The Many Firings of the Denver Nuggets

In this episode of The Blucifer Brothers, we discuss the seismic shake-ups within the Denver Nuggets organization. Kyle and Ryan dive deep into the firings of Michael Malone and Calvin Booth, the reasons behind these decisions, and their potential impact on the team and its future. Tune in as we analyze the front office dynamics, player development issues, and what lies ahead for the Nuggets. 

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Transcript

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It's an emergency. My wife is having a baby. Just kidding. Mike Malone got fired and we gotta talk about it. Also, my wife could go have a baby any moment. So let's get to it, Dan, and play that somber yet funky music. All right, April 8th, we have returned the Blucifer Brothers breaking news, uh, today. Uh, Mike Malone's gone. Calvin Booth's gone. The season's over. Uh, and, uh, it, it's a bit of a bummer, um, but we kinda wanna break it down from our perspective and, and hopefully give some context and give some thought. We, we should also loyal listeners. Ryan, how is your day going? Well, we should also say Kyle is recording this live from the maternity ward. Um, his wife is, uh, actively having their their second child, first daughter. Uh, that's not true at all, but it, it is imminent. So this is kind of a blessed, you know, Newsday for us that we could record early in the week and, uh, ensure that you're available for duty should it cost. Yeah, dude, we're gonna play one road game, uh, for a plan and then we'll be done. So won't have to, won't have to make any of those early moments in Lila's life. It'll be good. We haven't, uh, we haven't fully spoken about this, just you and I, we've had some group chats. I'm sure your phone was somewhat like mine. I had just pulled into Costco, uh, when the news broke. I was on lunch break. I was on lunch break and was like. And so I saw that you sent the post from shas, and I was like, oh, no, what happened? And I'm sitting in the Costco parking lot and my phone is blowing up, like somebody had just passed away. Like it was, I mean, people that I haven't heard from in a long time or texted me. And I was actually texting with a friend of the pod Scott early in the day. Uh, he also just had a child, and, uh, I'm sure he'll be listening, but he, uh, he, I was talking to him about his young son and was like, you haven't been letting him watch the nuggets, right? Like, you can't, this can't be the introduction that he gets. And then literally 15 minutes later, uh, the news breaks. So I think, all right, I mean, needless to say, shocking, right? Like the first, the first, uh, reaction is shock. Correct. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I, and it seemed like it caught, uh, like insiders off guard as well, right? Like Wind horse had a stroke on the SPN. Yeah, like there was a thing like, I think in consuming all the media, um, and to give people disclosure, it's 10 o'clock at night, so like we've had some time to like hear, um, we wanted to give it some time to breathe.'cause I mean, our first reaction was like, something must have happened within the building like that, that made this so. Right. Um, but, and I'm glad we waited'cause it gave time for us to listen to, uh, the Croy interview with Vic. Um, and then also, um, I think we talked about it at the beginning of the season. There was tension between Booth and um, Malone that seemed to be pretty well known. Um, it seemed like a lot of people thought that Booth was just not gonna get renewed. Um, that like, kind of Malone would win the power struggle, but that if it was a first round exit, maybe it's a both out of their thing. Um, but no one saw, um, with three games left, um, firing, I saw this is the latest firing in a season, um, since, uh, tide Doug Collins, uh, in like the eighties. Um, so it's pretty silly. Um. So I, I, I think, I think we should give people a little bit of context, right? Because I think we know so much at this point. Like you, you laid it out pretty well there, but I think the last part of that is really like, um, how internally tumultuous this apparently was. And the last part that I think is interesting is really like how involved the cronies have been within the last four weeks. Like this hasn't been, I don't think this is something that's been a, a big build. The biggest anecdote to me was that apparently Stan sat on the bench like two. Stan doesn't do anything with the nuggets. Yeah. Let alone sit on the bench. So like for people that think this is an overreaction, they may be right. And we can, we will, I'm sure, dive into that. But like, this wasn't a decision that was, I don't think this was made Rashly, which Josh did say in his statement, but I think there are things coming out that proved that they had been thinking about this very seriously. And I think with eyes on the off season, right. Like that's what everybody assumed, but Right. It's, it is a wild turn of events to have it done now. Yeah. No, I, I think no one, uh, uh, I shouldn't say no one, but my, my take on it is, uh, I just, my kind of, after listening to everything, I think, um, I don't come down on, um, I think Team Booth, I, I don't come down with it all. Um, and. I, and, but the biggest villain here to me is the cronies. Um, I think they're the biggest villain in all of this. Um, I think that if you told me, um, and I was, I think I was pretty consistent throughout the season that I thought this was a second round exit team. Um, I had shifted to first round exit with Jamal Murray lingering. Um, and I don't think that's, um, anything that, that's truly wild to say. Um, so I think if this plays out in a normal NBA fashion, um, the nuggets are disappointing. Uh, they go from a two seed to a six or seven seed, they lose, um, in like a four one, you know, not a pretty get blown out a few times fashion. Um, which I think they probably would have. Um. Then you fire Malone and Booth. And I think no one has a real problem with that. Um, I would not have had a real problem with that. Um, you, you've seen some deterioration both in the talent pool, um, of the players chosen and um, in just the way that the team plays together and something that we talked about it being so connected and, um, you know, the, there's no grind over here. Um, the, those nuggets were long gone, right? There was a grind. Um, here. However, I think that in listening to stuff like the cronies, we are one of two teams that doesn't have a practice facility. Like we don't pay executives, well, we don't pay coaches well, like we are not a team that was willing to go into the second apron with the best player in the world like. This is like, oh, hold on though. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Mike Malone gave 10 years and is the only coach to bring a championship. And I think the harm that this does from the outside looking into the organization, if I am a good coach and I am saying, do I want to be a part of the Denver Nuggets, I'm looking at this and saying, wow, there's almost no infrastructural, uh, investment. Um, this owner is tied to about 20 different teams. Um, so we're pretty much the last priority, uh, and. They just unceremoniously dumped a coach three games before, uh, in a way, in a fashion that can only be described as intentionally embarrassing. Um, before the Kings game, uh, his former team, uh, which he spoke out about firing the Mike Brown earlier this year, um, it's a shame Mike Brown doesn't have a platform to stand up for his boy in the same manner. Good Lord. Uh, come on the pod, Mike Brown, we'll give you, we'll give you some time. Um, but it's like, I think Dave, so can I just, can I play a little bit? Like, oh, like Josh goes on there with Vic and he is like, you know, sometimes like wins and losses can mask issues. And that's something we were talking about on the podcast, like even during the the, I mean, honestly, I said, I said before the all star break, we should fire him. Like I said, said that on the podcast. Fire him then when you can it. No, a hundred percent think about it a hundred percent. So don't come to us afterwards and be like, oh, I'm this basketball genius and I saw it even in the face of this wind streak. Okay, then act on it. If you're a basketball genius, if you truly believe it and you's some godsend to us, Josh, then act on it. Then there is zero way that you're giving Alman a real chance here, um, to, to do something, uh, in the playoffs or that to make any meaningful schematic changes with three games left and then you're prepping for the playoffs, you're putting'em up as a sacrificial lamb, and then you're gonna install whoever you want and you embarrassed someone who has been, um. Foundational in this nuggets culture