https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFtuK364/

https://x.com/nuggets/status/1852002808813265065

Daily Listening: Daily Thread Mix | Curated by u/trevstan1 | Spotify Playlist of Vol 3 Mixes

Booth is becoming a convenient scape goat for Nuggets fans and haters. Booth has not been a perfect GM, however, he has done fairly well considering the context and circumstances facing the Nuggets.

#Booth’s mistakes

I’m not here to minimize his errors. I think the worst one has been Nnaji’s contract. Every penny matters to the Nuggets right now and the Nuggets are stuck with a portion of available salary dedicated to a Guy who isn’t a contributor. Booth also keeps giving player options to MLE signings like Reggie Jackson and Dario Saric, the former cost us draft picks just so we could dump him to bring in the latter.

His worst quality is the mismanaging of assets like future draft picks. We also burned capital in the first place to go and get guys like Reggie and Thomas Bryant who were non-contributors to our championship run.

#Defending Booth

1. Losing BB and KCP - Keeping Bruce was always going to be impossible. An elite 6th man who won a championship was going to get his bag. As for KCP, outbidding Orlando would have been very difficult. Especially since the Kroenkes have given every indication they don’t want to pay into the second apron.

Without KCP, the Nuggets have more financial flexibility now and into the future around their core four.

2. FA signings - Booth has been very hit or miss with FA signings. Deandre Jordan, Bruce Brown have worked out, others like Reggie Jackson have not.

Whether Russ works out or not, it’s almost impossible to find players who can impact the game at his level for that cheap. Yes he will frustrate us at times throughout the year, but games like last night will come too.

3. Outlook and Philosophy - Booth wants to sustain a competitive window for a long time and to do that, we have to develop young pieces. That isn’t going to be easy, especially since Malone likes to play veterans. However, Christian Braun has clearly taken that step and Strawther/Watson have shown flashes. This isn’t the worst strategy given the cap challenges to navigate.

Conclusion: Booth isn’t Tim Connelly, who I think many of us can agree is one of the best executives in the sport. However, Booth has been judged very harshly, despite the very difficult situations he has had as an executive in recent years.

Understanding this context is important when we have to realize how good that 2023 team was and how it was always going to be difficult to get to that level again.

So far, there's been a lot of overreacting. Nuggets title team started the season 1-4. But there's legit concerns about the bench. I'm not as worried about the starting 5.

If these concerns have not been fixed around 25 games into the season. We need to take a hard look at a move. Right now, today we should cut Pickett and sign Lonnie walker. I saw a trade idea with Atlanta, MPJ for Bogdanović and DeAndre Hunter. Even though I like MPJ I'd look hard at a move like this. I think this works for both sides, Atlanta has a crowded wing rotation, MPJ is good friends with Trae Young. Nuggets get more depth. Also we need to trade Zeke, he needs a fresh start elsewhere. A rebuilding team always takes flyers on Young players.

Emailed altitude to try and figure out if I was really going to have to pay for altitude+ to watch certain games, such as yesterday's. They replied "Fubo will launch TEGNA's KTVD in the coming weeks"

To the high seas until then...

Until next year 🥲

Denver hasnt been the same since their championship, Jokic is still Jokic, but the rest of the team isn’t. AG still is the sidekick for me rather than Jamal, MPJ’s goal might be building a house with his bricks, Jamal still cannot beat the “youre not an all star caliber” allegations. Why are we wasting jokic’s prime???

My wife and I wanted to catch a game, so I go onto AXS and find tickets. It takes me ticketmaster. Ok. No big deal. I buy the nosebleeds on ticketmaster. It sends me an email to claim the tickets on some other site called KSE or something. Ok, I go to the link, click access tickets and I can't access them unless I add them to my google wallet.

What the fuck. So not only am I getting charged 50% of the ticket price in fees, but I'm also being forced to go through 4 different portals just to buy tickets? Just give me the damn things on AXS.

Hello nugs faithful. I remember a post during or shortly after the championship run of a custom image of joker as a cowboy with words written in a lasso. The OP had the template and was giving it out if people wanted to screen print it and am trying to have that done for the wife’s birthday. I’ve spent the last couple days combing the sub and simply cannot find it. Any help is appreciated.

Snapchat gave me a “7 years ago…” notification this morning. And it’s actually wild this guy is running our bench unit now. Feeling mighty nostalgic lol

Daily Listening: Daily Thread Mix | Curated by u/lemondhead | Spotify Playlist of Vol 3 Mixes

VERY LONG ANALYSIS!!

Positive Takeaways:

• Jokic is still Jokic and continues to be a beast as well as the most reliable and best player on our team and the best player in general. Played b2b OT games and still came out with a win despite being tired and playing 40+ minutes again.

