12:33Speaker 2: is a Nuggets ticket Thursday. We're giving away lower-level tickets
- 12:39Speaker 2: to the Nuggets home opener with keywords on the 20s
- 12:42Speaker 2: every hour.
- 12:43Speaker 3: Plus....
- 12:45Speaker 2: The best tickets we've ever given away. So we have
- 12:50Speaker 2: lower-level tickets that every show gives away and one pair
- 12:54Speaker 2: of tickets that we've never done ever before. So stay
- 12:57Speaker 2: tuned for that in five minutes.
- 12:59Speaker 3: Stick around.
- 12:59Speaker 2: All right, we have a loaded day today. Jared Bednar's
- 13:02Speaker 2: at 8. Jeff Legwald's at 9. Kaz is going to
- 13:05Speaker 2: join us at 9.30, leading up to the first Nuggets
- 13:09Speaker 2: game of the year. And with that, it's a very
- 13:11Speaker 2: special Nuggets ticket Thursday. Your first keyword for lower-level tickets
- 13:15Speaker 2: to the home opener is BEADS.
- 13:20Speaker 3: Like on a bracelet. BEADS. B-E-A-D-S.
- 13:24Speaker 2: So text that in your first and last name to 303-504-0925.
- 13:26Speaker 2: Every entry also gives you a chance to win Section
- 13:27Speaker 2: 104 Row AA tickets. You will be right behind the
- 13:43Speaker 2: Pelicans bench. You will be able to smell Zion. That's
- 13:49Speaker 2: where these seats are. And we'll call out names tomorrow
- 13:53Speaker 2: on the 20s starting at 820.
- 13:57Speaker 3: So not only do these keywords get you in.
- 13:59Speaker 2: The running for the lower level tickets that every show
- 14:02Speaker 2: is giving away today, it gets you in the running
- 14:05Speaker 2: for the Section 104 row AA tickets tomorrow. Again, this
- 14:14Speaker 2: is right behind the visiting team's bench.
- 14:16Speaker 3: It is.
- 14:17Speaker 2: Your feet are essentially on the floor. You aren't courtside
- 14:21Speaker 2: courtside like where Chalamet sits.
- 14:23Speaker 3: You're right behind that.
- 14:25Speaker 2: Food options you get at the hot dogs, nachos, sliders,
- 14:28Speaker 2: chicken sandwiches. Drinks include beer and canned wine and canned cocktails.
- 14:33Speaker 2: You have in-seat food and beverage service. So you never
- 14:36Speaker 2: have to leave.
- 14:37Speaker 3: It's beautiful. So again, text in beads in your first
- 14:42Speaker 3: and last name to 303-504-0925.
- 14:46Speaker 4: And the keyword theme for today should be pretty obvious.
- 14:48Speaker 4: They're playing the New Orleans Pelicans today. First keyword is beads.
- 14:52Speaker 4: We got some Mardi Gras going on here. When you
- 14:54Speaker 4: said beads on a bracelet, I said, all right, Taylor Swift,
- 14:56Speaker 4: you got to aim a little bit higher than that.
- 14:58Speaker 3: I don't know. I didn't look at the other ones.
- 14:59Speaker 3: You're right.
- 15:00Speaker 4: No, if you want to earn some beads, you can
- 15:02Speaker 4: earn them the old-fashioned way. I'll tell you how.
- 15:04Speaker 3: You want to get a double entry in the keyword?
- 15:07Speaker 3: Come on down to the station. All right, not that.
- 15:12Speaker 3: We said the beads. The beads thing. Beads? Beads.
- 15:19Speaker 2: Um.
- 15:22Speaker 3: That would be funny.
- 15:24Speaker 2: If there was just a line out the front door
- 15:27Speaker 2: and like, I'm here for my beads and the chance
- 15:29Speaker 2: to have a double shot at this, uh, front row
- 15:33Speaker 2: ticket thing.
- 15:34Speaker 4: Anyway, I'll greet you at the front door wearing a
- 15:36Speaker 4: paper mache head, a big paper mache head, a Louis Armstrong.
- 15:39Speaker 3: I'm not even saying this, not just for women. If dudes,
- 15:41Speaker 3: if you want to do it too, then fine.
- 15:43Speaker 5: Go ahead.
- 15:44Speaker 3: I want that line around the door. I thought this
- 15:45Speaker 3: was America.
- 15:47Speaker 1: Anywho.