and has been a huge part of developing the core that brought the only championship to this team. And I just think Josh conkey you to me as, uh, I think you came off as the biggest piece of shit here. And that's my, my take on it. Uh, I, I'm interested to hear. I think those are the three main parties, right? Um, it appears that they told Yoic early, but he hadn't pushed for it. He didn't, you know, um, so I don't think there's any like play or party here, or, or I think you made, I think you made the right, we when we were texting about it. I think you made the right point that Joch doesn't wanna make this decision. Nobody wants to make this decision. And I think I'm happy that you are angry, like on behalf of Michael Malone, because I think it's, it's easy as a fan to be like sort of cold-blooded in these situations, but like, this is somebody's job and he spent a decade here and he did an unbelievable job and is undeniably a good basketball coach. Like, and I don't think Josh Kronke would even say that he's a bad basketball coach, but I think I'm, so, I'm very happy that you spent all of that time giving him his flowers because he does deserve that. Like. And I think it's a sad day. Like it is sad. It's not a, I'm not rejoicing, like I have not been the biggest Michael Malone fan, but this is not fun. Like, I don't think nobody wants to this to be the way that the first coach to win a championship. Like he was awesome on the parade. He was, he made the nuggets what they are in some ways. Like he, you know, he had that like he was our, the DBR guys guy media where he would be guy, the D guys brought, say the stuff that would be out the take the L on the way out. That fires me up, Mike. He, he said the take the way l on the way out. And that was like sort of the start of this, like the Dbr R guys said that on their podcast, uh, that I listened to this afternoon. And I think it's a good point. Like he deserves a lot of credit for building that culture that got us to this point. I'm very happy you said all of that because what I, I think the conclusion that I've come to is. I think there are two, two separate parts. So I'll, I'll first give you what I wish they would've done because I think it's more aligned with what you were just talking about. What I wish they would've done is, I think you're right, this team is sort of like not doomed and I'm not as gloomy as you are on the future of the team. We can get to that later, but I think our, like they're probably not gonna get out of the second round if they get to the second round. That's a great dis, like it would be surprising, like that would be a good result. And I think everybody would come out of the season being a little bit hopeful for the future. I think what I wish they would've done is release today that you're not going to resign Calvin Booth and instead of firing Michael Malone, you maybe give him that boost of confidence to say like, Hey, you won. We're giving you the opportunity to win and prove that you won this power struggle. And like if he goes out and wins a championship, you're clearly not fired. The guy, like, I don't think that's gonna happen. But if you signal to him that like, maybe we believe in you a little bit more and you sit him down and you're like, Hey Michael, like we will give you the power that you want if you prove to us that you can get the talent that we know is on this team. Like, I don't think the team sucks. I think they're playing unbelievably poorly right now and they don't look motivated. So Michael Malone deserves a lot of blame for that. And I think you're not necessarily like, you know, absolving him of all of that. You're just saying you wished they would've done it in a more respectful manner, which I agree with. And so to me that's a way to respectfully do it. And also potentially like. Juice the team a little bit and be like, Hey, we're not messing around like everybody's job is on the line. This guy who drafted you, like apparently there's Calvin's guys and there's Michael's guys, like this guy that drafted you is no longer here, so you're now Michael's guy. Figure it out or don't figure it out, but like we're probably gonna get rid of you Michael, if you lose in the first round. I mean, I think they fire him either way, but I think there's a way to like almost turn it on its head where it's potentially motivating. That's what I wish they would've done. Like I said, I will say, what I will say is that if you, let's say you have an 8% chance to win the title with Michael Malone, and I think it's maybe lower than that, like I don't know, but let's say you have an 8% chance if they believe you have a 10% chance if you fire Michael Malone. You fire Michael Malone. Like I, I know that that's crazy, but you do have the best player on the planet. And so if this somehow motivates the team and the bench starts to play a little bit better, somehow Jalen Pickett becomes inspired because he's like, I don't know, but like it's that possibility is, I'm not saying it justifies it, but at the end of the day, like if you are a cranky and you're worth billions of dollars, I understand how you make that decision tree to that choice and say, you know what? Like, I don't think we have a chance at all. Uh, but. This might give us a little bit more of a chance. And I feel like I'm wasting, we wasted one of the best seasons in, uh, NBA history by Nicole Yoic, which we did. We, I'd get a little desperate too. I'd get desperate too. What I think that, uh, the, where your anger is really like well generated is like, do it earlier. Yeah. Like, have I, I texted like, I was about to check Josh's drawers and see if he had a pair of balls. Like, I don't understand how you watch this team and do nothing. No, they're terrible. Like they have not played well for a long time. And Nicole Yoic has been otherworldly. And I think this, I, I think Michael Malone is a very good coach. I think everybody in Nicole Yoko's orbit gets raised three levels by being around him. Of course. So everybody who's like freaking the fuck out. And what I think, I think you are right, that it makes us look bad. This is the best head coaching job in the NBA, if you like, if you align with the GM on the direction that they want to take the, you have the best player in the world, in his prime, like, I think that there's going to be radical moves made. Because I think if, if I was interviewing for this job, and maybe we can send this to the nuggets as sort of my, uh, audition tape, but like you have the best player in the world who has elevated everybody around him consistently. We need to get off of these. Sunk assets like Zeke Naje is not going to be a rotation player for us. He can be fine for somebody else. And I recognize that I'm gonna have to sell low on that asset and probably get less than I would want to because I know that I kind of believe in Zeke Naje, but like, that's not the point. Like, let's just get something better in here right now. So I like, let's sell off these decaying assets, get some people who can somewhat shoot and maybe play a little bit of defense and we'll win another championship. Like you have Nicola Yoki. It is an unbelievable job and as long as he's here, it is, uh, sought after destination, I think. Yeah, I think, um, I. I think you're probably right by default that it's the best, um, job available. Um, I think there's real struggles that come along with it. Um, uh, I think that you now have an ownership group that, um, they're gonna really try to make a swing here. Um, and so they're gonna be pretty involved, I think. Um, and oh yeah, Josh thinks, I mean, they're building was a parent in every interview. Josh has given that Josh thinks Josh knows a lot about basketball and, you know, who else did Calvin Booth. Um, and we, we saw where that got us. Um, I just think if you look at it, like if you really break it down, um, I thought that they did a really good job on the Zach Low podcast. Um, he had Matt Moore on, um, and they did a really good job of like, this is not a, like series of decisions that are like so catastrophically bad. Coaching wise or talent evaluation wise, where you're like, well, you lost Bruce Brown. Well, Bruce Brown made $13 million more. There was no way you were keeping him like, that's fine. Jeff Green is not contributing to winning right now. And then you have the KCP, which is clearly a problem and was clearly the thing, but then you're locked into the second apron and KCP has had a bad year in Orlando. But here is the problem though, Kyle, if, uh, I agree with you that independently nothing is catastrophic. The catastrophic part is that they are not speaking. If you cannot communicate with the person in your workplace, if you could not speak to your direct, like it's not even boss, but like, yeah, if the