Really happened to be joined by romy Bean from CBS Colorado. Bean's how are you doing tonight? The FM? I know your name is CFM. What a great surprise. I'm doing great. You're one of the few people who call me PFM. I mean, look, there's two pfms in Bronco country. People didn't know, so everybody, this is the other one. This is the other PFM right here. Well, hey, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the Denver Nuggets. The reserves announced today for
the All Star Game, and notably missing was Jamal Murray. Just your thoughts on that, you know, it's unbelievable. I saw somebody post I guess Jamal Murray might go down as one of the top players to never get an All Star nod. It's you knew that. It felt like with Jamal going into last year, there was the okay, well, it's gotta win a championship, all right, what can he do? You know? And he's playing excellent this season. So many times he's carried this team with or without
Nicola Jokich. It's the best two man game in the NBA, and it's a two man game. I realized he plays with Jokich, But it's just disappointing because Jamal deserves to be there. He's, well, you know, one of the best players in the league and the West is crowded. You give it that the West is crowded, but but it sucks because he deserves it, you know, and he should be there and you hope that he
gets there one day. And you know, it's one of those things too where look, you know what, Jamal probably used it as as fuel, but low key, it's like, all right, won the championship, Like and I'm playing great this season. What more do you want from me? You know, just it's not fair I have to ask you about that, because yeah, I mean, the Nuggets won a championship and has been it was a couple of years since the franchise and have been in this particular position.
But if you are Jamal, it's got to mean a little more to you other than just say, hey, I got a title, but in an All Star game, even even though we know that in this All Star Game it may not really count, like we're talking and talking about baseball, but it has to mean something to him, knowing as though, hey, this is how the voters voted and you're still not viewed in that particular All Star fashion. Oh. Absolutely. And Jamal is one of those guys that
carries a whole lot of chips on his shoulder. I mean that's how he's built. That is definitely gonna tick him off. There's no no reason that well, no reason that it shouldn't he should be mad about it because when you look at the Nuggets, you know, look at what he was out. You know for those playoff runs. This team couldn't win a championship without Jamal Murray. Obviously Jokic as this goes, you know, this team goes as goes, But when Jamal was out with the knee injury, this team
couldn't get far in the playoffs. I mean, this team does not do what they do without Jamal Murray. He's a championship caliber players, absolutely an All Star And it does make you feel like, well, what more can I do? Right because and at the end of the day, big picture, yeah, winning championships is a whole lot more important. But it's frustrating. You know, it's gonna be frustrating for him too, knowing that it's out of your control and it's just unfair and you mentioned that the West is
loaded here. I mean the other reserves are Paul George, Devin Booker, Steph Curry, Kawhi Leonard. I mean, these are like established names in the league that it's just tough to crack into that list, and then once you do, then you sort of tend to start to make it year after year after year. Oh right, and some of it, you know, there's always a fan voting part two, so there's always a little bit of a popularity contest. And you know, again I knock on any of those
guys, but no, those guys are defending champions. Yeah, that's true. And there have been nights this season where Jamal Murray has just been I mean, unbelievable. I think in a lot of ways, he's a heart and soul of the Steam and people know that. And that's why I think people in Nuggets Nation get really upset because they know Jamal brings so much more,
even than just his play to the court. I know, I said, you know, this team goes as Jokic goes, but Michael Malone's say it all the time, like Jamal Murray is the heart and soul of this team. You know that there's things more than even just his play that they come an All Star. But people outside the market who don't watch, well, they don't care about that. Now, Romie. Last night the Nuggets faced off against the Thunder, no Nicola Jokich, But it seems whether Nicola
Jokic is in a game or he's out of the game. But when they when the Nuggets face this Thunder team, it's like no fear with these young guns. And do you think of all the teams in the West that we can say, well, the Nuggets may need to worry about, may not be the Clippers. Is it the OKC Thunder? You hit the nail on the head. They are just fearless and they play with so much confidence for such a young team. They play you hard every single night. I mean,
they are a fun, fun team to watch. I still think when it comes to playoffs, though, and you look at any seven game series, I still feel competent in the Nuggets beating anyone in a seven game series. I don't see OKAYC beating them seven times. That being said, they are three and one this season over the Nuggets. But I think it's a lot of experience comes into play in the postseason. A lot of other factors, but yeah, this is a dangerous team, and you know Sga is
a dangerous player. The Douggets have trouble guarding him. He's just such a dynamic player. He's theother one of the teams you have to worry about, but the Timberwolves or a team that the Nuggets really have to worry about, even though the Nuggets always are always get the better of the Timberwolves. I do also again think the Nuggets could beat them in a seven game series, but I think that's the Timberwolves. Okay. See, they all make for
tough competitions. The West is a little bit tougher this year than it was last year. To me, it just felt like last year all the competition was in the East. I just couldn't see anyone remotely close to beating the Nuggets. There's also a lot of talk about the Clippers. I think the road through the West is a lot tougher this year than it was last year. And look, if I didn't want the Nuggets to win, I totally be pulling for Okac because what a fun young team. But I think experience
will take over when it matters most with the Nuggets in the playoffs. Yeah, SGA has really elevated into that all star type of player. And it's fun to see guys do that. And you mentioned it, Romi. There the top of the West right now really crowded, a tight bunch there with Minnesota, Ok, see the Clippers and the Nuggets. The Nuggets are nineteen and four at home this season. How big of a deal do you think getting home court advantage in the playoffs is going to be because of course that
was huge last year for that run. Well, I think that it is huge. And this gosh Ballerina in the playoffs was absolutely insane. And then of course the project of being a champion. I think they've have like twenty three straight sellouts. I mean, you know, all seasons. So the energy is there. It's the real deal. The players will say all the
time it makes a difference, and it absolutely does. And I think one thing that the Nuggets do that this has bothered us with the Broncos forever, is the Nuggets take advantage of the altitude, which I feel like Broncos teams have not in recent years. Right, they come out hot, they try and run these guys off the court, run them out early play a really fast ball game. They know that they can use it to their advantage.