- 15:48Speaker 2: Um, So we're going to have keywords on the 20s
- 15:54Speaker 2: every hour. Jared Bednar at 8 o'clock. Leggy at 9.
- 15:57Speaker 2: Kaz at 9.30.
- 15:59Speaker 3: Now listen. Heard some of the audio yesterday.
- 16:04Speaker 2: Sean Payton, Bo Nix speaking to the media. Bo Nix,
- 16:11Speaker 2: who's been very honest, and it's amazing how struggles bring
- 16:15Speaker 2: forth honesty. And I think that Bo Nix, in most cases,
- 16:20Speaker 2: you would assume, would be someone. He's been very defiant
- 16:28Speaker 2: behind a microphone. If things are questioned about him, he
- 16:33Speaker 2: gives you sort of a snarky answer.
- 16:36Speaker 3: For example, Nelly, have the.
- 16:39Speaker 2: Interception one queued up where somebody says, hey, Bo, what
- 16:42Speaker 2: happened on the interception in the second quarter?
- 16:45Speaker 3: Chop back, do it to the other team. That's the
- 16:47Speaker 3: kind of answers you've gotten from Bo Nix.
- 16:49Speaker 4: And it wasn't someone who asked him that question. Altitude's
- 16:53Speaker 4: very own Darren McKee asked him what happened on that
- 16:55Speaker 4: interception in the end zone.
- 16:57Speaker 3: Yeah, and.
- 16:58Speaker 6: Chop back, do it to the other team.
- 17:02Speaker 3: Do I necessarily like an answer like that?
- 17:04Speaker 1: No.
- 17:05Speaker 2: I mean, the question here, and he knows what it is,
- 17:07Speaker 2: it's like, what did you see? Or what did you
- 17:11Speaker 2: think you saw as opposed to what actually happened? But
- 17:15Speaker 2: he can have a little bit of that sharp tongue
- 17:20Speaker 2: where he's like, There's this air of, don't question me.
- 17:24Speaker 3: I'm good at this.
- 17:27Speaker 2: This year, especially over the last couple of weeks, has
- 17:30Speaker 2: been very different.
- 17:32Speaker 3: And that screams to me somebody who knows he's in
- 17:36Speaker 3: one right now.
- 17:36Speaker 6: Who cares?
- 17:38Speaker 2: Who knows that his level of play is not only
- 17:42Speaker 2: not to his standard or his team's standard, but.
- 17:44Speaker 3: Also not the fans' standard.
- 17:47Speaker 2: And you can brush fans and their opinions off to
- 17:49Speaker 2: the side and say, well, they don't know anything.
- 17:51Speaker 3: They aren't in the room with us. And that's true.
- 17:53Speaker 2: At the same time, the fans are the one that
- 17:56Speaker 2: get you big paychecks. And so I've heard him give
- 18:01Speaker 2: a few answers lately where I'm like, huh, this seems
- 18:06Speaker 2: like someone who is very aware of the struggles that
- 18:10Speaker 2: are happening right now and is kind of lost for
- 18:14Speaker 2: the moment on how to fix it. So the big
- 18:18Speaker 2: question to me, as I've asked over and over again,
- 18:22Speaker 2: and I know people have wondered, there's a stat that
- 18:26Speaker 2: I think sticks out more than any of the others
- 18:29Speaker 2: regarding Bo Nix that shows you what's happening here.
- 18:33Speaker 3: At least gives you a glimpse on a part of
- 18:35Speaker 3: the problem.
- 18:37Speaker 2: Bo Nix, through six games of the NFL season, has
- 18:41Speaker 2: 37 rushing yards.
- 18:45Speaker 3: Thirty-seven.
- 18:48Speaker 2: And just out of curiosity, you take some of the
- 18:51Speaker 2: most immobile running backs in the league and wonder how
- 18:57Speaker 2: many yards they have. And just off the top of
- 19:00Speaker 2: my head, if I had to pick maybe.
- 19:04Speaker 3: Some of the most immobile guys.
- 19:09Speaker 2: In the NFL, I'm thinking maybe a 38-year-old Matthew Stafford
- 19:15Speaker 2: who has run for 21 yards this year. or a
- 19:20Speaker 2: not-very-fleet-of-foot Jared Goff, who's run for 16. These guys are
- 19:26Speaker 2: in the same category as Bo Nix for rushing yards
- 19:29Speaker 2: this season. The difference is, Bo Nix is a runner.
- 19:35Speaker 2: It's part of his game. It's what he does.
- 19:41Speaker 3: And so I thought about that, like, man, 30... 37 rushing.