marketing team is not speaking to the sales team, who's not speaking to the person who runs the creative, you are going to have a bad business. So like you have to have a line of communication there and they hated each other. So like Michael Malone deserves some fault for that. Like that is not a one way street. So I agree with you that like independently, they're not making terrible decisions. The fact that they're actively trying to harm each other in the building and creating that type of environment in the building is catastrophic. And if that is the true problem, it is that the vibe was terrible. Firing them both could very well just lighten everything. And it'd be like a March Madness team where you get hot for three weeks. Like how often do we talk about the new coach bump in the NFL? It happens all the time. That team comes out and plays hard because they hated the guy. And I'm not saying that everybody hated Michael Malone, but I think that vibe was terrible. And if, I'm not saying I don't, I don't think that, you know, we're gonna come out and win the championship. But I'm just saying that like that is a thing. Again, you don't do this with four games remaining. You do this with 40 games remaining. All of that being a caveat, but I don't know. Yeah. Uh, I think so. I think, I think let's, let's just break it down person by person. So, um, I think. Malone, you have to, um, you have to attack him for young player development. I think. Um, you have seen guys leave here. Uh, Isaiah Hartenstein has gone on to get paid. Um, van Doe. We've seen him up close and personal multiple times. He's gone on to be great. Um, Malik Beasley's probably gonna win six. Beasley, I'm not confident, is like a winning basketball player. He's gonna win sixth man of the year, but whatever. Yeah, no, I mean this year has been like the most veteran like presence. I mean, he's also shooting 40% from three. He's got a flame thrower right now. But yeah, let's all we've, we've seen it, we've seen it that Andy got caught with all those guns and drugs, so I'm glad we got rid of him. I've seen him get sat down in uh, playoff series 'cause they were like, he plays no default. Um, so I think the young guy development thing, but that's where. Like there's this disconnect, right? Because on the one hand, the Nuggets strategy seemed to kind of be post championship. Like we need cost controlled assets under this new CBA and we need 'em ready to go 'cause we want 'em as close to the timeline as possible. That's the justification for Christian, which has worked out great. Um, that's the justification for Jalen Pickett, for Hunter Tyson, which has not worked out as great. Um, I mean, listen, Pickett, god bless him, but he's fucking terrible. Like he's so god damn bad at everything on the basketball floor that it physically upsets me to watch him play, to watch him just shit himself. On the floor. Okay. And then also to be small and to just get attacked on the defensive end, you're like, Hey, you have to be good at something. Like guards take a long time to develop. We, we talk about this all the time. Guards take a long time to develop, but you also have something to develop. Like, you have to have something that you see early on that's like, oh, if that's better like this and this and this. It's hard to identify those things with Pickett right now. So I, I'm not gonna, I'm certainly not gonna sit here and stand for Jalen Pickett. Right. But I'm just saying like, so there's this connection where it seemed like they were almost trying to cover a Mike Malone flaw where they're like, Hey, we're gonna draft more. He fell professional guys, but then he felt, you look at the difference in our athleticism, I. To the average NBA team, and it is fucking startling where you're like, hold on, these guys are stupid and they fucking can't jump. Like we can't get, like we are 30th in the league. We the second tied for second highest rebounder on our team in defensive rebounding. Yeah, we couldn't, we couldn't do it to save our goddamn life. Listen, we're gonna give up an open three or a layup, but if you miss it, no, no worries, worries dog. You'll give opportunity out there maybe, and don't worry, we are gonna be leaking out so you can kick it right out for a walk-in three, right? Like you're on the stand. Everybody's assuming Yoic is going to get the ball and then throw them one of those touchdown passes every single time. So that's how we rebound the ball. It's like, oh, don't worry about it. Big fells. Got it. I'll, I'll run down the floor and get open. Nicola? Yeah. Nicola. I'm open. Oh shit. Oh fuck. They got two more shots while I was down here. Yeah. Oh no. So I think like the, the, like we just have a lot of waste of space on our team. Like there's no time where I've been like, my God, like maybe we just bring in Hunter for a bit of juice. No, but this is what I mean. Maybe bring in PJ Hall for a little bit of juice. If you have a healthy relationship, Dereon, you have a health, we have zeros Ryan at you. If you have a healthy relationship, you can compromise. Like they're actively trying to sabotage each other. That's what this is. If I'm, if I'm Mike Malone, it would hurt my feelings if you drive Michael, everyone who sucks at basketball, don't call him Mike after he gets fired, man, it's Michael Malone. I, Mr. Malone, uh, he's gonna get angry and not come on the podcast now. Yeah. We'd love to have you Michael. Yeah. If you wanna listen, we'll talk about literally whatever you wanna talk about. Yeah, dude, if you wanna talk about your daughter's volleyball and how that's gone, we'd love to chat with you about it. Yeah, dude. But literally, like at, at a certain point, like there are flaws, but I also just think the talent ceiling of this team, like especially with no Murray, and there's been no Gordon for long stretches, is so low that like. I watched parts of that Spurs game 'cause I hate myself. And I was literally for the first five minutes I was like, I don't know if we're gonna score. I was like, I really don't know if we're gonna score in this whole quarter. I don't see how it's gonna happen. Um, I know it's an NBA game and I know we will, but I don't see how. Like it was just the worst offense, the worst stuff. And these guys are, they just suck. And so we're also trying to, we're trying to run the same offense no matter who is on the floor though, Kyle, like we're trying to run the same shit. And that's Michael Malone. Like, you can't put these rookies, you can't put these rookies in that situation where they're trying to run a horns action on a high pick and roll. That yoic throws behind the back. No, look fucking passes to Aaron Gordon in the dunker spot. Like you can't do the same thing with the backups as you do with the. Uh, starters. And I like, I agree with you that everybody sucks, but you also can't put players in suck that suck in worse positions. Like Yeah, no, I, I agree with that. So I think that Malone, we've talked about it since the bubble. Um, I mean the reason we were down three, one in a lot of those series is Malone is very slow to change things and, and make adjustments. Um, in general, he was a pretty, um, pretty slow to move guy on the adjustments. Uh, I think nowhere has that been more apparent than defensively. Um. I'm of the opinion, and this is not an, uh, take I've shared on the show, um, where I remember the quote from, I wanna say maybe it was five years ago, where a nuggets coach was laughing when someone was like, YOIC is bad if he gets switched in a pick and roll. And he is like, yeah, no shit. But we're not gonna let him get switched in a pick and roll. And I am of the opinion that Nicola Yoic near the ball on defense is as good as it gets for us. And so if that means that we need to switch more things because our guards are not good enough, like KCP covered some things up by getting hands and getting stuff to make those passes over the top to those bigs. A little bit more difficult, and right now they're not. And so I think that Malone needed to make the adjustment of saying, listen, YOIC, we're gonna switch you. Like we'll let teams get this switch and we're gonna help and we're gonna, you know, do all of that. But like Yogi's Hands and him out on the perimeter, it is not a free blow by, it is not a free thing anymore. And whereas, especially in the playoffs. And MPJ and Watson and those guys flying in for rim protection. You have long. So I think, um, so I think that's where you literally just things of guys, it's, it's crazy. To your last point about athleticism, that when you were naming all the athletes on our team, you named MPJ, who literally has like 19 back surgeries and plays with a brace that nobody has ever physically played in the NBA with. And, uh, you're not wrong. Like he's, uh, he's been