👋 Good Morning! As we get closer to the end of the postseason for the NBA and NHL, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the best playoff formats in sports. I love pretty much any form of competition, but there are levels to the sports fan experience.

After hitting the lab and punching the numbers, this is what I’ve come up with:

1. Stanley Cup (NHL Playoffs)

2. Super Bowl (NFL Playoffs)

3. NCAA Tournament

4. World Series (MLB Playoffs)

It feels weird leaving the NBA off the Mount Rushmore but I think a playoff run in baseball is still one of the more electric things you can experience as a fan. Rocktober was iconic and even 2009, 2018, etc, all were really fun. There’s just something about the drama of it all.

The NHL and NFL are definitely my favorite playoff experiences on the pro sports side of things. I’d say they’re the most enjoyable to consume regardless of whether your team is in the mix or not. And while I am biased as a college basketball writer, March Madness is just perfect. It’s easily a top 3 sports-watching experience of the year.

Anyways, Nikola Jokić is still the best basketball player on the planet and my favorite athlete of all-time.I think I’m also still bitter about blowing the series against the Thunder. They’re on an all-time run and Denver nearly took them down with half the rotation injured.

— Justin Michael

What comes next for the Nuggets?

Josh Kroenke says the Nuggets do not need a cultural reset. He also says that they need to surround Nikola Jokić with a better team.

Given Denver’s lack of realistically moveable assets at the moment, it doesn’t seem like any major moves are impending, but maybe the Nuggets can find a way to add a draft pick in the late first round.

This is a solid draft class and there are going to be a lot of high-value players to come out of this cycle. Not just in the lottery either. There’s going to be some really nice options in that 15 through 25 range. Colorado State’s Nique Clifford very well may be one of them. His athletic profile translates and his refinement the past two years has been huge. The ALL-City Draft Guide has him as the No. 21 prospect in 2025.

It’s clear that Josh Kroenke is taking a more hands-on approach with the teams here. And so far it seems like he has a pretty good read of things. His decision to move on from Malone proved to be the right one. And hiring Adelman makes sense after what he was able to do in the postseason with a hobbled roster. But it’s the next moves that are really going to dictate what type of depth Denver has going into the 2025-26 season.

I don’t think a trade for Kevin Durant or anything like that is coming. But the Nuggets have to find a way to bring in more playable rotational players. Adelman said it himself, the Nuggets were incredible in the 2023 playoffs, but they also set themselves up for it with the way they started the regular season. They won a ton early, had the depth to sustain it, and didn’t have to stress themselves going into the postseason.

The Nuggets need to find their GM and start making phone calls.

Deion Sanders doesn’t typically recruit high school players as much as the average college football program. He’s been very open about how the transfer portal is a big part of his process. There’s are some high profile high school recruits that the staff is targeting in the 2026 cycle though.

READ: CU Football’s top 2026 recruiting targets: 10 players to watch

The Rockies were swept for the ninth time of the season after falling 2-1 to the Cubs on Wednesday. Since the MLB season began, the Nuggets (10) currently have more wins than the Rox (9).

David Adelman was officially introduced as the new head coach of the Nuggets on Wednesday. The DNVR Nuggets crew got into what stood out about his press conference, as well as Adelman’s vision for the future of the franchise.

This guy just says all the right things