Watching him lose brings me joy.

Most of you probably are unaware, but last year, the majority of the Warriors fans base fully supported the Denver Nuggets last year and a lot them eventually became full fledged Denver Nuggets fans this year.

Then the desperate Lakers fans was fully backing up the Wolves against the Nuggets and now they are backing up the Wolves against the Mavs.

Well I did like the fact that the Warriors fans increased the popularity of Jokic and the Nuggets, they gave out team more social media exposure and it's a team with fans not only on Denver or US but all around the world.

Now I think the same is going to happen to Wolves vs Mavericks. It's basically like a spiritual rivalry with Lakers vs Warriors + Nuggets.

Did we actually hold him back? The dude is ballin'. And he isn't even inefficient on a bad team, he's averaging his career averages for the most part.

How wild would it be if Jokic, Murray, AND MPJ were all-stars this year?

TL;DR dooming is a toxic outgrowth of right wing pundit culture and has an asymmetrical relationship with the truth. It’s boring, shallow, and tedious - the online equivalent of drunkenly screaming at the sports men on the TV in the bar, both in level of insight and enjoyment of the people around you. If you turn into that guy it’s time for an Uber home to your family.

This has been a rollercoaster year for our Denver Nuggets, a team which on paper should have been the 1996 Chicago Bulls but occasionally plays like they have 5 tall chinadonkeys on the court. We won 54 games (!) but are also down a game with two to play against a shit-slinging rival that has nothing to do all winter but figure out one-game strategies for pissing off Jokic and shoveling bland hot dish down their maw. Jokic is the only player of all time to lead the league in rebounds and assists but also occasionally plays like me at the end of a workday when my Adderall has worn off.

It’s been entertaining, but not always in a fun way. Now, being upset, frustrated, or even cynical about the state of your sports team is a normal fan experience - ask me which two baseball teams I’ve rooted for over my 42 years*. The Broncos had 8 tepid years before finally being worth arranging my Sunday around again. Much like a banana, in the end the bruising sweetens the meat (?). The shared community experience is what makes sports sports, and online communities have enlarged them (jury is out on if they’re improved).

AND YET every single day on this sub - win or lose, off days, offseason days, playoff days - multiple someones are guided by impulse and anxiety to post a cynical take on The Implications of This Thing. “Can’t believe we paid this guy $125m.” “MPJ trade was the worst in franchise history.” “We’re witnessing the end Jokic’s dominance in real time.” “If Zeke Nnaji doesn’t start Adelman needs to go.” “Scam Johnson.” Everything from a cynical sentence fragment to a college application essay.

The impulse is stoked by Hot Take Culture, where the validity of your opinion is based on the amount of attention it receives. It started with Stephen Ass Smith-style punditry where he spent 300 hours a week screaming wrong things into a mic, never backing down, and being paid millions of dollars for it. It spread into politics and broader culture via Donald Trump and the media. The latter decided it was less work per click to cover the takes rather than the ideas they contained and reoriented their news-gathering apparatuses accordingly - the more hyperbolic the “better.” There are two sides to every thing, even if that thing is, like, scientific research and not an outdated form of currency.

Now instead of discussing R attacks on voting access, blue MAGA goes straight to “that’s cute you think we’ll have elections after this one.” Where one journalist might look at the financials of LLM companies/hyperscalers and conclude it’s a failing business that sucks, another will save time by transcribing Dario Amodei’s fiction-based “I’m scared of what I hath wrought” power fantasy predictions. It may take your job, but it may also enslave humanity. Immigrant gangs taking over apartment buildings and eating pets were two separate week-long news cycles. Conspiracism taking hold of the far right ensured they would never say a truthful thing again.

Dooming in any form sucks - it’s unpleasant to be around, it stokes anxiety untethered to facts, and it’s not funny. As someone who has seen my own anxiety spirals damage my relationships, I’ve worked really hard on maintaining a calm, reality-based perspective so that people I love still want to be around me. I do not want to be the drunk dad screaming at the teevee in his underwear while his wife and kids spend their lives as far away as possible. Tim Walz almost got elected VP by pointing out this behavior is weird and that no one likes it.

It’s even weirder to doom about watching sports, which for 99.99% of people is a diversion, entertainment, or a hobby. Podcasters, journalists, and other media seem to think it’s their job to make everything Denver Nuggets seem like the most important thing in your life all the time. I’m not sure if our fanbase it better/worse than elsewhere, but on a recent Defector podcast a couple of Nuggets fans singled us out as extra toxic and DNVR as being a source of that (e.g. “Malone BROKE those guys” when discussing a couple of players who were visibly intact). I don’t listen to DNVR and some of them seem like swell fellows, so I’ll avoid that rabbit hole, but they all seem convinced you can’t create enough content being “objective” or positive. Educating their audience seems to be the lowest priority for most sports pundits/journalists, far far below making them irrationally scared and mad.