athletic this year, but he shouldn't be like your third most athletic guy on the fucking floor. It's crazy. Yeah. Sorry, I interrupted. You. Just look at, you look at teams and you're like. Even the bucks, right? Who you can look at their thing and you can say, okay, that's very similar to the nuggets. Their star guard has gone down, he's probably not coming back for the playoffs and they're able to beat the Timberwolves tonight. Um, in no small part because they have Kevin Porter Jr. And they took a swing on a guy and they bet on athleticism and they bet on culture and work ethic and all of that kind of stuff. Um, being a part of who they are. And so like we don't have any swing guys. So if you look at our roster, Sarich has been unplayable. Um, Deandre Jordan is not playable in a playoff. Like, uh, he's not a part of a championship team. Spot. Minutes. Spot minutes. Yeah. You want him to eat some minutes in the regular season And he's been, honestly, he's over it. I even, I, I honestly think you, depending on the series, hold on though. With Deandre, if, if you play like the Rockets with that double big, like he's gonna play Of course.'cause you're, it just depends on the matchup because I'm, they're gonna put out a shitty backup center for six minutes. We'll also put out a shitty backup center for six minutes. I'm just saying, I, I would rather have the Rockets bag center than, than ours in that scenario. Right. Like, I'd rather have Steven Adams than, than Deandre. I'll ride with DJ till the end baby. Yeah. Me and DJ will go down on this ship together. I swear to God. Yeah, we, we sure will. Uhhuh. But then you have like PJ Hall, you have, um, like. Uh, hunter Tyson. Like you just can't have that many guys that you just, I just go into every game and I go, honestly, if they got two points, that'd be two more than I'm expecting. Right. But again, like our eight, our eight man rotation, I actually think we're kind of like one and a half guys away. Like for a, for a playoff run. I, I don't think we're, as you're right, but you're also naming like the eighth and ninth and 10th men on the, on the, I'm just saying I can name five guys that I can say, and I'm not gonna name Russell Westbrook, who's No, no. Uh. Whose playoff record has not been great, right. Um, no, we love, we love Russell's effort and I'm, I'm, I will defend Russell against some of this slander that's coming from Nuggets fans right now. Like, it's crazy, man. We, we gotta talk about this. Yes. Okay. Let's divert momentarily. Okay. Yeah. The Timberwolves game. Here's my take and I'm, I have not heard any other podcast or any other person have this take listen. It was absolutely the right play to run the fast break with Christian and Russ. There was so much time left. There's no way that you are gonna run it down to like four or five seconds before you get fouled. No, we just watched Russ miss free throws at the other end. You are only up one point. It is a different game to me. If you are up two and Yoic made both of his free throws, of course you take the foul there, you only have to make one out of two and you're making it a three point game, which functionally is really hard because you can foul at any time off the inbounds, make 'em take a two and they've gotta foul you again. Right. How like there's a difference to me between people being like, this is the dumbest decision by Russell Whisperer. No, he just bricked a layup in a double overtime game that were asking someone who's a million years old to go up against, uh, a way younger and more athletic guy at the rim. Back in the day, Russell Brook would've cocked that back. And thrown that through the rim along with the defender, and then he would've tea bagged him at center court. He doesn't have that anymore, and so he bricked the layup. That's an execution problem. It's not a decision making problem. And if you want to get into execution problems, then there's been a fucking bunch of them in that game, right? He has his great out-bound play and Yoku were tired and so he missed the three. It went halfway down and it, and it went out. If we go up four there, that game's over two. Like the, to me, so many nuggets fans make the mistake of saying, the result wasn't what I wanted. So the process must have been stupid. Yeah. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. There's plenty of times where the process is stupid. With this team, you don't have to make them up. And it was also an awesome game. I told you at the beginning of this season that Russell Westbrook was gonna score 15 fucking points a game. You just said, I'll start camping out for the parade. Right. The fuck. Now we're about to beat the shit out of everybody. Right? He's, he's way overachieved, spectacularly overachieved. I'm gonna, I, I honestly think I'm gonna buy a what, whatever game we get eliminated in, I'm gonna go down to Altitude Authentics and I'm gonna buy a Russell Westbrook jersey because great dude, he's, he has, it doesn't like, the turnovers are frustrating, but that, like I was going to school at the University of Oklahoma when it was the old school, Russell Westbrook. James Harden. Kevin Durant. Yeah. There are Oklahoman articles that could be changed to Denver post articles now written then like, what the hell is this guy doing? Give the ball to Kevin Durant. He's awesome. Like, why are you throwing it to the other team in crunch time? It's always been Russell Westbrook, but he's also always given you all of these other intangible things. The energy that he is never, he's like Alan Iversson. He will never not play hard. And sometimes that is going to be very, very frustrating and sometimes it's going to be awesome and yep. I, I think that the awesome has far outweighed the, uh, the shitty Yeah. Or the not awesome. And uh, yeah. Hundred percent. It's, uh, I, I, I just, I think everybody needs to relax a hundred percent. And I also think that the other thing is, is that a thing that, um, Denver Nuggets fans especially seem to struggle with, um. Is they struggled with it with Will Barton too. Where they would go, will is jacking shots? And I'm like, yeah, because everyone else on the team is pooping themselves and is refusing to take them. And Will is like, no problem. Dog thrill's. Got it. And he is trying to be a good teammate. Like that's the way he knows how, right? Like he's gonna go get a bucket and make something happen. Russ is out there and he's like, I need to force APAs right now because that's Jalen fucking picket over there. We need to make something happen. Right? Like early in the season when he was comfortable, remember those fucking brilliant and like just easy dump down dimes to Yoic. And we were like, man, he's getting him some pretty easy ones. Like, well he was running with the ones he can't run with the twos. You weren't playing under no pressure. Like just, Hey man, like we're rolling, we're playing good. Russ is gonna give you good things and he's not gonna force like, no, he's bought into the role. It's the first time in his totally fine veteran career where like, this is the best version of Russell Westbrook we've seen in four or five years, a hundred percent. Like it's, it is, it has been a revelation. He still doesn't, he, he will occasionally even set a ball screen. Yeah. That also never happened in Houston. I guran fucking to you. He never set one ball screen in Houston. I don't like, I don't know how to also though, quickly Google that, but there's no fucking way it, listen, we absolutely love Nicole Yogi and you were not overstating or being hyperbolic when you said this is the greatest, uh, regular season we've ever seen in the NBA by a player. Just look at any statistic measurement and then also consider the. Supporting cast that we've talked about. Right. However, yo, these are fucking cheerleaders. Kyle, this man is unbelievable. I, with the whole, he will ab, he will absolutely throw the ball to the other team sometimes because he is trying something. Yeah. And so you cannot both appreciate the greatness of yoki, but just never criticize the fact that sometimes this man will just throw the ball to the other team because he is trying to put it behind their ear. Like I always, Russ does that too sometimes, and he doesn't give you 30, you know, 15 and 13. So I'm not saying you should get the same leeway, but I'm saying to pretend like it doesn't happen for anyone else and it's just the rest of this team is out here in the fucking triple threat and fucking a fucking John Wooden wet dream is delusional. Okay? Most other people are panic. Passing it back to Yoic. Russell Westbrook is the only person on the floor sometimes who's like, no, I can do something else. Let me find somebody else. Everybody else is like, oh, oh, oh, oh. I wasn't wide open when I got the ball. And I, and in Chris Brown's case, I don't feel comfortable taking this three. So, uh, I'll just pass it back to young and I'll cut and I'll probably get a dunk, like, I don't know. That sounds good. Yeah, so I think the Malone flaws. Uh, let's get back to that. Um, this Russell Westberg was a necessary one. You're correct. That had been building in me as well. When people were like, I was seeing people on Blue Sky. We appreciate all the engagement, but like people were just feeling, ah, you know, Russell was really pissing me off. I'm like, oh yeah, he couldn't carry a No. Jamal Murray? No, Aaron Gordon. Oh, this 38-year-old isn't going, playing on back against the spur. Missed some threes. Ah, yeah, me too. I him outraged. Shut the fuck up. I'm gonna send him a mean dm. I actually thought about, I thought about sending him a nice one. Oh my God. Yeah. Just, just to see like, what would happen. Hey, like, Hey man, I'm a season older, been watching a lot of games, really appreciate you, hope you're, I, I've recognized we're all fucking assholes out here right now. But like, there are smart people who are watching the games who appreciate what you do. Yeah. And appreciate what you do. