[IKO] Amen Thompson to undergo MRI. Left arena in walking boot and crutches.

I don’t really think Denver is top heavy. Murray, Jokic, Porter, Gordon, and Braun is a pretty well rounded team. Of course Jokic by himself might make you call them top heavy, because he is so head and shoulders above everyone else on the team (or any team for that matter.) I agree that the Suns problem is not being top heavy, it’s being a 2nd apron team with an albatross contract in Beal. I think the pressure is on this off-season for the Rockets, because I think the Suns will trade Durant and they will find a way to find a more balanced team with Booker as the center piece, making their picks less valuable.

 

How’s our Bugatti doing? Hoping it’s fixed soon.

 

Denver isn't top heavy at all. They are built perfectly for the second apron era. Their top 4 guys take up around 100% of their cap, leaving them decent room to build out a 7 - 8 man rotation. Conversely, the Suns - a true "top heavy" team - have three guys in Beal, Bradley, and Durant who, collectively, take over MORE THAN 100% of the salary cap. It's virtually impossible to build out a decent rotation in that scenario in the second apron era.

In the second apron era, you want build a team around 4 - 5 guys who, collectively, take up around 100% of your salary cap. So, in Denver's case, 1 super max, 2 max, 1 large non-max. Cleveland is similar in that they'll have five guys next season who take up about 107% of their salary cap.

 

Is Amen still in a boot?

DD

 

This is the latest report I've seen.

 

As long as we keep winning this favorable part of the schedule, we can let Amen heal without urgency

 

This was from yesterday (the audio gives a bit more info) and straight from Udoka :

 

I do worry that Amen comes back too early trying to make sure he gets 65 games in so he qualifies for some all NBA defensive awards.

DD

 

I am hopeful that we allow him to rest at least six more games. This gives him a good two weeks. Maybe a couple extra games on top of that.

any chance we have of winning a playoff series or two will revolve around him playing very heavy mix minutes. Let the ankle get 100% or as close to that as possible and get him some rest.

 

He only need 5 more games. He can get that in April but this would be a good lesson about keeping his emotions in check but he’d be closer to that 65 game threshold if he didn’t miss a couple of games for suspensions

 

If by top heavy you mean Denver is a one man show then I agree. Everyone else on the roster is just overpaid and overrated. Nikola Jokic would be considered the GOAT of basketball if he played in a big market and ever got to play with another star. Poor guy out there making scrubs look good.

The stat this year that he was leading the greatest offense in nba history when on the court and when he goes to the bench the team was the worst offense in nba history should tell you everything you need to know about the Nuggets.

 

Just get him in for one minute and take him out.

 

Maybe some of that is due to Denver's horrible bench unit? I find it hard to believe that, say, Westbrook/Murray/Braun/MPJ/Gordon would be a bad offensive team, but I doubt that unit has played together without Jokic much. I'd imagine when he goes to the bench most of the other starters do too.

 

lol the fact that you said Westbrook isn't bad offense is all hilarious. He's the definition of terrible offense. All those guys can only score off him because of his gravity. None can create their own shot. Sure they can pull up contested two pointers and make it every now and then but that's bad offense.

 

I didn't say that Westbrook is a good offensive player, I said that group as a whole shouldn't be that bad. Jamal Murray can definitely create offense for himself and others, by the way. Underrated player, he'd put up bigger numbers if he didn't have to defer to Jokic so much IMO.

 

Who says the nets would have kept bridges? They were going nowhere with him as their best player and got a ridiculous haul for him. lol That dude was probably gone regardless. It doesn't make sense to try to be a mediocre team instead of rebuilding for the sole purpose of hurting the rockets... Which is why I was upset initially not just at the trade but the fact that we got a market value deal on it. We didn't have to make that trade at all, Nets really did. So no clue what kind of back-room talks were happening and if they "owe" us one now with Stone giving them their picks back.

But it was a bit surprising that we gave those picks away knowing that's most likely a crappy team over there with a history of bad choices. And gave them away at market value when the nets were absolutely desperate and held no cards. Oh well, I'm still hoping we can get some value out of these Phoenix picks and the 29 Dallas one that has some potential.

 

Hopefully Stone doesn't throw these picks away in a similar fashion.

 

This... I was worried when he went down but didn't expect us to hold up this good.. absolutely take your time bringing him back and make sure there are no question marks before he steps foot on the court. Like someone said, hopefully get him at least a few regular season games to warm up and get back in game shape.

 

Naa, I have zero issues with some of that stuff he's done. We need some players that other teams respect and know they can't punk. Boston lost the championship to warriors in 2022 partly because their players got punked by Draymond green lol. He was doing all sorts of clown stuff to them and no one did anything at all back to him. Let our guys retaliate whenever needed. Zero issues there, it may cost you a game or two played here and there but in the long term there are some potential benefits also. Most of the great winners have had that fire and didn't back down, and have been in their fair share of scuffles and dust ups.

 

Take out Jokic and whoever you think is the Rockets best player, and Rockets win 8 or 9 out of 10 games. Maybe even 10 out of 10. With Jokic, Denver needed an extended injury to FVV to have a better record than the Rockets through 67 games and may not even be able to hold off the Rockets.

I get that the Rockets being guard starved makes an injury to FVV hurt more than it should, but if Jokic was out for that long, Nuggets are a play-in team. If they are lucky.