Last nights loss to the Houston Rockets was absolutely inexcusable.
The Denver Nuggets need either 1 win, or 1 Grizzlies loss to clinch the #1 seed in the West heading into the playoffs. They had a golden opportunity to clinch last night in Houston and inexplicably dropped the ball. To rub salt in the wound, Joel Embiid scored 52 in a win against the Boston Celtics. Considering how many MVP voters are from the East coast, and Boston in particular, I wouldn’t be surprised if last nights performance locked up the award for Embiid. After ducking the Jokic matchup in Denver, the race blew wide open, with odds for the MVP pretty much dead even between Jokic and Embiid, with Giannis not too far behind. But since that ducking, Embiid and Giannis have played well, Jokic missed 3 games, and upon coming back, just got outplayed by Alperen Sengun…
How the Nuggets failed to give any effort whatsoever against a 19-60 (now 20-60) Rockets team is beyond frustrating. You have a chance to clinch home court advantage for every round of the playoffs before the Finals and you can’t get up for that??? Quite frankly, that’s not the mindset of a championship team. And that is really fuckin disappointing.
Of course, Malone did what he does and called his team out postgame.
He’s not wrong.
The way the standings are looking right now, there’s a pretty decent chance the Nuggets will have to play either the Warriors, Lakers, or Clippers in the first round of the playoffs. The way they’re choosing to play against lesser teams is making that a scary proposition right now.
“But MustacheMan, the Nuggets have played great when they’ve faced real competition this year!”
I’ve expressed the same sentiment.
But fuck man, why can’t this team get up for a game to clinch the #1 seed in the West? I don’t give a fuck who you’re playing, a championship level team should win that type of game 10/10 times.
I’m going to keep this short because I’m just simply frustrated. The whole fanbase is. This is the most talented Nuggets team ever. I don’t believe that’s hyperbole. When you have the back to back MVP, with as talented of supporting cast as Denver has this year, expectations SHOULD be high. None of us should dance around that fact.
And should Michael Malone be on the hot seat? Absolutely. If this team doesn’t make noise in the playoffs, I’m talking bare minimum a Conference Finals appearance, Malone shouldn’t have a job this summer. It’s not like there won’t be any good options to replace him…
Nick Nurse anyone?
I’ll end this blog post on a bright note.
Peyton Watson is LEGIT. And I fuckin love it.
This 20 year old rookie might have fucked around and earned himself a playoff rotation spot. He’s exactly what the Nuggets are missing – an athletic wing who can legit guard 1-5. I can’t wait to see what this kid develops into.
You know who shouldn’t be fired? GM Calvin Booth. Between the KCP trade and the Braun and Watson draft picks, Booth has done a tremendous job surrounding Jokic with the right pieces just one year into his tenure as GM.
So with all of that being said, here’s the deal:
The Nuggets future is still extraordinarily bright.
But things can go south in an instant in this league. Look at the Brooklyn Nets.
So get your shit together Nuggets. Your time is now.
-MustacheMan
