Can These MVP Candidates Compete Out West?

All offseason, Sam, there was a lot of speculation about what was gonna happen with Nikola Jokic.

Uh, all NBA superstar, multi-time MVP, NBA champion, still arguably the best player in the NBA, but for the last couple of years, has not signed a contract extension which set him up to be a free agent at the end of the 26, 27 season.

Uh, we have seen Reporting about a European team coming in , swooping in, signing Jokic.

Maybe other teams would come in, clear cap space to sign Jokic.

I wanna play the clip from Media Day of Jokic, uh, pretty definitively answering those questions.

Take a listen.

I'm gonna sign next year.

If they want me.

So, uh, not a lot of ambiguity there from Jokic, Sam.

Pretty clear, I am going to sign here if they want me, uh, and the decision not to sign was strictly business.

So , I know you've done some writing on this.

I've done some writing on this.

Um, should Nuggets fans, should the organization now breathe a deep sigh of relief or is there still a little bit of concern about Jokic's future?

I think they, they can breathe a sigh of relief.

I, you know, it's funny, we can be honest about ourselves, Chris, from the media standpoint.

The fans give us a hard time about how we do tend to gravitate towards the star player possibly relocating situations.

Now, that is for a reason.

It happens all the time.

It did feel like Joker was potentially gonna be that next guy.

And when he would talk, and you know this, when he would talk to the Nuggets, they would obviously push back and say, trust us, we're in a good spot, we're not worried, we're not worried, and we would rightfully say, well , that's nice, but he has one year left, and the entire world would love to steal him from you, including, uh, you know, this guy overseas who tried to throw a bunch of money at him, and, you know, I had kind of written that, you know, the absence of the contract is what invited Headlines like the one that you mentioned.

But for Joker to come out this definitively and say it, uh, I will relent and, and say he's just got it in his mind that he's gonna finish his career in Denver.

Um, the only surprising part is you can still play the card of like, all right, Nicola, but what if this season is an absolute dumpster fire, you know, um, there is always always a human component.

It could change, but the Nuggets, you know, they were feeling good before, they're feeling great now because he said what he said.

Uh, the, the business side that he highlighted, as you know, is just that he essentially wanted to get that 5-year deal as deep into his thirties as he could.

So you push it back another year, you get, you know, 60 to, $70 million at, at 38 years old or whatever the age ends up being.

Um, but yeah, I think if you're a Nuggets fan, You're breathing a sigh of relief and then you're also hoping that the organization finds a way out of this quagmire that they're in, in terms of roster construction and, and feels that urgency and doesn't take it for granted that this guy wants to be there.

Well, there's the challenge, right?

And, and Jokic on a new deal, I think it's $72 million annually is the average.

So, yeah, he's, he's gonna bank all that.

Um, the challenge is building a winner around him, and I don't think there's any doubt they took a step back, um, this offseason.

Peyton Watson.

Say what you want about him, but a pretty good player and replacing him with a 37-year-old DeMar DeRozan is not, that, that's just not the same thing.

Um, I, I saw Ben Tenzer, the, the top exec there in, uh, Denver say they prioritized kind of continuity.

They didn't want to overreact to what was a 54 win season, did end badly, getting beaten 6 games in the first round, but they want to keep this band together.

What do you think of that?

Because Like you, you, you're counting on a lot of things here.

Like you're counting on Aaron Gordon staying healthy, which I'm not sure you can ever count on ever again.

You're counting on, I guess, DeRozan playing some kind of role as a wing off the bench.

You're counting on Christian Brown, uh, stepping up and, and being better, Jamal Murray being healthy.

Like they're, uh, to me, Sam, a lot of things got to break right for this team, like exactly right.

Like 4 or 5 things gotta break exactly right for them to even approach the level of San Antonio.

And Oklahoma City and maybe they look, maybe they're, they've got Jokic on the hook no matter what, but why my concern might be like 1% still is if this team winds up in like the playin this year, which I think is an injury, they could wind up in that mix.

Yeah, no, that's all fair.

Um, the continuity thing, I would probably argue is the product of, you know, the, during the summer, the sense I got was that when they would talk to other teams about some of those core guys who potentially could have been on the move, you know, uh, all the way up to Jamal Murray and not saying that because, I mean, they love Jamal, but they, you know, it made sense that they would listen to, uh, regarding everybody but Joker.