• The bench provided 39 points for us today with Westbrook going off and bringing the energy that nuggets fans were expecting him to bring from the trade. Starters had more of a break although that break was cut short due to another OT that forced them to play longer. However, the bench seems to be finding its rhythm (excluding one individual that will be mentioned in the negative takeaways)

• CB has been reliable on defense and has made some clutch offensive points for us. He is fitting into the role of KCP very well and is even exceeding expectations in addition to playing better than KCP as a whole. Braun put up 12 points which doesn't sound like a lot, but it doesn't have to be. Braun wasn't meant to be an offensive juggernaut, he was just supposed to step up for KCP's absence which he has done phenomenally.

• Gordon has woken up after having a phenomenal past 2 performances. He put up 24 points, had 5 rbs, and 2 assists. He even knocked down a three pointer today which got the GDT very excited. He has finally joined Jokic and Braun in terms of reliability and energy and has finally played what his contract demands. Still a few mistakes to clean up on, but an overall great performance.

• Fans may be hypercritical over this win against the nets as we went into OT a second time, but the endurance of this team (the starters more specifically) speaks volumes. For 4 quarters and some change, the nuggets continued to keep up with a Brooklyn nets team that at several points during the game shot 50% from 3 as a collective. Statistically speaking, we should not have won that game due to the sheer amount of threes knocked down by the nets for a long time.

• My last positive takeaway is that this team hasn't quit even when the game seemed over. Not much else to add, just an improved attitude towards the game and showing that they will fight if they see an opportunity while fans (and other nba fans) don't.

Negative Takeaways:

• Dario Saric is still Dario. He continues to be a liability on both offense and defense and is slow as molasses. He put up a measly 3 points and 2 rbs, barely contributing to the bench's points. Luckily, he played the least amount of time; but even 12 minutes seem too long for him to be in the game. He is the only bench player, imo, who hasn't shown any sort of improvement over the 2 game stretch

• MPJ, though shooting much better from 3, continues to be underwhelming. He did knock down 4 threes but only attempted 7 for the entire game. He has been a liability on defense many times and is a shell of his former offensive self. Putting up 16 points, 5 rbs, and 2 assists isn't bad on paper, but when it comes from your max contract player, it feels dreadful and energy-depleting. He was nearly outperformed (points wise) by Braun and even performed worse (points wise) than Westbrook. I still believe he can do better and make some adjustments (hopefully)

• Although the bench was improved and put up 39 points, 22 of those points came from just one player and the next best players only had 7 points each. They are definitely finding their rhythm, but a plethora of mistakes were made in addition to a less than mediocre offensive performance. Knowing that Saric likely won't contribute for anything means that only 3 bench players are actually performing with only one of them scoring 10+ points. Westbrook will not drop 22 points every game, the bench does still have to step up and hold their own without Jokic.

• Our 1st quarter woes continue as we were outscored 40-27, and although the nets were shooting out of their minds, this has been happening for essentially all of our games. 27 points is acceptable only if the other team doesn't have a significant lead over us. This shouldn't be a regular occurrence. Being down 13 is not ideal especially as we face better opponents (refer back to OKC).

• Lastly and on a smaller note, although Murray had a great game and put up 24 points (which is how much he should be giving us), he still continues to have some mistakes and tends to take on too much when Jokic is right there. Sometimes he made careless decisions and some came when we almost couldn't afford them. No heavy criticism for him, really. Just needs better decision making at times.

Overall good performance by the nuggets today.

Sorry for the long analysis. Fuck these nerve-wracking games and goodnight!

Hi guys, this is my first post on the subreddit, but I've been lurking here for a while. I think over the past few games we've seen the team slowly get back into rhythm. I think Westbrook has played more-or-less to expectations (i.e. he has a lot of variance in his games due to his shot-making, but brings energy). Strawther has been decent so far, but I think he'll settle into his role as a shooter off the bench as he plays more games. Watson is a bit worrying, but again I think he'll settle into it as well.

The main worry I have is Saric, who seems way too slow on both ends, and has a pretty poor handle on the ball as well. If he turns out to be unplayable, do you think the Nuggets will look to sign a replacement? Would Zeke or Vlatko be able to fill in for those minutes? I think the worst case is AG playing more backup 5, because that'll lead to him being gassed by the playoffs.

In an ideal situation, I'd rather they look to sign a shooting vet like Justin Holliday (by dumping Pickett), maybe even two if they're willing to part with Hunter Tyson. I think as we get into the season, the addition of more 3pt shooting of the bench will help spell out the starters a bit (i.e. not needing to have Jokic to put up monster games constantly).

I'm pretty new to the sub, so just hoping for people to share their thoughts. Also by no means an expert in ball knowledge or anything, so feel free to roast my take to shreds lol.

I think it’s time to shake it up and trade MPJ to get some depth.

How about this?

To the Nets

• MPJ
• Zeke Naji

To the Nugs

• Cam Thomas
• Bogdonavic
• Ben Simmons and his expiring contract

Maybe toss in a younger player and include Dennis Schroeder as well?