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think the, um, I think the GM thing is, uh, I, I guess I've kind of highlighted, I think that Booth is pretty stubborn. I think that Booth was absolutely meddlesome. Um, and I think that that is just from a workplace standpoint, you just can't come in as the brand new guy. To the winningest coach in history and be like, Hey, you need to play this guy. Like, no, no, no, no, no. You, you go and you approach it in a like, Hey Mike, um, hey, I just wanna make sure we're on the same page. So we're getting the, we're getting you what you need here. Um, I am curious what's going on? Um, what, what do we, what are we, what are we not seeing from str there that's keeping him kind of out of the rotation? Here's kind of the role I had thought of him for. I know you were kind of on board with that. What's kind of keeping him out of that, right? Like you have to approach it with some humility and understand like, you are new to this, right? Like this guy, if you come in and are like, wow. I'm the boy genius. He's gonna be like, go eat another cheeseburger, you fat piece of shit. All right. Like, and he's not wrong. Like, I think he approached it in a way that was very cocky low. Talked about how like he, he was like trying to talk about schematic things that like, and if I were Mike Malone, I'd be like, yeah, shut the fuck up. Michael. Michael. Good lord. Michael. His name is Michael Malone. Kyle, he's never gonna come on the podcast, Mr. Malone. Um, no, I think it's, it's, I, so for me, the ego, the ego from, it's not that he hit so bad and I think he was handcuffed by ownership as far as signings. It's not that it, it's that his overall attitude. How much do believe, we talked about that it coming into this year where it's like he's not how much on the smug of Sean Payton, but he's close. How, how much do you believe that he was hamstrung by ownership?'cause I actually think, I actually think that there's, uh, there's a little conspiracy Ryan in me that thinks he was downplaying the options of free agency because he was trying to force Michael Malone to play the guys that he wants him to play. He wanted him to play picket so bad that he was not willing. Well, we've seen it to explore things that were really going to change the team. I think, I mean, to me, booth was gone no matter fucking what, like he had, he had very well proven that he was not up to the job of building a roster around. He doesn't necessarily deserve blame for the Jamal Murray or the Michael Porter Jr. Max contracts. But he, like everything else is his making and that shit sucks. So, and he, he made it loudly. He was in the kitchen. He was like, wait till you see this shit pie. I've whipped up over here. Oh my God. And like God Nuggets fans are in love with Peyton Watson. He's our best asset right now. I'd trade his ass immediately. Let's see, what, what some dumb ass Orlando Magic team is willing to give us for Peyton Watson. Like, we need to start building the asset cupboard to really take a swing at somebody. And because we're, we're one. Pretty good shooter away from being a championship team, I think. And I think that that is the last real point from my end is like, this shows a sense of urgency from the cronies that we hadn't seen. And to me, like, while I agree with you, I really wish they would've waited until after the season to fire Michael Malone. Them sending a message and firing Calvin Booth right now is not, would not have been a crazy thing to me. Because I think it shows to people that you care, it shows to Nicole Yoic that you care. And I, uh, it didn't necessarily seem like anybody cared, including the players in the last four games. Like the vibe has been terrible. So you get to a point and, I don't know, see, I didn't, I didn't pick up. Like a, I mean, I definitely did not pick up a good vibe. That's correct. Um, when Mr. Nugget, Aaron Gordon is seen arguing loudly with Peyton Watson on the bench, um, who is also seemingly a pretty chill guy most of the time, um, yeah, the vibes were bad, but to me it felt like a team that was like trying to turn it on and then like realize they don't have it. Right. And it's like, I think Yoic said it in the press conference where he was like, I don't believe in like, turning it on like, I think you are or you don't like. And right now we don't because we, we haven't, like, we clearly did not buy in to the work necessary. Um, to fix defensive rotations or we just didn't buy into the scheme? Um, I think there were some flaws with the scheme. Like I said, I think we tried to protect Yoic too much on the ball and instead put him off the ball too much. And, um, I think that was to the detriment of the team. Um, I think that he's never gonna be a great paint protector. Like you can't really put him in that possession. He, to your point, like, and I, I don't think I, I think if I was Michael Malone right now, I would be saying, Kyle, I. I was going to do that in the playoffs, but I can't do that for 72 games because it's too much energy for yoic. Like, I agree with you. But like it's again, like you have to have that level of communication with the people around you to be like, and that's where this is what we're gonna do. So Mike Malone, I would say perfect. Um, however, he also doesn't have the energy to do that for the whole playoffs. Um, with what we're asking him to do on offense, uh, we need to figure out how to create some easy shots that are independent of asking Yoic to do superhuman things or touch the ball every time. Like the fact that our solution in the beginning of the year appeared to just be running ISO ball for Murray or Porter, and then we were like, see that doesn't work. And you're like, well, yeah, yeah, that doesn't work. It also doesn't mean that you like have to play. Only through yoga on offense to get a good shot. Like Porter is a seven foot guy with an unbelievable three point shot. He doesn't have it right now for whatever god forsaken reason. Um, but like that's that plus if, if you're two of your three max players can't just run a pick and roll together and have it be somewhat dangerous. There's something wrong with that. When Yoko is having the best three point shooting year of his career, where it's like, Hey, we're gonna take a rim protector out. We're gonna have another six 11 guy set a screen and be rolling downhill while we have our best three point shooter with the ball, and we have yoic over there, by the way, who's gonna be making secondary decisions like that lack of development, that lack of creativity, I think is something that I want to see in the next coach to where he's going to push. Um, and not just kind of rely on the fact that, I mean, you can get 120 points a game by having Nicole Yogi on your team. Yes. I think we've seen that for the past five years, more or less. Like just, you can put any NBA player and some non NBA players in the rotation, and you could put Vaku Kaso along with Gary Harris. Oh man. Like that team took a good NBA player, not at the tail end because of injuries, but like we had that team took, that team took a game off of the championship warriors. Yeah. Austin, those, the, yeah. Yeah. No, he never played again. No. Like, that's what I mean in that, like, I, I don't think we, I think Calvin Booth was trying to hit home runs all the time. And we just need doubles. Like we need. See, I just think he fundamentally, I, I don't think he was trying to hit home runs.'cause it wasn't like we were taking bowl bowls anymore. Or, uh, who was it? I was here, but like, he was trying to take like really smart guys