Um, they got, like, for the lack of a better way of putting it, they got treated.

By other teams as if they were the wounded animal, meaning that, like, every team came in incredibly low on their guys, Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson, all those guys.

And I think they quickly figured out that, like, we are going to be swapping for pennies on the dollar, we are not in a position of strength, so they decided to go the continuity route.

Now, the Peyton thing, obviously, um, you know, Matt Moore, who's been out in Denver for such a long time and does a great job, had a, a, a, a pretty Uh, poignant social media rant where he, he was upset about the Peyton Watson.

Departure and said he's sick and tired of, of hearing about owners that, that don't wanna pay the tax and like, you know, the Crocky have plenty of cash from a fan component, I get that, um, but those aprons are, are brutal and, and so the, you know, you lose Peyton along the way.

So I do understand why they did what they did, but it doesn't put them in a good position.

They are, uh, significantly worse than OKC in San Antonio and probably a couple of other teams they're in.

And, you know, uh, they need Jamal to be an all-star again.

You know, they need bounce back years from Christian Brown more than anybody, because honestly, not to put too much on that young guy, but that contract, you know, had a domino effect that they are still paying a price for because, you know, Peyton Watson looked at that and said, well, I'm not taking less than him.

Um, and, and, and now you see where they are.

So we'll see.

It's the, the hard part and the fun part of covering this stuff, Chris, as you know, is that we'll go into the year with these being the talking points, but it's like a year ago, we all felt great about the Nuggets summer and thought that they added the depth, and they finally gave Joker help and it didn't pan out.

So who the heck knows, we'll see how this year goes.

Uh, to me it's about Gordon too, like, you, you gotta put him on like the Victor Wimbayama, LaMelo Bow.

Like just management plan all year long.

You've got to get him to the playoffs as close to 100% as possible.

That team does not work without Aaron Gordon being Aaron Gordon.

To me he's, he's what they need.

Uh, last thing for you, uh, you were at Lakers Media Day, certainly a more subdued media day without LeBron James in the mix, uh, but it is the new look Lakers, uh, revamped team.

I think it's like 10 new faces that are on that roster.

Uh, a bunch of free agent signings led by Walker Kessler, who we talked about.

Luka Doncic seems pretty happy.

JJ Redick seems pretty happy.

Um , I guess let's do like best case, worst-case scenario, uh, for this team.

Best-case scenario for this Lakers group.

Do you think they have put together the type of team, I mean, we just talked about Denver, their perceived inability to be unable to compete with Oklahoma City and San Antonio.

What do you think the Lakers put together here?

Tough to tell.

It's always so hard to handicap, you know, things that you haven't seen.

Uh, fittingly, I always, as far as like getting it wrong with new teams, I, I think back to the Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, Kobe, Lakers that we, you know, it was, hey, that was SI's best cover, baby.

Let's go.

The, the Lee Jenkins, uh, this is gonna be fun.

I think it was Lee, um, but that did not pan out and Uh, I'm not sure this one will either.

I can see the Walker fit being great with Luca.

Certainly defensive questions with Austin and Luca on the wings.

Um, Quentin Grimes is a major question mark, you know, in terms of what he's going to give them.

As a quick aside, I was dying.

And did you see this JJ Reddick story about Quentin, uh, getting lost, trying to get to JJ's house?

Yeah, yeah, so, hopefully, he's reading the playbook better than he is the Capo maps.

Um, I don't know.

They, they, uh, they're, they're funny to talk about.

I mean, my guy Dan Wickke, Lakers beat writer, just casually dropping a snowtime Lakers reference in his story the other day because of the, the whiteness of this team, and, um, you know, and JJ even leaned into it saying that he was confident that You know, the, the, the last two starters out of the, you know, other than the three they know and uh we're not gonna be white guys.

So, I don't know what to think.

I can see, you know, a, a, a, uh, you know, 4 seed, 5 seed, potentially, but um I could see them fighting for the plan.

I, I don't know what the chemistry is gonna look like.

Um, I do think that JJ is a, a, a very smart person in general, and a, and a coach and a basketball guy.

So to hear him put himself on the hook to some degree in his press conference and say that he was confident that this season that they would develop into a title contending team.

Which he didn't, he didn't qualify that at all.