Mike Mullen is very open about that, and I think it's huge, and so that is a big piece where they know that that's something that you can utilize in Denver, along with the crowd and everything else. So it does feel like with the West being a little tighter, I think, yeah, extra home games do matter at this point, but I also believe the Nuggets feel they can meet anybody anywhere. But I love how they play at home. I love how they take advantage of the altitude and the crowd's insane,
So you certainly would want it, especially when the West looks tighter. So once again known nikolea. Jokis. But we did see coach Malone roll out the other night against Casey with somewhat of a smaller lineup, And with that rollout, we saw twenty one minutes from Peyton Watson. How impressed have you
been with Peyton Watson thus far? Oh? I love it. Peyton Watson is so dynamic, especially defensively, and I think he continues to prove to Michael Malone that he can be a dynamic defender down the stretch and in the playoffs, and you've seen him on some of these guys even throughout the season, right on kd On Giannis, he continues to make big, really big plays. He uses that wingspan. He is long, and he is strong, and he's i think most dynamic on the defensive side of the ball,
and he can come up with some huge plays. You know, you almost look at last year, Christian Brown is kind of the kind of the darling of the bench. I feel like Peyton Watson could be that guy this year. He just makes so many dynamic defensive plays. He plays really hard plays, really tough. I think, and look, Michael Maloll loves defense. That is how you win that man's heart. But I also think when you look at him offensively, you know, the knock on Peyton last year was
that he was just a little reckless with the shots. You know, he was young and crazy and kind of doing whatever he wants. Even there, you can see he's taken more care. He passes it when it's not coming to him. So you've seen his game grow and grow at a really fast rate. But I think just defensively, Daton Lauson shows that he can be a really really dynamic defender. Be I think a huge piece of this team
defensively in the postseason run. Talking about snubs, I mean he got snuffed from that Rising Star game coming up All Star weekend too, So no love for the defending champs here in the NBA. I guess one thing I wanted to ask you about romy You know, Joel embi did not play against the Nuggets here in Denver yet again. The seventy six ers got fined for that. And one of the things that Nick and I are going to talk about coming up here in a little bit is this sixty five game threshold to be
considered for some of the postseason awards. Joel Embiid did hurt his knee and now he's going to be sort of on that line where he might not be eligible. What do you think about this role that the NBA has put into place. I like it. The NBA had a massive problem with load management, with players not playing, and they're at the point where they have had to do something about it. I mean, it has gotten so out of hand resting guys for such long periods of the season, and you know,
you can prefer to guys that you want. I saw something the other day that Michael Jordan, I don't even know, like you know, all the eighty game seasons he's pay you look at Kobe Bryan. I know I sound like the old man, get off my lawns. But the one thing you know, Kobe always said, right was he never tried to never miss a game because he knew that person sitting up in that very top corner seat maybe spent all the free money that they had that month to come see him,
and he wanted to make sure he could see them. I think it's important. There's a huge problem in the NBA with star players sitting out way too much, and I think it's just come to a point where they got to do something, and then it becomes unfortunate when you have a situation like this Joelle. Yeah, he did actually hurt his knee, but you know what, earlier in the season, maybe you shouldn't have blowed managed. I know, eighty two games a lot, but there's guys Nicola Jokich's this twenty five
games going back to the twenty eighteen season. So everybody, you know, if you're hurt, yeah, don't play. But as they say in some of the other leagues, right, or you hurt or you're injured. So I think that I'm all on board with it because I think that the NBA has to fix that problem and they're doing what they can too well. Romie. When you look at the AFC West and over the past couple of weeks, things have gotten really intriguing. The Broncos add Cody Rager to the front
office, Pete Hartmichael is now on as an offensive assistant. But looking at other teams, you think about what the introduction of Jim Harbaugh today and then the news breaking that Antonio Peers decided to Cliff Kingsbury to his offense as his new officeer coordinator. How do you think those hires make the AFCs that much more intriguing? Do you know what's the funny guys? My answer is I
do think it makes it intriguing. But I feel like every year, not just us, like nationally, everyone's like the AFCUS man right, a couple of years ago, Oh man, I'm looking at all the quarterbacks in the af US and now it's like, look at all the coaches in the AFCU wes Like every year it's got the potential. Everybody's talking about it, you know, being about this crazy vauntae division and then it has just been the