and limiting, but I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. You already have the smartest guy who's gonna have the ball in his hands all the time. Give him some dummies. Like, give, give him Bones Island and see if he can make him good, bro. Give him some maroons as if that three point shot looks good and that 40, uh, inch vert is looking fine. Come aboard my friend. I, I want, I want whoever. I think that it's going to be a job that people want, because I think the idea of building around Nicole Yoic is very fun for basketball people because he allows you to be so creative in your roster. And I think that that, if you can attract the right mind, I think it's amazing. We have to hire a GM first, and then that GM and the head coach have to be on the same page, and that is the key, and we're trusting the cronies to do that. So, yep. What's, uh, so I think this is a good place to, well, I guess here before I go into, um, if you have any takes on who you want for a GM coach, um, thing here, uh, what do you predict happens tomorrow night in Sacramento? Uh, I think we beat the hell out of 'em. They're coming in as hot as hot can be. Um, we are going as slumped as slumped can be. Um, there's knows gonna be no Jamal, um, z Levine traditionally beats the unholy hell out of us. Um, everything screams kings, right? Um, and you're exactly, let's go live that typically a new coach and typically, um, that goes that way. I think we are gonna know very quickly what this looks like. Yeah, for sure. Because especially Yoic, like if we see a passive yo coming out Yeah. It's over. We are in trouble. Yeah. Like with a capital T buddy. Um, I'm looking, let's see. Oh boy. Do you wanna guess what Vegas thinks? Vegas has it at a Four Point King's favorite? Favorite? Yeah. Oh, no. Nuggets are minus three. Oh Jesus. We shouldn't be favorite against anyone right now. Wow. You really don't believe. No, we lost yo's Point. Line is absurd. Like it's gotta be one of the most square bets in all of sports because they really just can't put it high enough. It's 32 right now at minus one 20 and like. Yeah, of course if he plays hard for like 15 minutes, he's probably gonna score 32 points. But like, you can't guarantee that that's gonna be his reaction to Michael bla getting fired. Uh, especially in the way that he was. So, yeah, uh, yeah, I would, I would not have wanted to be the one who called the IC on the off day before they traveled to, uh, Sacramento this morning that they were gonna fire Michael. That's the dumbest thing in the world. But, um, okay. So I, I am I kind of, um, I, I kind of think that this, uh, I kind of think this makes it worse. I, I think it's a thing where we don't respond. Oh, no. To this. I Do you, well, uh, let me get your thought on this. Do you think that Jamal's coming back? No. Like at all? Yeah. Okay. Well then I agree like, uh, no, I, I just don't think there's enough talent without Jamal. I think the Malone thing where he was like, yeah, hopefully for the first game of the playoff, like that's bad. And especially just for like, inflammation, but then they're like, it's connected to, uh, it's causing some other problems. I'm like, that's me. That's all that stuff. I've seen all of this. No, thank you. Um, he shouldn't come back unless he is healthy. Right. Um, so yeah. Um, I, I think that this, but I'm just saying like, I think that the damage is done. Where like now you're almost gonna be forced to your point, to get rid of some people because some relationships have been affected within that locker room. Um, do you think Jamal and Malone were tight though? Oh, I don't think any of the big three. I think Michael Porter is probably unaware that Mike Malone was the coach, and I think he's like, he's like, I've never had him on the podcast. Like, who is that dude? Do you think he'd come on? That little short white kid is charge. Oh my God. Like, dude, I mean, I'm a curious guy. I'd love to have learned from him eventually. Um, maybe you'll come on the podcast. Yeah. So like I don't think that, no, I don't think big three. I, I more think like, I think some of these young guys. Have been, oh, they're grown. Peyton Watson, pretty resented within the locker room. What can we get? What can we get for Peyton Watson? Zeke Najee, uh, Jalen Pickett, and a second round pick. Uh, I think a pile of shit. Um, yeah. Well, we're gonna have to take it. So, yeah. But, and, and you know what I'm kind of excited about and I think Nuggets fans who are a little future oriented Deron Holmes, like I was sort of excited to see what he looked like, and I think he's probably gonna play in Summer League, and so please God. No, not again, Kyle, Jesus. Uh, if I hope that all he did while that Achilles was healing was shoot threes. Because if for some sake sake, him on the bench, every time I've seen him, like he really, I love him on the bench sitting next to a guy and like, engage and, and the guys seem to like him trying to get, the guys seem to like him and he's been practicing and it seems like they like him the more that he practices. So I'm like, maybe this kid's got something because he's a great backup for ag. Like he, he has that potential to give you 15 spot minutes where it's big guy, like he's a little bit, he could play five. He's got like a little bit of that Draymond who'll get into you. I don't know. It's exciting. Um. Yeah, I just compared him to Draymond Green, so that can't, that can't blow up in my face. Uh, I think if he's Draymond, I really hope he is been practicing those threes a lot. Um, yeah. Yeah. But, and free throws good. The Lord Draymond, shoot those underhand, like some of these guys have gotta go underhand and getting warned by the official and then elbowing the guy in the head. That's what I also hope he's been working on. But I think the, the missing piece for this team is that, um, the Christian and ag are a little redundant. Like ag is obviously bigger, but like they're both big physical guys. And we've seen, like Christian has gotten better at navigating screens like in the beginning of the year, we joke, like he just run into 'em, like, and then be like, God damnit, he shot a three again. Like, he'd be like, yeah, dude, he's, he's gonna keep doing that if you keep running into it. Um, but like, it was like he was expecting a foul, like, oh, I'll just run through his chest and then they'll calling off. It's like, no, no, no, that's, that's the legal screen and they're just gonna let the play continuing. That guy's gonna shoot a three. Yeah. Again, but I think we need like a quick guard, um, like defender, um, to where like we don't need necessarily the like length. We need the guy who's like gonna navigate the screens and really be, um, a defense first guy. Um, for, for us off the ball. Um, somebody I'd be trying to go after, um, is like, th for the Blazers, like, like can't shoot. I love th and we don't care. Like it's one of those where it's like, no, no, no, no, no. Like we've made it clear we are, we run the least efficient three point shooting offense and like we score 130. Yeah. Like, it's fine. We need you to just be an absolute menace. Like guys like that, that people give up on. Um, I think those are good, good, uh, looks, um, like Davion Mitchell types, um, feisty, you know, like get under it guards. Um, but I think the time has come here. Um, well, I guess, do you wanna make a prediction for the final three? We've got Kings, rockets, Grizzlies. Jesus Christ. Uh, presumably with the Lakers losing tonight, I don't think the rockets will be playing for anything. Um, I don't think the Lakers can catch 'em anymore. Um, I am gonna say we go, fuck it. Three. Oh, you know, one and two. I am, I'm kind of, if you want my full prediction right now, April 11th, 1107 pm Mountain Time. I think that we are gonna lose in the Western Conference finals. You are the most optimistic man. I know. Um, I think Yoic is gonna drop, like, I think he is gonna have a historic postseason and just be the angriest human being alive. I, I think, uh, I think he's about to see a lot of what the Lakers threw at him. Uh, and teams can, people can't do that though. You can't do that. You sure can. Um, especially when you watch how our team plays four on three. Uh, you sure, sure can. And, uh, I, I think it's gonna be a very frustrating watch. Uh, but, um, I'm prepared for that. I certainly am prepared for that. Yeah. But I'm choosing to believe the opposite. I'm not prepared for us to make it to the Western comic battles, I'll say that. No, I'm, I'm prepared for you to, I'm, I will. Uh, I don't know what I'll do, but what we can come up with something funny for me to do on the podcast, uh, if you're right, and I'll do it with joy, uh, in my heart clearly. Um, but, um, the, are you, are you prepared for. Average 