- 19:45Speaker 4: Yards?
- 19:48Speaker 2: Through six weeks of the season. He was averaging like,
- 19:52Speaker 2: I don't know, 25 to 30 rushing yards a game
- 19:58Speaker 2: last year. So the question is why? And I think
- 20:02Speaker 2: we all know why.
- 20:03Speaker 3: It's obvious.
- 20:05Speaker 2: He does not trust his ankle still. It might be
- 20:09Speaker 2: healthy and it might be fully cleared.
- 20:11Speaker 3: But it ain't cleared upstairs. And he talked about that.
- 20:15Speaker 3: Here's Bo Nix yesterday. Are you confident?
- 20:20Speaker 2: Or do you think there's any problems still with your
- 20:22Speaker 2: ankle that's bothering you?
- 20:24Speaker 3: You know, I'd be lying if I said no. I
- 20:26Speaker 3: don't think, I think that's just what happens.
- 20:29Speaker 6: I think you come back and you're like, you know,
- 20:31Speaker 6: every day is a progression. It's like you're doing treatment
- 20:33Speaker 6: for the whole entire year. And I'm not necessarily doing
- 20:37Speaker 6: physical therapy treatment, but I'm out there on the practice
- 20:39Speaker 6: field getting rep after rep, trying to get back in
- 20:41Speaker 6: super great shape, you know, so my carries can go up.
- 20:44Speaker 6: So I'm ready when my, my numbers called and when
- 20:46Speaker 6: I can run, but I'm not scared. I'm not physically
- 20:49Speaker 6: like worried. I just think there's something to, um, the sport.
- 20:53Speaker 6: I think all guys, when they come back from an injury,
- 20:55Speaker 6: it's like just doing it one day at a time. And, um,
- 20:58Speaker 6: so I think that's just part of the game. That's
- 21:01Speaker 6: part of the process. And, you know, I had surgery probably,
- 21:05Speaker 6: I think six months ago, you know, it takes, it
- 21:07Speaker 6: takes a while for things to fully re-engage and re-come
- 21:10Speaker 6: back and, You know, I'm confident myself. I know I'm
- 21:13Speaker 6: going to get back and be exactly what I was,
- 21:17Speaker 6: if not better, because as I get older, that's how
- 21:19Speaker 6: it's been.
- 21:22Speaker 2: The other problem is that's the plant leg. That's the
- 21:25Speaker 2: one you get your power from. That's the one you
- 21:27Speaker 2: push off with. I mean, you look at MLB pitchers,
- 21:32Speaker 2: what makes them have a strong arm? It's what kind
- 21:35Speaker 2: of push can you get off the rubber? And if
- 21:38Speaker 2: you're a right-handed pitcher, that back right leg where you
- 21:42Speaker 2: put all of that, I think it's potential energy.
- 21:46Speaker 3: I was really bad at science.
- 21:48Speaker 2: But when they get up into their windup and they're
- 21:52Speaker 2: on one leg, they have all this potential energy that's
- 21:55Speaker 2: stuck in that back leg that they convert into, I
- 21:57Speaker 2: believe it's called kinetic, kinetic energy. But the more that
- 22:02Speaker 2: you have push off that back leg, the more that
- 22:06Speaker 2: you have zip on the ball.
- 22:08Speaker 4: Ooh la la, someone's going to get laid in college.
- 22:11Speaker 4: Dropping some potential and kinetic energy on us. Check out
- 22:14Speaker 4: the big brain on Brad.
- 22:15Speaker 2: I don't even know if that's the right way. It
- 22:17Speaker 2: felt right in my head when I said it.
- 22:19Speaker 3: No, you got it. You got it.
- 22:25Speaker 2: The thing about that, though, with Knicks is that back
- 22:29Speaker 2: foot makes every decision on a drop back.
- 22:33Speaker 3: It makes the decision whether to push up in the pocket.
- 22:38Speaker 2: It makes the decision whether to put all of that
- 22:41Speaker 2: energy on that back leg and let one rip downfield.
- 22:45Speaker 2: It makes every decision on whether I bail from the pocket.
- 22:49Speaker 2: And it makes the decision on whether I take off
- 22:52Speaker 2: and run. It all has to do with that back
- 22:56Speaker 2: leg and that back ankle. And if you're not confident
- 23:01Speaker 2: in that, you can see why it's been a struggle.
- 23:07Speaker 2: And I think that Kreckman asked a really interesting question yesterday.