You know, Rob Flinka qualified things and talked about how the roster is always evolving and he kinda danced around the, are you a title contender question.

JJ messaged that they will get there this year, and I'm not sure I agree with him, but I'm definitely gonna be curious to see.

That's interesting because I, I, I've got a story coming, uh, I think it's gonna come out next week, where as kind of a preview, like Rob Polinka told me like about the roster, basically it's a work in progress like he doesn't look at this roster as being a finished product, which I think is a fair assessment because they are missing some things.

I think they're missing.

Uh, more size, a backup to Walker Kessler.

I think they're missing the usual 3&D guys.

Like they don't really, I mean , Quentin Grimes, I saw his stuff, he wants to get back to being, you know, whatever aggressive defender he once was.

I, I'm not sure I think that's possible, or at least not the level they, they need.

Um, but they are.

Uh, flaw.

Now I, I really wanna bet on Lucas, Sam.

I really do, because this guy showed in 2024 that with a little bit of help he can strap a team on his back and take them to the finals.

And you know, we revise how the finals played out and Luca took some blame for it and deserved some of it, but they didn't lose that , that finals because Luca Do's defense like that, that wasn't the problem with that finals series.

So I want to believe he can do it, but he didn't have Oklahoma City standing in his way.

He didn't have San Antonio standing in his way, not these versions of that team.

When you get to the 2nd round, more likely than not, you're gonna have to play one of those teams.

And I don't know.

I don't know if this Lakers team has enough defensively.

Um, I don't know if they have enough perimeter shooting.

Uh, like, their, their wings, I'm talking about Laravia and Grimes and the guys they have coming off the bench.

I don't know.

Like, I believe Reeves and Luca can be one of if not the highest scoring backcourt in the NBA.

I think they're both gonna be all-stars this year.

I think Walker Kessler, if he can stay healthy , is exactly what they need backstopping that defense.

He's a big body who can block some shots.

But, you know, when you get to the postseason and you're talking about locking in Shay and Jalen Williams and the guys in OKC and the young kids in San Antonio with Harper and Castle and, and, and De'Aaron Fox as well.

I don't know.

I don't know.

It's hard to, it's hard to objectively look at that team and say it's there.

It's ready to, to do that.

I think there's still maybe a piece or two away.

I agree with all that.

I mean, Luca's amazing, and then we also shouldn't gloss over.

I thought about this yesterday.

Luca gets up to, to his press conference and he looks fantastic, you know, and then it's just, it was, it was fine, you know, it was not that long ago that, that, obviously, in the finals, he was carrying a lot more weight and, and then, you know, that ends up being the, the kind of the demise in Dallas is, is the weight issues and the conditioning and the, are you taking care of your body?

Do you have good enough habits and do you drink too much and all those things .

He looks fantastic, and this is now two summers in a row.

Uh, I mean, I don't know his actual numbers.

I, he looks lighter than he did to start the season last year, and he just looks healthy as hell.

So, credit to him for doing the work, but the league has changed, and when you talk about OKC in San Antonio, and let's not disrespect the champs, in New York, it's, it's depth, it's, it's versatility when it comes to, you know, those wing defenders that you're talking about that they might be lacking in.

Um, I agree with all that.

And, and also, by the way, like, I think Austin Reeves is gonna be an interesting player to watch this year because fantastic player, he's proven he earned that contract, but man, you got a lot of pressure on you now because you are the Robin to Lucas Batman.

And, and my last thought, Chris, is, while I have full clarity on the dynamics that led to LeBron leaving LA, I was at media day yesterday thinking to myself that just You know, not emotionally, I don't think a team like the Lakers was in a position to, you know , to kind of say goodbye to a player of LeBron James' caliber.

I just don't think, you know, if you're trying to keep up with OKC in San Antonio, then, then ideally, I think, uh, it would have been better for them to keep that relationship in a place where they could have navigated everything they did in the summer, get Walker Kessler, re-sign Austin, you know, convince Luca that LeBron is still Uh, a guy that you wanna roll with, because they don't have enough in the chamber to keep up with those other teams.

Yeah, it's gonna be tough, but, uh, like we, we, I always wanna bet on Luca.

I always wanna believe he's got that magic in him after watching some of those playoff runs, but, uh, it's, it's tough out there in the West, that's for sure.