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In this edition of the 24K podcast, Chris Dempsey and Katy Winge sit down with Scott Hastings, Chris Marlowe, and Jason Kosmicki and reflect on the regular season and preview the playoffs in Denver.

nuggets-24k-episode-13

Nuggets 24K, Episode 13

Tim Connelly was so elated about the Nuggets reaching the playoffs that he actually rewatched the postseason-clinching victory against the Celtics just hours after it ended.

Considering that the team’s President of Basketball Operations has spent the past five seasons building this team’s current core, he can be forgiven for wanting to savor the moment.

In the latest 24K Podcast, Connelly openly discusses with Katy Winge and Chris Dempsey the gambles the Nuggets took in building the team’s young and exciting core. Here’s some of the highlights of the interview, which you can listen to here:

Editor Note: Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity purposes.

“We thought we were a playoff team, but we thought we were a playoff team last year. As the year developed, there was a general cynicism league-wide [on if] we could sustain this level of play and I thought we could. I’d be lying to you if I [knew] that we would be sitting here in [second]… I thought we were a playoff team, but you don’t know until you know. Our recent lack of making the playoffs, it’s the need to finally make it. There was especially a need to do it in that fashion – to clinch on your own. Not wait for a loss.

How quickly some of these guys, who never had roles that they were thrusted into, have succeeded on the highest level. Look at Monte [Morris], look at Malik [ or Jauncho’s six weeks of basketball when we were decimated by injuries. I think collectively, those guys, you don’t know how they are going to react in this level of play. They’ve all played so well. So that’s probably the most proud [thing for me] and the most surprising part.

On the risky moves to rebuild the roster:

It wasn’t by design. We had some really good players. I didn’t do a good job of building off the success that coach [George] Karl and Masai [Ujiri] had developed. We had some guys leave and to their credit, there wasn’t a lot of stability there [when I started]. Trying to convince some of the free agents that ‘hey I know we just fired a coach, I’m eight days in and our coach is six days in but trust us!’ [Laughs]

So I understood that there was going to be some change. We’ve lost some really good players. I’m so proud of how Gallo [Danilo Gallinari] is playing right now. Wilson [Chandler]’s helping the Clippers big time. Kenneth [Faried] has a huge role with the Rockets. Losing guys, we still root for them, we still have relationships with those guys, we still talk to them. I’m proud of those guys. We wish they would have had more success when they were here, but they are certainly a part of the reason why we are here.

nuggets-24k-episode-12

Nuggets 24K, Episode 12

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