- 23:11Speaker 2: It was their crossover between them and PhD. And Kreckman
- 23:15Speaker 2: asked this question. What is the point of the Broncos offense?
- 23:21Speaker 2: Is it to score touchdowns? Or is it to not
- 23:26Speaker 2: put the defense in bad positions? And I think that
- 23:32Speaker 2: is a legitimate question that I've seen the Broncos make
- 23:39Speaker 2: decisions towards the latter. I'll give you an example.
- 23:48Speaker 3: If you were a team that's.
- 23:50Speaker 2: Goal as an offense was to go out and score touchdowns,
- 23:52Speaker 2: and I know on the surface it's everybody's goal, but
- 23:56Speaker 2: you know what we're asking here.
- 23:59Speaker 3: Are you willing.
- 24:00Speaker 2: To put your defense. Potentially in a bad spot. To
- 24:05Speaker 2: take a gamble. To score a touchdown. If it hurts
- 24:08Speaker 2: your defense. And I think the Broncos answer to that.
- 24:12Speaker 2: Has been defiantly no. They will take field goals. Instead
- 24:20Speaker 2: of going forward on fourth down.
- 24:22Speaker 3: When it's fourth. And one. From the one yard line.
- 24:27Speaker 3: They will opt.
- 24:29Speaker 2: For a 19-yard field goal before going for it on
- 24:33Speaker 2: fourth and one at the one-yard line? And all of
- 24:38Speaker 2: these reasons and all the decisions that they make because
- 24:41Speaker 2: of this are centered around, I am not going to
- 24:44Speaker 2: put our very, very, very good defense in a bad
- 24:48Speaker 2: position for an offense that is not good right now.
- 24:51Speaker 2: And maybe that stuff changes as the year goes along.
- 24:58Speaker 2: But I asked this question before. Do you know who'd
- 25:04Speaker 2: love to have Bo Nix as his quarterback?
- 25:08Speaker 3: It's Vic Fangio.
- 25:10Speaker 2: Vic Fangio's entire MO as the Broncos head coach here
- 25:15Speaker 2: with the great defense that he had and the great
- 25:18Speaker 2: defensive play caller that he is.
- 25:23Speaker 3: He had Drew Locke. They went out and got Teddy Bridgewater. Why?
- 25:27Speaker 1: Why?
- 25:31Speaker 3: Was Teddy Miles better than Drew Locke as a quarterback?
- 25:36Speaker 1: No.
- 25:36Speaker 2: Drew Locke had more raw talent. We've seen that in
- 25:40Speaker 2: the time that he stepped in for Sam Donald in Seattle. Like,
- 25:44Speaker 2: maybe those couple of games that he played might give
- 25:47Speaker 2: him an opportunity to earn a starting job somewhere next year.
- 25:52Speaker 2: But Vic Fangio wanted Teddy Bridgewater because his entire thing was, hey,
- 25:58Speaker 2: if we don't turn the ball over... and we play
- 26:01Speaker 2: the field position game, I think my defense is going
- 26:05Speaker 2: to win. And that feels a lot like what the
- 26:12Speaker 2: Broncos are doing right now. And the texture says, they
- 26:15Speaker 2: put the defense in bad spots all the time, 15-second
- 26:18Speaker 2: three and outs. True, three and outs aren't great, but
- 26:21Speaker 2: you know what a three and out results in?
- 26:23Speaker 3: A 50-yard punt.
- 26:27Speaker 2: The Broncos have won a bunch of football games this
- 26:31Speaker 2: year because the opposing team couldn't punt because they turned
- 26:34Speaker 2: the ball over. And when you turn the ball over
- 26:37Speaker 2: and the drive starts at the 40 instead of the
- 26:40Speaker 2: opposite 20, it's way easier to put points on the board.
- 26:47Speaker 2: Think about the games that you've won just because of turnovers.
- 26:52Speaker 2: Or I guess more specifically, takeaways. You go to kind
- 26:58Speaker 2: of each one of these games, you can point out
- 27:01Speaker 2: a killer turnover that occurred that cost the opposing team
- 27:07Speaker 2: the game. Jacksonville is up 13-6. They throw a pick.
- 27:14Speaker 2: That drive starts at like the 40-yard line, the Broncos 40,
- 27:18Speaker 2: results in a touchdown. Then they miss a field goal.