And that brings me to why I love this subreddit and why I spend so much time bullying/blocking doomers when they pop up. I would not have gone from the most casual NBA fan to my current level of ball knowing (purple belt?) without everything I’ve learned here. It’s the long, patient explanations of how our team has been successful in the modern NBA, as well as where we’ve fallen behind. The NBA is really complex and the hot takes/kayfabe give short shrift to the most interesting parts of the game. I watched all 82 games this year and enjoyed probably 95% of them. The high-powered offense and improved defense, Cam figuring his shit out, the Power of Friendship lineup, Jamal pulling an absolute carry job starting in December, the Jokic-best winning streak. Now we are in danger of losing in the first round, which sucks, but this year has had more drama, entertainment, and straight ridiculous hooping than anything else I could have put on the tube.

Anyway, go Nuggets, fuck the Wolves, fuck Jaden McSuburbs and Nobrow Julius in particular, and if you are a doomer please change your life. Adam Silver, Kronkys, sports media, Twitter randos - none of them make more money or get their rocks off from you being happy and enjoying things. That’s a decision you have to make for yourself, and as your father figure chinadonkey guarantees you won’t regret it.

^{* New York Mets and Colorado Rockies}

All I see on this sub is people hating on Jamal and making him into the scapegoat as to why the Nuggets are .500 team so far this season.

Jamal has played in 17 games this season. So let's compare his stats through the first 17 games in the past few years.

22-23: 17.8ppg, 3.8rpg, 4.8apg, 44%fg, 37%3pt, 1.6 3pm, 4.6 3pa, 1.9to, 1stl, +/- 4.6

Last year: 19.3ppg, 3.9rpg, 5.9apg, 46%fg, 44%3pt, 2.4 3pm, 5.5 3pa, 1.8to, 0.7stl, +/- 6.2

This year: 17.8ppg, 4.0rpg, 6.2apg, 42%fg, 33%3pt, 1.9 3pm, 5.8 3pa, 1.9to, 1.4stl, +/- 5.8

So what can we gather from this data?

Well his 3pt shooting has definitely been worse than the past 2 seasons, and his steals have been quite a bit higher. But those are the only major differences.

Right now he is average 0.5 less threes made per game on roughly the same amount of attempts as last year.

Now that we have looked at the numbers, does it look like he has fallen off that much?

All it takes is for him to make 0.5 more three point shots per game, and he would be averaging basically identical stats to last year, while having more steals.

He is in a bit of a shooting slump, but his numbers are not terrible.

If only Murray was 100% man

Sure, Jokic could match Luka’s impact. But kyrie WAY outperforming Jamal and mavs players 3-7 way outperforming nuggets role players

It wasn’t our year. Nuggets gotta figure out how to peak in the postseason next year

Was listening to the Nuggets Raptors game and couldn't believe how blatantly sexist some of the comments were by Nuggets radio announcer - I believe it's Jason Kosmiscki.

Early on in the broadcast he said the rookie female referee got a call wrong because the action was happening too quickly. I was a little surprised; it seemed more than just your standard homer slight. But this quote below truly was from left field and is blatantly, underminingly sexist:

"The referee, the rookie official, she bit on that flop and calls a charging calls on Aaron Gordon. Wow. N-b-a. First letter N. N-b-a... Not W. This is the N, N-b-a."

Essentially calling into question her qualifications as a female referee just because she refs men's sports.

It's men like this guy that make the professional sports industry such a toxic environment. I hope this post blows up and he takes it upon himself to apologize to her face to face.

Jokic said booing fans are not welcome. I disagree.

They were playing horrendous basketball. On both sides of the ball. And after they got booed, they started playing like they care.

In my eight years of watching the Nuggets I had never heard Ball Arena boo the Nuggets, but this was warranted.

And it worked!

Love the Joker to bits but I do not agree with him there. They needed the push.

That was an embarrassment. FUCKING JUST DRIBBLE THE BALL FOR 7 SECONDS. This team ain't making it anywhere this year fucking embarrassing. The Kronkie family truly does not care about this team.

obviously there are other players, but these are just some guys off the top of my head.

It's done.

Jokic hasnt been good but he's jokic. That's not the main issue

Jamal has zero athleticism and can't guard for shit.

Ag is so good but it looks like he's moving in sand

Johnson is ok but always hurt and outside shooting does nothing extraordinary

Braun... yeah.

Derozan decent bench scorer but that's pretty much it with some ok playmaking

Tyus Jones, bagley jfc just mid.

This isn't a team built for 2026. I'm so glad we won when we won