Denver Nuggets 2024-25 Regular Season road to the 2025 playoff

[THE J0KER]

[TunaFish]

It's almost ironic. Seems like Denver playing the Clippers in the playoffs is poietic justice and there has been a genuine rivalry between the two teams ever since Jokic arrived.

The Clips come into this game on a winning streak but barely got by Golden State to get here. Denver gets the benefit of home court but this will be a challenge. There are a lot of strong teams this year in the West, so it should be entertaining at the least.

[THE J0KER]

Call me crazy, but maybe we should play the very last game by resting our starters and purposely being 7th, which means home game vs Memphis in the play-in round, and if we win, Houston in the playoff 1st round, which is better playoff 1st round scenario than any we can get if we beat Rockets in Sunday!

Spoiler:

Lately Lakers and Warriors have become better teams after trading for Doncic and Butler, while for the Clippers same effect happened just by finally being healthy.

I would choose the Rockets any day ahead of these 3, but that said risk is if the Clippers beat the Warriors in San Francisco, we will finish as #6 and play the Lakers.

The best scenario with winning in Houston (which secured #2 seed and will probably play 2nd unit) is if at home GSW beats Clippers, so we will play in the PO 1st round with home court advantage as #4 seed!

I told ya! Houston, without home court advantage, was a better 1st round scenario than the red-hot Clippers (finished season 18-3, all healthy) with HCA.

[psimanic1]

Nice one we had there, but thx to our beloved coach and gm, we are out of the playoffs picture once more...

IMO, these are the next steps Denver needs to take, or next season is already done...

#1 - Nuggets need to hire full time coach and GM in next 10 days, draft is approaching, we don't have any picks, but you never know, maybe some trade comes in where we get something we can use, and even without draft picks we need coach and GM working already on prospects they like, maybe someone falls to UFA pool and we need to be quick on those.
#2 - Coach and GM need to sit down, have a long chat about what they want, what they need, and how to get there - we can't have one more season without valuable bench replacement for Jokic, 10mpg atleast, but good 10mpg. Coach needs to say what kind of game he wants this team to play, and GM needs to find a way to get him best possible players to achieve that
#3 - Coach has to be someone who won't only rely on Jokic centric offense, we know team can do that, we need someone who can figure out those 10-15, hopefully 15-20mpg where Jokic sits.
#4 - Hope that rumors are true about Dubai basketball team wants Saric for their Euroleague season and he won't accept his PO
#5 - Hope that Russ won't accept his player option either, I don't hate him, he is what he is, but for your superstar mental health it's better to let him go, unless Jokic really asked for him and still has same opinion
#6 - Don't resign Vlatko, he is UFA, let him go, please, and if Jokic and his agent want to have one more player from the agency, atleast send someone with more energy to hype guys up when he is on the bench, Vlatko is not him and BeoBasket has some really good names in europe they can send, if that's the case
#7 - Don't resign Jordan, or do, as last step in the process when you filled rest of the team with players that can actually give you something in return
#8 - Try to get Bruce back, he was there whole playoffs, he got his money, I think he would love to be back
#9 - Try to get anything usable to Nnaji, Porter, include Watson and Strawther if needed, if it's something really good not just to dump them that is, no ne should be untouchable tbh especially young guys we have.
#10 - Call NOP and talk about Zion with them, I think both him and Porter just need a change, and bringing Zion to Denver would actually make him work on his body as he has a chance here, in NOP he wouldn't have any chance to win something, whatever he did. If he is currently healthy that is, I didn't check that, I would call NOP and propose something like this:
https://www.espn.com/nba/trademachine?tradeId=yvxu4y5p - we give them young guy that won't make any problems for them, who has 1 year less, we give them Nnaji, and get nice value back. If not that, try to get on a call with some young team, with bunch of rookie contracts, that could take on MPJ and use him in few years as an exp they can trade, when they need money for their guys.
#11 - Call Europe, they have some nice quality shooters there, you can find 1 or 2 as a 3 and D specialists for sure, maybe bring Dzanan Musa over, he has some nice years playing for Real Madrid, maybe he is ready for NBA now, he is not a 3andD that much but could be helpful when Jokic sits and everyone loses their minds.
#12 - Hope everyone is healthy come playoff time
#13 - Win, so I can come for the finals

[NuggetsWY]

Nice one we had there, but thx to our beloved coach and gm, we are out of the playoffs picture once more...

IMO, these are the next steps Denver needs to take, or next season is already done...