Chiefs and the rest hanging out. So I am hoping that this year it actually lives up to the off season hype, because there's been quite a few off seasons where there's been the hype, right, and it hasn't been there. However, Jim Harbaugh, I mean it is huge. Jim Harbaugh's one everywhere he's gone, you know, and he's a proven winner. Players buy
in. It feels like if there's one guy that can stop the Chargers from chargering, it's Jim Harbaugh and it's in huge and obviously what is he going to be able to get out of Justin Herbert and Antonio Pierce is the right man for that job. I mean, Mark Davis would have just been such a jump if he had gone out and gone somewhere else. Those players, I think, you guys can just test this. I've never seen players play
for an interim the way they played for him. I mean, he knows how to galvanize the team and now bring it in a guy like Cliff it does. It just makes the AFC WES once again one of the most interesting divisions. And you know what, I hope it is because this Chiefs run. I mean, I respect it, but it's crazy right for Super Bowl in five years And part of that not to take away from anything they've done right, but I mean they've just rolled over this division year after year after
year. It would be great the other three teams could really shore up and make it, make it so it's a it's a dogfight all the way down the stretch. I think that'd be better for the NFL as well, and it'd be a lot better for us, to be honest today, During his intro press or, Jim huh said that during the transition period he's interested in living in an RV near the facility Rummy. He says he wants to live and he kind of looked at his wife and was like, Hey, are
you gonna Are you on board with this? What do you think living in an r V? Football twenty four to seven? Now, I feel like it's cool when Gardner Minshew does it. I don't know if it's that cool with Jim Harbaugh's doing it, like God bless his wife. Like you're a grown man with a wife, Like you're gonna make your wife? Don't know? A hotel right by there? Head coach, have him build you a shower in a bed in the facility. Can you know you can do whatever
you want? It's a little weird about it. Hold on, Rummy, I'm gonna see. Let me see if I can change your mind, because I was trying to do it with Phil as well. I know, when we think about r v's, we sometimes think about those crusted iron deficient stains on the r V. But we're talking about so Cow, We're talking about Tenson Town. Have you seen some of those double decker rbs. Yeah, but don't I just feel like he's trying to be like the la version of
Dan Campbell, Like this is like I live in an RV. Yeah, the four season he lives in a van down by the river. Yeah, that's what Robby. The last thing I wanted to talk to you about. Obviously you're close with coach Prime up there and see a sad CU Boulder. The schedule just came out for next year, some new teams on there with with the Buffs moving to the Big twelve. What do you think about this
late coming up here this fall? Yeah? You know what. I actually when they first made the move to the Big twelve, I was like this would be great. Big twelve is kind of a weaker football division than the Pac twelve in my opinion. I kind of said all those things, But we don't know what she is going to look like. Just looking at the schedule, I think it's a schedule. I think there's, you know, a high ceiling there, but there could be a low floor depending on how
things go. I think that there's some pretty tough teams there all around. There's gonna be some interesting trips too, Right, they go to Florida in September. Now, I know there's a lot of Florida boys on the team, but if you look at the history of the Broncos, for example, tend to struggle in Florida and September, there's a lots of interesting dynamics like that. You know, I've never fared well against Texas Tech. I think
that. I think it's gonna be great. I think that the Buffs just fit so much better in the Big twelve, fits who they are so much better. I'm excited about that. I think the interesting thing is we don't know what this bus team is going to be look like. We've obviously seen the work they've done, and they've shored up the trenches and a lot of the spots that they need to But we're still kind of waiting on the defensive coordinator, still waiting to see what Pat sure we're going to do, if
it'll be different this year. We know they've got the town skill positions, but it's hard to say what this team's gonna look like until we see it right on paper. Right now, it looks like they've brought in all these guys. But I do think it's gonna be you know, I think it's gonna be a tough play. I think it's gonna be a tough season. I love that we got Nebraska and TSU at the beginning of the year, and you know what North Dakota that's gonna give me. Yeah, that's nothing
to give me either. That's a that's a tough stretch to start the season. So it's one of those things where you got to come out hot, right you kind of because there's that second half of the late after that second by that looks like a really tough stretch. So they got to get some some wins early on and exciting one. Well, romy thank you so much for hopping on here. Always a pleasure to talk with you and love the inside. What a treat. Thanks for having me, guys. Thanks,
Bean's appreciate it. That's romy Bean from CBS Colorado.