45, 20 and 15 through the playoffs? Nah, no, no. If yogurt does that, we're going to the finals. Listen, you can't do that. Not go to the finals. Um, is anything out of his reach? The whole, the what we were gonna do for the podcast this week just to let listeners in have made it this. Congratulations. We wanted to do like a yoic accomplishment. Yeah, just a, just literally, let's talk about Yoic because the season was over and I was depressed and I was like, this is such bullshit. Like why should I be so sad about this when we kind of knew it was gonna happen? Right? Like neither of us are super surprised that we're sort of underperforming right now. I was more optimistic than you, but this was like, to me, a 60% outcome likelihood, right? Like that we're sort of bounced in the first of the second round and it's sort of disa it's really disappointing when it happens. And, um, but yeah, it's a. It's wild ride. Yeah. Okay. Final thing to close out on. Do you have any hot takes as far as GMs or coaches you would target? Um, I saw the list and let me tell you, it made me feel even worse that we just, shit on the legacy of Michael Malone. They were like, what? What did the list say? You could get Sam Cael. I'm like, we sure could. That's an option. We could get Mike Brown. Oh, good, good, good dude. Good. Like there's no one out there. That is really, what about Bud been floated? That has been like, I'm like, Ooh, that's an inspiring choice. What'd you say bud? Uh, I think Bud would help with the three point shooting for sure. Um, but I think you're running Milwaukee into a guy. If you thought that Mike Malone adjusted slowly in the playoffs, we have seen Bodin holes or adjustments. Yeah. And his adjustment. I think his, I think his keep doing the same thing. Yeah. I, uh, to me it's honestly, who knows? It would at least be exciting as far as, I think he's a really smart, offensive mind, and so I'm like, oh, that would be cool to watch for a regular season. Where like, there would be some games where we'd just be like, holy shit. Like credit, credit to, uh, friend of the pod, Matt. But I'm kind of in love with the idea of Steve Nash. Because I think he could. He could. Was that you? Yeah. He brought up that we interviewed Becky Hammond the first time. Oh, I, that's where I thought you were gonna talk about. No, I brought up Steve Nash. I don't know, I can't remember. Like, I remember at the time he coached Brooklyn. He was like, I. I, um, like his back was, uh, bad and he wanted, yeah, he's got health and his family and like, yeah, he's, he's definitely got a lot of stuff going on, so I have no idea if he wants to, but nally excite me neither. But if we're, if we're throwing out hypothetical, that is the one that I've, that's the only one. When I think about what could happen, like the, the Miami heat situation is a little weird right now. I don't know why bolster would wanna leave, but like I'd love that. Um, dude, if sports wants to leave the Miami Heat, that would be the best thing that's ever happened to us, man. That would be, I mean, SPO is like, what if the Clippers suck? And Kauai sits out for a series and Tyler is like, you know what? I don't wanna deal with this anymore. I want to go coach Nicole Yoko, who always plays and is awesome. Yeah. Like I, I think that I, I wanna shoot for the stars, like I am not settling. And honestly, if it means that we have to hire a coach first, if we get a better, uh, sampling of coaches by saying like, Hey, you can help us find the GM who can build the team that you want, coach, then let's do it. If you, if you need to say that to Eric and then pay him a fat arsenal sized paycheck, fucking do it. Like this is the only time, realistically, as a small market, the. You're ever going to need to spend like this? Like it is an honor to spend that money. So do it. A hundred percent. I think, um, I think that coaching in this really restrictive CBA also just matters a lot more, way more than, um, but this is, this is a hundred percent you have to maximize talent. I've said some things about Mr. Kronke, I've said some things and listen, if we are back here and they are selling me on like a, oh my God, we got, Edelman is coming in, like, and you know what? We found this guy you've never heard of to be the gm. Like, I'm gonna be so pissed. So I, I will say you lost a coach who is basically, I think low, said it best, where he was like. Mike Malone is kind of the benchmark for good. Mm-hmm. Like, he's like, you just have to be careful when you get rid of Mike Malone because like Michael, you can't like say you can't be positive that you're gonna get a better coach. No, I think, I think it's so, like you better swing to your point. You gotta swing and you gotta be willing to spend that money. And if, if you're saying, oh, we are making a full attempt to win with Holyoke, this is where you show it right here. I will say that to my previous point of potentially hiring a GM first, if you find somebody who's got like a Sam Presti esque mind. They find Mark Dalt somewhere in a, like where, I don't know where Mark Dalt came out of, but that guy can coach a fucking basketball game. So like I'm not against hiring somebody That, and Thunder fans were not necessarily happy when that happened. Like, because he was a nobody, nobody really understood what he, but he's been awesome for them. So I think I'm not opposed to. It has, the process to get to that point has to be really clean. If you're gonna take a big swing in that direction where you're gonna sell me somebody I've never really heard of, I can tell you I'm gonna and do better if a consultant, Nicole, Nicole, yo, if we're signing the, like I'm just, whoever the coaches needs to talk to Nicola, I, and to your point, I may be one of those dumb fans who, like, you look back on it and you're like, dude, Kyle, this guy was a genius. Like, what a great hire. Like, and I'm more than happy to be wrong, but I just think you can't go from saying like, oh, we felt the urgency. We needed to do this right now to shit on this guy's legacy in order to hire this young coach that no one heard of that would've been available at any time. Like to me, I'll just be wrong on that and that, that that's what I'll, what I'll do. To your point, like I, I guess I was thinking of it outside of the context of how it happened, like that will never be forgiven because I don't think that the timing matters. Like, you can be doing all of the behind the scenes work of potentially firing Michael Malone and finding his replacement while the playoffs are going on, and then fire him with dignity in the summer because you're, you're not finding somebody in the next three weeks realistically. Like that's how long, I mean, Josh in the fucking interview says like, oh, well I think we were headed for an early playoff exit. Yeah, you still are buddy. Like, I don't think this is probably gonna, like, again, I'm thinking of this in terms of like, maybe this gives you 2% more chance to get to the Western Conference finals instead of, instead of 8% you have 10%. So it's when, uh, when do you think, uh, it gets leaked by, uh, Malone? That, uh, booth was uh, forcing him to start Jalen Pickett, um, these last few days?'cause there's no other explanation for it. Like, especially I thought like for a while that I was like, oh, okay, like he's trying to maintain more of a playoff rotation and let Westbrook get comfortable with bench. But then when he was like, yeah, maybe he'll be back, I'm like, well then maybe we should be trying to win these games and actually put a competent point guard in the lineup with Russell Westbrook, who's had great chemistry with Yoic. And like I think Michael Malone might be off the bed, might be too professional to say any of that publicly. And Michael Malone probably also wants another coaching job, so he, yeah. Realistically won't really shit on us on the way out, but Right. Like, yeah, no, if, if you gave, I would love to give him truth serum and just hear what happened. Like both of them, honestly, like I would love to just pepper them with questions and be like, so. Uh, Calvin, did you actively try not to sign anybody good this off season so that you would have to play the shitty players that you drafted, that you somehow still believe in? Uh, Michael, did you, uh, actively shit on Julie or, uh, Jalen Pickett openly in front of the team in a summer league practice because you, and you were making fun of the attributes that, uh, Calvin Booth complimented in your draft, uh, announcement. Oh, you did? Oh, okay. That's interesting. Why'd you do that? Did you think that was gonna improve his confidence? Like, did you think that was, uh, gonna make everybody on the on, on the team feel super comfortable in their role? Like what, what the fuck were you