#1 - Nuggets need to hire full time coach and GM in next 10 days, draft is approaching, we don't have any picks, but you never know, maybe some trade comes in where we get something we can use, and even without draft picks we need coach and GM working already on prospects they like, maybe someone falls to UFA pool and we need to be quick on those.
#2 - Coach and GM need to sit down, have a long chat about what they want, what they need, and how to get there - we can't have one more season without valuable bench replacement for Jokic, 10mpg atleast, but good 10mpg. Coach needs to say what kind of game he wants this team to play, and GM needs to find a way to get him best possible players to achieve that
#3 - Coach has to be someone who won't only rely on Jokic centric offense, we know team can do that, we need someone who can figure out those 10-15, hopefully 15-20mpg where Jokic sits.
#4 - Hope that rumors are true about Dubai basketball team wants Saric for their Euroleague season and he won't accept his PO
#5 - Hope that Russ won't accept his player option either, I don't hate him, he is what he is, but for your superstar mental health it's better to let him go, unless Jokic really asked for him and still has same opinion
#6 - Don't resign Vlatko, he is UFA, let him go, please, and if Jokic and his agent want to have one more player from the agency, atleast send someone with more energy to hype guys up when he is on the bench, Vlatko is not him and BeoBasket has some really good names in europe they can send, if that's the case
#7 - Don't resign Jordan, or do, as last step in the process when you filled rest of the team with players that can actually give you something in return
#8 - Try to get Bruce back, he was there whole playoffs, he got his money, I think he would love to be back
#9 - Try to get anything usable to Nnaji, Porter, include Watson and Strawther if needed, if it's something really good not just to dump them that is, no ne should be untouchable tbh especially young guys we have.
#10 - Call NOP and talk about Zion with them, I think both him and Porter just need a change, and bringing Zion to Denver would actually make him work on his body as he has a chance here, in NOP he wouldn't have any chance to win something, whatever he did. If he is currently healthy that is, I didn't check that, I would call NOP and propose something like this:
https://www.espn.com/nba/trademachine?tradeId=yvxu4y5p - we give them young guy that won't make any problems for them, who has 1 year less, we give them Nnaji, and get nice value back. If not that, try to get on a call with some young team, with bunch of rookie contracts, that could take on MPJ and use him in few years as an exp they can trade, when they need money for their guys.
#11 - Call Europe, they have some nice quality shooters there, you can find 1 or 2 as a 3 and D specialists for sure, maybe bring Dzanan Musa over, he has some nice years playing for Real Madrid, maybe he is ready for NBA now, he is not a 3andD that much but could be helpful when Jokic sits and everyone loses their minds.
#12 - Hope everyone is healthy come playoff time
#13 - Win, so I can come for the finals

#1-#2 Coach -- GM: absolutely estential for the Nuggets to do something. They need to get their act together. They've had too much conflict there and that has seemed clear for a long time. The GM and the coach seemed to make moves to irritate the other. They need to be a TEAM.


#3 -- Our starting offense is and needs to be Jokic-centric. But under Malone, our bench had no leadership even with Brown and/or Westbrook. Malone seemed to want to make sure he called every play. He even did that for the starters -- my perception. Bench composition and development and playing style needs to fit the bench players. One thing for sure, when Jokic is off the court, the Nuggets are not good. This needs to be a major focus.

#4 -- a MEH with an agreed hope it's true. It'll be a good move for him.

#5 -- Westbrook seems perfect as the leader of the bench IMO. He can play with the starters if necessary.

#6 -- Agreed, hope he finds some place where he'll fit better.

#7 -- Jordan would be a nice 3rd string center. But truthfully that would be a better slot for a young player being developed. Actually, I wonder how he would fit with Westbrook running the bench. He's pretty good heading to the basket for a lob and Westbrook knows how to throw those.

#8 -- Brown was a great fit. I think losing him was a money issue, but I don't know. i'd love him back for sure.

#9 -- I understand wanting to trade some, but I'd hate to trade Nnaji, Watson, or Strawther. I think their talent is much greater than they have shown. Hopefully the new coach knows how to develop young players. Malone's theory was "they can learn in practice" and I'm betting his practice sessions all focused on the starters. That's not bad, but taken to an extreme, it leaves very little development. Malone never seemed to understand that each player is an individual and young players need to learn how to use their skills. He wanted them to fit into his system. Even with Jokic, it was like Malone was trying to hammer a square peg in a round hole.

#10 -- Not a fan of Zion, like Porter better but they can probably both use a change.

#11 -- That's not a bad idea. Jokic's style is very European (naturally).
#12 -- of course
#13 -- I'd love it!