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The ears of the Grading The Week staff are still ringing from Wednesday at Ball Arena, when a chorus of screaming Nuggets fans showed on “Fan Appreciation Night” just how much they’ve become Denver’s sixth man. (Sorry, Reggie Jackson.)
Speaking of volume, one of GTW’s new fave Nuggets, wing man Peyton Watson, recorded a career-high six blocks against the Timberwolves off the bench. In his first five games of April, not including Friday night’s visit to San Antonio, the former UCLA star racked up 15 rejections, good for three per tilt. There’s a reason the cool kids refer to him as Payton “Swatson.”
Watson’s block party — A
At this point, we’ve also learned to accept what Nuggs execs and coaches already know: Any offense P-Wat gives you coming off the pine in the playoffs shouldn’t be an expectation — it’s a bonus.
He is there for his defense, first and foremost, and the length that allows the 6-foot-8 Watson to guard any position on the floor during a switch. Like Torrey Craig, but more, ya know, fun.
And when he’s having fun, his teammates are having fun. Heck, the whole building’s having fun. Wacky stat: In games this season in which Mr. Swatson’s picked up three blocks or more, Denver was 7-1 (.875) heading into the Spurs game on Friday. When it’s two blocks or more, the Nuggs were 18-5 (.783). Denver was a blistering 39-11 (.780) this season when he picked up even a solitary swat, and 16-12 (.571) when he didn’t.
The Nuggets’ postseason plan appears to be to hang in there and just don’t get blown out during those non-Nikola Jokic minutes. If Watson can make the second quarter for the other team as much of a slog as he did against the Wolves earlier this week, the defending champs are gonna be just fine.
Ex-Bronco Ware on “The Masked Singer” — A.
DeMarcus Ware, you’re kool-ala as heck. The former Broncos Super Bowl champ and Hall-of-Fame pass-rusher carries a tune almost as well as he scared the snot out of quarterbacks.
Full disclosure: We’ve got more many wanna-be rock stars in the “Grading The Week” crew than we do wanna-be jocks. And let’s just say some of said crew were waaaaaay better at karaoke than they ever were trying to catch a ball in a crowd.
Long story short, GTW has got a serious soft spot for guys who can pitch who also happen to have perfect pitch.
And Ware brought the goods on Fox’s “The Masked Singer” earlier this week, nailing “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” that old ’80s chestnut by the British band Tears For Fears.
Even more impressive: No. 94 did it while wearing a heavy (and not altogether comfortable) koala costume. Or rather, a koala dressed as a musketeer. Or a musketeer dressed as a koala. Whatever.
Rebuilding the Buffs — C-minus.
GTW’s hearts go out to Tad Boyle and his staff. Moving to the Big 12 next fall is going to be tough enough. But the first Buffs men’s hoops team since 1955 to win multiple games in the NCAA Tournament is going to look very different from the one that took out Boise State and Florida late last month.
Especially with KJ Simpson gone.
The Buffs’ junior point guard, who hit one of the greatest shots in CU history with a buzzer-beating jumper from the wing against the Gators, announced that he’ll forgo his final season of Buffs eligibility, has hired an agent and plans to enter the NBA Draft.
Five Buffs averaged at least 10 points per game this past season for Boyle. And all five have in the last three weeks announced, or are expected to announce, that they’re not coming back. Just as the road for CU men’s hoops is expected to get a heck of a lot bumpier, they’re breaking up the band. Could AD Rick George funnel a few of those NIL dollars from Deion Sanders’ football program over to a program that’s actually won something on the national stage, you wonder?
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