Tag: Will Barton

Mike Singer: Stopping Phoenix an “Impossible Equation” for Nuggets

June 13, 2021 / Aaron Fischman / 0 Comments

Nikola Jokic garnered 91 out of 100 first-place votes to win the first NBA MVP award in Denver Nuggets history. (All-Pro Reels/Wikimedia Commons)

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Nikola Jokic earned 2020-21 MVP honors and was presented with his trophy before Denver’s home Game 3 against the Phoenix Suns. But an epic individual performance from the skilled center was not enough for the team to avoid another double-digit loss, its third in as many games of the series. Facing a 3-0 hole, the Nuggets will need a miracle in order to make NBA history and become the first ever team to come back from such a series deficit. Our guest, Mike Singer of the Denver Post, breaks down how the Nuggets got to this point, with specific emphasis on Denver’s ongoing quest to replace the scoring void left by Jamal Murray’s season-ending knee injury and the team’s inadequate defense against Phoenix’s devastating pick-and-roll attack. Finally, Singer looks ahead to the most pressing offseason priorities looming ahead for the franchise.

8:08-8:33: “If Austin Rivers and Facu Campazzo are not giving you anything offensively, that means that you are not making Chris Paul and Devin Booker work on the defensive end. Therefore they’re saving all their energy for the offensive end and just picking you to pieces. So, talent disparity, but more specifically if you zoom in, it’s in the backcourt.” Continue reading

Adam Mares: Nikola Jokic Redefining ‘MVP’ in Today’s NBA

January 4, 2019 / Aaron Fischman / 0 Comments

Guest Adam Mares doesn’t quite see Nikola Jokic, 23, as the frontrunner, but he believes he’s more broadly changing how we define an NBA MVP (Keith Allison/Creative Commons).

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The Denver Nuggets are on the upswing with a talented young core and six straight months of winning basketball. They also hold the Western Conference’s No. 1 spot, one and a half games ahead of the Thunder and Warriors, and are led by MVP candidate Nikola Jokic. Adam Mares of SB Nation’s Denver Stiffs and Locked On Nuggets breaks down what makes Denver tick.

Here are some particularly golden nuggets (*Due to dynamic advertising, time stamps may vary per listener):

7:13-7:30: “You look at the 2015 Warriors. If I said, ‘Oh, take Steph Curry off that team,’ the offense all of a sudden doesn’t look good, and everybody would understand that. They’d say, ‘OK, well, yeah, of course you miss Steph Curry.’ We don’t think about this defensively. Paul Millsap is Denver’s Steph Curry on the defensive end. He has that type of impact.”

11:12-13:14: “Isaiah Thomas [is] allegedly looming somewhere on the horizon, and he’s the one guy who has never played on this roster and whose role on this roster, I think, is not very clear. So he’s one guy that, I don’t know if it’s just a matter of a week or two of it being rocky. It just might not be a good fit. Who knows?

Adam Mares: “Guys Are Figuring Out New Roles Around Millsap”

November 7, 2017 / Aaron Fischman / 0 Comments

In Paul Millsap’s first season in town, Adam Mares sees clear contributions on both sides of the ball. He also believes the forward’s teammates are still adjusting to their new roles (Keith Allison/Creative Commons).

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The 5-5 Denver Nuggets are currently about as good as their record would suggest, according to this week’s guest, Adam Mares, host of the Locked on Nuggets podcast and site manager for SB Nation’s Denver Stiffs. He argues that despite the team’s considerable continuity, many players are still adjusting to new roles this season. In addition, the Nuggets are still incorporating Paul Millsap into their game plan, particularly on the offensive end. Adam discusses this process, Denver’s many young guards and much more in this action-packed episode. He strikes gold throughout, but here are some examples (the exact time stamps slightly vary from user to user depending on the length of one’s customized ads):

7:28-8:23: “[Nikola] Jokic really quarterbacked the offense last year from the center position – he was a point-center. And that wasn’t just a cliché. He really was the facilitator on offense…Steve Kerr was in town yesterday with the Warriors, and he said that the Nuggets’ offense last season was like a pinwheel where Jokic was the center of that and everybody’s kind of operating and cutting and spacing around him. Well, this season, they haven’t really gotten to that yet – I think they’re moving in that direction. They’re playing through Paul Millsap a lot as I think you would expect – he’s a four-time All-Star – and guys are just kind of figuring out new roles around Millsap, Millsap’s learning how to play off of Jokic and Jokic off of Millsap. And so, right now, in particular, their half-court offense has been pretty bad. Not just a little bit of a step back, but I think a huge step back.” Continue reading

Faudree on Nuggets: “[Gallinari] Should Be in Their Future Plans”

January 10, 2016 / Loren Chen / 0 Comments

Danilo Gallinari (left) and Kenneth Faried (right) are two Nuggets that could find themselves on the move this trade season. (Matthew D. Britt/Flickr)

Danilo Gallinari (left) is one member of the Nuggets who could find himself on the move this trade season. (Matthew D. Britt/Flickr)

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The Denver Nuggets have had their fair share of struggles so far this season, with a new head coach, a bottom-tier defense and numerous injuries to key players. We were joined this episode by Justin Faudree, a lifelong Denver Nuggets fan and periodic contributor to ESPN TrueHoop’s Roundball Mining. He takes us through all the reasons why this team has gotten off to such a poor start this season, with only one win so far against a winning team. Despite that, he is still optimistic for the future and believes that with a young core of Mudiay, Jokic and Nurkic, there are good times ahead.

Choice cuts are highlighted below:

4:45-5:40: “[Will Barton’s] been the team’s most consistent player. He’s basically taken mostly the entire offensive burden, especially when Gallinari went out with injury and Mudiay has missed 14 straight games… For what he’s had to carry and do everything so efficiently, it’s crazy, especially for someone who basically came out of nowhere for the most part.”

7:25-8:25: A possible silver lining for Emmanuel Mudiay’s ankle injury: “[Mudiay] might benefit from taking a step back and taking some time to observe the game because he’s the kind of guy who will do that. He’s a very, very hard worker. He takes his job very seriously even at 19. And he has, off the court, the right kind of attitude in order to overcome his problems, I’m sure. So, when he gets back from injury, we’ll be able to see more what he processed and if he was able to gain anything from that, and I’m betting that he did.”

Tag: Will Barton

Mike Singer: Stopping Phoenix an “Impossible Equation” for Nuggets

Adam Mares: Nikola Jokic Redefining ‘MVP’ in Today’s NBA

Adam Mares: “Guys Are Figuring Out New Roles Around Millsap”

Faudree on Nuggets: “[Gallinari] Should Be in Their Future Plans”

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