Kevin O’Connor & Dane Moore react to the Denver Nuggets falling in seven games to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs. After a tumultuous season which saw head coach Michael Malone fired with only weeks to go in the regular season and a shallow roster beyond stars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray — what moves should Denver make to not repeat the same mistakes of 2025?
Hear the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
I wonder what’s next for Denver.
I, I, I don’t expect we’re gonna see like, you know, some Shams bomb saying Jokic is gonna meet with the team about their future or anything like that, but boy, like they they gotta make some changes, I think, to get back to the mountain top game.
What what what comes to mind for you?
What Denver needs to change in order to take the next step once again in the playoffs?
Kevin, I feel like they need more players that have a bankable skill set, and, and I think, I know you can do the bum bum bum bum to Murray, and I know he struggled, and he was hurt, and there’s injury factors to that.
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I have no problem with the Denver Nuggets starting 5.
I think you get them healthy, that’s that’s fine.
I think the misstep was was trying to Round out your roster with young players that you, you do not know what they’re going to be able to give you, and it would have just been really helpful in this series if, remember like, Justin Holliday was on the team last year in in the postseason and Not a great player, but like there’s a 3 and D catch and shoot guy or just somebody who can space the floor for them effectively.
When we’re like, I don’t know, I heard you and a lot of other people like, yo, Julian Strother after game 6, and I was like, man, if I’m the Oklahoma City Thunder, I say, I hope to God that you play Julian Strother for 20 minutes in the next game, cause we’re gonna.
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He should have played, he should have played more tonight after game 6.
I know, but it’s just, it’s, it’s, it’s indicative of a bigger problem when, when there aren’t even like, there are not bankable things you, you can get out of anybody from their bench.
The only bankable thing you get from anybody on the bench is chaos from Russ, which hits every so often, you know, I, I just think they put way too much stress on the main guys in, in that group and It’s just hard for me to rip on Porter Junior right now, given what he was going through.
Yeah, but yeah, but we also know the history there.
Maybe that’s a starting lineup lever that you pull.
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I just don’t know how much that asset is going to get you, or how far that’s gonna take you, given what his, given what his contract is.
I don’t know, I just think, generally speaking, this, this actually, this Denver Nuggets team was close to winning the championship this year.
That’s true of what you just said was true about the Wolves having the second best odds, like, I think if they win, if they win that game today somehow that I know they lost by 30, but if they somehow won that game, you have a healthy Gordon, whatever, I think the Nuggets probably they’re then they’re the favorites to win the to win the championship.
So, what that says to me is, if you put competence around Nikole Jokic, and he’s as good as he was, then I see no reason why the Nuggets can’t be a a a title contender again next season, and I’m not ready to go blow it up or even make some sort of aggressive.
I, I don’t know, maybe a porter trait, that’s the only thing I can really see there.