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Welcome to a special edition of the Athletic NBA show live in Las Vegas for NBA

Summer League.

I'm your host Andrew Schlect with me.

Dave DeFour.

Got Kelly Eco who covers the Rockets.

We're going to try to make sense of the Western Conference. So a lot has happened in free agency, specifically with your team, and we'll get to your team. We're going to start at the top, but I want to try to make sense of the Western Conference. And so we're going to start with the Denver Nuggets, who probably deserve the respect that won the championship. This should be team number one. Any qualms? No. Best player, just won the title. Best player in the league. Yeah. Didn't really, I mean, they lost Bruce Brown, and that's a loss. But I think you go into next season, you hope Christian Brown can do more. Yeah. And, you know, they're bringing back big government, you know. I think that they're going to be fine when it gets to the time that matters. Why did they do that? Why did they bring back Reggie Jackson? Can anybody explain? Well, having the salary on the books. But having the salary on the books, like, is better than not. Okay. And so maybe they, you know, they package them in a It's $5 million. Yeah, it's nothing. But with the Bruce Brown departure, like how much are we discounting kind of the defensive stuff he did? Just picking up slack for everyone else, obviously, intended with Davis-Cowell-Polpope off that second unit. But just in general, everything he was able to accomplish defensively yeah i think we might be

discounting it i mean he played the third most minutes on the team last year right right he would

handle the ball in situations where they needed an extra ball handler and now like that's not really

christian brown's game no that's not really mpj's game maybe erin gordon could take on more

but oh that but you don't want that to be erin g games. We've seen it in Orlando. I mean, but it was also. That's why Reggie Jackson's back. It was also like a 16 game player versus 82 game player too. So Aaron Gordon was able to elevate because of the situation. But how is that got over 82 games season? But again, I think that the Reggie Jackson signing is, to your point, more about the 82 games. It's get us through the regular season. I am not accepting that. I won't accept the Reggie Jackson as an answer to any of this. I don't think it's a good move. I don't think it's a good move. It's not. No, it's just not. He didn't play for him. Green's gone, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Now that's a big, that's a huge loss. Uncle Jeff. I mean,

Bruce Brown and, I don't think it's a good movie. It's not. It's just not. He didn't play for him. Jeff Green's gone, yeah.

You guys got Jeff.

Now that's a big, that's a huge loss. Uncle Jeff.

I mean, Bruce Brown and Jeff Green, losing something. That's key pieces to what they did last year. It's going to be about the young guys, though. That's right. They need their young guys to step up. It's obviously Christian Brown.

Like Zeke Naji needs to step up and play.

And he's good.

High energy guy.

Like you can see where he could maybe fill in for Jeff Green.

Yeah. It's obviously Christian Brown. Like, Zeke Naji needs to step up and play. And he's good. High energy guy.

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