doing? Like, uh, Michael, did you, uh, never speak to the gm? Oh, you guys, you guys didn't. Oh, interesting. How long has that been going on? Oh, two years. Oh, okay. That's interesting. Cool. Glad that there was no communication between the person doing the drafting and the person playing the players. That seems really healthy. Yeah. I, like I said, tomorrow's gonna be a very interesting game. Um, and, and I think it's, I'm so glad we don't have to go hear from the players afterwards and, and hear kind of the thing.'cause those are the guys who, uh. We'll let stuff leak. Um, I can't wait to hear what Dario Sarich has. That's another, if I had to rank, oh, who would you give truth to? Dario Sarich is gonna release Pro Calvin Booth thing because he is gonna be like, this fucking idiot gave me $5 million next year. Are you kidding me? At mine, I saw the headline that he was gonna, I saw the headline that he was gonna opt in. I'm like, that's the, that is honestly the dumbest headline I've ever seen in my life. Dario Sarge, that that's, that became non-optional about halfway through the season. That was not no longer a player option. That was just like a. Check. Yep. I'm definitely gonna pick up my checks next year as well. Thank you very much. Uh, it's crazy. Yeah, that's, uh, oh, I, I wanna, I wanna do this. Fuck it. We're an hour and 15 and we might as well keep going. I'm enjoying the conversation. If you could give three people in the organization Truth Serum, uh, tonight and hear just like their whole side of the story, uh, who's your three? I think Malone, uh, I would want Croy, Josh or Stan? Josh. Josh, a hundred percent. And. I mean, I guess both. I think those would be the three. I guess like, it's easy to say Yoic, but I really think that Yoic would be way less interesting than people think. Like I think Yoic would, like, he would probably say some things similar to what I've said about Jalen Pickett, but like, I've already said them, like I know it's true. Like he would just say some unkind things about the people he is being forced to play with. Um, and like I don't think he involved himself in any of the head coach or like that, so he, I just don't think there's enough there. I like, I wanna know some stuff. Plus K cranky, I could find out some stuff about the TV deal. Um, like I'm, I'm interested in a lot of things from him. And then K Cranky and K Cranky and Malone I think are undeniable. Uh, and then three is an interesting number because Booth is an obvious fourth, but you do have to make a decision. Yeah. Uh, with three, I think I, I wanna go like, Hmm, I'm gonna go, I, Felipe Eichenberger, I'm gonna go the strength coach because he's heard all of, all the conversations. He's heard all of yo's complaints because they're very close. He is in a lot of meetings and around the team so much that he is definitely hearing all of the coach gossip. And I think it's been, and he's been there for so long that he knows how it's turned and how it hasn't turned. Right. So I, I think somebody behind the, and that's probably not even, there's probably somebody better that we don't even know who's like really in the shit of all of this. Like the finance guy, like I look back and my d think, I'm like, I should never have been at that meeting. Like, that was the same, why was I there? Yeah. Uh, so there's, there's somebody behind the scenes, but I'm gonna say Felipe. Yeah, yeah. You're probably right that there is some shadowy little guy that we don't even know about who like, we're just gonna be like, oh my God. Like, like K's assistant. You had everything like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but yeah, I think. I think this, I hope we don't fuck this up. I'm really, this would be just like a devastating way for this to end. Yeah, and I think the thing that is gonna hurt me the most is that we watched what the Mavs did with Dirk after they won the title, and we basically just did the same thing, like, um, oh God, don't say it like that. And. I am happy to watch, just like Mavs fans, we're happy to watch Dirk be freaking awesome for as long as he wants to be. Freaking awesome. It would also be hilarious if we brought in Steve Nash, like the Mav Steve did. Didn't they bring in Steve Nash too? Well, they, they had Nash to begin with. Then they traded him to Sons and he was MVP for a while and then it was looking back, but they got him again and they won the title and yeah. Yeah. But, uh, that'd be great. We should bring it full circle. I love Steve Nash on this team. I think he's a great, he's a great people guy. He'd love X's and o's with Yogi. He'd get, he, I think it would rejuvenate his level of basketball team was really hard to manage. Yeah. And I think that he did a good job with personalities and all of that, and I think that also he did an awesome job also just a. I think he's just a really smart guy. Yeah. And I think that he wouldn't have done the Mind the Game podcast with LeBron unless he was like, like he saw what it did for jj. Right. Like, yeah. And I just don't know whether he wants a bigger role in media to like kind of, um, make money do that stuff there. Or if it's a go get him. I'm telling you, man, like, Josh, I know you're listening. Go get him. Just do it. Just make it happen. Yeah. I there's a number, I guarantee you there's a number and I guarantee you that the cronies can afford it. Those are the two things I know deep in my heart. Yeah. Yeah. I, and I, and you can disagree with me about who that person is, but I want every Nuggets fan to really like, think big and believe in your heart, and then tell yourself that the crocks can afford it and they can tweet 'em. Yeah. Like iss. Yeah, invest. Like it's, and I'm, I'm not gonna be a Nuggets fan. I'm gonna hopefully die with the season ticket, but like that, uh, I, I'm not expecting us to always be good. I'm willing for you to like, be cheap when the team sucks. Like that's totally fine. Be cheap. Good. And I will, I, you told me, Hey, while Yoic is good, we're gonna be in the second apron and then as a result, we are going to not spend money for the next 10 years on this team. I'd be like, dog, I'll still show up all the time. No problem. You can still have my season ticket money. I would love that. Like, let's go for it right now. And I mean, they are. Deflecting criticism somehow right now, like I, in all the podcasts and all the things, I haven't heard enough about them. And that's why I kind of opened the way that I did in terms of, it just felt like a lot of this other stuff has been rehashed or has been known for a long time about the relationship between Malone and them. Um, and Malone's flaws have been known as a coach and Booth as a talent evaluator. We've seen the talent, so we know he is made the mistake. The talent has been evaluated. Oh, I've evaluated. Um, and I haven't enjoyed it, but yeah, I think, uh, as always, go nuggets. As always, we're hoping for the best for anyone who puts on a Nuggets uniform. Um, and you know what, if we go to the finals and Jalen Pickett just is fucking cooking, I'll do an hour long apology. I don't care. Like, and I'll do it with joy like in my heart, but, uh. I wouldn't book the studio time, Dan. So how I'll put that to our producer. I, I wouldn't hold, hold you for that. We should We We'll do it live. We'll do it live podcast. Oh, yeah. Uh, where everybody, all the Nuggets fans can come and say mean things to Kyle for now. Oh yeah. I, I'm down for that. Like, we can do it like old school, like when they throw tomatoes like Adam in medieval time, you can lock me in a stock. Throw tomatoes at me. That's totally fine. I'll accept that and with joy in my heart, uh, because the nuggets will be in the final. But, um, I'm, I'm not holding my breath. Tomatoes are hard. We'll give you little cherry tomatoes. Dang that. Yeah, that's, we don't need, we don't need my, my guy getting a concussion out there. He is about to have two kids. Yeah, that's true. Can't have you laid up. That's very true. My wife would be furious. She'd be like, you're gonna be gone for the NBA finals now and you have a concussion, uh, from getting pelted by vine ripe tomato. And the no. She'd be like, who's Jalen Pickett? What did you say about it? Um, but. This is a tough time Nuggets fans. Uh, let's, let's go cheer for the team. Let's hope for the best and, uh, we will talk to you next week. We, uh, we love you Michael. Good and fired. It's never easy. Appreciate you Coach Malone, Calvin. I'm sure it's hard for you too. I just feel less bad for you. Yeah, go eat a bowl of ice cream. Get fat piece of shit. That actually sounds delicious. I think I'm gonna have a thin mint. All right. Alright, well we'll see you next week. Everybody like and subscribe. Bye. BBlucifer Brothers is a Crab Shell Media podcast.