Nuggets gets championship warning from Gilbert Arenas
09/14/2024 01:43 PM
While fans are locking in their record predictions for the upcoming Denver Nuggets season, one has to wonder if the team got better, worse, or stayed the same. With the bevy of predictions for the Nuggets this season, former NBA player Gilbert Arenas gave some of his own on his self-titled show that could cause concern for fans.
The initial question asked to Arenas was “Are the Nuggets doing enough to help [Nikola] Jokic and the rest of the squad to extend their championship window?” which prompted a straight forward response from the podcast host. Arenas would say that if he was Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, he would be “concerned a little bit.”
“If I’m coach, I am concerned a little bit, because as the champs two years ago, we didn’t get better last year, right? And then we lost some pieces,” Arenas said. “We lost some some key pieces that helped us. Yeah, we bring in some pieces, but I don’t think he thinks these pieces were valuable enough when we bring in Westbrook, like, who is he passing to? Where’s my shooters at right? And a team like that needs shooters. You’re relying on for Jokic to be Jokic, you don’t need people sitting in the lane saying, shoot the ball over there.”
"We didn't get better last year… We lost some key pieces that helped us… If they did play Philly in the Finals… Denver's not gonna win that series with [Joel] Embiid averaging 40, & now you have Paul George."
— Gilbert Arenas
(via @GilsArenaShow)pic.twitter.com/UOpcPz713c
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) September 14, 2024
As Arenas mentioned, the Nuggets biggest acquisition this offseason was obtaining veteran point guard Russell Westbrook which resulted in a mixed reaction from people questioning despite his successful career, does he bring what the Nuggets need? Denver signed Westbrook to a two-year, $6.8 million contract in late July.
Gilbert Arenas questions Nuggets placement against other teams in NBA
He talked about the significance of Denver needing shooting and while they have Jokic and Jamal Murray, Arenas ponders how good they are in their conference, even in the East as he puts them up hypothetically against the new look of the Philadelphia 76ers.
“So you got teams out there that got better,” Arenas said. “So they probably said, ‘Oh yeah, we still top three in the West, but are we better than some of those teams in the east at this moment in time?’ Because if they did play Philly in the finals, we know Jokic is going to have a triple double, but we also know Embiid probably will average about 40, right? We know that, and Denver is not going to win that series with Embiid being averaging 40, and now you have Paul George and Maxey and the whole rest of that team. Because Jamal, you going to get off. The only thing Murray has to his advantage is he’s a gamer at the end.”
“So if it gets to the last two three minutes, he’s going to have the advantage over Maxey, the experience,” Arenas said. “But for the most part that’s gonna be even match up. Now you have Embiid and Jokic just gonna be canceling each other out. So if you’re a coach over there, you’re really like we didn’t get enough pieces.”
This conversation comes after the rumors that the Nuggets’ front office and Malone have clashed with the direction of the team. At any rate, the team is coming off finishing at the second seed in the West and being eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the semifinals of the NBA Playoffs.
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