The Nuggets were the favorites to win the NBA title until they were bounced by the T'Wolves. What will happen in Denver this coming season?
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00:00You said, with some of these teams, they're going to lose more than the market expects.
00:05Mathematically, they have to.
00:07I think that could be Denver this year, even if Jokic is just as good.
00:11I would only bet the under on the Denver Nuggets heading into the season.
00:14Where are you at here with Nikola Jokic and Denver?
00:16Yeah, I feel the same way about Denver that I do about Dallas.
00:20When you, and you could, you could plug either city or either team in all these statements
00:24and it's basically going to be true.
00:26When your best player is blank, Luca or Jokic, there's just a certain baseline with how,
00:30I mean, those guys play every game, like Jokic plays every game of the season.
00:35He's not, I mean, this is one of the things that makes him even greater is that he's the
00:39best player, but he also plays like 79 games a season.
00:42He just plays all the time.
00:44Luca plays a lot too.
00:46When that's true, everything else can be bad.
00:49There's a certain baseline level of success.
00:52That's just going to be the minimum.
00:53And I know Luca had like the two years ago season where they like tanked for the draft
00:56pick at the end and all that stuff.
00:57But you get the idea, like when you have a player like this and maybe that's what separates
01:01Luca and Jokic still, it's possible.
01:03But when you, when you know that it's, Hey, it's really likely there's like 74, 75 games
01:09of Jokic here, then that's like 48 to 50 to start with.
01:13Like that's just the starting point with that.
01:14And then it's what else do you have?
01:16Because you know, like Jamal Murray has had a bunch of prolonged injured, hot, cold stretches
01:21Last year.
01:22Yeah.
01:23Michael Porter jr.
01:24Is going to kind of be that the third guy who maybe makes a little bit too much, but
01:28can win a game for you, et cetera, et cetera.
01:30And they're going to, you know, like they, they have the pieces to hit the number, but
01:34it's just like, I kind of feel the same way with Dallas.
01:36It just looks a little too high with how good the West is.
01:39It's going to be around this number.
01:40Like if you told me they won 42, I'd be astonished.
01:42I'd be absolutely shocked.
01:44I'd be like Jokic had to have gotten hurt in order for them to win 42 games.
01:48Correct.
01:49And honestly, Dallas with Luca to a slightly lesser degree, but pretty similar Thunder
01:54with SGA.
01:55I'd probably feel the same way.
01:56And I think the Thunder could win a lot without SGA if they had to, but hopefully they won't
01:59have to this year.
02:00Just like, you know, should Denver's 52?
02:03Are they more likely a 50 51 win team?
02:05Is Dallas more likely a 48 49 win team?
02:07Those feel more reasonable to me just based on how good the rest of the West is.
02:12And it doesn't have to go that way.
02:13Like the Clippers, for example, who we'll get to eventually could like, they are a candidate
02:18to be one of those bottom out teams.
02:20So like if Kawhi misses games and, you know, Victor Wimbunyama doesn't develop at the rate
02:26and the team doesn't build up at the rate that everybody thinks, and they're just bad
02:28again.
02:29Okay, now you got your two teams, and then maybe you get an injury from somebody else.
02:33And now all of a sudden, you know, whatever, something happens.
02:36And you know, there, there are enough wins, but you can't start the season thinking that's
02:40going to happen.
02:41And you don't know who the teams are.
02:42And these could be the teams Dallas and Denver could be the teams that haven't have an injury.
02:45So under if I had to Dallas, I think I like the under just a little bit more, only because
02:52like depending on clay to be a certain level, and depending on Kyrie to be a certain level
02:56is still a dicier proposition somehow than depending on like the ancillary pieces for
03:01Denver, even though I would have questions about both of them.
03:04So you think Dallas more likely to go under?
03:06Yeah.
03:07And I guess that means you and so.