- 27:21Speaker 2: Broncos score again, a touchdown. Then it's a 20-13 game,
- 27:25Speaker 2: game over. The next week, The Rams, they're up 16-0
- 27:31Speaker 2: in the second half. Broncos score a touchdown and get
- 27:37Speaker 2: a two-point conversion. They make it 16-8. Broncos score again,
- 27:42Speaker 2: get a two-point conversion. Now it's 16-16. But the Rams
- 27:47Speaker 2: are up 19-16 late in that game, and what happens?
- 27:50Speaker 2: Matthew Stafford throws a pick six, and now the Broncos
- 27:53Speaker 2: are up 23-19. Chargers game. It's fourth and one at
- 28:02Speaker 2: their own 40. They're playing a team that can't move
- 28:04Speaker 2: the football. Chargers go forward on fourth down. They get stuffed.
- 28:09Speaker 2: Broncos score. Broncos win. And the Seahawks game, all Sam
- 28:14Speaker 2: Darnold has to do is not throw a pick. He
- 28:16Speaker 2: throws multiple picks. And the game's over. The pick in
- 28:20Speaker 2: overtime sets the Broncos up at the 40. for a
- 28:24Speaker 2: game-winning field goal try. The Broncos didn't move the football
- 28:27Speaker 2: at all, didn't matter. Like, this is what I'm talking about.
- 28:30Speaker 2: They're seeing the way that they're winning, and they're seeing
- 28:33Speaker 2: the level of play of Bo Nix right now, which
- 28:35Speaker 2: is terrible. And they're saying, well, you know what? As
- 28:38Speaker 2: long as we don't make the gigantic mistake, you know,
- 28:44Speaker 2: I've used this analogy before. If you've played ping pong,
- 28:48Speaker 2: I'm not a very good ping pong player, but I
- 28:52Speaker 2: can keep the ball on the table. And sometimes my
- 28:55Speaker 2: strategy is, if I'm playing against somebody else who's not
- 28:58Speaker 2: very good, I'm just going to keep it on the
- 29:00Speaker 2: table until they make a mistake. And that's what the
- 29:03Speaker 2: Broncos are doing. Colin Cowherd had a quote where he said,
- 29:07Speaker 2: the Broncos are taking pitching wedges off of, or on
- 29:10Speaker 2: par fives. Like, that's not going to get you a birdie.
- 29:18Speaker 2: But it might get you a par. It might get
- 29:21Speaker 2: you a bogey. And if you're playing against somebody who's
- 29:24Speaker 2: banging the ball around everywhere, you're probably going to win
- 29:27Speaker 2: the hole. That's the strategy that they've taken with how
- 29:31Speaker 2: good their defense is. But I hope that Bo Nix
- 29:37Speaker 2: finds confidence in his ankle in a hurry because I...
- 29:40Speaker 2: I would love to see what this team and this
- 29:43Speaker 2: defense specifically would look like, especially with Jonathan Cooper coming
- 29:46Speaker 2: back now. What that looks like with a more confident
- 29:51Speaker 2: Bo Nix under center. Never thought Bo Nix was elite.
- 29:57Speaker 2: But what I have thought is he can be good
- 29:59Speaker 2: enough to win you a Super Bowl. Well, what we've
- 30:02Speaker 2: seen this year is not the case.
- 30:05Speaker 3: That can't.
- 30:07Speaker 2: If you find some confidence, maybe. Once again, a reminder
- 30:11Speaker 2: to your keyword is beads. Like Mardi Gras beads. So
- 30:18Speaker 2: text that in your first and last name to 303-504-0925.
- 30:22Speaker 2: Your first keyword is for lower level tickets to the
- 30:25Speaker 2: home opener. Every show has a pair of those to
- 30:28Speaker 2: give away, but it also gets you in the running
- 30:31Speaker 2: for the best tickets we've ever given away. Section 104,
- 30:34Speaker 2: row AA. You are in the seats directly behind the
- 30:37Speaker 2: Pelicans bench. So those names will call out tomorrow, but
- 30:42Speaker 2: it all gets you qualified today. So text BEADS and
- 30:45Speaker 2: your first and last name to 303-504-0925 back after this.
- 30:48Speaker 3: All right, I got to get this out of the way.
- 30:50Speaker 2: This is the periodic reminder now that all three teams
- 30:53Speaker 2: in this town are back playing at once. Texter says,
- 31:00Speaker 2: nice to turn on my radio opening day of the
- 31:02Speaker 2: Nuggets and hear about the crappy Broncos.
- 31:05Speaker 3: First of all, the Broncos aren't crappy. They're a very
- 31:08Speaker 3: good football team.
