Four random but hopefully relevant thoughts from covering the Nuggets on the road this week in California.
1. Haters, fakers, etc.: Perhaps the most fascinating moment of this week’s road trip had nothing to do with the Nuggets. Doug Christie was 10 games into his tenure as the full-time head coach of the Kings when he entered his pregame news conference, gave an impassioned three-minute speech directed at the “haters” and “fakers,” then walked out without taking questions.
I won’t bore you with the full transcript. But the implication was that Christie was responding to local media speculation about tanking this season, in addition to other generally bad press swirling around the Kings. (In other words, it was Tuesday.)
“Change is hard, y’all. It’s hard. But understand — and we understand — that we’re not there yet,” he said. “But we’re about to work at it like crazy. We totally get that. And it’ll be bumpy. It will. Because change is like that. But buckle up. For the real ones, buckle up. And for all the rest of you — you know who you are — you know how I feel about that.”
I actually appreciate it when coaches and athletes are willing to acknowledge their awareness of media coverage. There are a lot of coaches (college football, stand up) who pretend not to pay attention to what’s written and said about their team, as if it’s a sign of weakness to care. The way I see it, they pour so much into these jobs that it’s only human to care.
I also believe in showing up the next day and being available for feedback if you’re in the media and you rip a local team. Based on the fact that Christie began his statement by introducing himself to the room, I have a hunch that’s part of what he eventually meant by “fakers.”
That said, I hope for Christie’s sake that he’s able to stop himself from letting the negative chatter consume him. Because there’s gonna be a lot more of it. And it seems a little worrying that he’s already having this reaction 10 games in. The Kings are just not good. I’d argue that isn’t Christie’s fault. But he’s going to have to be able to handle the noise regardless. It will be interesting to watch how this season goes for a Sacramento team that features two 2024-25 Nuggets.
2. Two ways of compartmentalizing an NBA schedule: The Nuggets recently started a grueling month-long stretch of travel. From Nov. 10 to Dec. 8, they have to hop on a plane between every single game — 15 total flights for about 10,774 air miles.
I asked David Adelman on Tuesday for his reaction to the clunky scheduling and whether he combs through the calendar of games when the NBA releases it in August.
“I’ll be completely honest: I go week-by-week,” he said. “It’ll stress me out. My father was the exact opposite. He dissected the schedule as if he knew when they were gonna win and lose. It was incredible to watch him do it. If I did that, I think I would have a panic attack. So I just try to live in the moment. I know we’ve got Sacramento tonight, the Clippers, then Minnesota. And I know Chicago is after that, but I’ll work my way to that week when we get there.”
Based on the schedule breakdown that I wrote in the offseason, I clearly fall in the Rick Adelman school on this one. If you combine this aforementioned stretch with the following month — which includes a seven-game Eastern Conference road trip — the Nuggets are set to fly approximately 19,920 miles between Nov. 10 and Jan. 15 for 20 games. (And we don’t even know how another 10 days after the NBA Cup will be filled yet.) They play consecutive home games only twice during that two-month window.
Compare it to the last portion of the season, when the Nuggets will travel less than half of that mileage (about 9,948) between Feb. 24 and April 13. I’m sure every player, coach and executive would tell you they’d rather be at home for most of March and April than December and January. But why does it have to be so imbalanced in the first place?
Anyway, Adelman had a different bone to pick about the schedule this week. He was displeased that Denver had to play two back-to-backs with the second game tipping off less than 24 hours after the first.
“I think that’s something they have to think about. The last one was a 23-hour difference. This one’s a little less than 24,” he said as the Nuggets faced the Clippers and Kings. “Especially when you’re playing national TV games that are a lot longer (due to commercial breaks). That’s something I think we all have to talk about. If we’re talking about the betterment of the players, and you want to see the best product possible nightly, you have to give them time for their bodies to come back and be themselves.”
3. Peyton Watson switches agencies: The fourth-year wing signed with Klutch Sports Group this week, a minor but interesting development as he prepares for restricted free agency next summer. Watson was previously a client of Excel Sports Management, the agency that also represents a handful of other current and recent Nuggets, including Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. It was through Excel that Watson joined Jokic for a Hotels.com commercial shoot two years ago.
This change doesn’t necessarily signal that Watson is gone next season. Aaron Gordon is a Klutch client, and he signed an extension with Denver in 2024. Still, it’s notable that Watson elected to try new representation during a contract year. He wasn’t able to secure a rookie extension before opening day, with the Nuggets’ prioritization of Christian Braun and their ongoing avoidance of the second tax apron getting in the way of negotiations.
He finds himself staring at an unknown future as a result. Could the Nuggets execute a sign-and-trade next offseason? Could he be used as collateral to get off a bad contract before the trade deadline? Or will extension talks resume in earnest when the time comes? The 23-year-old has helped Denver sustain the league’s second-best defensive rating through 11 games. Opponents are shooting 44.7% on 94 attempts with Watson defending. He was superb against Eastern Conference Finals MVP Pascal Siakam last week.
Regardless of Watson’s offensive output, that defensive skill set is something the Nuggets will need as Gordon ages into his 30s. But the tea leaves last month indicated that Denver’s financial interests might simply be diverging from Watson’s too much.
“As a business, you’ve gotta operate (based on) what’s best for your business,” he told The Denver Post recently when discussing the team’s decision not to extend him. “And when it comes time for me to make my decision next summer, I’ve gotta operate as a business myself.”
4. Is this the best Nuggets team of Jokic’s career?: Let’s talk big picture to wrap up. I keep leaving various NBA arenas in the wee hours wondering if this team is just going to be a wagon all year, if it could break the franchise wins record (57), and if Denver and Oklahoma City belong in a league of their own.
The Nuggets are showing early signs of a juggernaut. They’ve led by at least a dozen in every contest. Their net rating is 13.3. They’ve spent a total of 52 seconds trailing after the first quarter in six home games.
Yet I’ve found myself trying to withhold any sweeping conclusions about the hot start. Mostly because of the schedule.
Keep in mind that as I’m writing this, the Nuggets haven’t played Saturday in Minnesota yet. Before that game, none of their nine wins were remarkable. Golden State without Steph Curry. Miami without Bam Adebayo. Minnesota without Anthony Edwards. Los Angeles without Kawhi Leonard. Phoenix, Indiana, New Orleans and Sacramento twice.
As much as we hear about the West being a gauntlet, it hasn’t really been thrown at Denver yet.
In fairness, that first road win over the Wolves was significant even without Ant, just because of the recent baggage in that rivalry. I’m not trying to discount what the Nuggets have accomplished so far. There’s something to be said for the professional approach they’ve brought to these games against lesser opponents. That was not a strength of last year’s team, which lost 7 of 12 games against the Wizards, Bulls, Blazers and Pelicans, not to mention a few suspiciously lucky wins.
I just want to see how these Nuggets look against some of the league’s best before I definitively group them with the Thunder. Unfortunately, because the genius schedule makers decided Denver and OKC shouldn’t play for the first three months of the season — plus no Knicks, Cavs, Lakers, Bucks or Pistons until January — we’ll have to rely on Houston, San Antonio and Minnesota as the early barometers.
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