- 31:09Speaker 2: Second of all, this is your reminder that now that
- 31:12Speaker 2: all three teams are back in action again, I promise
- 31:18Speaker 2: we will talk about everybody.
- 31:19Speaker 3: We will get there.
- 31:21Speaker 2: Just as, I'm sorry that you turned on your radio
- 31:23Speaker 2: at 6.35 this morning. If you did it at 6 o'clock,
- 31:26Speaker 2: then you would have heard 20 minutes of Nuggets, and
- 31:27Speaker 2: I will get back to that just shortly.
- 31:29Speaker 3: Broncos don't play till Sunday, so f *.
- 31:30Speaker 1: * * that.
- 31:32Speaker 2: That is Mosher's approach to this, not mine. But if
- 31:36Speaker 2: you aren't hearing the thing that you would like to
- 31:38Speaker 2: hear at the exact moment that you're trying to hear it,
- 31:41Speaker 2: I promise you, if you give it a few minutes,
- 31:43Speaker 2: we will do it.
- 31:44Speaker 3: I promise.
- 31:45Speaker 4: Like clockwork, every three to four months. You always give
- 31:49Speaker 4: some texture to the business for being like, oh, why
- 31:51Speaker 4: aren't you talking about insert team here?
- 31:54Speaker 2: This I get, though, because now I want to make
- 31:56Speaker 2: it clear to people at this point in the calendar,
- 31:59Speaker 2: which is a wonderful time in the calendar, where basically
- 32:03Speaker 2: every night you turn on your TV and one of
- 32:04Speaker 2: your local teams is on.
- 32:06Speaker 3: Like, it's a great thing. We will get to everything.
- 32:12Speaker 3: We will.
- 32:13Speaker 4: And the best part of all that is you turn
- 32:15Speaker 4: on the TV and you're going to see, like you said,
- 32:16Speaker 4: one of the three local teams playing. And you have
- 32:19Speaker 4: zero risk of accidentally turning on a Rockies game.
- 32:22Speaker 3: It is perfect. That too.
- 32:26Speaker 2: But do I get a little bit annoyed when people
- 32:29Speaker 2: are like, why aren't you talking about the thing I
- 32:30Speaker 2: want to talk about right now? And I was like, well,
- 32:31Speaker 2: if you were listening five minutes ago, you would.
- 32:33Speaker 3: Have gotten a lot of it. So everybody cheats.
- 32:36Speaker 1: Sorry.
- 32:37Speaker 3: I am not a jukebox, and I'm not a podcast.
- 32:41Speaker 2: This eventually becomes a podcast. It eventually becomes a podcast.
- 32:44Speaker 2: It's not a podcast now.
- 32:46Speaker 3: So, um.
- 32:48Speaker 2: With that in mind, we have those Nuggets tickets that
- 32:52Speaker 2: we're giving away all day today. So stay tuned on
- 32:55Speaker 2: the 20s for all of those. I don't know what
- 33:04Speaker 2: to do with this. It comes at a good time.
- 33:11Speaker 2: Jonathan Cooper, though, showed up in the locker room yesterday.
- 33:14Speaker 2: He is now off the commissioner's exempt list. I would
- 33:17Speaker 2: assume he's going to play. Now, I don't know what
- 33:20Speaker 2: the rules have been, if he's been able to work
- 33:22Speaker 2: out and do all that stuff, but here's Jonathan Cooper
- 33:25Speaker 2: talking about.
- 33:28Speaker 3: The situation that occurred.
- 33:30Speaker 5: That's hard. I feel like, you know, relationships are difficult.
- 33:34Speaker 5: No excuses on my end. And I do apologize for,
- 33:39Speaker 5: you know, anybody's feelings, truthfully, just because they have to
- 33:43Speaker 5: be associated with me. You know, I'm I'm a grown man.
- 33:47Speaker 5: I'm able to take things on the chin. And I
- 33:49Speaker 5: just want to say that I understand the concern. I
- 33:51Speaker 5: understand the level of awareness, how serious these matters are.
- 33:57Speaker 5: But the legal matters will take care of themselves. And, yeah,
- 34:01Speaker 5: things happen. You know, nobody's perfect. But there is also
- 34:05Speaker 5: there's no excuses. And I do hold myself accountable. And, yeah,
- 34:09Speaker 5: things are going to sort themselves out. I promise that.
- 34:12Speaker 3: So that's his statement in the locker room yesterday.
- 34:16Speaker 2: I do think that having him back can make a
- 34:20Speaker 2: pretty huge difference, especially for a.
- 34:21Speaker 3: Guy like Nick Benito. He is someone that is.
- 34:25Speaker 3: Jonathan Cooper's good. He is very, very good.
- 34:28Speaker 2: And especially with the loss of Jonah Ellis, who was
- 34:30Speaker 2: seen in a boot and on crutches after the last
- 34:32Speaker 2: game that he got carted off.
- 34:34Speaker 1: Like.
- 34:37Speaker 2: He is going to help the Broncos defensively. But my
- 34:41Speaker 2: whole thing is, I'm not concerned about the Broncos defensively.
- 34:46Speaker 2: It is such a well-oiled machine that you can add
- 34:53Speaker 2: this piece and this piece and bring this guy back
- 34:55Speaker 2: in the lineup and Sertan practiced this week, but you
- 34:58Speaker 2: don't really know if he's going to go and Ufanga's
- 35:00Speaker 2: still been.
- 35:00Speaker 3: Out of the lineup. And all these things, to me,
- 35:03Speaker 3: it's just kind of like they'll figure it out. They'll
- 35:11Speaker 3: figure it out.
- 35:14Speaker 2: The offense is the thing that if they got that going,
- 35:17Speaker 2: then all of a sudden you are a next level team.
- 35:20Speaker 3: That's it.
- 35:22Speaker 2: But it certainly comes at a good time for him
- 35:24Speaker 2: to return to the lineup because Jonah Ellis looks like
- 35:26Speaker 2: he's going to miss some time. And I've been a
- 35:30Speaker 2: huge sort of supporter of what Q Robinson has done
- 35:34Speaker 2: in his snaps this year.
- 35:38Speaker 3: But you need to have depth.
- 35:40Speaker 2: And you need to have the ability to turn guys
- 35:42Speaker 2: through at that edge spot. And when one guy leaves,
- 35:47Speaker 2: another guy comes in, and I think it works out
- 35:49Speaker 2: really well.
- 35:50Speaker 3: Now, back to the Nuggets.
- 35:52Speaker 2: The Nuggets who played tonight against the Thunder in what
- 35:54Speaker 2: will be, no doubt, a frustrating game.
- 35:57Speaker 3: It always is.
- 36:01Speaker 2: I think the Nuggets have a chance just tonight. If
- 36:08Speaker 2: they get a win... and they get some performances from
- 36:11Speaker 2: some of the, quote, others on this roster, you have
- 36:16Speaker 2: a chance to put some things at ease even after
- 36:18Speaker 2: the first game. I think nobody would love anything more,
- 36:22Speaker 2: or everybody would love, weird way to phrase it, everybody
- 36:27Speaker 2: would love going out and getting a win against the
- 36:29Speaker 2: Oklahoma City Thunder. The team that has seen, like, I
- 36:34Speaker 2: don't know if they're the favorites in the Western Conference
- 36:36Speaker 2: because they lost to San Antonio last year.
- 36:38Speaker 3: I think they should be.
- 36:40Speaker 2: Even though San Antonio beat them, I still think that
- 36:43Speaker 2: the Thunder is the best team in the league. Top
- 36:46Speaker 2: to bottom, they can go 11 deep. They lost players
- 36:50Speaker 2: from last year, and it doesn't matter because they have
- 36:52Speaker 2: guys that they know can step in and play. If
- 36:55Speaker 2: you can go out, and here's what I want to
- 36:58Speaker 2: see tonight. I want to see extended time for some
- 37:04Speaker 2: of these dudes off the bench. Not just like, hey, Joker,
- 37:09Speaker 2: you're going to sit to start the fourth quarter.
- 37:11Speaker 3: Oh, it's now been a 8-0 run.
- 37:15Speaker 2: All right, two minutes into the fourth quarter. Joker, get
- 37:18Speaker 2: back in there. I kind of want to see the
- 37:21Speaker 2: team suffer a little bit. And suffer in this sense.
- 37:26Speaker 2: You can't go back to the starters just to bail
- 37:28Speaker 2: you out. We've been on this train for, I don't know,
- 37:32Speaker 2: three or four years, whether it's Adleman or Michael Malone.
- 37:37Speaker 3: I think sometimes.
- 37:40Speaker 2: They're so concerned with winning every single game on the schedule.
- 37:47Speaker 3: It's a long season.
- 37:49Speaker 2: I think this year has to be one of those
- 37:51Speaker 2: where you let some of these guys like Whitmore or
- 37:55Speaker 2: Diallo or Brazil or Hopkins or Bagley or Holmes or
- 37:59Speaker 2: you pick. They have to be able to play through
- 38:03Speaker 2: their struggles. Even if that means you drop a couple
- 38:06Speaker 2: of games along the way in the regular season, you
- 38:10Speaker 2: can't have the quick hook on those guys because I
- 38:13Speaker 2: think they're going to be way too important once the
- 38:15Speaker 2: postseason rolls around. I've talked about this mental rotation that
- 38:26Speaker 2: Nuggets coaches have gone through with some of their younger
- 38:28Speaker 2: players or bench players. when the post season rolls around
- 38:36Speaker 2: and it's like, why didn't so-and-so player didn't play? Cause
- 38:41Speaker 2: I don't trust him. Well, why don't you trust him?
- 38:43Speaker 2: Cause he didn't play this year. Well, why didn't he play?
- 38:45Speaker 3: Cause I don't trust him. Why do you not trust him?
- 38:47Speaker 3: Cause he didn't play.
- 38:48Speaker 2: And it just goes in that cycle and it's circular
- 38:52Speaker 2: and it never stops.
- 38:54Speaker 3: And it never really.
- 38:55Speaker 2: Gives a guy an opportunity to show what he's worth.
- 38:58Speaker 2: There are some guys that just play hard enough or
- 39:01Speaker 2: good enough where they just earn the.
- 39:02Speaker 3: Right almost immediately to get there. I think Spencer Jones
- 39:05Speaker 3: is one of those dudes.
- 39:06Speaker 2: Like Spencer Jones, when he got an opportunity, he made
- 39:09Speaker 2: it so you couldn't take him off the floor.
- 39:12Speaker 3: But Spencer Jones is a high floor, low ceiling guy.
- 39:17Speaker 2: When you think of like Trevin Brazil, he's got a
- 39:21Speaker 2: lot of potential. He might make some mistakes. You've got
- 39:24Speaker 2: to let him play through it. I think of a
- 39:27Speaker 2: guy like Deron Holmes and Ivan. a big fear with Deron.
- 39:31Speaker 2: You invested a lot to move up in the draft
- 39:33Speaker 2: and take him in the first round, higher than what
- 39:36Speaker 2: your pick was. You gave away a lot of assets
- 39:38Speaker 2: to do it, and then he had the Achilles, right?
- 39:42Speaker 2: Achilles or knee, I think it was Achilles. He had
- 39:45Speaker 2: that injury his first summer league game, missed his entire
- 39:48Speaker 2: rookie season. Didn't really play last year. You need to
- 39:52Speaker 2: see if that guy can play or not this year.
- 39:54Speaker 2: You have to give him a legitimate shot or else
- 39:57Speaker 2: you got yourself a giant Zeke Najee on the bench again.
- 40:00Speaker 2: We're just going to be a guy that's there and
- 40:01Speaker 2: you're like, well, is he going to play? And you're like, well,
- 40:04Speaker 2: not really.
- 40:07Speaker 3: Can he play? I don't really know. Just a very
- 40:11Speaker 3: weird purgatory.
- 40:14Speaker 2: You can't have him in that same spot too. give
- 40:17Speaker 2: these guys opportunities to fail and see if they can
- 40:22Speaker 2: find their way to make up for it.
- 40:26Speaker 3: I think that's a really important aspect of this season.
- 40:31Speaker 2: So 3-0-3, 5-0-4, 0-9-2-5, that game tonight, scheduled for 7-30,
- 40:33Speaker 2: probably closer to 7-40, 7-45, but it's right here.
- 40:36Speaker 3: On Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 with full pregame coverage.
- 40:45Speaker 2: Coverage as we'll talk to cause at nine 30, but
- 40:49Speaker 2: full pregame powered by Ramos law begins at seven o'clock
- 40:52Speaker 2: and cause has the action for you tip off just
- 40:54Speaker 2: after seven 30 on your.
- 40:55Speaker 3: Home for the nuggets all season right here on 92 five.
- 40:59Speaker 2: You can watch the show live on Twitch, twitch.tv search
- 41:03Speaker 2: altitude SR on the search bar, the altitude TV simulcast
- 41:06Speaker 2: can watch the show.
- 41:06Speaker 3: On YouTube and subscribe to that channel.
- 41:09Speaker 2: So you don't miss anything from Denver's number one sports station,
- 41:12Speaker 2: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5. Moshe Lombardi and Kane starts next.